Kicked Some Ash Today

[hautions11]

Oldsaw, I tell your story a lot! We both sound inherantly cheap. I think the investment needs to match the return, just like in business. I do not do this for a living, but what can I get to minimize my investment and minimize my time. I believe you have made the time limitation comment a few times in the past.


I usually have a wedge at the end of the log, it does not show up in most of my pics.

 

[oldsaw]

Oldsaw, I tell your story a lot! We both sound inherantly cheap. I think the investment needs to match the return, just like in business. I do not do this for a living, but what can I get to minimize my investment and minimize my time. I believe you have made the time limitation comment a few times in the past.


I usually have a wedge at the end of the log, it does not show up in most of my pics.

And I could stick to the story until I bought the 3120. But, still, my cost per bft is less than $1 for equipment, and shrinking as often as I can get it to. My "cheapness" claim can remain intact. You, my friend, can take the cheapness crown...but that's a good thing.

I put one on each side to support the whole board. Your way seems to work fine.

Mark

 

[Ekka]

Correct, 1.3mb, my bad, fixed now.

 

[computeruser]

Computeruser, I thought Casey would have converted you to the darkside already. As you can see in the first pic, I cut a little firewood too. That is where the rest of the ash and oak ended up. I always hated cutting the 10-20' of straight trunk in to firewood.

Oh, I've been converted. Just haven't taken the plunge yet since I don't have enough time to do the things I'm already into, to say nothing for taking on a new hobby! I should have something set up by the spring, though.

 

[t_andersen]

Hi Hautions,

Nice work that you've done. I don't want to be negative, I'm mostly asking this question to learn from fellow millers:

It looks to me like the wood is very irregular, so that it is likely to warp during the drying process when sawn like this? Shouldn't it have been quarter sawn?

Again, I am not suggesting that you have done it wrong, I just want to learn from any replies to the question...

Regards
Tom

 

[hautions11]

No ofense taken Tom. I am always looking for input. Befor I cut these trees down I actually asked the same question. Is ash tough to dry, does it tend to warp etc. The concensous was it tends to lay pretty flat and dry reasonably well. I would have guessed that from the dry ash I have seen, but wasn't sure. I am planning on stickering and weighing down the pile of ash. Do you have some experience that ash is a problem to dry??? Thanks.

Larry

 

[woodshop]

Ash is one of the easier woods that I have dried after milling. As for quartersawing for stability, as was said before, you have to have a pretty good sized log to quartersaw without either wasting a LOT of lumber or at best ending up with a lot of smaller width boards. I generally don't quartersaw unless it's over 20 inches, which gives you 8-9 inch wide quartersawn boards to start, and they get thinner from there. Quartersawing involves a lot more setting up. On small mills like ours it's almost twice the work because you are flipping the cant (or quarter log) every slice or two. With me, it's often just a case of not having enough time to do that, so I compromise, and cut through and through, which gives you SOME quartersawn and riftsawn anyway.

 

[oldsaw]

Hi Hautions,

Nice work that you've done. I don't want to be negative, I'm mostly asking this question to learn from fellow millers:

It looks to me like the wood is very irregular, so that it is likely to warp during the drying process when sawn like this? Shouldn't it have been quarter sawn?

Again, I am not suggesting that you have done it wrong, I just want to learn from any replies to the question...

Regards
Tom

Tom, ash is very stable, as has been mentioned, but it also makes some very dramatic cathedral grain patterns, that can be very beautiful. Dad has milled hundreds of feet of ash, not handled it like he should while drying, but still comes out with wonderful boards that are very straight. Ash is one of those woods that I wouldn't quartersaw.

Questions are never a bad thing, it's how we all learn.

Mark

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Good looking lumber. I finally got out and did some serious cutting with my 084 this weekend. She should be good and broken in now.

Next project... milling the 20+ logs I've accumulated. Stand by for PICS!!!:biggrinbounce2:

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

I'll take a stab at that one... my experience has been that once you get the equipment dialed in and get past that initial learning curve,
those first few runs down the log where you are clueless and don't know what to expect, which with the help of people on AS is shortened greatly, then the rest comes with common sense. This stuff is relatively easy from a skills perspective. So... I'd say 80/20, maybe even 90/10.

Ditto. Learning curve can be greatly reduced by reading posts here.

 

[Adkpk]

I agree with ash as a stable wood. I've been throwing around a board I dried correctly, but not for a real long time, now for months. It's been out in the rain a number of times and it's still straight as the first day I took it off the stickered pile. I haven't found a use for it because I used it as my v rail board for my mini mill for a while and couldn't get the screws out of it when I was done with it. I had to drill them out and leave the broken off screws in the hard hard wood. It's tough to cut it for firewood knowing this but man, it makes for a real good firewood too.

Real nice grain on that ash, hautions. Mine was all blond no variation like you got there.

 

[hautions11]

The boards I have peaked at in my stickered pile have already gotten a lot lighter then the as cut pieces. I am looking for a nice light wood for my cabinet project, so I believe these will really fit the bill. I have 250 bd ft and my project takes 125, but with waste, cutting out knots etc, I am not sure I have enough. I want to cut at least 100 more bd ft to be safe. The problem with this project is it takes fairly long (68") knot free pieces. If I was making library tables 4' long this would not be nearly as hard. The front doors for my cabinet need to be especially nice. It is kind of fun looking at a board coming of the log thinking, look at that perfect 1 X8 and 1X6 that will make part of my doors. Kind of sick at what I get excited about sometimes.

 

[woodshop]

It is kind of fun looking at a board coming of the log thinking, look at that perfect 1 X8 and 1X6 that will make part of my doors. Kind of sick at what I get excited about sometimes.

Well if you're sick then I'm terminally ill. I not only look at boards coming off the saw thinking what I'll make with them, I sometimes even grab my red lumber crayon and mark that on the boards so I can find them months or even years later.

 

[hautions11]

WS, I saw red numbers and letters on some of your white oak a few weeks ago. I assumed it was some kind of a secret code only you could understand.

 

[woodshop]

WS, I saw red numbers and letters on some of your white oak a few weeks ago. I assumed it was some kind of a secret code only you could understand.

HA!!! ... yes ...many have tried to crack it, but none have suceeded to date.

naaahhhh... my convention is simple, every board gets two letters and 4 numbers as it comes off the log. Two letters are species, OA for oak, CH for cherry, PO for poplar etc followed my month and year. OA 08-06 would be oak milled August 2006. If I don't do that, it's REAL easy to get piles of lumber and especially single boards that have lost their way, mixed up. Rough milled ash looks a lot like oak at first glance... maple looks like sweetgum etc etc. Only time I deviate from that convention is with white oak. I put a W in front of the OA. (red is more common here, so OA alone is red oak). Also, if milling wood for somebody that wants something made from THAT log, I might put the initials of that person on the board so I can find their exact wood later. Usually though, its just the 2 letters and 4 numbers. Super secret code

 

[hautions11]

Since I want to use this ash in a project this winter, I decided to get it kiln dried. I dropped off 300 bd ft today and ran in to a real interesting guy to boot. He built his own 3000 Bd ft kiln to go with his nice Woodmizer mill. He lives 20 minutes outside of town and has some acerage in woods and farmland. He buys a lot of his logs, saws and dries them and sells the lumber, retail to woodworkers etc. He had a beautifull 28" cherry log on the mill when I was there. Very clear and he said the log cost him $400. Ouch. At a retail selling price of $4 Bd ft and a 350 bd ft yield, that is $1200+. The guy had a real neat side business and is drying my ash for 25 cents a foot. I don't know the going rate, but that seemed reasonable to me.

 

[OZDOG]

great pics ! the ash looks beautifull , Worth getting on your knees for!

 

[hautions11]

Here are the last few boards, cut from the ash. These are out of a large trunk section with 2 huge branches coming off of it. I was really unsure of the quality from this section, but it turned out really nice. The first half of the log was great and the second half yielded pieces that were nice in the middle with some defects on the ends. Here is the last 35 Bd Ft.

A little closer shot of some of the interesting grain.

I have 5 more 8 to 9' logs that a tree service brought me. I am debating on what I should do with them.

 

[dustytools]

Some nice looking boards there Hautions. As for the rest of the logs, you could just ship them to me if you are still undecided as to what to do with them.:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[hautions11]

Dusty,

Your bat blanks are in the kiln next week with the rest of my ash. We'll have to fugure out how to get them south.