First attempt at Slabbing with Lucas

[muttley9050]

That's faster that the lucas slabber . 15 or 20 mins I guess. But it is a lot easier.

[wisewood]

Out of curiosity, what sort of price is the Lucas slabbing mill?

[se7enthdevil]

Have you any ideas for what looks best as wany edged coffee table legs and how to fix them?

 

I am torn taking two part slabs and sculpting them,

making four substantial square legs or making the legs out of whole branches

I want to stay with wood rather than metal.

 

depends on your tastes really, you could go the traditional route and use short slabs for legs or possibly an A frame or H frame set of legs.

 

there are many methods of fixing but the most common are a batton underneath for rustic looks or large dowels through the top or for neater fixings there are numerous invisible ways to utilise.

[Big J]

I cut an odd oak about 4-5 years ago that from your pictures looks exactly like Holm Oak:

 

 

It dried appallingly, splitting and cracking as well as moving like nothing else. I'd go out of my way to avoid it now. It was also brick hard and very heavy.

[se7enthdevil]

yepp, that's holm oak alright, don't let it put you off it jon, it just needs a little care whilst drying.

[muttley9050]

I've milled a little Holm oak and didn't have any problems but they were only small. Look very different to yours too. I will upload a pic later.

 

When I'm making tables from wide slabs I usually make a frame for the legs. So 4 legs and 4 rails mortice abd tennon together. I then fix the rails to the slab with stretcher plates to allow it to move as much as it likes.

[muttley9050]

Lucas slabber attatchment costs about 1200 including the vat. The bar is 600 on its own.

Dedicated slabbing mill is around 14k+vat.

[wisewood]

Lucas slabber attatchment costs about 1200 including the vat. The bar is 600 on its own.

Dedicated slabbing mill is around 14k+vat.

 

Cheers muttley, not right time for me to invest but would love one. I really like the planer and sander attachments.

Do you know if they're developing a bandsaw attachment? Seems like it would be possible ?

[Billhook]

Thank you for all your replies

 

I must first correct one thing looking back through the records I bought the slabbing attachment from Fuelwood Warwick in Feb 2011 so only five years ago, not ten, and it was £785 +VAT which I recovered.

 

I think that I measured the speed of the Powerwinch AP3500 as five feet per minute with a direct pull. This is too fast especially on the Holm Oak and I had to progress in a series of switching on and off rather than a constant speed.

 

The only reason for this is that the winch did not have enough cable to pull the whole length using an idler pulley and I would need to replace the cable with something half the diameter and twice the length which I would do if I was going to do a lot of slabbing

 

The best result was from an idler pulley as in this video of going through a 40" Ash log. The rate is 30" per minute. The Lucas slabber seems happy at this speed.

This creates an even pull on the trolley. When I mounted the pulley on the base of the arm for the direct pull it was a bad place as this was designed for the circular saw and tends to pull the engine side forward first and then the other side catches up. It did the job but I was not happy with that arrangement over time.

 

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The pulling power is doubled so I had to set the clutch to slip if there was too much pressure

Another safety valve is that if the pressure is too great I hope the bit of 4x2 pine which is the anchor will break before anything else does!

 

As I said the AP 3500 is a light duty winch for hauling boats out of the water and not heavy duty 4x4 material.

 

I thought that the cutting speed was hardly affected by the width of the cut and with the Ash it went full width to 5 feet on several occasions

 

I have a liberal flow of engine oil at one end as recommended by Lucas and another flow of water at the engine end. I am not sure if the latter helps the cut but the blade is always cool to touch. Opinions on this welcome.

 

Thank you Se7enthdevil for the leg advice. I see there are no end of youtube videos on the subject so I will spend a few hours trawling.

 

Big J I am sorry to hear of your tale of woe with the Holm Oak. I suppose a lot depends on the age of the tree and how long it has been down. My one had rotted at the bottom which caused it to fall and it lay for a couple of years. I hope by clamping it down well as advised I will have a result. At 2.5 inches I should have a bit to play with if it warps and if it cracks I will remember the comments here "I told you so!"

 

I find that the chain stays remarkably sharp. It only has a few teeth to sharpen at 10-15 degrees with the "skipteeth" ripper chain which I do with the little Oregon Suresharp with the chain on the bar. Seems to work well with a custom 10 degree gauge once you practise a bit.

I should think that soft wood may cause some clearance problems.

 

Muttley have you also considered a planer and sander? I would love to have them but they seem expensive and there is a lot of faffing about to fit them,

I was thinking of finding a good electric planer and welding up a frame that would have its own carriage so it could sit out of the way at one end while the slabber was working. A sander would go on as well.

 

 

Cons.

You cannot "feel" the load so well except by listening to the engine and I have yet to discover what happens if I find an iron gate post in the middle of a tree!

It makes the carriage assembly heavier with the winch and battery but when I move it I tow with the Teleporter or car.

 

 

 

 

My conclusion with the winching is that for me as an aging specimen it is complete bliss to operate a little switch as opposed to leaning heavily on the thing all day long.

This costs me heavily in the evening with muscle cramps and glasses of whisky to dull the pain!

[muttley9050]

I dint find it too hard pushing but i just sit my bum against the carriage and lean on it. This is maybe why i don't cut that fast.

As it happens I have a planer head on the water at the moment. Should be here in 3 weeks. Sander seems pointless to me as I can sand quite happily by hand(dewalt orbital) after its planed It's .relatively simple to fit from what I can gather .it just replaces the circular blade. With a capacity to planr 6ft width i don't think £800 is too bad. But it is expensive for what your getting. I see what your saying about the electric plane but it pointless planing up green slab. When I'm using the circular blade it takes 3 or 4 mins to change blades sp I guess it would take the same to fit the planer.

What I would do is get a pile of seasoned slabs out to a log at home. Take the log down to halfway with the circular blade. Then fit planer head plane slabs on top of log. Refit circular blade and finish log.

If you haven't a log to mill uou can always make a cradle from some 4 X2 to plane on top of.

I certainly wouldn't bother planing a slab I've just milled . But I can see it would be slow to slab the plane then slab then plane etc.

Are you using a 3 skip or 5 skip chain on the smaller logs?

Cheers

James