Resawing logs - first time experience

[Greg Book]

My workplace finally took down some trees to make room for a building expansion. Two of the trees were beautiful maple, 30' to the first branch, 30" diameter. And one was a little cherry tree, about 18" trunk, lots of branches. They took away the maple very quickly, but I was more interested in the cherry. So I took 4 logs, about 7-8" diameter and 30" long. I painted the ends at home, then trimmed to fit in the bandsaw. I installed a 3/4" blade on my Grizzly G0555 and resawed them into 1" boards.

This is my first time resawing logs and I was very impressed as the saw actually handled cutting through 6" of green hardwood. I even had a Tim Taylor moment: "YEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! THIS is how lumber is made!"

I stacked the boards in my basement, and placed the dehumidifier with its exhaust facing the boards. I lowered the humidity level to 40% on the dehumidifier and its been removing buckets of water from the air for 2 weeks now. I just checked the moisture content by sticking the meter pins through the paint in the end grain, and the boards are 12-15%. The boards feel dry, but I'm wondering how accurate the moisture reading is. Did I really "air" dry the wood that quickly?

[Mike Archambeau]

No pics....did not happen

[Chris Padilla]

Stick the pins into the face in a couple different spots.

[Nelson Howe]

I'm pretty sure the pins need to line up with the grain. Think electricity: you're measuring electrical resistance or conductivity or irritability or something. In the face, like chris said. The ends will dry fastest. Don't go too fast or you'll get checking. Just don't put a bunch of holes where you'll want a nice finished board later.

Nelson

[Greg Book]

I found it difficult to shove the pins into the wood, but I did get the pins to stick in far enough so the meter could stand by itself.
Since these boards are only 5-6" x 24-30", I imagine it may take less time. But also because they are small, I don't plan on building anything too grand with them. Maybe a jewelry box or chess set. It was more of an experiment to see how its done. ... but it was really fun to mill the logs, and I definitely plan to do it again. :D

Here are the pictures:

[Anthony Whitesell]

That there is a nice stack of lumber. Any photos of your jig?

[Scott T Smith]

My workplace finally took down some trees to make room for a building expansion. Two of the trees were beautiful maple, 30' to the first branch, 30" diameter. And one was a little cherry tree, about 18" trunk, lots of branches. They took away the maple very quickly, but I was more interested in the cherry. So I took 4 logs, about 7-8" diameter and 30" long. I painted the ends at home, then trimmed to fit in the bandsaw. I installed a 3/4" blade on my Grizzly G0555 and resawed them into 1" boards.

This is my first time resawing logs and I was very impressed as the saw actually handled cutting through 6" of green hardwood. I even had a Tim Taylor moment: "YEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! THIS is how lumber is made!"

I stacked the boards in my basement, and placed the dehumidifier with its exhaust facing the boards. I lowered the humidity level to 40% on the dehumidifier and its been removing buckets of water from the air for 2 weeks now. I just checked the moisture content by sticking the meter pins through the paint in the end grain, and the boards are 12-15%. The boards feel dry, but I'm wondering how accurate the moisture reading is. Did I really "air" dry the wood that quickly?


Greg: Green wood mills much easier than dry wood, so the bandsaw did not have to do too much work.

Yes, you can safely dry 4/4 cherry pretty quickly, but two weeks is just a tad bit fast. Your most critical drying time is from green down to 35% MC, so next time set your dehumidifier a little bit higher for the first week or so (like around 60%), and then drop it down to 40%. At 40% and 70 degrees, you should be able to reach 8% MC or thereabouts. Now your only worry is if there are any critters in the wood; if so you will want to build some type of sterilization chamber that will allow you to heat it up to 135F for several hours.

As Chris and Nelson mentioned, the end grain of the board is not the proper place to take a moisture meter reading. Either the edge or the face is the proper location.

Congratulations on your first milling and drying experiment! Be careful though... it can become quite addictive!

Scott

[Greg Book]

That there is a nice stack of lumber. Any photos of your jig?

I actually didn't use a jig. I flattened one side of each log using an axe and an electric planer, then flattened the other side using the same method. Then I drew a straight line down the middle of the log, and cut the log in two on the bandsaw. Then I just used the fence to attempt to cut straight on the half logs.

The method worked well in 3 of 4 logs. The boards from 1 log turned out twisted, but such is the learning experience. This method is dependent on how flat one side of the log is before cutting. Flattening that side on a jointer would probably be effective.

[Eiji Fuller]

Greg,
Some nice cherry, but I'm crying over all that maple. :(