Big J
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Everything posted by Big J
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6ft is much too short Brian. Never shorter than 8ft unless the tree dictates it. You just limit your market hugely. Also, from the point of view of set up with the chainsaw mill, at 10ft, you have the screw the ladder on, make the first cut and adjust the throat only four time. With 6ft, it's nearer 7.
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It is, yes. Sometimes it can be a touch rougher if there is a tooth out of set, but I'm quite quick to change the band when it's not cutting well. Still lots of Elm in stock if anyone wants any. Jonathan
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I just sell timber. Make very little myself.
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Sounds like a nice tree. At just over 2 ft in diameter, it's not worth quarter sawing, but it should make nice boards. I cut everything to 9ft, but that's due to my kiln being 18ft long. 10ft is perhaps a slightly more useful size, but who knows. I don't mill any oak thicker than 2 1/4 inches, unless requested. Just takes too long to dry.
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That is a beast of a beech. Could have been worse though - could have hit a nice car!
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What I do is just measure the distance from the centre of the pith to the top of the ladder.If one end needs to go up a bit, wedge it up or skim a bit off the other end to drop it down. Usually accurate at both ends to within half an inch or so.
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Wouldn't bother either - but I'm pretty picky with what I mill! The only way that it would be worth milling is to bandmill it so that you can take a clean slab from the outside, rotate through 90 degrees, take another clean slab, rotate 90 degrees and so on. This way you maximise the appearance of the burr and eventually (hopefully) end up with the rotten section boxed in the middle.
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They are just longer uprights - with a 50 inch bar I can cut straight through the middle of a 41 inch log. I never chainsaw mill by myself anyway (better quality cut with someone on each end of the mill) but you definitely want two people with the chainsawmill halving.
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Much clearer Alec, but certainly not something that I have time to consider! I have a whole stack of photos on the phone of a woman that works for me from my exploits halving some big oak for the woodmizer in the last few weeks. I think the mill extentions (allows something like a 26 inch throat) are bloody brilliant for halving logs. For instance - I've got some big cedar coming next week but they are too big for the woodmizer and also too big for the JCB to move off site. Simple solution - halve them on site (I'd have to do it anyway) and then they don't get skidded out (keep the logs clean). I actually think that given a good set up for holding a quarter stable, it would be easier to chainsawmill quartersawn boards than woodmizer them. Lot of sawdust though.
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You are a brave man to mill horse chestnut! I've no experience with chestnut up here at all. We don't have much in the way of good sweet chestnut, and I wouldn't touch horse chestnut with a barge pole. What I mill is largely dictated by customer demand seeing as I am only a timber seller, not a maker. Something I learned pretty early on with the milling is that it takes the same amount of time to mill poor quality logs as top grade sawlogs. The difference is that with the good stuff, you'll sell it (or be able to use it yourself for making stuff). With poor grade timber, it might well end up as firewood. Jonathan
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You don't have enough clearance over the band to take a cut from the bottom of the quarter with the woodmizer. Only about 9-10 inches with the board return attachment on it. The only way to do it is to stand it up with the point down with one flat edge against the back stops, take a slice off, and the somehow work out how you are going to get it to stand up on the other edge without a flat surface against the back stops. A logistical nightmare! And another thing - I don't fit in the bloody seat - it's made for midgets! I never got on with the mini mill. All I use it for these days is accurate cross cutting. Jonathan
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Wasn't sure what you were on about!
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Not meaning to be difficult Alec, but as someone with a fair bit of chainsaw milling experience, your post didn't make much sense to me. I wouldn't worry excessively about heartwood and all that. To furniture makers, it's a given that they are going to buy a board with sapwood and they are prepared to pay for it. Removing sapwood just reduces profit margin. I would be very wary of rough halving or quartering logs. For wastage and presentation, the accurate halving of logs is priceless. I've had a couple of much bigger mills gobsmacked by the finish and accuracy of the chainsaw mill halving - about 6-8 minutes in the cut to halve a 9ft 36 inch oak butt. Jonathan
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Very labour intensive to do, and honestly not worth the effort in my opinion. However, if I were to tackle it, I'd do it like this: * Halve the log with the chainsaw mill using mill extensions from Rob D. This allows for an accurate cut along the pith (allows for adjustment according to taper) * Halve the two halves with the mill (could be tricky from a moving and handling point of view to stand the halves up) * Once left with four quarters, mill a board from one flat face, then turn the log 90 degrees and mill a board from the other flat face. Repeat until log becomes too small to mill. I don't even really seriously entertain the idea of quarter sawing with the Woodmizer and I've got hydraulic log handling with that. Best to get them extracted and sent to a bigger mill if you are wanting quarter sawn boards. Jonathan
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That is just lovely - bet you could sell a wagon load of those to Arbtalkers!
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Hahahaha! Not long after this, for lack of an alternative, I got an LT40. It's been OK, but it's a very complicated machine, has limited throat but tends to cut quite well. Woodmizer are going to have to offer me some incentives to get me to buy another when I replace it in 10-12 months time! Jonathan
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I have a small walnut trunk (6-7ft x 16-18 inches), but it would be sold sawn. I'm based about 5 miles outside of Livingston, on the Edinburgh side. Jonathan
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6 X HEAVY DUTY STACKABLE METAL STILLAGES / CAGES/ STORAGE | eBay
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Very valid points Alec. For a start, sycamore has a fairly limited value for milling. It needs to be felled in winter and either air dried ended reared (as in, stood up) or straight into a kiln to maintain whiteness. If whiteness isn't a concern, then they can be sticked and stacked as normal. Hypothetically assuming an average thickness of trunk of 24 inches, you will end up with just shy of 300 cubic foot (just over 8 cubic metres) of boards from those four stems. What on earth is a private customer going to do with that amount of sycamore? That's more than most small to medium sized mills sell (in sycamore) in a year! However, if she is able to find a customer to take it all, it would certainly be worth the effort. Would have to be priced low though (circa £10 a cube to shift it).
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Not that I am remotely local, but I'm £350 a day plus VAT and mileage running a full hydraulic Woodmizer LT40. Two days work for those four trees I think.
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Average 6 days a week (usually work through one weekend and then get dragged away somewhere so I can't work the next!) and about 10-11 hours a day. So 60-66 hours a week on average I'd imagine. Not my plan to continue this long term, but it's what needs to be done at the moment.
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That is a sensational bit of Elm. The best I've seen I think, and I've seen a fair bit of Elm!
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I have loads of excellent quality yew that can be cut and dried to order if anyone is interested. 12ft lengths, straight, a few logs a bit pippy, no shake, up to 19 inches diameter. Sorry for the derail!
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You would think so, but with having moved earlier this year I've got practically nowt! I have a bit of sycamore and maple, but nothing kilned in the round. It's very difficult to do without it splitting and there is little demand for it. Jonathan
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That's a sad story Paul. Sorry to hear about that. I'm not saying that it wouldn't happen with our dog, but she is the daftest, softest, kindest animal you will ever meet. She is terrified of our cat (and is routinely chased by a friend's cat each time we go over - she whimpers and whines and usually won't come out the car) and when meeting a baby the other day, physically backed off a little when the 5 month old reached out to touch her. I don't take her anywhere near any sheep for the duration of lambing (and she is a numpty who won't jump anything over a foot high, so no danger of her jumping a fence!), avoid all shoot areas during the shooting season. The one thing I won't do though is unnecessarily confine her to the lead. It's not fair on her as all she wants to do is run. I do think that a lot of behavioural issues with dogs are caused by being on leads all the time - they feel they have to be defensively aggressive all the time as they cannot escape. Jonathan
