milling is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are gonna get!!!!

[farmerjohn]

quick follow on thread from last weekend being my first milling, had another bash yesterday with some more oak from the same tree as the photos from last post, but a bit further up the trunk and a lump of beach that looked moldy and heavily spalted. I thought i was in for some more top quality 700mm wide oak boards and some rotten beach,

Please see pictures below to see how wrong i was on both counts!!!

[farmerjohn]

out of interest when do others stop planking and air drying temperamental timber to dry such as oak?

[Big Beech]

nice Beech, but that Oak is rotten as a pear!! white rot in the center there. it will dry out and disintegrate in front of your very eyes. soft and nasty too!

[Big J]

out of interest when do others stop planking and air drying temperamental timber to dry such as oak?

 

Now really, and I've still got a couple hundred cube of 1" and 1.25" Oak to cut. That said, if you are going to cut late, cut thin to minimise checking.

 

Nice beech

[SteveA]

Now really, and I've still got a couple hundred cube of 1" and 1.25" Oak to cut. That said, if you are going to cut late, cut thin to minimise checking.

 

Nice beech

 

Uh oh, I don't like the sound of that .... been hoping to fell some oak in the summer and beam it up to build our barn, am I too late? Cheers, Steve

[Big J]

Uh oh, I don't like the sound of that .... been hoping to fell some oak in the summer and beam it up to build our barn, am I too late? Cheers, Steve

 

Beams are different. Doesn't matter about surface checking. It's very detrimental to furniture grade timber though.

[SteveA]

Ace! Cheers

[Rob D]

Nice load of pics there John - starting to build up a good load of timber there

[farmerjohn]

CHEERS ROB,

out of interest, if oak was stored inside out of sunlight would it be OK to mill for another month?

 

how come thiner oak is less susceptible to checking than thicker peices? i though it would be the other way around as thinner stuff has a greater surface area per cubic foot and would dry quicker.... or not!!!

 

Also BigJ i have been talking to alec a bit recently and he mentioned a way of quarter sawing without turning the log each time by quartering and propping on the angle, do you know about this? does it work ok? if so any chance you could describe the process to me? last thing, do you still have any of that elm left for sale?

[farmerjohn]

i'm hoping to power through it on the jobs i got lined up this year so need to get a good stock on, plus furniture i want to have a go at making