Lucas Milling in the suburbs

[Burnsy]

I have not posted for a while and cut this Tuart (Eucalyptus gomphocephala) up in a suburban backyard last weekend. Tuart is one of the hardest Australian eucalypts and was sort after by shipwrights and wheelwrights in the past. It is also a sort after flooring material but is no longer harvested on a comercial scale so supply is pretty limited.

Anyway I got a call a few weeks ago from a guy who had an old tuart stump in his backyard and wanted it milled. The neighbouring property was being demolished so he made use of the excavator while it was on site to pull the stump and position it. What looks like a mongrel stump was actually well worth milling (especially when you hear that the quote to drop it in three sections he got from a lopper was $1500 and that was leaving the root bowl in place). Heaps cheaper to mill it!!

The lucas was on it's absolute tippy toes to do the first cut, including having to remove the swing leaver and height gauges to get the carriage right up to the top. Plenty of time was spent cutting more off the root bowl than is shown here to obtain clearance however the bowl did stay in place and we milled through it as it was in sand and had been washed very well.

 

[Burnsy]

Pictures tell the story, needed a crate to flip the bade, start the engine and turn on the water as I could not reach, the first picture shows before I realised I had to remove the swing leaver. We cut everything we could out of it as even the 600mm shorts were well worth it for cutting boards and the like. Didn't leave much left from a millers point of view but the remains would still be a turners paradise.

As I said mongrel log but when you look at the pile of timber there was more than enough 200 x 50 boards there for a dining table, complete kitchen bench top and plenty of other stuff that the owner wanted. Considering the cost of having it disposed of, I reckon the bloke made the right choice (and he was stoked), the timber was beautiful with plenty of first grade stuff in it despite the ugliness of what we started with.

I did collect the old washing ling wire (old mild steel twisted strand stuff) with the blade despite trying to miss it as it actually went through the timber further than I expected. The wire was no real worries but the hardened nail that was holding it in place that the blade dug out took the face off three tips of the brand new blade.

I would have been more than happy to cut this for myself as the quality and colour of the timber was exceptional, but shyte it is hard and heavy. Grabbed a nice lump to make a new mallet with.

 

[SilverBox]

Nice, but why no bigger slabs? Customer wanted lumber?

 

[Matildasmate]

Burnsy have ya got any grain shots mate , thanks MM

 

[Burnsy]

Sorry no grain shots as the owner took the pics not me. I do have a lump I a going to make a new mallet head out of so will post a pic of the grain in that when it is done.

I don't have the slabbing attachment for the lucas and I would hate to think how long it would have taken to slab the whole thing, all done in 3 inch cuts due to hardness (took six hours to cut with the swing blade), given the nature of the log, slabs would not have been cost effective anyway as there was rot in parts that needs to be docked out. This worked well for the owner as it meant it was cheaper to mill and he got usable timber for the projects he had in mind.

 

[BobL]

For those that want to see tuart grain here is some I cut 2 years ago.

Tuart has a density of 78 lb/cuft (wet) to 64 lb/cuft (dry).
Green hardness is 9.4 kN and dry hardness of 11 kN.
BUT it reality it is much more difficult to cut than determined by its hardness alone as it absorbs silica normally and even more when it is under stress. That tree having all it branches cut off like that would have soaked up heaps of silica so no wonder Burnsy reports it as being hard!

Still I reckon it's worth it. It's a real pity these trees will probably become extinct in the next 100 years or so.