First day milling!!!!!

[Jmill]

Safe to say I had a great day!! Hard work, but worth the toil. Not sure what everyone else thinks of the results but I am well chuffed considering I pretty much had no idea what to do! Thanks to people on here who post things about milling, I learned all I needed to discover an addictive new hobby! Cheers

 

 

[Philmypower]

Looks great to me, can't wait to get mine. How long did that take you

[Bob Slade]

Nice bit of milling, you might want to use thicker stickers and move the end ones closer to the ends, also put another sticker in. Well done:thumbup:

[Jmill]

Ok cool, i wasn't sure if the stickering was right? What's the best thickness do you think? I did three butt's in 1.5 days. So not all that productive time wise but definitely faster now as I really did make it up!!! The first cut took me a long time to set up and I'm sure there must be a better way than how I bodged it! But it turned out pretty good anyhoo. Thanks. I'll go again tomorrow and post more pics

[Stompy]

I'd go about 25mm for your sticks and try to use the same wood and the timber you are stacking to minimise any grain staining.

 

Looks like you got the hang of it though, cracking job mate.

[Dog Tag]

well done. Got mine in January but haven't a chance to try it out.

[Mobile Milling Mike]

If city folk could only spend a bit of time milling timber ,the world would be a better place.

[Big J]

I'd go about 25mm for your sticks and try to use the same wood and the timber you are stacking to minimise any grain staining.

 

Looks like you got the hang of it though, cracking job mate.

 

Not generally necessary, though a good non reactive wood like poplar is ideal. Most softwood, provided it's not too sappy is fine.

 

Good effort Jmill. Few points to help for the next time:

 

* On setting up the ladder for the first cut, easiest thing is to drill holes in the rungs and use good quality (as good as you can get, as they won't snap and will stand repeated drilling) screws to hold it to the log. Put blocks under the rungs at the top of the log so that the top rail of the ladder is ideally the same distance from the heart at both the butt and the top. This ensures you are cutting at the same plane throughout the log. Especially important on Oak, to ensure even medullary rays.

 

* You need more stickers. I use 18x30mm sticks every 18 inches, with stickers on the ends being very important. Here is a picture to illustrate this.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/bob280784/Untitled.jpg

 

Make sure that the stickers line up exactly from layer to layer. The weight of the boards needs to travel down a perfectly straight line to ensure minimal movement.

 

* When wedging, put in one wedge at the start of the cut once you are a quarter to a third the way in. There is no further need for wedges until you are very nearly done, at which point you stick in one per side, just behind the saw. There is very little chance of it binding - I was cutting 55" wide chestnut boards the other day, 12ft long with that number of wedges.

 

Otherwise, keep up the good work and enjoy it!

 

Jonathan

[Bob Slade]

Hi Jonathan, did you get the bigger mill from Rob?

[Big J]

Hi Jonathan, did you get the bigger mill from Rob?

 

I'm presently borrowing Stephen Blair's 72 inch monster, and chatting to Rob about options. I'm never going back to single head milling, and will post photos as soon as my bloody neighbour sends me them!