Have we had a 'First go at Milling' thread recently?

[trigger_andy]

1 minute ago, TuscanPhil said:

First go at milling, so it was just to see how I got on.  I was only milling a reasonably small log, so wanted to get a few boards out of it so didn't go for 'fat' boards.  I was actually aiming for 1.5" which is what was set on the Mill, but with it being my first use, I now know to 'calibrate' the measurements to get a size that I want rather than to rely on the graduations on the Mill itself. 

I always double check my depth after setting the Alaskan up for a cut. So run the bar in a few mill and measure whats left above the kerf. I do this with my bandsaw as well.  But as I have a 1", 1.5" 1.75" and 2" Scale I do it less and less now, but odd ball sizes or 3/4" its good to double check.

 

6 minutes ago, TuscanPhil said:

Ref the flattening - how do you go about this?

I have had various Planers but just now only have an 8" but will be taking delivery of a 12" soon. So anything wider than this has been hand planed till kinda in shape then belt sanded and finally random orbital. Horrid process. Ive now set up the Router Sled another member had built for me and can flatten 50" wide Slabs I believe. 

 

9 minutes ago, TuscanPhil said:

might be used for weather boarding on a wooden garage

Weatherboarding is normally about 19mm I believe? (I mill mine at a true 1") So keep in mind that for each 19mm board you mill with a chainsaw you're converting almost 8.5mm to sawdust each time. Ok if you have a load of logs, very wasteful you're milling just one log. On a bandsaw the kerf is around 3mm. 

 

18 minutes ago, TuscanPhil said:

Once I know more what I'm doing, I have a roughly 6-7m long (has a fork in the last 1m), max dia 45-50cm oak trunk that could be used to make some (hopefully) nice boards with - again, no end use planned for them at the moment, but maybe once I learn more about this whole thing!

That Oak if 7m long and the full 50cm diameter is still only about 1.5t. So maybe £150 worth? So not the end of the world if it goes a bit Pear shaped. Personally Id try not to maximise what you can get out of it and try to cover all eventualities for its uses. Id mill it the standard 2" or 2 1/4"  even 2.5" and come back to it in a few years. I mill more and more at 2.5" because my kerf is only 1/8" I can re-saw the slabs and still have nice 1" boards for a project. If you have family there is no end to what you can make. If you can hunt down some more oak.  

[TuscanPhil]

2 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

If you can hunt down some more oak.  

Just to pick out this bit - I'm surrounded by the stuff!  Well lots of (poorly shaped) oak and narrow leaf lime, aged (and poorly) cherry and a few other odds and sods - about 4 acres worth that I need to slowly over time get back into better shape! 

[TuscanPhil]

As it wasn't raining today, I thought I'd have another play in the garden, so I set about an old Turkey Oak (I think) stem that was felled in Jan/Feb 2016 and has been lying on the ground ever since.  It is only destined to become a bench for the garden or similar, so nothing ventured, nothing lost.  I didn't 'de-bark' it first which probably didn't help the teeth on my chain, and only managed to get 2 boards cut and the top 'waste' slice as well before I knew it was time to start clearing up before I lost the light.  The 2 boards are cut to 2.5" and there will be quite a bit of edge waste, but if I can get 4 good 'planks', then I can turn those into a long table-top and fashion some seats and the remainder of the table out of the rest, once I've milled it.  All 3 boards (2 good and 1 waste) are now sat back on the rest of the unsawn log (with stickers - roof battens!) and covered with an old groundsheet to keep the worst of the rain off before I can work out how to move them into my well ventilated woodshed and under cover.

[Will C]

I’ve never had a problem but I have seen a few folk say that using treated timber for stickers will stain the boards. The worst I’ve had has sanded out.

[TuscanPhil]

Cheers Will, good to know.  I have plenty of old pallets so maybe I'll set about cutting some of them up (on a dry day...) and swap them over when I move the boards to my woodshed.

[TuscanPhil]

Another quick play today - chance to cut 2 more boards.  Also managed to 'get a new badge' today - my first bit of metal!!  Woo Hoo - when will my badge arrive in the post?  I think the chainsaw took most of it out, the only visible bits are about 1-1.5mm sq so maybe it was a piece of wire used to hold the baby stem to a pole while it grew initially?  It's pretty much in the central core and is a good 2-3m up the trunk!!  Oh, and there's a 'healthy' huge split up the middle but as the boards are not intended for anything special, I'm not overly worried.  It will probably only end up as a garden table and bench seat.

[TuscanPhil]

Lots of powdery sawdust - might be my chain sharpening technique (chain at 10deg), might be the 'old' chainsaw bar (and a wobbling chain) might be my technique - lots of variables.  To sort the bar issue, I'll probably get a D009 mount bar and file it to fit my D096 mount - I'm told it is possible, but I've not yet bought the bar or been brave to try!

[topchippyles]

Are you using the 40 year old saw milling those phil

[TuscanPhil]

47 minutes ago, topchippyles said:

Are you using the 40 year old saw milling those phil

Yes, er - no, erm , maybe!!!  It's about to have its 42nd birthday on the 5th March (1979 was it's creation year!), so ultimately , yes, that's what I'm using!!

[gobbypunk]

Looks like you have the milling bug ,I use the first cut for rustic legs for benches cut the bench to nice and thick cut a flat shelf on the underside and flat to flat if you get what I mean ,also star gazer chairs are a good use for the first cut ,a small hand winch can also be a good thing to use on the mill but I gave up on mine too much fafing around but a lot of people swear by them Rob D on Chainsawbars has some good vids as does Blaise