help with milling lumber

[George Pell]

Hello,
Some trees were recently cut down on an empty lot by my house, and I was able to get some pieces of walnut and sycamore about 12-18 inches in diameter, and 24-30 inches long. I only have bench-top bandsaw, so it’s not large enough to do any serious re-sawing. I build jewelry boxes and work with small pieces of lumber, so I manage to get by with the small bandsaw, but it does mean it will be more difficult to mill any lumber. I’m trying to figure out a way to get some usable pieces from this wood, but I’m having a tough time figuring out how to do it. There isn’t enough to make it worth hiring someone to mill it. This is a hobby for me, and I would love to be able to build something from wood I milled myself. Any suggestion as to how I can do this? I’ve been able to split the walnut and get some fairly flat chunks, but it still needs a lot of work to get it to where it’s usable as lumber. I’ve considered building some sort of sled for the table saw, but don’t feel too comfortable with that idea. Would running it through a planer on a sled be an option? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

George

[Boyd Gathwright]

Hi George,

.... My concern would be more in the drying of the wood rather than the cutting. I have wood here that is several years old and even to this day when I attempt to use it in a project I find it cracks or splits a couple of months down the road. If it's not dried and had the tension taken out of it correctly, it seems never to perform the way it should. As far as cutting goes, especialy for small pieces like you have, you could cut them down to manageable size by hand then run them through a bandsaw or what ever.

....Hope my take on this is helpful ;).

Boyd

.

Hello,
Some trees were recently cut down on an empty lot by my house, and I was able to get some pieces of walnut and sycamore about 12-18 inches in diameter, and 24-30 inches long. I only have bench-top bandsaw, so it’s not large enough to do any serious re-sawing. I build jewelry boxes and work with small pieces of lumber, so I manage to get by with the small bandsaw, but it does mean it will be more difficult to mill any lumber. I’m trying to figure out a way to get some usable pieces from this wood, but I’m having a tough time figuring out how to do it. There isn’t enough to make it worth hiring someone to mill it. This is a hobby for me, and I would love to be able to build something from wood I milled myself. Any suggestion as to how I can do this? I’ve been able to split the walnut and get some fairly flat chunks, but it still needs a lot of work to get it to where it’s usable as lumber. I’ve considered building some sort of sled for the table saw, but don’t feel too comfortable with that idea. Would running it through a planer on a sled be an option? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

George

[Bob Smalser]

If you split your logs into wedges, you'll have zero grain runout and you can see where the boards need to be length-wise before you cut to length at any bends or crooks that were originally in the log.

The traditional way to do it is to split them with wedges, froe and heavy mauls as far as splitting will take you, ....then adze them into something that looks more like a board. Get good enough with the adze, and you can make a surface you can easily take to your jointer for one surface followed by the thickness planer or TS for the other.

This can also be done freehanded on the TS with chalk line and an offbearer if you've already thought of that....but it's dangerous and I don't recommend it. If you plan on using the TS, you can fasten your wedges to a straight 2X6 batten from behind using bronze screws that won't damage anything if the sawblade hits them by mistake.....and run them through using the batten against the fence.

[Ian Abraham]

Chainsaw :D

It's rough but with small lengths like that you will be able to rip the things into quarters and then make some VERY roughsawn lumber. Look at the way guys cut out turning blanks for short logs. Then sticker the stuff up to dry for maybe 12 months, in it's roughsawn state. After that, a lot of passes through the planer and you are good to go. Efficient way of making boards? nope :o Will it work, yep ;)
Cut with the logs on their side with the saw bar near parallel with the log, so the saw cuts long shavings not dust as you probably wont have a ripping chain on a normal saw.

Motto : It's rough, but at least it's slow

If you want to get more serious look at a 'beam machine' chainsaw guide and a loop of ripping chain. Still a slow way to cut lumber, but it does actually work.

Cheers

Ian

[Mike Holbrook]

Hi George,

I am also looking at sawing some logs up. I am considering taking down some trees to saw so I am in the realm of a sawyer. During my research I did discover that some sawyers or mills will saw up a few logs if you bring them to them. My local guy said if I just had a log or two to just drop them off & he would run them through with some other job and give me a call when they were done.

You might try talking to a local sawyer & or mill & see if it would be possible to get them sawn at the sawyers location if you deliver & pick up.

[jim mckee]

You could chainsaw rip them in half length way, then band saw them into boards.

This method will produce quite a bit of qtr saw.

The reason you other woods didn't work out was air drying wood will only produce about 15% mc. You need 6-10% mc for projects that will be indoors.
You can get you air dried woods down to 6-10% by putting them in a kiln or kiln like conditions or in an area that's heated and cooled year round (the actual conditions of where the project will end up).
An attic works good, the attic space of a garage can work also.
Before you use the wood check it with a moisture meter or best do an oven dry test for mc, you will need a scale that reads to .1 gram, check many samples (the scraps are fine)
here is a link of the dry kiln operators manual that describes the method
http://www.rmmn.org/documnts/usda/ah188/ah188.htm


I''m retired US Army and have been milling/drying since 92, furniture making since 82.
I sell wood for working projects.
I sawmill, kiln dry, build furniture, and lumber products.

[Rob Russell]

If you're looking for something on the cheap, a ripsaw will work. Yeah - one of those hand things. Stand the log on end and go to town. Make sure the saw is sharp and the longer the saw, the easier it'll be (longer stroke).

I can't believe I'm advocating use of a tool without a tail :D .

[Steve Inniss]

Hi George,
Have a look at this: http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/sl/aw_bandsaw_resaw_main.htm?1009130201181825

-Steve

[Jim Becker]

The reason you other woods didn't work out was air drying wood will only produce about 15% mc. You need 6-10% mc for projects that will be indoors.
I almost exclusively use air-dried lumber; both from my own property and from a local supplier, and the 12% or so MC it maintains has not been any problem at all for "indoor" projects. I respect your opinion on this, but with proper joinery and considerations for wood movement in design, there should be no issues with using this material...provided it really is at the ambient moisture for one's geographic area. The kiln-dried material that has been in my shop for awhile is currently at about 10-11% MC, too.

[Darren Ford]

I almost exclusively use air-dried lumber; both from my own property and from a local supplier, and the 12% or so MC it maintains has not been any problem at all for "indoor" projects.
Did the master furniture makers of yesteryear have kiln dried lumber? This is a serious question. My guess it "not usually".

[lou sansone]

Did the master furniture makers of yesteryear have kiln dried lumber? This is a serious question. My guess it "not usually".
This is a good question. Basically there is no problem with using wood that has gotten to EMC like Jim becker has indicated. Darren is right that 200 years ago furniture makers did not kiln the wood ( at least I am not aware of that practice, if someone has some information that indicates they did, I would be interested in seeing it. ). The problem with using wood that is at EMC has become an issue with the advent of central heat. In simple terms, central heat will take wood that was @ EMC of 12% and bring it to 6% in the winter. There are scores of tables that show how much wood will continue to shrink from 12 to 6%. Now if you are very careful with construction then you can sometimes get away with using wood @ emc in a centrally heated house. However, many times you will get burned. If you doubt this, please take a visit to any good New England</ST1:place> museum ( or 18th century antiques that you may own) and if you look carefully you will see many case pieces that have been damaged due to this exact problem. Very often 18<SUP>th</SUP> century furniture makes had complete disregard for cross grain construction practices, not all, but many did. One of the exceptions was the PA german pieces that made extensive use of sliding dovetails and other methods to compensate for these issues. BTW I am not taking about frame and panel construction that was developed to deal exactly with this issue. The problem is most noticable in carcass construction.

I also use air dried hardwood that is @ EMC , but I have over the years tried to discipline myself by letting the wood that I keep in my shed be brought into a heated shop for a few months to get down to 6-8% . I have simply found IMHO that this is the most failsafe way of preventing problems in the long run.
lou