Quatersawing with Alaskan

[F0xz0r]

Greetings,
I'm new here but I'm a long time hobby woodworker. I recently have come into a solid half dozen black walnut and a good dozen white oak logs. They all range in size from 15 up to 36 inches in diamater.

I recently purchased an alaskan 36" mill and an older husqvarna 288xp to run it. What I'm now wondering is if there a way to quater saw with this mill.

I've found plans to modfy a mini mill, though I don't have a welder or want to buy any more equipment.

Can you fine folks shed light onto how I might water saw or at least rift saw my logs?

Thanks!
Mike

 

[dustytools]

Greetings,
I'm new here but I'm a long time hobby woodworker. I recently have come into a solid half dozen black walnut and a good dozen white oak logs. They all range in size from 15 up to 36 inches in diamater.

I recently purchased an alaskan 36" mill and an older husqvarna 288xp to run it. What I'm now wondering is if there a way to quater saw with this mill.

I've found plans to modfy a mini mill, though I don't have a welder or want to buy any more equipment.

Can you fine folks shed light onto how I might water saw or at least rift saw my logs?

Thanks!
Mike

Hi, Although I have never been lucky enough to come across a log big enough to quarter-saw yet I have read about several of other members here quartering with the alaskan. I think they start off by quartering the log either free hand or by using a beam machine or such. Then quarter saw it from there by flipping the quarters as you saw it up. There are some threads on this subject already posted. Try typing in quartersawing in the search function and im sure you will get a lot of good reading material with pics. Good luck and welcome to the site.

 

[F0xz0r]

Thanks! I tried quatersawn and dident find much. I found one revelant hit under quater sawing and it was exactly what I was needing to know.

I even more excited now to get out this week and start tearing into my logs.

 

[aquan8tor]

Great score. If you need help, I'm not too far away. I don't have a lot of time, but I'm sure an afternoon could be made productive if you could sling some slabs my way.

 

[F0xz0r]

Great score. If you need help, I'm not too far away. I don't have a lot of time, but I'm sure an afternoon could be made productive if you could sling some slabs my way.

Hey will do! Great to see Valley folks on here.

I'm sure we could work something out. I'm really looking to find a trailer to use to get the stuff back home. I can pull it easily with my Rover but since I moved down here I have'nt had a trailler in years.

Mike

 

[Husky137]

Thanks! I tried quatersawn and dident find much. I found one revelant hit under quater sawing and it was exactly what I was needing to know.

I even more excited now to get out this week and start tearing into my logs.

try spelling it quartersawn not quater and you might get some better search results.

 

[F0xz0r]

try spelling it quartersawn not quater and you might get some better search results.

Ahh! indeed. and this is why I was a math major

 

[woodshop]

Can you fine folks shed light onto how I might water saw or at least rift saw my logs?
Mike

It really depends on the size of log you are starting with. Example, for a 36 inch dia log, I slab off the sides to get a 28x28 inch cant, then half that, and then halve each of those to give roughly 14x14 cants which then get sliced up into lumber. If you take a face off of that 14x14, flip it 90, then take a face, flip 90 again etc etc, you will end up with mostly quartersaw or riftsawn boards. LOT of work, but you asked. I often cheat, and take 2-3 boards off of a face each time before flipping 90. That also prevents you from ending up with every board a different width.

For smaller logs, similar as above, but of course you end up with thinner and thinner boards. I found that for logs less than say 14 inches to start with, trying to get much quartersawn just wastes too much log, and you end up with lots of boards less than 6 inches wide. For smaller logs, its more productive and less wasteful to slice it through and through, which still gives you a few good pure quartesawn boards as you slice through the center of the log. Of course then you have the crappy pith area of the log to deal with, but the sides of that board will be pure quartersawn. Again, that's why I don't try and quartersaw ALL of a log less than 12-14 inches to begin with.

 

[FJH]

It really depends on the size of log you are starting with. Example, for a 36 inch dia log, I slab off the sides to get a 28x28 inch cant, then half that, and then halve each of those to give roughly 14x14 cants which then get sliced up into lumber. If you take a face off of that 14x14, flip it 90, then take a face, flip 90 again etc etc, you will end up with mostly quartersaw or riftsawn boards. LOT of work, but you asked. I often cheat, and take 2-3 boards off of a face each time before flipping 90. That also prevents you from ending up with every board a different width.

For smaller logs, similar as above, but of course you end up with thinner and thinner boards. I found that for logs less than say 14 inches to start with, trying to get much quartersawn just wastes too much log, and you end up with lots of boards less than 6 inches wide. For smaller logs, its more productive and less wasteful to slice it through and through, which still gives you a few good pure quartesawn boards as you slice through the center of the log. Of course then you have the crappy pith area of the log to deal with, but the sides of that board will be pure quartersawn. Again, that's why I don't try and quartersaw ALL of a log less than 12-14 inches to begin with.

I have question? For Woodshop
Other than looks ,is there any avantage to using quarter sawn wood, other than looks?Does it stay straighter? Is it any stronger?

I experimented with this the other day and was able to cut out some sweet looking peices But ,I'm going to be building a house with the stuff and in my mind it won't make a hill of beans diffrence whether I use edge grain or flat grain for framing wood!and as was mentioned there was waste involved!
In my estimation I wasted AT least 2 to three 2x6 boards worth of wood tring to acheive edge grain which otherwize would have been usable framing material!
For my self I don't see an advantage if you using the wood for construction!

 

[F0xz0r]

While your question isn't directly pointed to me, I fugured I would share my thoughts as well.

The biggest advantage to Quartersawn lumber is its stability. It moves very predictibly and will not cup like flat sawn will.

For construction though flat sawing is perfectly fine. the cup or other deformations that may take place thhrough drying arent major enough to matter in frame carpentery.

 

[FJH]

I did direct my question at Wood shop but all comments Welcome!
As you mentioned ,Its bacicly all good for framing then as I suspected.

 

[woodshop]

I have question? For Woodshop
Other than looks ,is there any avantage to using quarter sawn wood, other than looks?Does it stay straighter? Is it any stronger?For my self I don't see an advantage if you using the wood for construction!

Foxzor is correct, the main advantage you get with quartersawn boards is stability, and predictable movement. They don't move with the weather as much as flatsawn, and as said, pure quartersawn will not cup as it loses moisture like flatsawn tends to do. With certain kinds of wood, you also get beautiful quartersawn figure. Red and white oak, as well as sycamore and some maples will look completely different quartersawn. Oaks have large rays which run 90 degrees from the grain across the board and give a very striking effect. Sycamore, maples and some cherry have ray fleck, which is hard to describe in words, but again, is striking figure compared to the standard cathedral effect you get with flatsawn boards.

For framing lumber it makes little difference other than for some things like toe nailing studs to a sill plate. Quartersawn tends to split more than flatsawn if you are driving the nail same orientation as the rings on thinner stuff like a 2x4.

 

[t_andersen]

I have been quartersawing big oak logs with an Alaskan. Works great but it's a lot of hard work. You may find a description of the approach in the book Chainsaw Lumbermaking by Will Malloff. Hard to get though, I paid 135$ for mine.

As already said, don't quartersaw small logs (less than about 20"), it really doesn't pay off.