Milling some Pecan

[Marmaduck]

So I've been eyeballing this downed Pecan for a couple of mos. and finally asked the elderly couple if I might remove it for them. They are glad to have it removed, so it's ON.

There was no way to move the main trunk, so I milled most of it in place. It was pretty rotted on the bottom but I got 8 decent boards 1.5 in. thick. I couldn't tell from the road, but there are 12 other millable logs (limbs!) and a nice crotch piece buried in the weeds and in considerably better shape than the trunk. Yesterday, I got 3 of the logs on my little utility trailer and am headed back tomorrow with a bigger trailer for the rest. Then, I can mill them at home at my leisure...yeah, right.

Lessons Learned:
1. When its hot, mill in the shade. Dehydration sux.
2. Someone posted a pic using a bag of lead shot to help stabilize the mill. What a GREAT improvement over wrestling it by hand...THANKS!
3. Some way, other than manual labor must be employed to move logs around. The 81 Yr. old homeowner used his tractor with a boom and log tongs to effortlessly lift the smaller logs onto my trailer. That really saved the day.

 

[dustytools]

Nice job Marmaduck!

 

[carvinmark]

Thats some nice n pretty lumber. Sounds like you got hooked up with the right guy.

 

[wdchuck]

Any plans for that nice wood?

Yep, dehydration sucks, headache/cramps, csming really gets the sweat glands working overtime, waterheavy fruit for a snack helps, (peaches/melons), and lots of water, litre or two an hour on a hot day.

Looking forward to pics of the rest of milling, action shots too.:greenchainsaw:

 

[woodshop]

nice job... you picked one of the hardest woods to mill on that hot day. I milled a 34" pecan tree a while back and boy what a chore. Tough going. Part of it is STILL in the woods a year later, might not get to it even.

 

[BobL]

Schweet!

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Pecan is one of my favorite woods for slabbing but you have to stack it well and weight it down REALLY well. It will warp beyond use in slab form if you don't.

 

[OZDOG]

Pecan is one of my favorite woods for slabbing but you have to stack it well and weight it down REALLY well. It will warp beyond use in slab form if you don't.

i don't know pecan, but do what the man says,don't let those slabs go to wast ! nice work!!

 

[Marmaduck]

Milling some Pecan--UPDATE and questions

To pick up where we left off...with more pix to bribe you all for input...
I couldn't get the big trailer so 4 trips with my little trailer later, I've got all the limbs at home.

Naturally, I couldn't wait to start milling.

Pic titled "3 in slabs" is one of the larger limbs (2-3" slabs and 1-5/4" board). I figure I'll need legs for any furniture I build, so I'd better have some thicker stuff, even though it will take longer to dry.

Pic titled "Bench": Several of these limbs seem too far gone, but too pretty to just throw on the fire, so I threw this bench together just for grins...soaking wet and built the same day as milled. This brings me to the first question: How can I know if it is, in fact, too far gone (besides the obvious crumbling)? Most of the bench, and the upper slabs in the pic "good rot or bad" have lost most of their color and are getting soft. By "soft", I mean they will dent with a fingernail like pine, where any wood with color will not dent.

Aggiewoodbutcher mentioned something about a catalyst to re-harden things??? Please advise as I'd hate to have burned this if it can still make unique furniture/mantles/shelves/shop tooling.

Anyway, in the last pic, the bottom 7 boards (more color) are what's left after trimming off most of the rot from the main trunk (First pics in this thread). It seems a shame to be left with 12-13" wide boards from those large slabs in the initial pics.

Thanks in advance,
Michael

P.S. All of the first pecan I milled in early March is at 9-11% right now! This seems pretty fast for 4/4 and 5/4 boards. I dried them either in my attic or inside the house. There is some extra checking on the attic-dried boards, but very few seem to be wildly twisted. I clamp the boards with threaded-rod clamps like I saw on this site somewhere and simply keep the nuts tight as the wood dries. It's ready to make stuff now, no??

 

[woodshop]

...This brings me to the first question: How can I know if it is, in fact, too far gone (besides the obvious crumbling)? Most of the bench, and the upper slabs in the pic "good rot or bad" have lost most of their color and are getting soft. By "soft", I mean they will dent with a fingernail like pine, where any wood with color will not dent...

Here is how you tell if it's too rotten... pick the largest person in your family and have them sit on it, if it don't collapse, it's not too rotten :greenchainsaw: :greenchainsaw:

Actually, wood like that sometimes gets structurally harder when it dries. As to whether it will indeed stand up to the rigors of a bench, no way of telling by looking at a picture on the computer.

5/4 and 4/4 pecan CAN dry in that little amount of time, but you are right, it usually take longer than that. Are you sure it's that dry all the way through the whole board?

 

[Marmaduck]

milling pecan

5/4 and 4/4 pecan CAN dry in that little amount of time, but you are right, it usually take longer than that. Are you sure it's that dry all the way through the whole board?

Pretty sure...I can't drive the pins on my meter all the way so I drove finish nails at least half-way through in several places on a sample of boards and got consistent results throughout. Also, this dry wood was my first milling so most of the boards are actually 3/4-4/4.

Thanks,
Michael

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

The wood stabilizer I have used is made by System 3 and it's called Rot Fix.

http://www.systemthree.com/p_rot_fix_2.asp

Their site has a dealer locater but I got the stuff I used through Woodcraft.

 

[Marmaduck]

final update

I finally finished milling the rest of the limbs. As it turned out, about half of the limbs were too far gone and are now firewood. My (very) rough estimate is about 250bf of actual lumber from this tree.

The last piece I milled was a decent-sized crotch piece with what appears to be curly figure. I thought it would be junk, but was pleasantly surprised. (Please, no comments on how rough these are...)

I found an unpleasant surprise deep inside one of the limbs...a baseball sized lump of concrete. My guess is that someone tried to fix a wound with it?? At any rate, my chain definitely didn't like it.

Attached are some pics of the last 3 or so limbs, the crotch pieces, and one of my clever in-the-house hiding places, under the pool table. I also have a couple of stacks in the attic over a load-bearing wall.

Thanks to you all for the help along the way.

Next on the list are some Black Oak (standing) and some huge White Oaks down since Katrina, for which I'll need to build some piles outside for the initial drying. I plan to try to quarter-saw the oak until the cants/quarters are small enough to manhandle, then finish on the bandsaw.

Michael

 

[woodshop]

That's some very interesting looking wood. re: the drying slabs under your pool table, keep in mind those things give off and awful lot of moisture as they dry, especially in the beginning. Hope that doesn't do anything to your pool table joints and bottom.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Good looking stuff. Pecan sure spalts nicely.

I agree with Woodshop about the moisture issue. I'd put them back outside for a month or so then move it in myself or at the very least put a small fan set on low directed at the side of the stack. That's a nice pool table. I'd hate to see you have problems with it.

 

[Marmaduck]

Moisture concerns

Woodshop & Aggie,

Thanks for the notice. I didn't specifically think about the moisture, but I did a 2-3 week pre-dry in the garage. In addition, there is pretty good circulation in that room and the pool table already survived Katrina including more than a week sitting on soaked carpet in a 90+ temps with no electricity/circulation, but with no apparent damage.

I do like the fan idea and will take a closer look tonight.

I HAVE, however, been thinking about all the mold and fungus spores that must be in all this spalted wood. Smart money says I'll be getting and using a good respirator while doing any serious machining on this wood.
Thanks Again,
Michael