New Miller Here

[GeneralKayoss]

New to the forum also! I've picked up a Holzfforma G660 Pro (Stihl clone), and a China mill. I milled up a nice 24" white oak into 3" slabs to start with. A couple weekends ago I started trying to salvage some old logs from about 10 acres of land that was cleared 2-3 years ago. They piled everything up into a huge pile about 10-15ft tall and just left it there. A lot of white/red oak. Some of it seems like pretty stuff, with spalding all through the sapwood. Some of it has some decay in it, which I obviously try to avoid. I'll have access to better logs soon, a friend of mine has a bunch of downed oak logs on a farm he wants to get rid of. I've just been piddling with this pile in the meantime.

So basically what I'm asking is, are these older logs even worth messing with for live edge slabs?

Also, my wood stack. Well, I noticed it almost immediately started being invaded by ants. I'm not sure what type of ants they are, they aren't the huge black ants you typically find, but some sort of smaller black variety. I think they're just attempting to nest in the voids and I assume this is a problem. Whats the best way to combat this? Just spread some ant killer around the stack?

 

[djg james]

New to the forum also! I've picked up a Holzfforma G660 Pro (Stihl clone), and a China mill. I milled up a nice 24" white oak into 3" slabs to start with. A couple weekends ago I started trying to salvage some old logs from about 10 acres of land that was cleared 2-3 years ago. They piled everything up into a huge pile about 10-15ft tall and just left it there. A lot of white/red oak. Some of it seems like pretty stuff, with spalding all through the sapwood. Some of it has some decay in it, which I obviously try to avoid. I'll have access to better logs soon, a friend of mine has a bunch of downed oak logs on a farm he wants to get rid of. I've just been piddling with this pile in the meantime.

So basically what I'm asking is, are these older logs even worth messing with?

What brand of mill is that? It looks a lot like the one off Amazon I'm considering. What length of mill and bar?

 

[GeneralKayoss]

What brand of mill is that? It looks a lot like the one off Amazon I'm considering. What length of mill and bar?

"Zozen" is the brand. It seems pretty decent so far. It's a mix of aluminum and steel and has worked pretty good. It's listed as a 36" mill, but realistically you can do about 30" (with a 36" bar, it's an Oregon) maybe and inch or two more if you remove the dogs. But you could probably run a 42" bar with this mill and actually get 36" of cut. They also sell 12" extensions for it, so you can make it bigger.

 

[djg james]

"Zozen" is the brand. It seems pretty decent so far. It's a mix of aluminum and steel and has worked pretty good. It's listed as a 36" mill, but realistically you can do about 30" (with a 36" bar, it's an Oregon) maybe and inch or two more if you remove the dogs. But you could probably run a 42" bar with this mill and actually get 36" of cut. They also sell 12" extensions for it, so you can make it bigger.

Here's the one I'm considering:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHYLK6L...YGXRRQEC&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Similar tubing and handle. It's for a 24" bar with a 19" cut. I was going to remove my dawgs and use a 24" or 28" bar to get a 20" cut. Biggest I'll ever make.

 

[GeneralKayoss]

Here's the one I'm considering:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHYLK6L...YGXRRQEC&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Similar tubing and handle. It's for a 24" bar with a 19" cut. I was going to remove my dawgs and use a 24" or 28" bar to get a 20" cut. Biggest I'll ever make.

Check out the Zozen, it adjusts from 14" to 36" in case you ever want to do anything bigger (also has track pieces you can add or remove) I got it on sale for like 80 bucks, it's back up to the normal price of $99 now though. Has 4.5 stars, almost 500 ratings and 700+ were sold last month. Pretty popular.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09R7DQ99P?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

As long as the wood isn't rotten, the more spalting and character generally the more it's worth in slabs. Plain oak without character tends to be more valuable as lumber than it does as slabs. You pretty much have to mill and see whether wood is good or not. I've made some pretty stuff out of 24-34" white oak slabs, but red oak has been a massive PITA for me that twists endlessly, checks terribly, and no one wants that much. Better for lumber than slabs. Whether anything is worth doing depends on what its purpose is - you want to sell slabs, make rustic furniture from them, make fine furniture from them... Well worth spending a lot of time going over this thread - http://www.arboristsite.com/threads/cs-milling-101-hints-tips-and-tricks.93458/

 

[GeneralKayoss]

As long as the wood isn't rotten, the more spalting and character generally the more it's worth in slabs. Plain oak without character tends to be more valuable as lumber than it does as slabs. You pretty much have to mill and see whether wood is good or not. I've made some pretty stuff out of 24-34" white oak slabs, but red oak has been a massive PITA for me that twists endlessly, checks terribly, and no one wants that much. Better for lumber than slabs. Whether anything is worth doing depends on what its purpose is - you want to sell slabs, make rustic furniture from them, make fine furniture from them... Well worth spending a lot of time going over this thread - http://www.arboristsite.com/threads/cs-milling-101-hints-tips-and-tricks.93458/

Thank you, you've kind of confirmed everything I've been theorizing. My plan is to both sell slabs and make tabletops and other things. I'm literally starting from scratch here (no shop, no tractors, none of that). I'm also in the worst location to store wood, right smack n the middle of the sun in Eastern NC surrounded by fields and no trees/shade. I'm putting covers over my stack but I'm thinking about maybe going with some sort of mesh/netting draped over to keep the sun off off. I have already laid the foundation for a small 10x8 wood kiln building, and plan on putting up shelters/sheds sometime in the future for wood storage. I worked in a woodshop for over 15 years so I have a lot of the skills and some of the knowledge required to finish slabs. Already have plans for a router jig table to surface them (but not necessarily the space) And I've also worked on and off the last few years for a guy that sells firewood commercially. He's gotten too old to run saws and split wood and mainly focuses on his small engine repair shop now and I handle the firewood for him. So I've gained a bit of knowledge in that department as well (and access to wood to mill). It just kind of made sense for me to pursue this.

Also, one of the logs I slabbed did have a couple of soft streaks in it, no more than an inch wide and a few inches long. Figured I could just dig that stuff out and fill it with epoxy. I've seen some really ugly slabs with rot, bug holes and everything else that people managed to epoxy fill and really turn into pristine pieces with tons of character. "One mans trash is another mans treasure"

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Thank you, you've kind of confirmed everything I've been theorizing. My plan is to both sell slabs and make tabletops and other things. I'm literally starting from scratch here (no shop, no tractors, none of that). I'm also in the worst location to store wood, right smack n the middle of the sun in Eastern NC surrounded by fields and no trees/shade. I'm putting covers over my stack but I'm thinking about maybe going with some sort of mesh/netting draped over to keep the sun off off. I have already laid the foundation for a small 10x8 wood kiln building, and plan on putting up shelters/sheds sometime in the future for wood storage. I worked in a woodshop for over 15 years so I have a lot of the skills and some of the knowledge required to finish slabs. Already have plans for a router jig table to surface them (but not necessarily the space) And I've also worked on and off the last few years for a guy that sells firewood commercially. He's gotten too old to run saws and split wood and mainly focuses on his small engine repair shop now and I handle the firewood for him. So I've gained a bit of knowledge in that department as well (and access to wood to mill). It just kind of made sense for me to pursue this.

Also, one of the logs I slabbed did have a couple of soft streaks in it, no more than an inch wide and a few inches long. Figured I could just dig that stuff out and fill it with epoxy. I've seen some really ugly slabs with rot, bug holes and everything else that people managed to epoxy fill and really turn into pristine pieces with tons of character. "One mans trash is another mans treasure"

Cool. I lived in Wilmington for a year in 2005. You don’t need much to start with. Have a look at my http://www.coralillodesigns.com woodworking page. All that’s been done out of a two csr garage and backyard in a rentsl house in the city w no heavy equipment. Just my old Silverado 2500 and a lot of one man moving and loading ingenuity. My machines and tools are largely 20-40 year old quality bought on the cheap that last forever w care. Some things like my industrial strength shop press I fabricated myself w recycled heavy American steel, minimal welding skills, a metal cutting saw, and a drill press. I’ve built outdoor shelters out of recycled and salvaged steel and inexpensive R panel roofing. All my wood is stacked on my back patio or garage, though I had to rent a cheap storage unit to house all my finished tables and excess stuff from our house. You can do a lot w simple. Tip on epoxy filling: Most people do it technically well but it doesn’t look good or all looks the same - just wood filled with random blobs or huge channels of epoxy. Less is better to me. Filling narrow cracks looks good, filling bug holes and rot often looks not so good. You need to shape and taper it into channels that flow off the edge of the wood or taper to a point like a crack. The Blacktail Studio guy on YouTube does it really well and keeps it simple.

 

[GeneralKayoss]

Cool. I lived in Wilmington for a year in 2005. You don’t need much to start with. Have a look at my http://www.coralillodesigns.com woodworking page. All that’s been done out of a two csr garage and backyard in a rentsl house in the city w no heavy equipment. Just my old Silverado 2500 and a lot of one man moving and loading ingenuity. My machines and tools are largely 20-40 year old quality bought on the cheap that last forever w care. Some things like my industrial strength shop press I fabricated myself w recycled heavy American steel, minimal welding skills, a metal cutting saw, and a drill press. I’ve built outdoor shelters out of recycled and salvaged steel and inexpensive R panel roofing. All my wood is stacked on my back patio or garage, though I had to rent a cheap storage unit to house all my finished tables and excess stuff from our house. You can do a lot w simple. Tip on epoxy filling: Most people do it technically well but it doesn’t look good or all looks the same - just wood filled with random blobs or huge channels of epoxy. Less is better to me. Filling narrow cracks looks good, filling bug holes and rot often looks not so good. You need to shape and taper it into channels that flow off the edge of the wood or taper to a point like a crack. The Blacktail Studio guy on YouTube does it really well and keeps it simple.

Man you've done some really pretty work! That's where I hope to be in a couple years. Just have to build more work/storage space and acquire more equipment first. I'll get the kiln built this spring and hopefully have some sort of shelter up this summer to keep the rain and sun off my stack (probably should have started the shelter first but whatever). Then I have to build an actual workshop and somewhere to store my kiln dried slabs. Lots of building lol. Right now all I have is about half of a 10x20 storage barn to stuff all my crap in!

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Man you've done some really pretty work! That's where I hope to be in a couple years. Just have to build more work/storage space and acquire more equipment first. I'll get the kiln built this spring and hopefully have some sort of shelter up this summer to keep the rain and sun off my stack (probably should have started the shelter first but whatever). Then I have to build an actual workshop and somewhere to store my kiln dried slabs. Lots of building lol. Right now all I have is about half of a 10x20 storage barn to stuff all my crap in!

Thanks! Building is good, gets you closer to where you need to be. I got into this kinda late in life but I lacked the patience when younger to develop the craftsman skills I have now. When you don't have a ton of money to throw at it, takes time and patience and a lot of labor. I kinda wish I'd built more shelter space earlier, but being in a rental house, it's always seemed temporary and we tell ourselves we're going to move so I don't commit to building too much in my backyard here, and then we end up here another year and another year and I'm like, I shoulda built that two years ago. Still dreaming of a proper workshop and not a crammed garage. Getting closer to moving and building a house, though, so will build a workshop when I do that.

I was totally random in the order I bought woodworking tools. One of first things was my 20" Jet drill press, just cause it was a $1000 machine for $200. That's been more for my metal fabricating than my woodworking but has been nice to have. Got the DeWalt table saw from a lumber yard for $250, another $1000 machine. Bandsaw with riser block and upgraded 220V 3hp motor was $350, so I didn't spend $800-1200 on something equivalent. But to be honest, while they're staples of many wood shops, the table saw and bandsaw have only gotten a lot more use recently as I've started doing more projects glueing and joining wood and fine woodworking. For working with slabs, one of the best things you can own is a 10 1/4 circular saw. Should have gotten it first, and I got it last. Got a huge 16" circular saw a few years back, but was never much use til I finally got the right blade for it recently and the 10 1/4 is a lot more useful every day. Pretty sold on big track saws for slab work too. I have regular 7 1/4 and 10 1/4 circular saws on universal bases and tracks, cause I got them all so cheap in bits and pieces, but done over again I'd likely spring for a single dedicated track saw like the Festool TS75 if I had the money.

 

[GeneralKayoss]

Thanks! Building is good, gets you closer to where you need to be. I got into this kinda late in life but I lacked the patience when younger to develop the craftsman skills I have now. When you don't have a ton of money to throw at it, takes time and patience and a lot of labor. I kinda wish I'd built more shelter space earlier, but being in a rental house, it's always seemed temporary and we tell ourselves we're going to move so I don't commit to building too much in my backyard here, and then we end up here another year and another year and I'm like, I shoulda built that two years ago. Still dreaming of a proper workshop and not a crammed garage. Getting closer to moving and building a house, though, so will build a workshop when I do that.

I was totally random in the order I bought woodworking tools. One of first things was my 20" Jet drill press, just cause it was a $1000 machine for $200. That's been more for my metal fabricating than my woodworking but has been nice to have. Got the DeWalt table saw from a lumber yard for $250, another $1000 machine. Bandsaw with riser block and upgraded 220V 3hp motor was $350, so I didn't spend $800-1200 on something equivalent. But to be honest, while they're staples of many wood shops, the table saw and bandsaw have only gotten a lot more use recently as I've started doing more projects glueing and joining wood and fine woodworking. For working with slabs, one of the best things you can own is a 10 1/4 circular saw. Should have gotten it first, and I got it last. Got a huge 16" circular saw a few years back, but was never much use til I finally got the right blade for it recently and the 10 1/4 is a lot more useful every day. Pretty sold on big track saws for slab work too. I have regular 7 1/4 and 10 1/4 circular saws on universal bases and tracks, cause I got them all so cheap in bits and pieces, but done over again I'd likely spring for a single dedicated track saw like the Festool TS75 if I had the money.

I just turned 39 so I'm getting into kind of late too IMO. I've got 15 years of experience in a woodshop and a little experience running chainsaws. I'm just throwing the extra few dollars I have each week into it. I put down blocks last weekend, picked up and laid some beams down yesterday, maybe get the floor framed next weekend. I'm overbuilding the **** out of it, as it's gonna need to hold a good amount of weight. 3 4x6 beams spanning the 10ft length and 2x8 joists spanning the 8ft width. Figure I can get about 3 stacks of average width stuff in there, 2 stacks of wide. Thinking about just getting a big cheap metal shed for dried slab storage, put some kind of moisture barrier down on the ground. IDK, I'll figure something out.

What are you using the circular saw with the tracks for? Cutting checking off the ends?

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

What are you using the circular saw with the tracks for? Cutting checking off the ends?

Trimming ends, trimming sides of tables. Has saved a lot of sanding time doing perfect clean straight edges. Also should be able to get near glue ready joints for joining pairs of 18-20” wide slabs into 36-40” wide tables. Any slab I can rip that I want as straight a cut as I can get. Any piece of wood I want to trim formally I cut one side w the track saw and then have a dead straight side to run against the fence of the table saw.

 

[GeneralKayoss]

Trimming ends, trimming sides of tables. Has saved a lot of sanding time doing perfect clean straight edges. Also should be able to get near glue ready joints for joining pairs of 18-20” wide slabs into 36-40” wide tables. Any slab I can rip that I want as straight a cut as I can get. Any piece of wood I want to trim formally I cut one side w the track saw and then have a dead straight side to run against the fence of the table saw.

Gotcha. I'll def have to keep an eye out for one of those big boys. Kind of a necessity for shelves, mantles etc I reckon.

Also, I've been milling about every weekend, I've probably got around 30, mostly 2.5" slabs at this point. Oak, red maple and I milled some 24" wide pecan today. Gonna end up filling my backyard with wood lol.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Gotcha. I'll def have to keep an eye out for one of those big boys. Kind of a necessity for shelves, mantles etc I reckon.

Also, I've been milling about every weekend, I've probably got around 30, mostly 2.5" slabs at this point. Oak, red maple and I milled some 24" wide pecan today. Gonna end up filling my backyard with wood lol.

Great to hear! I just did a stack of short cypress slabs from a big 28-30" stump a couple days ago. Don't have any covered room to put anything anymore, but I've been clearing out stacks of uncovered red oak cookies and ash blocks from the pallets on my back fence line that dried pretty horribly, and planing and trimming them all into something useable. Hope to put up some more R-panel structures along the fence so I can leave wood back there to dry out of the weather and not clog my garage and patio with slabs.

 

[GeneralKayoss]

Great to hear! I just did a stack of short cypress slabs from a big 28-30" stump a couple days ago. Don't have any covered room to put anything anymore, but I've been clearing out stacks of uncovered red oak cookies and ash blocks from the pallets on my back fence line that dried pretty horribly, and planing and trimming them all into something useable. Hope to put up some more R-panel structures along the fence so I can leave wood back there to dry out of the weather and not clog my garage and patio with slabs.

Ohhh, got any pics of the cypress stump? The stump to this pecan I milled is still there, about 5ft. I forgot to measure it but I'm pretty sure it's too big for my setup. It's probably 40+ inches.


This is how I've started stacking my wood in the open. Shade tarp! Knocks out the sun but still lets some air flow through. I still tarp the top when it rains.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

I used tarps for a bit but Texas sun destroys them so fast I gave up finally. Nice looking pecan. Here's the cypress. Still crying lol that the homeowner down the street came to me after the tree service guys had cut up the trunk. Sixty or seventy year old tree. Imagine that short piece in an 8' slab... what might have been....

 

[GeneralKayoss]

I used tarps for a bit but Texas sun destroys them so fast I gave up finally. Nice looking pecan. Here's the cypress. Still crying lol that the homeowner down the street came to me after the tree service guys had cut up the trunk. Sixty or seventy year old tree. Imagine that short piece in an 8' slab... what might have been....

That is beautiful! Really nice color! There is quite a bit of cypress around here in East NC in the swamps and along the banks of rivers and estuaries. It's def on my "to get" list lol. There's actually a swamp loaded with them across the field behind my house about 200 yards. There's always a few downed cypress trees in there. But I have no way to get in there and get any of that stuff out, even when it's dry.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

That is beautiful! Really nice color! There is quite a bit of cypress around here in East NC in the swamps and along the banks of rivers and estuaries. It's def on my "to get" list lol. There's actually a swamp loaded with them across the field behind my house about 200 yards. There's always a few downed cypress trees in there. But I have no way to get in there and get any of that stuff out, even when it's dry.

Cypress is pretty much in my blood from growing up in Florida and paddling all the rivers and swamps of the state. But all the giants were logged in the 1930's, 40's, and 50's. All second growth now. Texas has a surprising number of ancient giants on its streams and rivers of this area. Never got logged. Some are a good six feet in diameter. Just hoping for a shot at one of those if one falls somewhere I can get permission to mill it. That's what the 72" bar is sitting in reserve for, waiting for that mythical day it can be used.

 

[GeneralKayoss]

Cypress is pretty much in my blood from growing up in Florida and paddling all the rivers and swamps of the state. But all the giants were logged in the 1930's, 40's, and 50's. All second growth now. Texas has a surprising number of ancient giants on its streams and rivers of this area. Never got logged. Some are a good six feet in diameter. Just hoping for a shot at one of those if one falls somewhere I can get permission to mill it. That's what the 72" bar is sitting in reserve for, waiting for that mythical day it can be used.

Some of those cypress trees rivaled the redwoods out in California! Some were a couple thousand years old! All gone now, it's a shame a few didn't get preserved.

Cool little "documentary" with some narration by the actual loggers.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Some of those cypress trees rivaled the redwoods out in California! Some were a couple thousand years old! All gone now, it's a shame a few didn't get preserved.

Cool little "documentary" with some narration by the actual loggers.

Cool video. My grandmother wrote about cypress logging in 1949 for the Miami News. She had to freelance under male names her first few years because they couldn't have a woman writing about such manly pursuits lol. She spent all her spare time in and wrote about Florida's wild places and characters in Sunday newspaper magazine feature pieces before becoming an award winning investigative journalist in the 1950's (eventually under her own name). She built her family's home in Miami mostly by herself in 1950 with a lot of cypress beams. She's up on the roof above the chimney.