Project Redwood

[MGoodwin]

Hi all. I am in Washington state and have access to a few Redwood trees in Big Sur that came down in the fires a couple years ago. Trip isnt official yet, but I am trying to get my plan in order to go down and mill these up. The trees are down, on private property, and I will be transporting the wood back to Washington state.

My question to the group is does anyone know of permitting/transportation requirements for above scope of work? I've been hunting around but thought this would be another good avenue to check. Thanks for the help.

 

[MGoodwin]

Well I'm here in Big Sur milling my redwood. Today is 1/6. Tree is about 46-50" in diameter. Hard to tell from pictures, but the lower section is completely burned out. The good section will yield two 9' sections. The 10' wide "road" is a pretty steep grade requiring backing up in 4 low which was entertaining. Then backing up next to the tree I had a couple inches to spare. I cut the good section free, pulled it into alignment with the trailer then used a POS harbor freight boat winch to pull the slabs in (the gears dont mesh when under a full tension ). Took me about 6 hours to get the section free, debark the top half and then some, and get the rails aligned. This is the first time I have used progressive raker depth, and dont tell BobL, but it appears he may have been right. This is redwood which is very soft, but my setup is a dual 066 setup, and I am making full 9' cuts in under six minutes running at about 80% throttle. It was just a freak'in snow blower ! Today I got five slabs landed into trailer, expect to do quite a bit more tomorrow now that I got all the tree and site prep complete. A few notes about setup etc:

-The dual power head kicks a**.
-Every mill, of any meaning full size, out to have a winch.
-I really liked my method of making a gang plan from log to trailer with winch to pull in. I will also throw 1" PVC tubes underneath (the Egyptians were on to something as it turns out).
-As perhaps expected, debarking is saving the chain. I glanced at it, and after five cuts still looks and cuts great. Will touch up tomorrow.
-Being by myself, carefully thought out plans has paid off. Feel like I got a ton done and feel'n good. All my methods of cutting the main section loose to pulling into trailer (first time doing this) have all worked really well.
-I made some custom brackets to be used with 12' 4" x 2" steel tubes works very well. The tubes are heavy but very stiff/rigid and dont require support in the mid section. I screw in one end fully, screw the other end with a center screw in the middle, then run string in an X pattern. This has proven to be very accurate and I like the fact I don't need to be level, just flat.
-Tomorrow, maybe following day I will take the "caps" and cut vertical with a homemade vertical mill attachment. More on that later.

 

[Hddnis]

Looks like a lot of hard work, but very rewarding.

 

[andy]

Awesome Fun! Looking forward to following your progress.
If your rig has trouble in the last 80 miles to Bellingham, you can drop off a slab or two at my place on your way up i5 to lighten up

 

[MGoodwin]

Another good couple of days. My original plan for quarter sawing didn't even get fully setup as it was painfully obvious that it wasn't going to work. What has worked, and worked very well, is screwing 2x lumber on ends (if the crown is up, picture below is after final plain sawn cut), laying the steel beam down the length (I drilled some holes through beam so I can secure to 2x with a single wood screw at either end), make the cut, then cheat over by whatever distance. I made some blocks of wood at known dimensions that I can use for setting depth on mill rig but are also very useful here: before unscrewing beam, place spacer on inside, place index block (any piece of wood) so it holds the spacer block tight to steel beam, remove spacer and slide steel beam over. That sounds like a lot of steps, but its very simple, quick, and allows me to crank through the wood. Nothing revolutionary, but I liked my process for resetting the rail, and the 4x2 steel beam didnt have much of a problem spanning 9' with an stihl 066 (don't think I would want to try any sort of dimensional lumber unsupported mid span). Also started a new section, about 30" wide.

 

[MGoodwin]

Back in Bellingham now. That was a very successful trip! Don't always get to say that . One of the last pieces I milled up had some fantastic character that I am really excited about. I ended up winching in the "cap" pieces to mill up further at some point. While a come-a-long works, its a pretty tedious process. I want to look at making a log arch attachment for trailer and a powered winch mounted to front. I think this would have saved me several hours as I was by myself. Last picture is the final haul that I am having shipped up as we speak.

 

[andy]

That’s great!... Super looking stack from an excellent effort.

I comment on power winches.
That 12,000lb $300 winch from Harbpr freight is easily worth the punt.
Was really surprised how good it was.