What timbers are a sod to mill when not fresh felled ?

[arboriculturist]

Today's job is milling some 14" diameter Douglas that has been down for 6 - 9 months. Using the Panther 42" with a new Stihl PMX 3/8 lo-pro ripping chain and a Spud ported 660 it is taking 6 minutes a slab !

I have milled some oak recently of the same spec and it was way faster to mill.

Maybe I am wrong but I have heard that Douglas that is not fresh felled can be very slow to mill and I would be interested to hear others views.

Also are there other timbers that are a pain to mill when not green?

Any replies much appreciated.

[trigger_andy]

I had some 28” DF on my Bandsaw it had also been down a while. Was next to impossible to mill straight. Dulling bands real fast as well. I ended up just giving it back to the customer.

I’m always milling or resawing seasoned/semi-seasoned Oak with no issues.

[arboriculturist]

48 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

I had some 28” DF on my Bandsaw it had also been down a while. Was next to impossible to mill straight. Dulling bands real fast as well. I ended up just giving it back to the customer.

I’m always milling or resawing seasoned/semi-seasoned Oak with no issues.

I know you have milled a lot of timber so thanks for your views - I just can't believe this Douglas is so resistant to cutting even with a decent saw and out the box Stihl PMX chain !

[spuddog0507]

All timbers will mill at different speeds weather fresh felled or been stacked a while, but any timber that is fresh felled will mill fare quick than any that has been sacked for several months, If we do a wind blown clearance job and we send the timber in to a mill we have to be careful what we send, if we was to send timber in that has been over for several months that was quite dry we would be getting a phone call from the mill saying we cant mill all the timber due to a low moisture content, then we get a reduction in payment, Ok the mill is getting a greater volume of timber per truck load if dry but it causes several problems with in the mill that costs far more in lost time than the difference between fresh felled at 40% moisture compared some wind blown at 20-25%,, i will admit i have had very little to do with DF over the years, some timbers will hold there moisture better than others and you have put a good example of that up with saying the Oak was far quicker to mill than the DF, i have some rough lengths of beech about 28" diameter in the yard that we have been cutting for firewood and that has gone rock hard, wont even cut straight cross cutting it and is a nightmare to split,

[tree_beard]

I have no science, but reckon it has something to do with grain length Vs ring density. I've always found oak a joy to mill compared with Doug or larch

[bilke_user]

DF is generally abrasive on bandsaw blades when it's green, such is the difference between the softer sap wood and harder heartwood and knots.  It does even out a bit with age and then becomes easier on the blades but knots still tend to be a lot harder than both heart and sap even if aged
I mill only douglas and oak and find that with oak,  fresh or old, a blade will last a long time, maybe as much as 6hrs. Douglas  will last maybe 2-2.5hrs if it's fresh and about an hr more if a year old.  

[arboriculturist]

Pearls of wisdom  - thanks for all the posts.

I guess the plan would be to steer clear of anything other than fresh felled Douglas and fortunately I have 18t

en-route so can set aside what we have been struggling with.

I'll post my findings in due course.

[Rob D]

If you can take some vids of yourself milling so can see the speed. I have found that softwood can sometimes be harder to mill but saying that the lo pro chain seemed to find it ok.

[MattyF]

I've never had any bother with dry Douglas , I've got a stack of it and I'll bring it down for various projects for 5 years now... dry larch though !

[trigger_andy]

I've never had any bother with dry Douglas , I've got a stack of it and I'll bring it down for various projects for 5 years now... dry larch though !

I’ve built a fair bit with green larch. No issues at all.