Nelson Howe
10-02-2009, 3:29 PM
Hi folks,
A few months ago I posted some questions about milling and drying my own lumber, and stated that I planned to store it in a dirt floored garage. After reading your responses (thanks, all), and further consideration, I altered my plan and now have it stacked, stickered, covered and wrapped in Shade Dri outside.
For any of you who care, I figured I'd let you know what I did and post a few pictures.
I had one large (29" diameter at the butt), old, sugar maple on the farm that died standing, and one large (28" diameter at the butt) red oak that fell over into a hayfield during last winter's ice storm. Both trees saw a lot of sun, and the maple had a lot of knots, though the oak was very clean and straight. In the end, I milled the maple logs mostly 5/4 and 10/4, flitch cut, reserving the center slabs adjacent to the heartwood (which was free from the rest of the wood) to be 14/4ish quarter sawn. Although I was mostly interested in quarter sawing the oak, I couldn't resist the opportunity to mill some 22" wide boards. The butt log went into some flitch sawn 5/4 and 10/4, and the rest was quartersawn in a range of thicknesses.
When we cut up the trees, we sawed the logs 12' long, as they divided up nicely that way. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but let me tell you that handling 12' 10/4 planks will put a beating on you if you don't do physically demanding work on a regular basis (as I don't). Fortunately, the guy who helped me is an animal. My back still isn't right.
We have been tapping that maple for at least sixty years, and it has the tap holes to prove it. With each hole is a very cool flame-like discoloration. I'm not sure exactly how best to use these, but I suppose I'll have plenty of time to think about it. Some of the boards are spalted a little, and there are pinholes and coloration similar to ambrosia maple. I'm not too familiar with ambrosia maple, and when I looked it up, the description said it was an infestation of soft maple. This being sugar maple, I don't know if you'd call it ambrosia or not.
I'm sorry not to have better photos, but I didn't want to act too much like a tourist geek while we were milling the lumber. One tap hole picture is actually of a waste slab. The other is in the stack.
If you've never seen a portable sawmill in action (as I hadn't), it's quite a machine. Watching the planks come out of the log is kind of exciting. I felt like I was adding another dimension to my understanding of wood and the process of working with it.
Now I wait.
Thanks for looking,
Nelson
A few months ago I posted some questions about milling and drying my own lumber, and stated that I planned to store it in a dirt floored garage. After reading your responses (thanks, all), and further consideration, I altered my plan and now have it stacked, stickered, covered and wrapped in Shade Dri outside.
For any of you who care, I figured I'd let you know what I did and post a few pictures.
I had one large (29" diameter at the butt), old, sugar maple on the farm that died standing, and one large (28" diameter at the butt) red oak that fell over into a hayfield during last winter's ice storm. Both trees saw a lot of sun, and the maple had a lot of knots, though the oak was very clean and straight. In the end, I milled the maple logs mostly 5/4 and 10/4, flitch cut, reserving the center slabs adjacent to the heartwood (which was free from the rest of the wood) to be 14/4ish quarter sawn. Although I was mostly interested in quarter sawing the oak, I couldn't resist the opportunity to mill some 22" wide boards. The butt log went into some flitch sawn 5/4 and 10/4, and the rest was quartersawn in a range of thicknesses.
When we cut up the trees, we sawed the logs 12' long, as they divided up nicely that way. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but let me tell you that handling 12' 10/4 planks will put a beating on you if you don't do physically demanding work on a regular basis (as I don't). Fortunately, the guy who helped me is an animal. My back still isn't right.
We have been tapping that maple for at least sixty years, and it has the tap holes to prove it. With each hole is a very cool flame-like discoloration. I'm not sure exactly how best to use these, but I suppose I'll have plenty of time to think about it. Some of the boards are spalted a little, and there are pinholes and coloration similar to ambrosia maple. I'm not too familiar with ambrosia maple, and when I looked it up, the description said it was an infestation of soft maple. This being sugar maple, I don't know if you'd call it ambrosia or not.
I'm sorry not to have better photos, but I didn't want to act too much like a tourist geek while we were milling the lumber. One tap hole picture is actually of a waste slab. The other is in the stack.
If you've never seen a portable sawmill in action (as I hadn't), it's quite a machine. Watching the planks come out of the log is kind of exciting. I felt like I was adding another dimension to my understanding of wood and the process of working with it.
Now I wait.
Thanks for looking,
Nelson