Where does your lumber come from?
#11
Much of mine comes from logs I mill and dry.  Last week my arborist friend asked if I wanted some logs from a fairly large white oak that a wind storm a couple of weeks ago had felled.  Of course, thank you.  The tree had miraculously fallen between a small camp and some out buildings that face out onto beautiful Lake Ontario.  

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He loaded the logs onto a trailer using a Bobcat to lift one end.

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And then picked up the other end with the bucket and pushed it aboard,

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The boss drove them to my house and dumped them on my yard.  

I got me log dolly to move them out to my mill - and promptly broke the 2000 lb winch, even though I use a double line arrangement.  These logs are 28 -29" diameter and should weigh around 2300 lbs each, but the winch couldn't handle it.  Hmm, now what.  I could have brought my mill to the logs, but I decided to quarter the log freehand with my chainsaw instead.  That was a bit of a chore but it was a lot easier to move those quarters afterwards, after I bought a new winch for the log dolly.  

The quarters pulled up the ramps to my mill w/o much trouble after I figured out how to rig them.  I recently upgraded to an electric winch and it's a big step up over the manual winch because I can help guide the log onto the mill while operating the winch with the remote.  

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I forgot to mention - I discovered that the white oak is really a red oak when I started quartering.  Oh well, I like red oak, too, but it was still a bit of a disappointment.  But it was free so I won't complain.  

You'll note that I have the quarter stood up on the edge of the pie edge.  This is one of the two ways to cut rift/quarter sawn lumber.  After I took off the peak of the pie to get below the sapwood, I took a couple of cuts.  

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You get beautiful rift sawn grain here.

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Then I rotated the cant to put the cut surface on the deck and repeated the process.  

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The closer you get to the centerline the more the grain changes from rift to quarter sawn.

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And the two cuts right around the centerline are truly quarter sawn and, as you will see, red oak has a fair amount of ray fleck, too.  

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This board is 12" wide and will give a nice 10" board after removing the sapwood. 

The other way of cutting quarters into rift/quarter sawn lumber is to cut parallel with the two faces, one after the other.  With this method the heartwood always has a square edge so there's less waste compared to the pie method.  

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That log yielded something close to 300 BF.  

I have an idea on how to pick up the other log with my 2000 lb winch and am going to try that before going to the effort of quartering it.  Stay tuned; I'll report back how it went.  

John
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#12
Some days I wish I was back in Alaska...my grandpa had a place up there with pretty much unlimited spruce and hemlock that had blown down.

But then I think about all the stupid, dangerous things we did, and the wishing eases off.
Wink

We used one of these for the milling...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RJt7wmy_Oeg
Dave Arbuckle was kind enough to create a Sketchup model of my WorkMate benchtop: http://www.arbolloco.com/sketchup/MauleSkinnerBenchtop.skp
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#13
99% comes from my own woods and milled/dried by me.

Nice job on the oak, John. Some nice lumber there.

I watched a log truck go thru town today, holy crap! It had multiple 36" Walnut logs on it. Can't imagine a woodlot around here that yielded that.

Ed
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#14
Nice job John. Nice wood is all in the milling, which takes practice and skill.
Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere
Non impediti ratione cogitationis
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#15
(06-23-2020, 09:29 PM)MauleSkinner Wrote: Some days I wish I was back in Alaska...my grandpa had a place up there with pretty much unlimited spruce and hemlock that had blown down.

But then I think about all the stupid, dangerous things we did, and the wishing eases off.
Wink

We used one of these for the milling...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RJt7wmy_Oeg

THanks for posting that.  I have never seen a mill quite like that, with two blades running together.  Sort of like a predecessor of the Peterson Swing Mill.  Looks like a good set up for making construction lumber and beams.  

John
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#16
Nice job. Red oak looks fantastic.
I still have probably 5000ft of various hardwoods, mostly walnut, from my milling days when I had the woodmizer. Sold it in around 2000. So my lumber has been air drying for close to 30 years. lol
Steve

Missouri






 
The Revos apparently are designed to clamp railroad ties and pull together horrifically prepared joints
WaterlooMark 02/9/2020








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#17
Well, I managed to pick up the other log with a 2000 lb winch by using 4 pulleys to cut the load by 4X.  

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The little 3 wheel atv managed to pull it out to my mill and I tried to line it up as best I could.  

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It took a few corrections to get the log to roll up the ramps without wanting to wander off but I managed to get it up there.  The 3500 lb HF winch I recently added was up to the task.  I had to tie the mill to a couple of trees to keep it from getting pulled towards the log.  The log outweighs the mill by about 50%.   

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It's absolutely as big as the mill can handle, and I'm not sure it's going to be any less work than quartering the log first.  But I want to cut some plain sawn stock and quarters aren't good for that.  

John
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#18
Thanks for posting how you mill logs to lumber. After milling how long do you have to dry the lumber before it can be used? Do you sticker it and let it air dry? Do you band it to try keeping it from cupping, twisting? Getting those big logs up on the mill looks like a lot of work. Working with that kind of weight is dangerous, takes skill.
Treat others as you want to be treated.

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” — Mae West.
24- year cancer survivor
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#19
(06-24-2020, 09:16 AM)jteneyck Wrote: THanks for posting that.  I have never seen a mill quite like that, with two blades running together.  Sort of like a predecessor of the Peterson Swing Mill.  Looks like a good set up for making construction lumber and beams.  

John

Looks like a Mobile Dimension mill. I don't think they are produced any more, but a lot are still operating. The Mahoe mill made here in NZ is similar (a "twin saw"). The Swing blades are generally cheaper and more portable, but they would struggle to match a good twin saw for production. 

My little swing blade set up to saw an Acacia log
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Bar top for cousin, 3" thick live edge. 
Cool

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#20
(06-24-2020, 05:50 PM)lift mechanic Wrote: Thanks for posting how you mill logs to lumber. After milling how long do you have to dry the lumber before it can be used? Do you sticker it and let it air dry? Do you band it to try keeping it from cupping, twisting? Getting those big logs up on the mill looks like a lot of work. Working with that kind of weight is dangerous, takes skill.

Yeah, you don't want to be anywhere the log can roll on you, to be sure. These logs weigh about 2300 lbs, but even little guys can weigh 1000 lbs; more than enough to maim or kill you.  The winch is the key to safely getting the logs up onto the mill.  I'm thinking of going to a two winch setup for better control and an extra margin of safety.  

I usually sticker and air dry the lumber I mill, which will get it down to 12 - 14% where I live, and then put it into my solar kiln to bring it down to 7%.  4/4 lumber milled in the Spring will be AD by Fall, 8/4 might take a year or so.  I don't band it or add extra weight on top; never found it necessary.  What I have found to be important is to put my stacks in the shade with good air circulation.  Stacks that get very much direct sun can dry too quickly and check and/or warp.  

Having said all that, I just loaded my solar kiln for the first time with some freshly cut hard maple.  It was only 40% MC when I loaded it about a week after I milled it which was surprising since green hard maple is usually around 70% MC.  I'm not sure how long the logs had been down, however.  In any case, the max. allowable drying rate for 8/4 hard maple is about 2.6%/day and my load was right at that percentage the first couple of days.  8 days in the MC is down to 25% and the daily loss is now 1%.  I'm guessing another 5 or 6 weeks to get down to 7%.  So 6 to 7 weeks from green to kiln dry is a big improvement over waiting a year just for it to air dry.  

John
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