found another bullet milling

[woodshop]

Milling up a white oak cant... what are the chances milling 5/4 with a thin bandsaw blade that you'll slice a 22 bullet buried in the tree exactly in half? I guess maybe 20 to 1 or so. Quick and dirty counting rings put the tree about 150 years old, started out around the civil war era. The bullet was embedded in the tree roughly around the 1920 time frame according to the ring count. The owner of the property told me this was once a boy scout reservation years ago. Could be this bullet was fired from a scout getting his rifle badge? Or could have just been somebody hunting rabbits. I suppose the man (woman?) who fired that shot could still be around. He (she) would be in their late 80's at least though. If this area WAS in the line of fire of a rifle range, I might be running into more 22 slugs as I slice this monster in lumber. Notice the quartersawn figure in the board. Like hautiions white oak, this one has some nice large rays.

 

[Ekka]

Just as well it wasn't made out of copper.:biggrinbounce2:

 

[Adkpk]

When I read the tittle I was hoping you didn't find it in your butt. Like as in the neighbor popping you one for making all that damn noise in your backyard. I hope you played something at the lottery store, wicked odds.

 

[Leebo]

In 35 years of planing hard and softwoods at work...probably close to 500,000 BF...we've only seen 3 bullets; all lead .22's.

 

[belgian]

I find it quite astonishing that the bullet is not deformed in any way. For a soft lead tip, you would expect it to "explode"when it enters the wood. Lead was maybe harder in those days.
nice pics anyway.

 

[hautions11]

Bullets

Great pics Woodshop! That oak looks fantastic and I second the go buy a lottery ticket. When you are milling stock to finish to 3/4 inch, are you milling 5/4 or 4/4? I am not sure how much extra I should leave on my Ash milling project. The wood I bought out of the sawmill was ussually around an inch and almost always cleaned up in the planer. With the CSM, do I need to leave a little extra, like 5/4? What is everyones experience?

 

[woodshop]

I find it quite astonishing that the bullet is not deformed in any way. For a soft lead tip, you would expect it to "explode"when it enters the wood. Lead was maybe harder in those days.
nice pics anyway.

Belgian, I thought the same thing. Both times I "ran into" a 22 bullet it was intact buried in the wood, not mushroomed. I don't think the lead was any harder back then... but I know little about that. Perhaps it was because the bark/cambium of a tree is relatively soft. Somebody with that kind of knowledge would have to chime in here.

 

[woodshop]

In 35 years of planing hard and softwoods at work...probably close to 500,000 BF...we've only seen 3 bullets; all lead .22's.

That reminds me of story I heard from a guy who once worked in a circle mill out west. He said one day they started sawing up a log and pieces of steel started flying everywhere, broke some glass, damaged equipment. Here they had gotten a log from a tree that had once been inside a military firing range for testing weapons. The whole load of logs were all full of shrapnel. It's a wonder they didn't run into it when they logged it... maybe they did.

 

[woodshop]

Great pics Woodshop! That oak looks fantastic and I second the go buy a lottery ticket. When you are milling stock to finish to 3/4 inch, are you milling 5/4 or 4/4? I am not sure how much extra I should leave on my Ash milling project. The wood I bought out of the sawmill was ussually around an inch and almost always cleaned up in the planer. With the CSM, do I need to leave a little extra, like 5/4? What is everyones experience?

My experience milling for 3/4 inch S2S dimension lumber has given me mixed results between milling full 5/4, milling 1 1/8, and even milling just 4/4. My conclusion is that it depends on the wood itself. Example, with most CLEAR stuff, especially if its quartersawn or riftsawn, no defects or very few small knots, if I am careful drying it, I can get away with 1 1/8 to start. Thats with oak, walnut, ash, poplar... stable stuff like that. Pecan or hickory, sweetgum, black gum, cherry, apple to name a few... they tend to move more when air drying thinner stuff, and so I mill them full 5/4. If the boards have lots of knots, or have some defects or figure, then I go 5/4 no matter what. White pine, white cedar, redcedar, some poplar and clear quartersawn oak I have milled only 4/4 and gotten 3/4 inch boards. That's always a crapshoot though. SO... conclusion is I almost always mill 1 1/8 to get 3/4 unless the boards are lesser grade, then I do 5/4.

This is with my Ripsaw (bandsaw)... I can't really say what you would need to start with if you're doing it all with a csm, because I just havn't done enough that way to know. I will say that even my best smoothest board surface from my csm is not as smooth (read needs more planing) as the bandsawn surface. I can only assume that I would need a bit more thickness if both sides of the rough board were from csm. Than again, some of you are experimenting with some better (read smoother surface?) ripping chain, which may be as good as a bandsawn surface. Would be interesting to have a gtg and mill same log with different chains and ripsaw, and then compare right there on the spot.

 

[hautions11]

5/4

I think I will stick to 5/4 just to be safe. A milling GTG would be cool. We are awfull spread out though. Where is Washington PA? Philly end or Pitt end?

 

[woodshop]

I think I will stick to 5/4 just to be safe. A milling GTG would be cool. We are awfull spread out though. Where is Washington PA? Philly end or Pitt end?

Unfortunately for a gtg, Fort Washington is right outside of Philadelphia, eastern end of PA, so a gtg would be a major deal. Too bad. Milling is much more fun when you are doing it WITH somebody, especially somebody else addicted to this. Speaking of addiction... I'm milling poplar tomorrow afternoon at Raisedbywolves place, red oak on Sat over in Jersey, and white oak Sunday aft. down near Delaware. Supposed to get cold here, all the better for milling.

 

[stingray bay]

Just as well it wasn't made out of copper.:biggrinbounce2:

Whats wrong with copper? I just milled a short (about 4') walnut log (about 30" Dia) that was riddled with copper nails (quite big ones) the 880 Magnum/.404 chain just ate them . In some cuts there were up to 5 or six nails, the saw did not hesitate nor did we bother sharpening the chain until we were finished the log. The last board was as smooth as the first one (maybe 10 cuts, 6 with at least 1 nail).

Now had they been steel...:bang:

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Belgian, I thought the same thing. Both times I "ran into" a 22 bullet it was intact buried in the wood, not mushroomed. I don't think the lead was any harder back then... but I know little about that. Perhaps it was because the bark/cambium of a tree is relatively soft. Somebody with that kind of knowledge would have to chime in here.

One possibility is it entered the tree near the end of it's trajectory and had lost enough velocity to not fracture upon impact. Here's what was left of one I found with my CSM. The best I could tell it was in the .234 or 6mm range.

 

[woodshop]

Aggie that's a pretty piece of wood... love that figure. Are you planning to take that bullet out or maybe even leave it in there in the finished piece? Would definitely be a unique piece.

 

[happycamper]

cuting down trees

I was cuting down trees on a mans lot and i had writen permission
and her comes a guy with a shot gun and he shot me in the ass
with ruber buck shot and i said buddy your now going to be a rested
and sewed for a lot of money
for shooting me i have writen permission to cut down trees on this proparty
from the owner

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Aggie that's a pretty piece of wood... love that figure. Are you planning to take that bullet out or maybe even leave it in there in the finished piece? Would definitely be a unique piece.

It fell out on it's own but I saved it. I hadn't decided if I'll put it back in but most likely I will.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I find it quite astonishing that the bullet is not deformed in any way. For a soft lead tip, you would expect it to "explode"when it enters the wood. Lead was maybe harder in those days.
nice pics anyway.

Those small caliber low velocity bullets usually won't deform when they hit a tree. Even the hollow point (HP) bullet designs depend on more fluid (water) in what ever they hit to expand well, than a tree normally has in it.

Factory loaded ammo, have "swaged" bullets loaded in them, and you have to use pure lead when swageing bullets. (soft) On the other hand, "cast" bullets can be alloyed to make them harder... I've been doing both, casting and swageing bullets for many many years now, as i use to mfg. both bullets and ammo for sale..

Rob

 

[woodshop]

thanks sawyer rob... case solved

 

[alanarbor]

Is that from that oak down in springfield, PA?

 

[woodshop]

Is that from that oak down in springfield, PA?

Yes Alan... thanks for hooking me up with that monster. I will post milling pics soon from the first two 8 ft logs I've milled from it already. They came to over 400 bd ft in each, and there are at least 5 more 30+ inch 8 footers left if you include the other white oak the first one pushed over. Now that fall weather is here with short days and rain/snow... have to slow down. I'll still be milling this stuff in 2007.