Had a homeowner invite me to mill what I assumed was an Arizona ash in his backyard from a video he sent me, only to arrive to find it was something else but couldn't figure out right away what it was. It was also way way bigger than I'd thought. No grain to speak of, no real character beyond faintly elm-ish look, but guessed it was a hardwood as most large yard trees around here are. Came out to mill onsite more prepared than I'd ever been in the past - home built log jack, dolly, rollers, the 880 w 42" bar in my 36" mill and fresh .404 skip ripping chain, 056 Super (still only running for short periods of time) w 36" lo pro bar for trimming, Husky 455 w 18" bar for trimming, and Makita w small log mill and 20" lo pro bar for up to 17" logs. Have always hated trying to mill leftovers from a tree service job in a rush to get out of the homeowner's hair, with bad communication between tree service and homeowner about what my role was. I've learned the tree service guys charge a fair bit extra for disposal of large trees, so some homeowners opt to save a buck and have them leave it behind and see if they can give it away. Now my tree service contact gives them my card, they call me, I come out to mill with understanding I'm saving them money in return for disposing of the big parts of their tree, and everything works better and not rushed as much. But still like to get done as quickly as I can.
Had to trim the trunk a lot at crown and base to match waist width and get down to the 34" cutting width of my mill. Lot of prep work between that and jacking it up to a downhill angle, and jacking and moving other logs out of the way. Was steady slow cutting what I would expect for a hardwood, not helped by a small nail on the second slab but the .404 ate that up without even noticing it. My backup chain I had somehow sharpened so unevenly that it was veering off badly to one side and not cutting. Didn't dare try to field sharpen the other chain for fear of screwing up my only good chain so ended up doing the whole log with the same chain and never got that much duller that it was a problem. (Shoulda been a giveaway that it wasn't really hard wood.) About 8' long 9/4 slabs, extremely heavy. Real nice single piece dining table pieces, fairly uniform width. Too hot to get it all done first day, came back to 15 degree cooler Sunday and finished it, then lo pro milled a couple of the other logs.
Was only on way home at end of Sunday looking at one set of leaves that I identified it. Heart kinda sunk. One of the big eastern cottonwoods a lot of people call junk. Surprised it didn't mill faster, soft as they are, but I need to go over my 880, it's been a bit gutless lately. I ended up putting the 36" lo pro bar on my 64cc Makita for the larger of the other logs I did, consistent 20-21", and both that and the small log mill setup just flew through the logs I did with them. Didn't stress the Makita at all, like 3-4 minute cuts at most. Makes me wonder why I mill with anything but lo pro, but don't have anything for bigger than 27" cuts right now in lo pro, nor do I have my 045/056 Super rebuilds working right yet. Plus I can virtually guarantee metal in big yard trunks and would rather hit it with .404 chains than my expensive lo pro ripping chains which would get torn up a lot worse.
After reading up more on cottonwood though, don't feel as bad about all the effort, it's one of those trees that aren't nearly as worthless as everyone makes out. Just hard to dry because of how dimensionally unstable it is, but no worse than red oak and people don't gripe about it nearly as much. Weird that it's technically called a hardwood when it's as soft as redwood, but guess it's stronger than most wood its weight. Big slab dining tables still sell for top dollar so it can be finished out fairly well. Seems like it would be good for mantels too because not as impossibly heavy as my usual oak/pecan/mesquite is in 4-6" thickness.
Had to trim the trunk a lot at crown and base to match waist width and get down to the 34" cutting width of my mill. Lot of prep work between that and jacking it up to a downhill angle, and jacking and moving other logs out of the way. Was steady slow cutting what I would expect for a hardwood, not helped by a small nail on the second slab but the .404 ate that up without even noticing it. My backup chain I had somehow sharpened so unevenly that it was veering off badly to one side and not cutting. Didn't dare try to field sharpen the other chain for fear of screwing up my only good chain so ended up doing the whole log with the same chain and never got that much duller that it was a problem. (Shoulda been a giveaway that it wasn't really hard wood.) About 8' long 9/4 slabs, extremely heavy. Real nice single piece dining table pieces, fairly uniform width. Too hot to get it all done first day, came back to 15 degree cooler Sunday and finished it, then lo pro milled a couple of the other logs.
Was only on way home at end of Sunday looking at one set of leaves that I identified it. Heart kinda sunk. One of the big eastern cottonwoods a lot of people call junk. Surprised it didn't mill faster, soft as they are, but I need to go over my 880, it's been a bit gutless lately. I ended up putting the 36" lo pro bar on my 64cc Makita for the larger of the other logs I did, consistent 20-21", and both that and the small log mill setup just flew through the logs I did with them. Didn't stress the Makita at all, like 3-4 minute cuts at most. Makes me wonder why I mill with anything but lo pro, but don't have anything for bigger than 27" cuts right now in lo pro, nor do I have my 045/056 Super rebuilds working right yet. Plus I can virtually guarantee metal in big yard trunks and would rather hit it with .404 chains than my expensive lo pro ripping chains which would get torn up a lot worse.
After reading up more on cottonwood though, don't feel as bad about all the effort, it's one of those trees that aren't nearly as worthless as everyone makes out. Just hard to dry because of how dimensionally unstable it is, but no worse than red oak and people don't gripe about it nearly as much. Weird that it's technically called a hardwood when it's as soft as redwood, but guess it's stronger than most wood its weight. Big slab dining tables still sell for top dollar so it can be finished out fairly well. Seems like it would be good for mantels too because not as impossibly heavy as my usual oak/pecan/mesquite is in 4-6" thickness.