John TenEyck
10-07-2015, 8:25 PM
I milled another red oak log with a former colleague this past Saturday. We felled the tree in the Spring and had already milled the butt log. There were still three logs to cut from what remained of the trunk, and they had to be transported out of the woods a few hundred yards down to the milling area. Here's the first log after we picked it up with my log dolly on the back of his nice little JD diesel tractor. This log is about 22" at the butt end and 8 ft long.
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After getting it down to the mill he maneuvered it into position above the mill.
322976
The mill has ramps that temporarily attach to the bunks. With those in place we rolled the log up onto the mill and blocked it in place. He wanted a couple of live edge slabs so I milled it full width which makes for pretty slow going. I think it took at least 5 minutes per cut, and two cuts for a tank of gas. I took off two or three 4/4 boards, and then two slabs at a fat 7/4. That got me near the center line and the log looked like this at that point.
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You see the crack in the end of the log? A funny thing happened when I milled the slab above it. When I was about half way along the cut I felt and heard a "thump" and when I looked back that little crack was now a big crack as you can see in this photo.
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I milled the rest of the boards at 4/4 and then put each board back on the mill, vertically against a backrest, and cut off the bark:
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We got the other two logs moved down to the mill and then the rain was coming down pretty hard so we called it a day - a good day. BTW it took a gallon of fuel and nearly that much bar oil to mill the log. Still cheap for about 130 BF of mostly clear wood.
John
322975
After getting it down to the mill he maneuvered it into position above the mill.
322976
The mill has ramps that temporarily attach to the bunks. With those in place we rolled the log up onto the mill and blocked it in place. He wanted a couple of live edge slabs so I milled it full width which makes for pretty slow going. I think it took at least 5 minutes per cut, and two cuts for a tank of gas. I took off two or three 4/4 boards, and then two slabs at a fat 7/4. That got me near the center line and the log looked like this at that point.
322977
You see the crack in the end of the log? A funny thing happened when I milled the slab above it. When I was about half way along the cut I felt and heard a "thump" and when I looked back that little crack was now a big crack as you can see in this photo.
322978
I milled the rest of the boards at 4/4 and then put each board back on the mill, vertically against a backrest, and cut off the bark:
322979
We got the other two logs moved down to the mill and then the rain was coming down pretty hard so we called it a day - a good day. BTW it took a gallon of fuel and nearly that much bar oil to mill the log. Still cheap for about 130 BF of mostly clear wood.
John