first milling with LT10

[Mike Whitworth]

Well, let's see if I can figure out how to post some pictures...

The first is a picture of the mill (Woodmizer LT10) with a small soft maple log on it. Next is a shot of some some soft maple boards cut mostly 5/4, and another picture of soft maple boards. next are some blackjack oak boards cut 5/4, and a picture of an 11 foot oak log on the trailer.

My neighbor is a tree trimmer and gets me the wood. We are both having fun learning how to saw wood and have several projects planned.

 

[Woodsurfer]

Good work Mike!

That blackjack looks cool, any closer shots of the grain?

Hey display time is over! Get that good wood stacked and stickered!

 

[deevo]

Nice work mike, keep em coming!

 

[Mike Whitworth]

wood is stacked and stickered in the garage with some black locust, cedar, pear, and cypress but no pictures of the stack yet. Here is a photo of the grain on the blackjack oak.

 

[woodshop]

Very nice, thanks for showing us your pics. Are you a woodworker by any chance? If I had the room, I'd have a small mill also. Got any plans for that pear wood? Very smooth homogeneous wood, I love to work with it.

 

[Mike Whitworth]

The purpose of the mill for me is to accumulate wood for making furniture when I retire a few years hence--and a solar kiln is in the works. My neighbor wants to build a shop and a treehouse for his kids. I love pear wood as well, especially for turning on the lathe. I also have in the stash waiting to be sawn, persimmon, elm, oak, pear, cedar, cherry, plum, crab apple, black locust, more soft maple, and some alder. We also have a line on another good sized bradford pear log, and I have 21 large white oak trees, some over 34 inches in diameter and sixty to eighty feet tall, on my place that will come down. I have also built a sled that fits on the mill which will let me cut very small diameter wood and shorts so I can harvest fruit wood, etc. The picture is of my small wood stash waiting to be cut--much of it into tuning squares. There is more wood on it now than when the picture was taken but Saturday is scheduled to put a big dent into this pile. There is another oak log on the trailer now too that will be offloaded tomorrow evening.

 

[woodshop]

The purpose of the mill for me is to accumulate wood for making furniture when I retire a few years hence...

I also have in the stash waiting to be sawn, persimmon, elm, oak, pear, cedar, cherry, plum, crab apple, black locust, more soft maple, and some alder. We also have a line on another good sized bradford pear log, and I have 21 large white oak trees, some over 34 inches in diameter and sixty to eighty feet tall, on my place that will come down.

I too am looking towards retirement in 3-4 years and turn my small woodshop business into a full time operation. Sounds like you will be busy... hope you have a good supply of blades and lots of "free" time to play.

 

[dustytools]

Nice pictures Mike. I would love to see pictures of some of your turnings.

 

[Mike Whitworth]

I wish I had some turnings to show but I haven't had time to turn in the last few years and pretty much all of them have been given away. Anyway, here is a shot of the oak butt log we picked up last night. Looks to be mostly knot free and this tree was probably 120 years old. It was a blowdown so I don't feel bad about cutting it up at all.

 

[Mike Whitworth]

Some pictures of today's milling for your consideration.

First picture is an oak cant. The log was too big for the mill and needed some chainsaw work to fit. Second picture is a pear wood cant. Third picture is most of the day's work. Last picture is the rest. The boards along the fence are Pear, Oak, soft maple, and the short ones on the right are elm. Most of the oak was completely free of knots and three of the oak boards were cut 16" wide. Most was cut 5/4, but some were cut much thicker for table legs, etc. All the wood is stacked and stickered in the garage now. It was a long day. I may need to find a better way to move logs around than just a cant hook. I think sawmilling may be addictive.

 

[woodshop]

... I think sawmilling may be addictive.

Think so??????? <big smile>

Love that nice long pear cant... what I could do with that.

Keep up the good work.

 

[peterrum]

Great photos, thanks for the thread