MGoodwin
ArboristSite Member
I know cottonwood is generally regarded as a near worthless wood, but I spotted the 40" diameter along side the road with some promising coloring. Itching to mill something and figuring nothing to lose, my friend and I headed out under heavy rain in the dark. This tree was ideally situated right next to the road so we were really excited about that. Using a flood light** with personal head lamps made the night time milling fairly pleasant. I have 33" of cutting capacity so it required taking a couple passes and then rolling the log 90 degrees to reduce the width. I only have some crappy pics but the grain actually looks pretty cool (or as best as I could tell in poor lighting). I run a stock 066 which I have been pretty happy with. Granted I live in NW Washington where I almost exclusively mill soft woods, excpet for madrona or maple but it does fine on these as well). Fun night out.
**I bought a 2011 Toyota Tacoma and the dealer was trying to tell me about the wonders of having a 400W 100V outlet in the bed of the truck. At the time I just rolled my eyes at the thought of something so gimmicy, but this allowed us to run a single flood light which was huge. Suppose I could also run the benchtop chainsharpener as well :biggrin: ).
**I bought a 2011 Toyota Tacoma and the dealer was trying to tell me about the wonders of having a 400W 100V outlet in the bed of the truck. At the time I just rolled my eyes at the thought of something so gimmicy, but this allowed us to run a single flood light which was huge. Suppose I could also run the benchtop chainsharpener as well :biggrin: ).