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Thread: Another unusual project...

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    New Hill, NC
    Posts
    2,568

    Another unusual project...

    Well, it's been an interesting few months. I have not been on SMC since last fall because last October my wife became ill to the point where she could not keep any food down for 10 days and had to be fed via IV. Then, as she was starting to recover I became very ill, to the point where I was housebound for almost a month. All in all my wood business was severely impacted for over three months.

    Fortunately our health has rebounded and we're digging back out. I've been meaning to post a sequel to my "uncommon project" thread, in this instance instead of milling a 43' long beam we were slabbing a 72" diameter log, and I thought that my fellow SMC members may enjoy the journey.

    It started when a fellow sawyer called me and told me that he was passing along a slabbing opportunity for a 203" circumference black walnut that was practically in my back yard.

    Talk about heart palpation's!!!!!!

    After speaking with the owner's rep, turns out that the tree was black oak..... and it was larger than 203"

    The tree was located at Meredith College in Raleigh and was dying, and the college administration did not want to see the wood go to waste. Unfortunately there was no way to get a crane, or even a trailer for that matter into the inner courtyard where the tree was located. Fortunately my skid steer and backhoe could be threaded through one entryway; otherwise it would have been very difficult for me to tackle this project. The college hired a tree service company to remove the canopy and drop the log for us.

    Normally I prefer to bring large logs to the mill, as it is easier having all of the support equipment available. In this instance it wasn't an option so we loaded up the slabber and took it to the log.

    After mobilizing the equipment we trimmed the 32' log into a couple of 13'7" ones. Both logs were over 75" at their widest points so we had to do a little trimming in order to get them within my 72" max cut.


    Scott and logsC.jpg



    We used the skid steer to roll them apart and set up the slabber and commenced milling. Due to the height of the log, we slabbed 20" off in the first pass and set it aside for later re-slabbing. Talk about a dancing skid steer! We had to sling it in order to get the CG a few feet behind the back of the forks.

    The jobsiteC.jpg



    After taking a 7-1/2" and a few 4-1/2" slabs off of the log we placed the 20" slab back on and milled it into 4-1/2" ones. After that we started on the second log and then placed the bottom portion of the first log onto it for finishing. I designed my slabber primarily for quartering 40" logs, or cutting larger ones into thirds for subsequent reprocessing on our band mill, so there are a few idiosyncrasies that we have to work around when slabbing.

    slabbing the upper logv2.jpg



    Many of the slabs had some really nice color and spalting:

    Pretty spaltingC.jpg



    Getting the slabs out of the courtyard was a challenge (the smallest ones weighed 2,200 lbs and the largest ones over 4000 lbs). First we tried wheeling them out like a wheelbarrow with a hand truck under one end and the skid steer under the other. We trashed the hand truck after three slabs... Next we tried tag teaming with the skid steer on one end and the backhoe on the other. This worked, but was challenging to keep in sync between the two machines. Eventually we used a 20' nylon sling to sling them to the backhoe forks, brought them through the narrow entryway and then set them on the skid steer forks for further transport to the trailer.

    Wheeling them outC.jpg



    Here is the final result; I think that it was worthwhile. They have been treated with Timbor and placed in the air drying barn. Looks like it will be a few years before I can recover the investment, but I hope that these will turn out to be something special.

    Scott Bon and Shea slabv2.jpg

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,675
    WOW....good stuff! Thanks for sharing! (And I'm glad that things are looking up on the health front, too)
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    Mnts.of Va.
    Posts
    615
    Very neat Scott,thanks for posting.Love the slabs,love the "drying barn"(if thats the building the slab is leaning on),and love working at small private colleges.But,am more happy that you and the wife are feeling better!

  4. #4
    WOW what a job !!!!!

    That is really awesome looking slabs.

    Now to dry them and make a really nice slab table.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    Columbus, OH
    Posts
    3,063
    Great story there Scott! Thanks for posting. You must have some storage facility there to be able to park those slabs long enough to let them dry. Sorry to hear about the health problems for you and your wife but really glad to hear that you all are bouncing back.
    Brian

    "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger or more complicated...it takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." - E.F. Schumacher

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Location
    Whitewater Ks
    Posts
    584
    That is sweet! That looks like some pretty severe twist in that trunk hope you got some good weight on those slabs while they dry.
    Only one life will soon be past
    Only whats done for Christ will last

  7. #7
    Glad to see you back on the Creek!

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    New Hill, NC
    Posts
    2,568
    Thanks Guys.

    Brian and Brian, the air drying barn is a 50 x 100 building with 16 - 20' ceilings. We usually stack the slabs up as high as we can, and the weight of the stacks helps to keep everything straight during the drying process.

    Jesse, there was definitely a good twist to the butt log. We milled it extra thick in order to allow room for future surfacing. Hopefully they won't move too much.

    Here is a photo of the Meredith slabs in the barn.

    air dried slab log scott 2C.jpg

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Issaquah, Washington
    Posts
    1,320
    Scott,
    Glad to hear that the health issues are abating. Thank you very much for the inspiring post. I do a lot of work with live edge maple slabs that I harvested some 30 years ago but nothing compared to the amazing material you process. That tree and the slabs you salvaged from it are beyond beautiful, wish I lived close enough to you to purchase some.
    Thanks again for sharing.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Northern Oregon
    Posts
    1,820
    Scott,
    Glad you are healthy and working on some healthy size slabs!
    Thanks for the pics. Beautiful machinery and slabs.

    Did you design and make the slab mill?

    Did you use double stickers with one tapered to level the stack?
    "Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t - you’re right."
    - Henry Ford

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Southern Md
    Posts
    1,138
    Awesome job ole man. Glad your feeling better!

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Princeton, NJ
    Posts
    7,252
    Blog Entries
    7
    Gorgeous! The size of those slabs is also just incredible.
    Bumbling forward into the unknown.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Lafayette, Indiana
    Posts
    1,378
    Inspiring. Simply Inspiring. Thanks for the post. Nice work!

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Yorktown, VA
    Posts
    2,754
    I'm worn out just looking at the pictures, Scott. Glad the wife is feeling better and you are able to get back at it. I really didn't appreciate the scale of those slabs until that last picture. They are monsters.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    SF Bay Area, CA
    Posts
    15,332
    Duuuuuuuuuuuude! You do the coolest stuff!

    Glad you and the missus are back on the mend!!
    Wood: a fickle medium....

    Did you know SMC is user supported? Please help.

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