Damson

[devon TWiG]

Also the glorious colours when fresh do not last.... just goes brown before long ... Pissard plum especially..

[ucoulddoit]

.....sadly it splits to hell despite my best efforts to keep it whole.

 

Steve

 

Looking for a bit of advice. I collected this tree today and am thinking about how to mill it to minimise the risk of splits. How have you found plum compares to say apple which also tends to split? Do you think plum is more prone to splitting compared to apple or about the same? I've milled a fair bit of apple and from that experience I'm thinking of thinnish planks, about 1 1/2 inches thick and a thicker one through the centre, but cut in half to remove the heart. It will be for making small stuff, maybe some band sawn veneers, etc. rather than turning.

 

Andrew

[agg221]

Steve

 

Looking for a bit of advice. I collected this tree today and am thinking about how to mill it to minimise the risk of splits. How have you found plum compares to say apple which also tends to split? Do you think plum is more prone to splitting compared to apple or about the same? I've milled a fair bit of apple and from that experience I'm thinking of thinnish planks, about 1 1/2 inches thick and a thicker one through the centre, but cut in half to remove the heart. It will be for making small stuff, maybe some band sawn veneers, etc. rather than turning.

 

Andrew

 

I've milled some plum, including one of the trees where Steve turned the smaller bits. It hasn't split.

 

I always tend to make the first cut dead up the middle to take all the stresses out, then take boards off each face in turn. I try to get things milled asap to stop any checks from initiating before I mill, as they tend to run.

 

If it was mine, I would mill it asap as it should be cool and damp enough by now up your way.

 

Alec

[se7enthdevil]

once milled it should be ok in thinner section so 2" max really.

 

my problems have come from turning it where i have roughed out bowls and hoped that it dried ok. i was turning half logs of 12" diameter and in this sort of size it can shrink quite badly and even with endgrain protection it was split land for the plum...

 

mine had a distinct difference between the heart and sap with regards to shrinkage rates and as mine had a wide sap of 3" it was the reason for most of the splitting.

 

if you have a thin sap then you should have less of a problem.

[ucoulddoit]

Thanks for the replies Alec and Steve. Sounds like the plank thicknesses I have in mind should minimise the risk of drying defects and my thoughts are that once dry, I can resaw them into narrower and/or thinner pieces if necessary.

 

The first tree I had milled about 30 years ago was a cherry about this size, but I hugely underestimated the amount of drying distortion and made the mistake of milling some very thin 1/4 inch planks to use for panels, and also 1/2 inch planks, then set the stickers too far apart and so it all ended up as firewood! The 1 and 2 inch planks from the same tree also distorted a lot, a combination of cupping and twisting. But they were thick enough to be able to get some usable timber by cutting them lengthwise into narrow planks then planed to take out the twist. So although wasteful, it was a way of obtaining some excellent but small pieces of timber and I've used the same approach since then.

 

Hopefully I'll not waste so much with this plum which incidently is a good colour and very narrow sap wood. Unfortunately there is a bit of rot at the top end which seems to have originated where a branch broke off or was cut off. Hopefully the rot doesn't extend too far down. Planning to mill in a couple of weeks so I'll upload some pictures once finished.

 

Andrew

[gobbypunk]

Hi I have quire alot of plum but most is cracked did my best with some of the bigger bits , sealed stright away and still split , I milled the main trunk ., but have loads of smallish bits left if anyone is interested I can take a photo or 2 let me know dont want much for it just a few beer tokens for dealing with it it will end up in the firewood pile otherwisem

Cheers Mark

[bigbud]

if you have any 2-3 inch square and dont mind posting I could be interested

[se7enthdevil]

i can cut that from what i have left. i've four half logs that have been drying for about a year or more that were originally 12-14" diameter.

 

what length are you after?

[ucoulddoit]

I was going to mill this trunk next weekend but was desperate to see what it was like inside, so halved it with my Alaskan mill today. Thankfully the rot at the top end has not gone all the way down and there is a 3 foot length which looks to be largely sound. It is about 15 inches across at the bottom. I'll aim to do the rest of the milling next weekend on my bandsaw which has a 12 inch depth of cut and rather than through and through boards which might cup significantly, I'll probably make them 'one square edge'. I don't feel I can justify the cost of going to the local bandmill for such a small log and carrying on with the Alaskan mill would waste too much due to the wide saw kerf.

 

Andrew

[ucoulddoit]

This might be of interest to others wanting to mill smallish logs such as fruitwoods. I finished milling the main trunk of this plum tree over the weekend on my bandsaw after deciding to cross cut the two halves into 34 inch lengths at the bend. Each half was fixed to a board to run along the bandsaw fence to get a straight cut then each quarter was rotated 90 degrees and the final planks were sawn parallel to the initial breaking cut made by the Alaskan mill which had been surfaced on the planer to get the faces dead flat. Final yield is a dozen boards averaging 5 to 6 inches wide by 34 inches long with two quarter sawn at 2 inches thick and the rest 1 1/2 inches thick. So quite small sections but that should minimise the risk of drying defects and I'm looking forward to using it in a few years.

 

Andrew