Walnut Score

[jteneyck]

I bet this is going to yield some nice lumber, especially the 30" diameter butt log on the trailer which looks perfectly clear.  



I had to have them cut to only 7 ft long to keep the weight within the limit of my 2000 lb trailer.  I think these are going to yield around 400 bf of lumber.  

John

[Gary G™]

Indeed. Beautiful butts.

[Hank Knight]

Nice score! That was a good sized tree.

[fredhargis]

Wow, nice boards to be, for sure.

[stav]

Nice.  Do you have the equipment to mill them or will you be outsourcing?

[jteneyck]

Nice.  Do you have the equipment to mill them or will you be outsourcing?

I have a manual Woodland Mills mill that can handle, with difficulty, 30" diameter logs.  I built a log arch about 20 years ago to move logs with an ATV.



That was back before I got the sawmill and milled lumber with a chainsaw mill.  Hard work, to be sure.  I cut more lumber in one year with the bandsaw mill than I did in 15 years with the chainsaw.  

I bought a trailer and built a log lifting arch for it after I got the mill.  I can lift logs over 2000 lbs onto the trailer by myself.  This walnut log must have weighed at least 2500 lbs.  It's a good thing it was only a couple of miles from home and flat.  There's a 5000 lb winch at the front of the trailer powered by the jump pack. 



The mill is on a trailer, also from WM's, so I can take it on the road when needed.  I try not to, though, because of all the effort to transport everything besides the mill required to mill logs.  The mill has a set of ramps to roll logs up onto it, using a 3500 lb winch on the back side.  It works surprisingly well even with big logs like this one.  



The mill can handle a 10 ft long log, but that's the absolute limit, and I try to keep them to 9 ft or less to make positioning easier.  You can buy an extension for the trailer to handle 16 ft logs, if needed. Everything I have, from my solar drier to my storage shed, is based on nothing longer than 10 ft.  

With great difficulty, you can quarter saw logs.  It needs to be a large and special log to consider doing it.  I have to splice the log in half and then that in half again, manually with a chainsaw.  



I rack the lumber in stacks in the shade and let them air dry.  



After its air dry it goes in my solar kiln to bring it down to about 7%.  The drier can hold about 500 bf of lumber and takes around 3 weeks to dry a load in good weather.  Of course, it's useless from Nov to March.  The solar cells drive two car radiator fans inside to recirculate the air.  When the sun shines the fans run, when it doesn't, they don't, so there's no need for any kind of controller.  



And then into the 14 x 18 ft woodshed.  Of course, I wish it were larger.  



I hope I didn't bore you with all that. 

John

[stav]

I hope I didn't bore you with all that. 

John

Not at all.  Looks like a very functional setup.  I think I remember your thread on the last shed you posted above.

Did you have to buy those logs are are they tree cutter waste?

[Hank Knight]

Anything BUT boring! It looks wonderful. Lots of thought and work went into that set-up.
My daughter and son-in-law have a place on the Shenandoah River in Virginia with 70 acres of forest. I'm trying to talk him onto going halves with me on a mill. He's tempted, but not there yet. I'll keep your set-up in mind if in case I succeed.

[jteneyck]

Not at all.  Looks like a very functional setup.  I think I remember your thread on the last shed you posted above.

Did you have to buy those logs are are they tree cutter waste?

I have 3 arborist friends, two who often gift me logs.  If I haul away the logs it saves them the time from having to cut it into pieces small enough to get onto their dump trailers and hauling it to the dump.  It's a win-win.  Of course there's an expectation that I do something for them or a friend now and then, so nothing is truly free.   

John

[stav]

That's a nice arrangement if you have the time for it.  Seems like you still come out on top with logs like that.