Aussie Swamp Sheoak

[BobL]

Milled up some short logs today using my small mill. We thought it was going to be regular Western Australian Sheoak (casurina fraseriana) but it turned out to be be its paler cousin Swamp Sheoak (casurina obesa).

Still a pretty grain and apparently obesa is a bit easier to work than the fraseriana.

Little mill worked great especially considering the powerhead is just a Homelite340 with 20" 0.050 bar and 3/8 low profile chain - if fair shredded its way through those small logs and left a very smooth finish.

New drip oiler worked well but needs a more flexible shorter hose.

 

[BobL]

The guy that supplied the logs only just rescued them from the chippers. He was a little disappointed it wasn't Fraseriana so we found some Fraseriana shorts from the woodpile and milled one up.

This was bone dry, probably been on the woodpile for 4-5 years. The low profile 3/8 - 0.050" chain fair shredded this as well - nice thin kerf as well. I have an idea for using this on the BIL Mill - especially with water cooling which should stop the chain stretching.

 

[woodshop]

I tell ya what Bob, after your endorsement and others here (like the Logosol guys), I'm intrigued by using that low profile bar and chain for milling small stuff. In fact, if I was somebody into milling my own lumber as I am, and I didn't have my Ripsaw, I'd probably have two mills. I'd still need the 36 inch csm with a large saw to slice large logs into cants, but then I'd probably get myself a second mill just for slicing those cants into boards. It would be setup and dedicated only for that, so I'd get say a 20 or 24 inch Granberg and put a 20 inch 3/8 LP bar and chain on it with a 60cc class saw. Advantages as touted by many here would be less kerf, thus less waste, less gas used (100cc saws are real gas hogs), and smaller and lighter rig to do the milling. Cost? Since most of us who mill already have a 60cc saw (or two) you would only have to get that second Granberg and the 20 inch LP bar and chain. Total for that second mill not counting saw maybe $160? Money well spent over time if you mill more than just a log or two a year. Of course you could just swap the saws back and forth from the larger mill, but what a hassle reconfiguring the mills every time you wanted to go from one to the other when you're burning daylight and you can just put one down and fire up the other. (I know... I'm spoiled).

btw Bob, love that Fraseriana... yet another beautiful wood you guys down there have access to that some of us up here would give an arm and a leg for.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

I tell ya what Bob, after your endorsement and others here (like the Logosol guys), I'm intrigued by using that low profile bar and chain for milling small stuff. In fact, if I was somebody into milling my own lumber as I am, and I didn't have my Ripsaw, I'd probably have two mills. I'd still need the 36 inch csm with a large saw to slice large logs into cants, but then I'd probably get myself a second mill just for slicing those cants into boards. It would be setup and dedicated only for that, so I'd get say a 20 or 24 inch Granberg and put a 20 inch 3/8 LP bar and chain on it with a 60cc class saw. Advantages as touted by many here would be less kerf, thus less waste, less gas used (100cc saws are real gas hogs), and smaller and lighter rig to do the milling. Cost? Since most of us who mill already have a 60cc saw (or two) you would only have to get that second Granberg and the 20 inch LP bar and chain. Total for that second mill not counting saw maybe $160? Money well spent over time if you mill more than just a log or two a year. Of course you could just swap the saws back and forth from the larger mill, but what a hassle reconfiguring the mills every time you wanted to go from one to the other when you're burning daylight and you can just put one down and fire up the other. (I know... I'm spoiled).

btw Bob, love that Fraseriana... yet another beautiful wood you guys down there have access to that some of us up here would give an arm and a leg for.

Have you tried .325 on your 36" bar yet?

 

[BobL]

WS - pretty much all my thoughts and conclusions on the matter wrapped onto a clear concise paragraph.

The 050 chain is ground for cross cutting would anyone know if it would be worth converting it to a 10o rip profile?

AWB, what advantage does the .325 offer?

Cheers

 

[dustytools]

Nice pics Bob!! No milling or wood cutting going on here this weekend due to rain and a little snow. Your pics sure dont help my cabin fever.

 

[woodshop]

Have you tried .325 on your 36" bar yet?

No... havn't yet... would like to if only to see how much easier it might go down the log. Right now though, I have a whole reel of 3/8 .063 milling chain from Baileys, and so don't really want to buy any chain for that mill till that's used up. Since I only use my csm for slabbing and milling into cants, I don't go through as much milling chain as I would if I milled boards with it also, so will be a while till I run out of that stuff.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

WS - pretty much all my thoughts and conclusions on the matter wrapped onto a clear concise paragraph.

The 050 chain is ground for cross cutting would anyone know if it would be worth converting it to a 10o rip profile?

AWB, what advantage does the .325 offer?

Cheers

It takes a narrower kerf and cut faster than 3/8 but has a heavier chassis than low profile 3/8". I use it exclusively on my 44" / 084 mill and it holds up quite well. I've even tried it on 66" and 72" bars but it stretched more than what I felt was acceptable.

 

[BobL]

It takes a narrower kerf and cut faster than 3/8 but has a heavier chassis than low profile 3/8". I use it exclusively on my 44" / 084 mill and it holds up quite well. I've even tried it on 66" and 72" bars but it stretched more than what I felt was acceptable.

Thanks aggie. Which of the chains listed on this page would be closest to the 0.325 you use?

 

[Gumnuts]

Great pics-your consistant

The guy that supplied the logs only just rescued them from the chippers. He was a little disappointed it wasn't Fraseriana so we found some Fraseriana shorts from the woodpile and milled one up.

This was bone dry, probably been on the woodpile for 4-5 years. The low profile 3/8 - 0.050" chain fair shredded this as well - nice thin kerf as well. I have an idea for using this on the BIL Mill - especially with water cooling which should stop the chain stretching.

Sheoak-Such an ancient species
Thank-you for the photos Bob.Love the Sheoak too.We got a few varieties
down in Vic.Have milled a bit of River/cunni...very similar to your fras...have some nice drooping stricta...logs waiting.We get a bit of Black Sheoak too.
Apparenlty Australias earliest cabinet furniture was made from planks of Black oak using silkwood and satinwood for inlays and trim Sent to England in mid 1700's.A couple of pieces sold for a few hundred thou.
Have a friend whose set up Cabinet shop here in Vic using mainly Jarrah he milled over in WA.Have contact from him whose been getting lots of good sized logs -sheoak from WA state forestry.If you'd like I could try and hook you up for some logs.To far for me . No promises but the contact may prove fruitfull.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

I'd get say a 20 or 24 inch Granberg and put a 20 inch 3/8 LP bar and chain on it with a 60cc class saw.

I've got a loop of Bailey's low pro coming for the 041 to try out. I suppose I'd have to get off my duff and get a log to mill tho and it's cold outside.

Ian

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Thanks aggie. Which of the chains listed on this page would be closest to the 0.325 you use?

RMC is the closest but the problem is Stihl allegedly no longer produces it. I looked for it for months but all I found was RMC3 and RM2. Several of my local dealers told me if they special ordered RMC for me, RMC3 would be shipped as a substitute.

IF you can find old stock RMC .325 then it would be good for this application. I'm not saying the other two won't work but they have bumper links that will impede sawdust removal.

Carlton K3C is plain .325 semi-chisel and I have had good results with it. It's also considerably less expensive.

 

[BobL]

RMC is the closest but the problem is Stihl allegedly no longer produces it. I looked for it for months but all I found was RMC3 and RM2. Several of my local dealers told me if they special ordered RMC for me, RMC3 would be shipped as a substitute.

IF you can find old stock RMC .325 then it would be good for this application. I'm not saying the other two won't work but they have bumper links that will impede sawdust removal.

Carlton K3C is plain .325 semi-chisel and I have had good results with it. It's also considerably less expensive.

Thanks AWB. You'd think if they no longer make it they would take it off their website

Cheers

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Thanks AWB. You'd think if they no longer make it they would take it off their website

Cheers

You would think...

 

[BobL]

Well that first lot of swamp sheoak warped pretty badly after just one week even though we had it strapped down with more than a ton of tension straps. What was weird was the stuff we cut at 1" warped less than the stuff we cut at 2" although they were from different trees.

On Saturday we milled two more logs and thing time we have done this on the bigger log.

We also stacked a further 500 lb of slabs on top for good measure.

The cross pieces are 2 x 3" hardwood (Jarrah) construction lumber I pulled out of skip two doors up from our place.

 

[woodshop]

Bob curious what kind of wood those dark reddish crossmembers you have the allthread going through are. Are those circular saw mill marks I see on a few of them? I guess in that part of the world you get a lot of topical hardwood in the form of shipping crate and pallet wood maybe? If you go down to the docks here in Philadelphia or New York sometimes you can score some big chunks of hard dense wood, who knows WHAT it is, from container ships that use blocks of wood for shoring up and leveling the containers in the big ships.

 

[BobL]

Bob curious what kind of wood those dark reddish crossmembers you have the allthread going through are. Are those circular saw mill marks I see on a few of them? I guess in that part of the world you get a lot of topical hardwood in the form of shipping crate and pallet wood maybe? .

That wood sir is our premium local (south West corner of Western Australia) hardwood called Jarrah. It's a fantastic timber once used for railroad ties and even paving the streets of english cities and up until recently widely used as construction grade timber. Due to logging restrictions, it has become very expensive and these days it is used more for furniture like this gi-normous computer desk I made.

The Desk top is made out of 35 mm thick solid jarrah slabs. The total length of the desk top is 20ft. The cupboards underneath are made from recycled jarrah floor boards. The floor and door/window frames in that room are also jarrah.

It comes in many colours and patterns like the body of this curly jarrah shoulder plane.

The rough cut bits of wood on the board clamp came from a dumpster outside a house that is been renovated two houses up from my place. In the dumpster I found about 40 ft of 2 x 3", 50 ft of 2 x 4", and 12 Ft of 1.5 x 12" jarrah, plus a heap of other stuff. I decided to use some of the more beat up 2 x 3" as cross member of the clamp because it was the most beat up of the timber is salvaged.

New cabinet grade DAR Jarrah 2 x 4" costs about US$8 a ft!! A quality jarrah dining chair in Europe can be sold for more than US$1500

The joke is, with the big mining boom on in our state there are may old small houses being demolished to make way for huge featureless monsters so you can pick up recycled 2 x 4" for as little as US$1 a yard! Compared to other Aussie hardwoods it's also not too hard and the straight grained stuff is relatively easy to work. I could go on and on - but I'll stop there.

 

[lmbeachy]

Certainly is pretty wood, and that plane really sharp looking, Great work.

 

[woodshop]

That wood sir is our premium local (south West corner of Western Australia) hardwood called Jarrah... Compared to other Aussie hardwoods it's also not too hard and the straight grained stuff is relatively easy to work. I could go on and on - but I'll stop there.

Thanks Bob for that little bit of jarrah history... once again my mouth waters for some of the beautiful stuff you folks can find in a dumpster that some of us up here would pay dearly for if we could even get it.Thats a beautiful computer desk, cabinets and floor. One day when I hit the lottery (which since I don't play might take a while) I'm going to fly down there and FILL one of those big containers like you have for drying with Aussie wood and I won't care how much it costs to get it back here to my woodshop.

 

[BobL]

Thanks Bob for that little bit of jarrah history... once again my mouth waters for some of the beautiful stuff you folks can find in a dumpster that some of us up here would pay dearly for if we could even get it.Thats a beautiful computer desk, cabinets and floor. One day when I hit the lottery (which since I don't play might take a while) I'm going to fly down there and FILL one of those big containers like you have for drying with Aussie wood and I won't care how much it costs to get it back here to my woodshop.

They get reasonably big too, Check this one out!