Milling a leaner

[MGoodwin]

I haven't put eyes on it myself, but this tree will be coming down soon and has been offered for me to mill. As you can see, it has a good lean to it. I am concerned the internal stresses will just cause the planks to warp and won't be worth the time and effort. Was wondering if anyone has experience to confirm or refute my concerns around the plank stability. Thanks.

 

[SeMoTony]

I haven't put eyes on it myself, but this tree will be coming down soon and has been offered for me to mill. As you can see, it has a good lean to it. I am concerned the internal stresses will just cause the planks to warp and won't be worth the time and effort. Was wondering if anyone has experience to confirm or refute my concerns around the plank stability. Thanks.
View attachment 565147

I've milled a branch from 10' above the stump in my avatar. I made sure my cuts were in line with gravitational pull thru the branch. It is an ash milled just over six months ago. The slabs furthest from the pith "cupped" around the center more than those closer to center. The two that touched the pith of the log are nearly as flat as the day they were wet (green). On the branch the three slices, taken as an experiment, remain flat needing minimum of planning to remove chain saw grooves & none to remove twist or warp.
A different species, situation may give you different milage

 

[GrizG]

I milled a 30" DBH Ash leaner as an experiment... I'd estimate it was about 12-15 degrees off plumb. I oriented the log so that the compression and tension wood were opposite each other on the slabs and then ripped the slabs so that only compression wood, or only tension wood, was in each board. The boards have been drying about 9 months now (tree was standing dead) and they don't seem too bad at this point. If they end up twisting I'll cut them up into smaller pieces and mill them into flooring!

 

[buzz sawyer]

What kind of tree? Definitely a lot of stress there. I recently milled a Chinese Chestnut leaner (about 60 deg.) into 3" x 18" slabs about 9' long. It was splitting as I milled it. Haven't checked it in a couple months. This was the first log above the 24" dia. butt. Haven't milled the butt log yet. There was some great curly figure in one small piece but it too was splitting soon after cutting. I'm hoping it will calm down as it dries uncovered outside. Sorry, no photos at this time.

 

[Trx250r180]

If the heart is centered it should be stable wood .If offset some they will curl .

 

[buzz sawyer]

If the heart is centered it should be stable wood .If offset some they will curl .

The heart was definitely not centered on my log. In fact, you could see difference in the thickness of the rings from one side to the other.

 

[steve easy]

Sometimes it's worth milling a log that doesn't look right, sometimes not. Mill oversize if it moves can always recut or machine it.

 

[CTYank]

Look up "reaction wood", what grows on the tension side of deciduous trees. Typically it presents many sorts of problems. The only such log I've tried to mill, black locust, split many ways before I could even finish. Firewood. Taught me to stick to logs that grew upright. YMWV.

BL is great firewood.

 

[oaktreeguy]

For those who've cut leaners, how much is too much? I've got opportunity to cut an oak (I believe) that's leaning maybe 10-15 degrees.

If it's likely to not produce good furniture-grade lumber, I'll likely leave it as a live tree and move on to others.

Thanks

 

[Picaso]

A log that has a heavily lopsided pith is probably asking for trouble if you want to get straight boards out of it. Ive had oak split violently on me while cutting reaction wood on the mill or even by the handsaw. You still have some options though- one solution I have used is to cut up the wood into turning blanks (pepper mill, pens, knife scales, bowls, chess board pieces etc). The shorter the better. leg turning blanks are probably not a good idea though. the other is to mill some naturally curved bench tops which can fetch a premium $$ if done right


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[Mad Professor]

Conifer stress is in compression wood, deciduous stress is in tension wood