NirvanaFan
New Member
This kind of happened fast. We got a pretty bad wind storm in my area a month or two ago and it took a tree down at one of my coworkers houses. One of my other coworkers came to me and asked me if I'd be interested in milling it. I had never milled anything, but, hey, everyone starts somewhere, right? I borrowed a friends ms460 and bought a Granberg mill because my friend with the saw couldn't find his mill.
A few weekends back, we started milling. I had read a lot on this site and others, but I still wasn't totally prepared. We didn't lift the log off the ground at all, so we were on our knees. We ended up getting 5 or 6 cuts before the chain was too dull to do any more cutting. Here is the log after the first cut (I think).
I'm not the best at IDing trees, but I think this is either red or Norway maple. Can anyone confirm? I didn't realize how slow it was going to be. It took roughly 10 minutes per 8-9' length of the 20" diameter log. Well, we got about 2/3rds of the first log cut up in the first day. Here is my half of the wood that we cut.
My coworker helping with the cutting remembered that he had a friend with a bandsaw mill. So, the next weekend, we loaded up the other log, which you can see in the top of the first picture above. When he took it to his friend's mill, it took about 20 or 25 seconds per cut. What a difference!
We still had the 1/3rd of the original log left to mill, so the next weekend I had a friend load it into the back of my truck. We drove it back to my house and stacked some wood to make it a reasonable height. I have to say, cutting at waist height was WAY better. I even had a slight downward angle. The chain was starting to get dull towards the end of my cutting, but it wasn't all that difficult to do the milling by myself. I actually found that the quality of cut was better. I didn't have a second person pushing on the mill and there was little to no seesawing of the bar. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results we got.
So, that was my first adventure in milling. What's next? I'm glad you asked!
I'm looking at buying a Husqvarna 395xp so I don't have to borrow a saw. That 460 was nice, but I want something that can pull a 36" bar through this 30" diameter black walnut that I just got access to. Unfortunately, only one of these logs are mine.
My parents have 40 acres about 45 minutes from my house that is pretty much full of oaks and sugar maple, with the occasional hickory and black walnut. Their land was logged 2 or 3 years ago, so there are still some decent sections of the tops they left. Some of the maple has probably spalted pretty good by now. When it was logged, they took down a massive 4'+ wide black walnut. There is still a somewhat decent section that I could slab up and make something cool out of. I don't really have plans for any of the wood I have, but my wife did say that she wanted a bench out of the top and bottom slabs from the first maple.
I think I've caught the milling bug!
A few weekends back, we started milling. I had read a lot on this site and others, but I still wasn't totally prepared. We didn't lift the log off the ground at all, so we were on our knees. We ended up getting 5 or 6 cuts before the chain was too dull to do any more cutting. Here is the log after the first cut (I think).
I'm not the best at IDing trees, but I think this is either red or Norway maple. Can anyone confirm? I didn't realize how slow it was going to be. It took roughly 10 minutes per 8-9' length of the 20" diameter log. Well, we got about 2/3rds of the first log cut up in the first day. Here is my half of the wood that we cut.
My coworker helping with the cutting remembered that he had a friend with a bandsaw mill. So, the next weekend, we loaded up the other log, which you can see in the top of the first picture above. When he took it to his friend's mill, it took about 20 or 25 seconds per cut. What a difference!
We still had the 1/3rd of the original log left to mill, so the next weekend I had a friend load it into the back of my truck. We drove it back to my house and stacked some wood to make it a reasonable height. I have to say, cutting at waist height was WAY better. I even had a slight downward angle. The chain was starting to get dull towards the end of my cutting, but it wasn't all that difficult to do the milling by myself. I actually found that the quality of cut was better. I didn't have a second person pushing on the mill and there was little to no seesawing of the bar. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results we got.
So, that was my first adventure in milling. What's next? I'm glad you asked!
I'm looking at buying a Husqvarna 395xp so I don't have to borrow a saw. That 460 was nice, but I want something that can pull a 36" bar through this 30" diameter black walnut that I just got access to. Unfortunately, only one of these logs are mine.
My parents have 40 acres about 45 minutes from my house that is pretty much full of oaks and sugar maple, with the occasional hickory and black walnut. Their land was logged 2 or 3 years ago, so there are still some decent sections of the tops they left. Some of the maple has probably spalted pretty good by now. When it was logged, they took down a massive 4'+ wide black walnut. There is still a somewhat decent section that I could slab up and make something cool out of. I don't really have plans for any of the wood I have, but my wife did say that she wanted a bench out of the top and bottom slabs from the first maple.
I think I've caught the milling bug!
