First full milling day of '09 tomorrow, got the arsenal loaded up

[Brmorgan]

Going out to my woodworker friend's place tomorrow to cut up all the cedar rounds we brought back from the local log home builder a week ago. He uses the cedar to build little "urns" that the vet hospital buys off him to put pet ashes in. The rounds are all between 2-4' diameter (some already split) and of similar length, and will be all milled down to 4/4 stock as far as I know. He bought a 24" Alaskan over the winter but hasn't even taken it out of the box yet, and even then he only has a little 42cc Craftsman (Poulan) of the newer cheap variety. I took my gear along last week to show him how everything works, and he was happy as a pig in :censored: watching me cut the two blocks we milled that day. Previously, he had been splitting them down with wedges to the point where he could resaw them on the bandsaw and tablesaw. This was even more work and created far more waste than the Alaskan.

I spent quite a while today getting all my stuff together and ready to go, so here's what everything looks like loaded up in my brother's diesel:

L to R - 394XP - 33" 3/8 rip chain, 288XP - 20" .325-9P rip chain, ported 181SE - 28" 3/8 full chisel full comp, 066 - 25" 3/8 .050 LP rip chain, and 090 - 33" .404-8P rip chain. I know, it looks like overkill and really it is, but I figured since I have enough saws to dedicate one to each task I would.
Since these are all short pieces, I don't need anything fancy or long for guide rails, or equipment to move logs, so . The 394 will be on the 36" Alaskan and used for first slabs and wide pieces. The boards only need to be 8" wide at minimum, so the 288 will likely go on the 24" Alaskan and be used to slab off the boards. The 660 will go on the vertical mill to be used to square pieces. The 181 will be used for general trimming and freehand work, and could be used with the vertical mill if I really needed the extra 4" of reach. The 090 will only be used to freehand split some of the biggest pieces if necessary. I just like to have it on-hand in case though, makes me feel safe hehe...

Looking forward to tomorrow, hope the weather holds up. It's not supposed to be terribly warm, but that doesn't bother me much.

 

[texx]

if i was a tree i would be starting to worry about now

 

[BobL]

I spent quite a while today getting all my stuff together and ready to go, so here's what everything looks like loaded up in my brother's diesel:

I agree, it also take me a long time to get ready - especially if you have to pack rails on the roof rack, saw horses, jack, portable table, cant hooks, tools, and all the other stuff that goes with milling

 

[BIG JAKE]

Sounds like fun we're waitin' for the pics! opcorn:

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

opcorn:opcorn:

 

[Brmorgan]

Well, I ended up putting in pretty much a full 8 hours milling today. My wrists are just killing me as I type this (I have some mild carpal tunnel / MSI injury from the fingerjoint mill) and my back is looking forward to bed, but I think we got a fair bit done today. Here's what I had to start with:

My friend already had those pallets stacked up and ready for me, and the only thing I'd told him was that I'd like to work higher off the ground. We screwed a couple 2X4's to make a bit of a cradle to hold the short rounds, and also screwed a piece of plywood scrap to the end as a stop. Oh, I also put about 4" of lift under the far end to create an incline. It worked beautifully, and is very flexible since you can screw a board or wedge to virtually anywhere.

It was about 11 am... 395's feeding time. Since the pieces were all short, maybe 4.5' at the longest, I wasn't worried about supporting the guide rails between the end supports. So I quickly made these 66" long L guides out of some Spruce 2X4 I milled last fall. The end blocks are pieces of the same. I just put a level on each end block to ensure they're coplanar, and four quick 2" screws secure the two guide rails down. They're very lightweight and easy to use. They'll be a permanent addition to my gear, for shorter pieces anyway.

This is a different log than the last pic. What remains after being squared is still about 22" diameter. This log in particular had some beautiful grain patterns. I tried as much as possible to quarter-saw the logs. Since I was canting 9" wide I could often just take an extra 1" slab after the initial cut, then take a 9" cant that would be probably 80% vertical grain or more, and so on. The pile in the background are all either canted to 9" wide, or are between 6" - 12" wide live-edge, and not worth taking a third side off of before slabbing.

So, after all the work, here's today's production, along with the crew foreman (neighbor's dog):

Not too bad, considering I spent the first half of the day just splitting and canting the rounds. I tried the 288XP with the .325/20" for slabbing, but it kept pulling upwards very badly about 10" into the cut. No matter how hard I pushed down on the mill, it would just climb right up out of the cut such that the front guide rail would be 3/8" off the wood. I narrowed it down to-
1) The chain is .050 in an .058 bar, as it appears to be quite loose, AND/OR
2) The bar is twisted slightly, which I haven't checked yet.

I did manage to get the three first boards off just fine though, which also leads me to the .050 chain theory - the chain was tight enough to not allow much side play, but after a few cuts heated up and stretched out a bit. And I have to say that if this .325-9P can be fixed to cut accurately it's a real winner on this length of bar. Those cuts were probably the fastest I've ever made in ~10" of wood. The chain has been filed back to about 2/3 of the cutter (lost a lot to 10° conversion) so it has good chip clearance. It's actually a bit aggressive and wants to bite in; I have to hold the saw back a little bit to keep a smooth feed. For the price, I should just get a new ~20" .325 B/C from Bailey's to know that it'll cut straight.

Not a bad sawdust pile for a day. Such a shame I don't have a Ripsaw for this stuff though, every 3 cuts is another board at my feet. The stack in the background will be finished off next week sometime. There are also four pieces in the background right behind the car. I figure I got about half of it finished today, but at least everything's square and canted so I only need one saw and a few tools for that.

I also pulled out the 090 to cut off an enormous 5' Douglas Fir stump he's been wanting to get rid of. He had the tree taken down a couple years ago because it was full of ants and had a huge fire cavity at the bottom, and was leaning toward the house. I wanted to take a pic, but we couldn't move what I cut off and it was getting late. I'll be sure to get one next week. It was some tough sloggin' for the 090 though - all I had was the milling chain for it, which isn't exactly ideal for crosscutting big stumps at ground level. But I was putting all my weight on the spikes and she just kept on chewin', even after the chain dulled considerably on the fire damage inside the stump.

 

[deeker]

Impressive, looks like a lot of work. Keep posting progress pics.

I am going to have to CSM a huge doug fir to haul it out. Then I will cheat a bit and put it on the bandmill.

Keep up the great work.

Kevin

 

[Brmorgan]

Thanks. That reminds me, I'm supposed to be picking up my project bandmill either tomorrow or Friday, as long as the flat-deck trailer arrangements work out. I'm pretty stoked about that.

 

[BobL]

Great Pics, great story! Keep up the posting.

It's amazing how useful all those short boards can be and it makes me feel far less guilty using them than cutting a short piece of a long board.

You need to get yourself a remote throttle - that will give you a more upright stance and help your back.

 

[Brmorgan]

Yeah all he needs are 6" X 8" X 3/4" pieces out of them, so they're perfect for what he needs.

I have a bunch of parts I've been meaning to make an aux. handle and throttle out of, but haven't had the time to really put my brain to work on that one yet. But as far as yesterday goes, what got to my back was lifting and throwing around all those pieces. I must say that it's nice to work with pieces I can actually manhandle without tools for a change though.

 

[dustytools]

Nice post and show of pictures! My milling finger is beginning to itch

 

[magnus]

appreciated getting to see the process from start to finish.

good idea with the pallets, think i´ll try the same.

that sawdust is looking good for the compost pile, just a little manure and you got HOT compost fast.