milling in hot weather

[Rob Stringer]

I was planning to mill some sweet chestnut with my logosol sawbench next week but have postponed as its too hot (boards will split and crack too much etc.). Given that it may remain hot for weeks and I need to clear the space for other purposes I was wondering if anyone has much experience of milling in proper summer-type weather? Is it worth bothering? Its stacked in the woods so theres plenty of shady areas for stacking planks etc. but I dont want to waste gallons of petrol cutting boards if there all going to split. Just curious to hear others experiences. Thanks, Rob S

[agrimog]

early morning. or late evening, and sticker and stack out of direct sunlight, maybe even cover them updepending where you stack them, its murder in this weather, but with a little planning you can get most stuff milled, Ive even milled timber and left it stacked in the forest under natural cover

[agg221]

I once milled a couple of large oaks in the middle of an August heatwave. Boards were piled in the shade (no stickers) straight off the mill. This was a mobile bandsaw mill, so less than 5mins between boards and the surface stayed wet, otherwise I would also have used a tarp over the pile and just uncovered to add a board.

 

I then moved them all back under a plastic sheet and only stacked in the evenings. I used thin sticks (10mm) and stacked close to a hedge on the north side, so there was much less air movement than normal,although still some. I then covered the top and outside of the stack to restrict air movement further. I took the side covers off at night and put them back on in the morning, through until mid-September. Didn't get even the slightest trace of surface checking.

 

I had a few 2" boards out of one of the trees, which were for rough work. I stacked these properly, but with a bit less shading, and used 1" stickers. These showed significant surface checking.

 

So in summary, yes it can be done, but it's a lot more work. SC doesn't seem as temperamental as oak when it comes to surface checking, so you may get away with a bit less effort.

 

Alec

[Big J]

Quite a lot of it is down to the quality and characteristics of the log. A very good log is less likely to check, but then do you really want to take the risk?

 

I'm not milling anything at the moment that I really care about. I certainly wouldn't mill any oak until November, and other species need to be treated with caution. It's damned frustrating, but you are running a very high risk of just chucking money down the drain.

 

Jonathan

[youcallthatbig]

thin sticks, away from stiff breeze , wrap stack in builders hessian to reduce air flow further, nothing thicker than 1" ideally, cut some thin SC last week for client, no reports of splitting or checking from a late spring/early summer felled logs as yet.

plenty of overhang with cover boards to keep direct sunlight off ends etc

[delabodge]

cut aload of ash the other day to make aload of rounders bats,,,and its drying so fast,this heat is murder,,the load of sequioa I got in can wait,,aint taking the risk,,

[Rob Stringer]

Thanks for the replies, looks like I was right to postpone milling then. Think i'll wait until it cools down a bit and keep everything stacked in the shade.