what to do with big lump of oak?

[simonm]

I have a large quercus robur to fell the base is around 4 feet wide looks like a lovely bit of timber and such a shame to ring it up for firewood, is it work cutting it into planks or something? i have never done anything like this before so any help would be great

How long do the lengths need to be? how thick? alaskan mill?

 

No access to get it out in 1 lump.

[agg221]

A lot depends on what you would want to do with it.

 

Options:

1. Offer it on here as a lump - if you give clean length, diameter, approximate location and ideally a picture you might find someone who wants it. This is the minimum effort on your part and the most certain return.

2. Get in someone with a mill (Alaskan or Lucas). This will mean up-front payment but will draw on their experience. Up to about 15' long at that diameter would be a sensible day's milling, less if you need either thin boards or squared sections.

3. Buy an Alaskan and mill it yourself. This size is a bit of a baptism of fire, but perfectly do-able if you want to and take your time over it. I reckon it would take you a couple of days, with a helper (the timber will be very heavy) and you will probably wreck a board or two through errors but you can write this down to experience. This will establish whether you are either addicted to milling or never want to see it again. Apart from the mill, it may well also not take that many more man-days than ringing it up and extracting would.

 

2 and 3 will give you a big pile of wood. What are you going to do with it? If you have a use for it, mill it to those sizes and save a huge amount over buying in. If you are the sort of person who uses wood generally for DIY etc then it will come in useful if you mill the sort of sizes you generally buy. If you are thinking of selling it, be warned it will be either hard work in marketing, go quickly if you sell very cheap (but you won't make a decent return on your effort as milling in-situ is relatively slow and carries a high cost per cubic foot compared with a production mill or even a portable bandsaw), or it will go very, very slowly. On the plus side, oak is durable outside so that also means it keeps well once sawn with minimal effort.

 

Alec

Edited May 19, 2016 by agg221

[delabodge]

top advise as usual alec:thumbup1:

[simonm]

A lot depends on what you would want to do with it.

 

Options:

1. Offer it on here as a lump - if you give clean length, diameter, approximate location and ideally a picture you might find someone who wants it. This is the minimum effort on your part and the most certain return.

2. Get in someone with a mill (Alaskan or Lucas). This will mean up-front payment but will draw on their experience. Up to about 15' long at that diameter would be a sensible day's milling, less if you need either thin boards or squared sections.

3. Buy an Alaskan and mill it yourself. This size is a bit of a baptism of fire, but perfectly do-able if you want to and take your time over it. I reckon it would take you a couple of days, with a helper (the timber will be very heavy) and you will probably wreck a board or two through errors but you can write this down to experience. This will establish whether you are either addicted to milling or never want to see it again. Apart from the mill, it may well also not take that many more man-days than ringing it up and extracting would.

 

2 and 3 will give you a big pile of wood. What are you going to do with it? If you have a use for it, mill it to those sizes and save a huge amount over buying in. If you are the sort of person who uses wood generally for DIY etc then it will come in useful if you mill the sort of sizes you generally buy. If you are thinking of selling it, be warned it will be either hard work in marketing, go quickly if you sell very cheap (but you won't make a decent return on your effort as milling in-situ is relatively slow and carries a high cost per cubic foot compared with a production mill or even a portable bandsaw), or it will go very, very slowly. On the plus side, oak is durable outside so that also means it keeps well once sawn with minimal effort.

 

Alec

 

I wouldnt mind having a crack at it myself. Even if i didnt take to it at least i have had a bash, how long does it take for something like that to dry out if planked? can it warp of twist to the point where its unusable?

[flatyre]

have a go yourself, I always thought big lumps of good timber would be worth a fortune but having looked into it, you don't get much compared to processing it for firewood, not round here anyway. To be fair to people who buy it, they need to mill it which takes time and big money equipment, then they need to store it until its seasoned, where it can split, warp, etc which makes it useless, then they need to finish it, and finally find a buyer! If you don't get a good price then mill it yourself and make a nice bar for your man cave:thumbup:

[TuscanPhil]

Without wishing to derail the OP's thread, any recommendations for portable millers in the GL18 (Gloucester/Newent) area? I have some Oak, Fir, Spruce and Poplar that I think is 'too good' for firewood and I would like to get some planks, beams, lengths etc from it for use in and around the house/garden/garage/shed etc. As it currently stands (or lays on the ground!) it is not 'drive side' and it will require moving from where it is in the garden to where it can be milled. I don't think a little digger I have access to (1.5T) is man enough for the task though!

[redmoosefaction]

I'm in this situation as well... I have a very large oak we felled the other week main bole is 6m long and 5 1/2' wide rot in the 1st 1.2 m of base and I reckon it weighs around 12t, should I post on the milling forum or else where... cheers

Edited May 19, 2016 by redmoosefaction

[agg221]

I wouldnt mind having a crack at it myself. Even if i didnt take to it at least i have had a bash, how long does it take for something like that to dry out if planked? can it warp of twist to the point where its unusable?

 

Air-drying for around six months per inch of thickness is a good start. You want to keep it out of the sun, particularly if you mill at this time of year. If you stack it in the shade, somewhere the air can get through it (with sticks around 3/4" thick if the boards are full width) then it should be fine. On that size, with no particular plan for it, I would be inclined to slab it through and through (say a mix of 4" first off, then 3", finally a 2") to the centreline, then take the other half and use a mini-mill (vertical) to cut the remaining half so that you have two quarters of the original tree. By taking a board off each face in turn you will get quartersawn timber which will be much more stable.

 

Well stacked with stickers every 18" or so you should have few problems with splitting or warping.

 

Alec

[agg221]

I'm in this situation as well... I have a very large oak we felled the other week main bole is 6m long and 5 1/2' wide rot in the 1st 1.2 m of base and I reckon it weighs around 12t, should I post on the milling forum or else where... cheers

 

What are you looking for - someone to mill it for you or someone who wants to buy it as a lump?

 

Alec

[muttley9050]

I'm in this situation as well... I have a very large oak we felled the other week main bole is 6m long and 5 1/2' wide rot in the 1st 1.2 m of base and I reckon it weighs around 12t, should I post on the milling forum or else where... cheers

I am after more oak saw logs. Is this for sale. If so where is it.

Thanks