Family table

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chainsaw papa

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Here’s a couple pictures of some slabs to make a family table made of red oak , once cut back should be eight feet long , I’m thinking of leaving the inner live edge and doing the epoxy river down the middle instead of the book match style , would make it wider for me ,, the width of them is 19-24. I just opened up these other two for benches for the table ,, nice color, grain, and character with the crotch section ,, should be a lot of fun to learn. I’m so excited it’s gonna be hard to let them dry for a few years, thanks for looking any feedback or tips is appreciated
 

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The picture of the mantle piece I posted in your other post, I let those slabs dry with bark on for, I think 2 years. The barks was good and tight for 4 years. I had them stickered on the side of my work shop under a roof, with a cheap plastic tarp over them, no walls, so plenty of circulation. They started at 12/4, after planing they were a perfect 8/4. I think my friends wound up just using poly on them. Their original plan was to use epoxy bar top. If you use the epoxy river I think they will make a stunning table. Best of luck with them.

Do you have a way to plane or sand them. I have a Jet 32" drum sander and I sanded 2-3 Dawn Redwood slabs, but I think they are a quarter of the weight of Oak. I have a friend at church that is a custom cabinet maker. He has a 4' double belt sander that can handle slabs that size. Try local saw mills. We have an Amish mill about an hour from me and he can handle stuff like that. He did some table tops for a friend. He wound up bartering for them. Traded an antique Gravely walk behind mower for milling, kiln drying, sanding, and joining 3-4 boards, leaving the live edge on the out side.
 
I'm not sure how I'm going to finish them yet. I have a power hand planer I'll try that out on a scrap peice and see. My thoughts were to build the rotor sled table and go from there. I did watch a video where someone rented a floor sander from home depot, could be an otion but I have a few years to figure it out or find a mill that can handle those. Thanks again for your help on the other post
 
I was kind of late to the show on the other post. Andy pretty much covered it. We tend to over think these things. It's almost always the chain. I can cut wood for days on end and never have to sharpen a chain, unless I hit dirt. When I started milling I couldn't believe my chain was starting to dull after just 3-4 cuts. It is a learning curve. Hope you enjoy milling. I milled everything I could find for a while. I made my wife shelves for her potting shed out of green Fir. I milled and planed them one day, built the shelves the next, they did shrink a little, but they still look good. Then I made a table with hinges inlaid in one end so I can fold it up against the wall, in my hunting cabin. Some things you can make with green wood, like the bench at my fire pit. That way you don't have to wait years to enjoy things you make. If you ever find a Dawn Redwood/Meta sequoia, mill it. It turns bright pink in the middle and white on the edges, I milled 20+ slabs without a touchup, and it's so light you can lift an 8' slab over head by yourself. that's what I used for my chainsaw shelves. I just left them rough cut.

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I just looked at your last post on the other thread. Are you using some sort of rails on every cut? If you just use the rails to take the first cut off, then let the mill ride on the smooth cut surface, you can wind up with a pretty rough surface. If you get a dip in your first cut, and don't use rails, it will broadcast that dip through every cut.I used to use a section of extension ladder and it works good. Then I started using a good straight framing 2X8. If I'm milling an 8'log, I get a 10 or 12' board so I have enough hanging off each end to get a smooth start and finish. I just deleted a bunch of close up pics of how I attach my guide board. I found this one. If you look at the end of the board you can see the 1X1 screwed to the end. I butt that up against the log and run 2 deck screws in with my screw gun. For the first cut I fasten both ends and a couple down the middle of the board. Just make sure the screws aren't so long they extend into the cut. Asked me how I learned that? After you get the first cut off you only have to fasten one end, and put a couple screws on the edges of the slab. You can use short screw that barely go into the wood, they just keep the guide board from sliding. Your bar did look kind of rough in my pic. If I use a ladder for rails I keep a quart bottle of cheap 10W30 oil between the rungs. I go about 2 rungs and dump a glob of oil on the far side of the bar. I dump a glob about every other rung. If I'm using a board I just set it as far in front of me as I can reach. It works well enough I never got around to adding an auxiliary oiler.
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FBE65E55-A020-437A-AC57-F409142708EB.jpeg Hello again rarefish383 thanks for posting those pictures those shelves came out nice. I really like the live edge back splash it's pretty slick and that wood seams beautiful. That table in your cabin came out beautiful as well but I really like the ax hanger. Everything I've milled so far has been long dead so the bark just falls off, do you have to do anything to keep it on there while drying out like pin nails or anything?

For my milling I bought the grandberg easy rail system which has just been a delight to use and really eliminated a lot of the learning curve on set up for me, its so user friendly. I wont ask you about learning to keep the screws out of the cut, there's generally two ways to get those kinds of lessons,,to do, or to watch,, for me I watched a wranglestar video using the easy rail system and watched him saw through one of the dogs.

I like the idea of using a board with the secondary cuts as that can only help control my consistency. It totally makes sense that running the mill directly on a surface with chatter would amplify itself through out the rest of the log. Now it always seams near impossible to find a nice board at home depot. Would a pressure treated board be less likely to bow around after I buy one and does it have to be perfectly flat or would the saw running on it push it down a little? Lastly it looks in your picture after the first cut you use the 1x1 attached to the front end only with two screws going into the log horizontally, do you use any short screws going down into the log from the top at the far ends of the log that you would then trim off?

As for my bar i'm going to file down all the burs, clean it up and try the board method. I do use a easy aux oiler perhaps i need to turn it up and let it get messy. I would then have to assume with using a board and if i use a new chain if the problem returns its time for anew bar and that one will be for stumps and fire wood. Which leads me to my next question if my bar is messed up can i mess up the chain by running it on there and then by that groove up a new bar by moving that chain over?

You said above rarefish that you hope I enjoy milling,,I cant even tell you how much,, everything about it, from the setup, to the labor of it all, the smells, and the maintenance,, Every cut is a treasure hunt to see the next grain or color change or natural deformations unfold. I could go on and on. Then to top it off I get to be in the woods which is where my heart has always been. I had spent 23 years working 65-85 hours a week as a chef stuck in a small kitchen with no windows,,your alive but your not living,,,,One thing I did learn about is carving,, give me a fruit or vegetable and I can make you about anything that would look slick at a wedding. That being said I picked up 170 last year and put a carving bar on it. I haven't had much time to practice much as I have three kids three and under and the wife still wants another and my spare time has gone into milling boards for the house, but as for now my head can't stop thinking about it and looking forward to it. Any how thanks again for all your continued support in all this!! Unfortunity It might be almost a month before ill be able to get some time to mill again. My grandberg file guide showed up today so I'll be able to get my regular and skip chains cleaned up and perfectly even with that. Another thing that has been confusing that I have read a lot was that the chain teeth only have to be the same size on each side where I though you had to find the smallest tooth on the whole chain and match them all to that.
 
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