Just some more milling pics

[woodshop]

A 42 inch Red Oak blew down about a year ago in a friends back yard. I milled a good 800 bd ft from it last summer and fall, but the butt log was still attached to the roots, covered in mud and slightly down in a ditch and difficult to get to, so kept putting it off. Yesterday we tackled it. Got it up and out of the depression and onto flat ground by using my trusty aluminum floor jack once again. This 7 ft log weighed over a ton, and without a tractor, the floor jack was the only way to move it around. I sliced it into 9 inch wide cants with the csm, then used the Ripsaw to slice mostly 4/4 and 5/4 boards.

Started by slabbing off sides with the csm:

We had sliced up one cant (stacked to left of us) and are working on the second one here. In this pic, I'm squaring up the top of the cant with the csm:

Popped a new bandsaw blade on the ripsaw and started slicing, but something didn't feel quite right. Sure enough, discoved one bad tooth on the blade. As you can see in this pic, as I walked down the cant with the saw, every quarter inch or so when that tooth came around it left a mark on the surface of the wood. It was still cutting well, 7-8 seconds per foot, so I just left it on.

Milling does make a mess... this is all from that one log:

The final tally... about 375 bd ft of oak. Except for a few trashy boards from the center pith area, this butt log yielded high grade stuff, hardly a knot in this whole stack. About a third of it was riftsawn or quartersawn.

 

[dustytools]

Very nice woodshop! Looks like a good pay-off for a days work.

 

[oldsaw]

I'm jealous.

Mark

 

[beelsr]

Milling does make a mess... this is all from that one log:

And some firewood, to boot. Nice....

Need to flush cut the stump for another block of firewood...

 

[woodshop]

And some firewood, to boot. Nice....

Need to flush cut the stump for another block of firewood...

Initially got several cords of firewood from this tree last spring when it fell. Main reason I left so much of the stump was all the mud/dirt embedded in it. Owner is going to use a pressure washer to clean/debark it, then cut up the remaining stump and roots still sticking out of the ground.

 

[wdchuck]

NIce work there woodshop.

 

[curdy]

Good stuff!

 

[banderso]

What now

Just curious what you do with all that nice lumber now (sell, use....???) I am currently working on creating my own sawmill to make boards that i will use around my house. My only concern is that I will be using Cherry wood to make a barn when it might serve better being sold.

 

[woodshop]

Just curious what you do with all that nice lumber now (sell, use....???)

I sell very very little of what I mill, as I have way too much blood sweat and
tears into my piles of wood. As most folks here know, I have a small woodshop from with I have started a (very) fledgling small business on the side selling things at a few shows during the year, mostly in the fall. Plan is to retire in 6 years and then ramp that up to a full time operation. Thus the eventual need for wood to feed the shop. At this point, after it's stickered and dried, most of it goes into storage. Here are a few of the things I make in my shop.

 

[BobL]

Nice story and pictures - thanks for sharing. Some day I hope to have a milling day experience like yours.
Cheers

 

[banderso]

Shop

Very nice work!!!

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Awesome!


You're killin' me, Woodshop!

I've been so tied up trying to get other work done that I haven't milled in over a month. I've GOT to fix that!!!

 

[woodshop]

Awesome!


You're killin' me, Woodshop!

I've been so tied up trying to get other work done that I haven't milled in over a month. I've GOT to fix that!!!

yeah well I hear ya, because I have NOT been getting that "other" work done. I have a show coming up in couple weeks, and am not prepared for it. I need to give my saws and mills a rest and spend some serious time in the shop making product.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

yeah well I hear ya, because I have NOT been getting that "other" work done. I have a show coming up in couple weeks, and am not prepared for it. I need to give my saws and mills a rest and spend some serious time in the shop making product.

yup- sometimes it feels like you're Wile E. Coyote trying to balance a big rock over the edge of a cliff, don't it?

 

[IndyIan]

Very nice work! While I was waiting for the pics to load I thought you had carved the walnut.... I was really impressed for a while there although wondering why you would carve a walnut...

One of the Lee Valley catalogues has a wooden leather jacket carving on the cover, very realistic.

Nice milling too!

 

[woodshop]

Very nice work! While I was waiting for the pics to load I thought you had carved the walnut.... I was really impressed for a while there although wondering why you would carve a walnut...

One of the Lee Valley catalogues has a wooden leather jacket carving on the cover, very realistic.

Nice milling too!

I have seen some very impressive carving work done... everything you can imagine, from full sized cars to cowboy hats and boots, all out of wood. One day I may have the time it seems it would take to do something like that. Endless hours of carving...