A successful day out

[BobL]

Spent most of the morning finishing up a WA river red gum Then I moved onto a Box tree. This tree was a street tree that had been pruned many times at about 12 ft above the ground so it promised some interesting figuring if it was not messed up inside.

Well the first cut did not disappoint!

Close ups

Here's the mandatory millin shot

 

[BobL]

A successful day out (part 2)

Next Slab!

Close up.

Stack ready to go on the fork lift.

The Box cut like butter compared to the River Red Gum - very satisfying to cut - kinda like the dreams you have of a successful day out millin.

Here's a preview of next weeks log, a small Tuart (a very rare type of eucalypt) hard as nails with natural silica in its structure.

Thanks to Jeff & Ross for the logs.

to many more.

 

[dustytools]

Nice pictures Bob. That sure is some nice wood, what are ya planning on using it for?

 

[BobL]

Nice pictures Bob. That sure is some nice wood, what are ya planning on using it for?

Thanks dusty. I figure the wood will tell me what it wants to be when it's ready or maybe a little before that

 

[woodshop]

Beautiful stuff... love the red gum, wondering how dense and hard it is? Don't suppose you have the scientific name for it by any chance? I'd love to work a little of that in my shop, I happen to love reddish wood, especially hard dense reddish colored wood.

 

[MNTAINGAL23]

Very nice pics of the milling!
What are you gonna make with it?

 

[BobL]

Woodshop,

I am not a tree expert but here is some info you might find useful

This is the redgum, Eucalyputs Camaldulensis, Density of 72 lb/cuft (wet) to 56 lb/cuft (dry) hardness of 9.5

This type of tree has a red resin in the wood and just to make things difficult) extra resin (ie those visible stains are pockets of liquid red resin) that coat the chain and set like glue due to the heat generated by the rubbing chain. This can add as much as an extra 50% of fuel requirement to get through the slab. I was told that using a spray bottle of turpentine squirted onto the chain while running helps. When I finish cutting I paint chain oil onto the chain and the softens the resin and it comes of in the next tree.
See also http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/search/c...au/content/lwe/vegt/trees/fs03300.pdf.pan.txt

This is the Box Tree (Lophostemon confertus) see also http://oak.arch.utas.edu.au/tbia/tech_species_info.asp?speciesID=49475

Density of 69 lb/cuft (wet) to 56 lb/cuft (dry) hardness of 9.1
Commonly used as flooring material.

This is Tuart (Eucalyptus gomphocephala)

Density of 78 lb/cuft (wet) to 64 lb/cuft (dry) hardness of 11.
"General building purposes and flooring. Tuart was once used for keels, stern posts, bridge supports, shafts and wheelwright work where great strength, solidity and durability were required, as well as railway carriage construction."
[http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/servlet/...30/docs/FOLDER/IKMP/LWE/VEGT/TREES/TAN07.HTM]
No longer commercially available and could be extinct within a few decades.

Very nice pics of the milling!
What are you gonna make with it?

Thanks - as for what I'm gonna make - see post number 4. ;-)

Cheers

 

[woodshop]

Woodshop,

I am not a tree expert but here is some info you might find useful
This is the redgum, Eucalyputs Camaldulensis, Density of 72 lb/cuft (wet) to 56 lb/cuft (dry) hardness of 9.5

Very interesting... thanks for taking the time to post all that info. Wood is my passion as well as my hobby and when I retire in 6 years, hopefully it will supplement my income. So that Redgum is about as heavy dry as our red and white oak is soaking wet. As I have said many times, I envy you folks down under because you have all that unique dense wood found no where else in the world.

Thanks again BobL

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

 

[BobL]

As I have said many times, I envy you folks down under because you have all that unique dense wood found no where else in the world.

What is possibly tragic is that up until recently some of these trees were poorly used and now some are endangered.

BTW : We envy you guys for all that beautifully figured stuff you can get hold off like maple etc.

 

[woodshop]

What is possibly tragic is that up until recently some of these trees were poorly used and now some are endangered.

BTW : We envy you guys for all that beautifully figured stuff you can get hold off like maple etc.

Yup, same story all over the world, one mans trash is another mans treasure. We have more biodiversity here in the Eastern Appalachian forest than almost anywhere but the tropical rain forests. There are often over a hundred different tree species in just a small tract of woods. This is one thing I would really miss if I lived anywhere else. Much of it has been logged over several times, but there is enough 50-100 yr old woods around that there are plenty of big trees left. Not to mention huge trees taken down around houses and such.

 

[OZDOG]

very nice, looks like you got the hang of that mill.:biggrinbounce2:

 

[BobL]

Today it was suppossed to rain but I decided on an early start anyway.

First up - another box brush. Smaller than last weeks.
Once again - no disappointments.

Some close ups:

I hope I am not boring you guys?

Cheers

 

[BobL]

The I got onto a small tuart.

I'd heard nasty things about how hard this stuff was and how the resin would really gum up the chain and it sure did. It didn't seem as hard as the River redgum but the tuart was a much smaller tree.

Anyway the tree itself is pretty nice.

Next week - no millin! cos were supposed to be setting up the seatainer. :hmm3grin2orange:

BIL Mill gets its first wound.
When I was within 1ft of milling the very last slab of tuart I could see the chain was loose but thought I could get through to the end without too much trouble. About 3 seconds after that I foolishly cut throught the support at that end and the slab and what was left of the underneath fell and twisted pulling the chain down hard near the bottom of the bar at the sprocket end. As a result the chain was pulled off the bar at that point and was partially rubbing on the mill frame. I killed the motor and pulled the saw back as best I could but it wasn't moving very far as the kerf was full of sawdust and jumped chain was jaming in the cut. I ended up being able to pull the saw back just far enough in the cut to get another CS to cut me out of it.

Anyway net damage was :

Being ally - the chain is fine but BIL gets it's first major scratch! :jawdrop:

 

[woodshop]

As usualy with you, BEAUTIFUL wood... as for your mill damage, some days are diamonds, and some days are stone. I tap a small plastic wedge in both sides of the kerf at the end before I exit the log. Usually just pushing them by hand does the trick. I stick them in my pocket before I start down the log so I don't have to stop and find them when the time comes.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Here I sit.... covered in sheetrock dust from head to toe.... and you post pics like that! You're killing me man!!

I have GOT to get this remodel finished so I can mill again!


Keep the pics coming. They are a good source of motivation for me.

 

[BobL]

BIL Mill strikes its first bit-o-metal!

Productivity was on the low side today because I was messing about moving and setting up logs with the loader and setting up the chain water cooling system.

When I finally got to cutting, half way through a log (ie cutting heart wood) I hit a small bit of wire. I didn't notice anything while milling, it was only when I swept the sawdust off the slab that I saw a black stain where my glove was caught by a small piece of wire located right in the middle of the heartwood about halfway up the main trunk.

I dug the wire out of the log/slab with a screw driver - nothing to see because it fell to bits as I was digging it out. It was a multi (7 or 8 strands) bright stainless steel wire covered in black rubber insulation, all up about 2" long. It must have been reasonably old as I don't think rubber has been commonly used for electrical wire insulation for a long time. How the heck could it get there?

Surprisingly I could only see a small flat spot on top of one of the cutters so I kept cutting with no noticeable difference in cutting speed from the previous slabs. I will have a closer look tonight when I take thechain off and use a magnifier to look at the chain.

Anyway a couple of pics of the short Box Brush I cut up.

Cheers

 

[woodshop]

OK here is what you need to do... stick a few postage stamps on one of those slabs and send it across the pond to ME

Absolutely beautiful wood...

With my csm, unless I hit something pretty solid like an embedded rock or heavy spike/nail, I usually don't even know I hit anything unless I notice the dark stain on the board when I'm stacking them. Relatively thin wire, especially stranded wire, is no match for a big bore saw.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Bob, you're just down right MEAN!

I'm nearing the end of the remodel so milling is on the radar again. Maybe just a week or two.....

Nice stuff.

 

[BobL]

Bob, you're just down right MEAN!

I'm nearing the end of the remodel so milling is on the radar again. Maybe just a week or two.....

Nice stuff.

MEAN ! ... every time I see your sig picture I think "now that AWB - yessir - he's one mean dude" !

Anyway, I'm glad it's spuring you on.

Woodshop: It's gonna take an awful lotta stamps :biggrinbounce2: even those short slabs are 150+ lbs