Milling Spalted Pecan...again

[Marmaduck]

I ran across a guy with 2 stranding dead pecan trees in his yard. He wanted to use them for competition BBQs, but I talked him into letting me have the trunks if I cut/stacked all the rest of his AND added some pecan firewood from my pile.
I totally forgot to take pics before felling...sorry. Anyway, here's the (really) small one:

and here's the large one (note his new firewood stack under the oak tree):

Since these were near a home, I expected some buried treasures but, luckily, I found most before milling:

Some of the slabs look pretty impressive before trimming, but this Katrina wood is about gone and needs LOTS of trimming.

Here's a quasi-action shot but I was alone...(the saw is running ):

Here is the final tally in 2 3/4 in. slabs...resawing to 5/4 is next:

This is the first time my new 395xp has been on the mill...OMG!!! It absolutely flies through the slabs! I had no idea it would be so much faster than the 570. BTW, I'm using the same bar/chain as on the 570 for a better comparison. This beastie ROCKS!

Also, I'll attach the pics in case my first attempt at posting pics to the message doesn't work.

Boss says I must finish the house before I can go play in the woods anymore ;-(.

Michael

 

[woodshop]

Thanks for posting... yup that 395XP can pull some chips in big wood if you have a sharp chain on it. My experience with semi-rotted wood like the spalted stuff you have there though is that it dulls my chain a little faster than normal. Did you run into this?

btw, some of those pieces look a little punky but are beautiful... have you thought of putting some resin hardener on the softer parts? Havn't used it myself, but have seen beautiful results of those that did.

 

[Marmaduck]

Thanks for posting... yup that 395XP can pull some chips in big wood if you have a sharp chain on it. My experience with semi-rotted wood like the spalted stuff you have there though is that it dulls my chain a little faster than normal. Did you run into this?

Wood, Not at all. I milled these 2 logs and 2 smaller bits with the same chain and I thought it odd that it didn't seem to dull noticably. Bark, OTOH, THAT's the chain killer.

btw, some of those pieces look a little punky but are beautiful... have you thought of putting some resin hardener on the softer parts? Havn't used it myself, but have seen beautiful results of those that did.

I've thought of the hardener if I need it and already got a link from Aggie (IIRC). It is SystemThree Rot Fix: http://www.systemthree.com/p_rot_fix_2.asp

I haven't built anything with it yet...too busy accumulating and remodelling.

BTW, here's the 2-wire clothsline that was grown into the full circumference of the tree:

I was able to dig it out of the way until the last 2 slabs...then I got some nice shorts instead of risking hitting the wires I couldn't get to.
Michael

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

NICE STUFF!

I love milling and working with spalted pecan. In fact I intend to allow some of the many pecan logs I have sit a while for that reason.