60"+ diameter wood

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BigOakAdot

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My good friend works for a large tree outfit here in PA and his boss has recently taken an interest in milling.

Specifically some monster ash and scarlet oak pushing 60"+ with tons of other wood in the 30" range. He was picking my brain about attacking such large trees.

With the little research I did, I saw that Grandberg makes a 56" Alaskan mill. I'm sure almost any size is possible but are there any other Alaskan style mills that can handle that kind of log? With a 60" bar is the bar bowing a huge concern? Any info on that would be greatly appreciated. We would be running one of his 880's or my 076. With access to almost any piece of machinery, getting logs up into the air shouldn't be a problem.

As for drying, we talked about trying to contact some local kilns and see if they had some extra room. I know a lot of guys have built their own make shift kilns. If any of you have good or bad things to say about diy kilns, I'm listening. He has space to store the wood but I think air drying it is pretty much out of the question because he wants it sooner rather than later.

He wanted to do a smaller log with me to get a feel for what it's all about. Almost a practice session if you will. It seemed like he wanted to start with one of his oak logs that has lots of knots and places where branches were shooting out the trunk. Is there any reason why this wood wouldn't be good for milling? I know kilns want straight lumber with minimal knots. Is this because with the grain changes, it will be more susceptible to warping and cracking? Or because they want uniform lengths of wood?



image.jpg image.jpg The top pick is ash and the bottom is scarlet oak. Apparently there was a plaque that said the oak was 300 years old or something crazy. There is some rot all the way though the trunk but definitely some nice boards. He also has the crotch which is massive and had multiple leaders. Whole thing is solid all the way through. The ash trunks are pretty damn solid as well. Is there much of a market for large ash like that?

Thanks for any help in advance guys!

BOA
 
I'm right down the road with a panthermill that does 61.75" max. I could stop by the yard some day soon show ya quick some doos and don'ts.
 
Howdy,
If you go with a Granberg, you want to have a cross brace for every 2' of cut width. They call it a modification kit. With long bars, the best way is to fab a spacer brace from the frame of the mill to the trailing edge of the bar. It will hold the bar straight so you can get the mill started correctly. The best one I saw was a small magnet on a piece of all-thread with a bracket on the other end that would just clip over the square aluminum tubing of the mill frame. Just run the bar and chain into the cut until it hits the brace, then just remove it. If you wanted to do some figuring, I would think it wouldn't be to hard to make something that would just automatically fold back out of the way as the bar and chain enter the log. Since you have moving capabilities, I would set the logs a angle and use gravity to help you mill.
Regards
Gregg
 
Howdy,
If you go with a Granberg, you want to have a cross brace for every 2' of cut width. They call it a modification kit. With long bars, the best way is to fab a spacer brace from the frame of the mill to the trailing edge of the bar. It will hold the bar straight so you can get the mill started correctly. The best one I saw was a small magnet on a piece of all-thread with a bracket on the other end that would just clip over the square aluminum tubing of the mill frame. Just run the bar and chain into the cut until it hits the brace, then just remove it.

Here ya go. This all thread was too narrow and it bent after a couple of uses.
antisagdevice.jpg

And here's the pimped version
clip.jpg Magnet.jpg Operation.jpg Operationa.jpg tuck.jpg tuck2.jpg unit.jpg working.jpg
 
I'm right down the road with a panthermill that does 61.75" max. I could stop by the yard some day soon show ya quick some doos and don'ts.

Timberframed that would be awesome! How much did a mill that can do such large logs run you? I'm sure Steve would be ecstatic to have you come by and check out the logs and give both of us some advice.

Are you speaking about bringing the mill or just coming and giving your two cents? Either way it would be greatly appreciated.

Bob and Grande dog, thanks for the pointers. I remember a thread where you guys had explained how to go about doing that. I'm not the best at fabricating things but would say I'm pretty handy. Any list of parts or anything I can go off of to guide me in the right direction?

BOA
 
man im jealous of the fact that you are even considering milling such large logs! im over here totally excited about a few at 34" i have
I dont have anything to offer you since im not experianced over a 36" CSM. Good luck and post back what you end up doing!!
 
Still no camera. I couldn't find a magnet strong enough but I did have an aluminum c clamp that was easy enough to drill and tap for all thread. Works fine.
 

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