A MIGHTY Sawyer am I ! or what I did for fun tonight

[Michael Weber]

Pictured are the results of milling a 6 inch limb from my neighbors Sycamore tree. The one with the beautiful Pink ends:D This was just for fun to see what would happen. Mainly what happened was frequent stoppages due to overload on the motor of my little 12 inch very well used Craftsman bandsaw. Unprepared for how WET the wood was. Sled I used to cut the limb in half is visible in one of the pics. Free handed the rest. I had to wrap my leg around the base of the bandsaw to keep it from being pushed across the floor by the weight and pressure on the blade while guiding with one hand and holding the end of the limb with the other to keep it level. Could have used at least one more hand. My opinion is leave the sawyering to the sawyers. Oh, did you know that if a motor goes out on temperature overload, putting a shop vac on the motors air vents really speeds up being able to reset. Probably not recommended but I didn't have all weekend.:rolleyes:

pics were too large. I'll try again after editing them.

[Greg Funk]

I don't see anything.

[Jim Becker]

'Tis tough work for both the saw and the sawyer. The right blade helps, but fresh, wet wood is just plain work to cut.

Do be aware that sycamore tends to be pretty unstable unless quarter sawn, so dry it carefully and with plenty of weight on top. You need a lot of airflow to wick off the moisture as it leaves the wood, too.

[Greg Heppeard]

What Jim said, plus limb wood is even more unstable than trunk wood due to the stresses of gravity and wind.

[Michael Weber]

Greg, thanks, I knew it would be reaction wood and this was just a hoot anyway. I figure I'll be lucky to get maybe enough thin material to make a small box.
Jim, I sawed the limb down the middle and then cut a board from each half. I'm hoping that means the side of each board that faced the center should be QS. Due to the very small diameter of the limb the outside faces may be flat sawn but I hope the inside faces exhibit the characteristics of QS Sycamore. Guess I'll find out about a year from now Lord willing and creek don't rise.

[Greg Heppeard]

I do like the figure you get with sycamore wood...sometimes it's really awesome. Good luck and keep us posted on how it turns out!