General Wood Milling Question

Well, first off, I would never pass up any opportunity to grab a least some of the wood. I have one of the chainsaw mills also and have had mixed results. If your friend is experienced in its use, go for it. You could end up with some wonderful wood.

I had my local HOA cut down some maples (silver) in my neighborhood about 3 years ago. I grabbed several pieces and they turned out to be wonderful bandsaw boxes. If you take a look in my gallery, the Maple Trio came from some of that wood. You don’t necessrily have to use the wood for huge pieces.

If your friend can mill it and you can store it, go for it!!!

-- Behind the Bark is a lot of Heartwood----Charles, Centennial, CO

There isn’t anything special about quartersawn maple other than it being more stable. Just flatsaw the log.

-- Julian, Park Forest, IL

Go for it enjoy

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com

Need some muscle help for a share of the wood?

I’m in Middletown. I don’t know how to do this, either. There’s a guy with a Woodmiser in Haddam that I believe would go to Simsbury. I’d be willing to share costs of the mill.

-- - Please help keep Lumberjocks an enjoyable escape by refusing to participate in political discussions. Simply spit out the bait and ignore the thread...

Geez….............If it wasn’t so far, I would like to have the burl you slice off. I know they value of that stuff. Go for it and save as much as you can.

-- Jerry--A man can never have enough tools or clamps

CessnaPilotBarry,
I had no idea you were so close. The tree is up in Suffield. Unfortunately, I just hurt my shoulder last week so the project might be delayed a while, maybe until spring. I got my single engine license a few years ago, but am not current (ever since the kids). Anyway, I checked out your website, I wish you had more pics of the type of work you do. Any interest in tool/wood swaps. I’m looking for some electric motors, have some to trade and also just maybe a local group of guys that want to get together occasionally. Do you know many woodworkers in the area?

Cabinetmaster,
You don’t have to tell me to save everything. I have have buckets of 1X1 inch square cutoffs I won’t throw away, if I find a burl for you, I’ll let you know…

-- Tom, Simsbury, CT

Tom,

That site is way out of date. <g> There are a few folks here from CT, but I’ve never met any of them in person. The only local guys I know in-person are a co-worker and a guy from West Hartford who bought a jointer from me. It would be nice to get a few folks together in person.

Hope the shoulder gets better! I had mine cleaned up last summer, after a previous year’s mountain bike crash.

I’m probably in or over your area a lot, as I ride my bike at Penwood SP, and fly in and out of Bradley and Barnes on a regular basis. We keep the plane at Windham. My co-owner’s DE (Royal) is based there @ Simsbury.

Have you ever taken any of the great classes at Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking?

-- - Please help keep Lumberjocks an enjoyable escape by refusing to participate in political discussions. Simply spit out the bait and ignore the thread...

Julian’s right, you won’t get anything special by having the maple quatersawn other then more stable wood. So flat sawing it would be more efficient. As far as milling it down goes, you might want to look and see if there’s anyone in the area with a portable bandsaw mill that could come there and saw the tree up for you.

-- "At its best, life is completely unpredictable." - Christopher Walken

I am not an expert, but I have milled over 700 bdFt of Cherry, Maple and Walnut in the past few years. With the disclaimer out of the way, here are some pointers from my learning experience:
1. Protect yourself !!! get a pair of Kevlar chaps and gloves. IMO a forestry helmet is a must, the screen will protect your face from flying chips and the built in ear muffs are convenient and comfortable.
2. A ripping chain is a must!!! I use the WoodlandPRO 33RP, the Granberg style is a bear to sharpen and nearly twice the price. Get a few spare loops when you order them.
3. A high quality bar is a must… I have found the Oregon Powermatch Plus and the WoodlandPRO bars to be outstanding.
4. Get largest chainsaw you can afford, I have 2 mills, my larger mill uses an old Stihl 066(48” mill), my small mill is a new Stihl MS441, both are adequate for my occasional milling.
5. I seal the ends of the logs as soon as they are cut. I use a miniroller for shellac I don’t buy the special sealer, partly because I am too cheap ;) I just get a gallon of zinzer from your local big-box.

I am fortunate to have a Stihl dealer nearby that has almost everything in stock, I had them tune up my old 066 a last year, they had an 880 in stock! I had the option of a trade in on an 880, man that was tempting.

None of my local dealers will order rip chains for me. They say that rip chains are a severe kickback hazard and legally they just don’t offer them. I order rip chains and bars from baileysonline.com the service and prices are very good.

-- Dane, Fairview Pk, OH. The large print giveth and the small print taketh away...

I’ve logged as an amature several times. I cut and load up my own logs and take them to a local sawyer. I’ve had great luck with my locals but my favorite has been a guy with a stationary bandsaw mill. About every 5th to 6th board is extra, not sawdust in the pile outside. The band only takes 3/32 instead of 3/8 of an inch kerf. The band also leaves much shallower tooth marks. 5/4 can actually be milled to full 4/4. My best advice is cut logs at about eight feet. A lot easier for you to handle but not too short for the sawyer. They have to adjust the cutter or the log every pass. Eights are easy to sticker and dry as well not very many woodworking projects require boards over 4 to 6 feet long anyway. My first attempt at logging had me cutting 14 and 16 foot logs. Real heavy to handle and a bear to store. My two cents, hope this helps in some way. BTKS

Any questions, post or PM, I’ll put this one on watch list.

I’m pretty partial to maple and think there’s always something interesting if you know what to look for. Although it’s not common because it needs to be sawn accurately, quartersawn maple can be very attractive and produces a fine fleck pattern as does cherry when quartersawn well. Here’s a photo of a nice piece of red maple.

http://www.forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10273/QtrSawnRedMaple2Opt35.jpg

When finished this pattern will almost sparkle.

If it’s a big tree pay attention to any crotches. There can be very nice patterns in the wood around these areas. It’s not uncommon to find compression curls in these places in addition to nice feathered crotch patterns.

I’m also a sucker for really wide boards. So if your buddy has a big enough bar on his chainsaw mill you can slice off some very nice pieces. Good luck with your tree! It’s sounds like a great deal for you.

-- Allen, Milwaukee, WI

Hey guys, thanks for the great advice. I got a “crappy” picture from a cell phone that doesn’t do it justice. Its about 36” in diameter (looks much smaller in the picture). The Crotch is about 12 feet up off the ground. I’ve got a tree man that is coming in a couple weeks that said he’ll chip and haul everything under 2 inches, cut everything under 6” into fire logs, and leave everything else in 8 foot sections. I’ll be there with a bucket of wax for the ends the day he cuts it. Needless to say, I’m really excited!!!

-- Tom, Simsbury, CT

hint… before you put the wax on, draw or paint a big V on the end so you can stack in log-order, it will make it easier to book match later…

looks like you may get some good crotches in the forst 20’

post some pics when you get it sliced up

Good luck.

-- Dane, Fairview Pk, OH. The large print giveth and the small print taketh away...

Thanks, Dane J. I had thought of that, but need to put it on my list…

-- Tom, Simsbury, CT

the band mill is a great idea better than a chainsaw mill, you will loose to much wood, i tried to cut up a maple on my yard and it was more work than worth. check my projects and you will see some of the wood i saved in a rocker(mine was box elder). the bad thing about trees near a house are nails and other metal( we found six) they are hard on any blade or chain, hope you get some good lumber (ps be sure to save some natural edge boards)

-- Duane,matt_megan@twlakes.net

I love furniture and other crafts made of wood, but I’m even more into wood in it’s natural state sometimes. I can’t believe he’s cutting that thing down.

I know rbterhune, I think he is nuts! It does hang over his driveway and drop stuff on all his cars (his passion is cars not wood) He says he also hates raking the leaves and the front lawn doesn’t have enough grass. I figure that thing has been there for 100 years and deserves another 100 years. Who am I to take it down? But hey, if its coming down hopefully I can use it as a learning experience and maybe get some nice projects out of it that last another 100 years…

Tom

-- Tom, Simsbury, CT

At least do it the justice of living on in hand crafted and handed down projects. Best of luck with the projects. BTKS

Should be some great looking wood. I’d just flat slice it. Take the 8’ at the bottom for lumber and then cut the rest with the crotch into some thinker wood for slab tables or being able to be resawn into thinner boards for boxes or stuff like that.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Okay, the two trees came down today and I wax sealed the ends. I’ll be milling them this Saturday, weather permitting. I’m so excited I can hardly sleep. I’m worried because they are sitting in my friends front yard that someone is going to come and take the wood. I’m hoping the logs are too large for someone to try it, but I’m still nervous. I want to put a sign out that says “don’t take the wood,” but then I think it would just egg people on to take it. Man, I wish I didn’t have to go to work this week…

-- Tom, Simsbury, CT

Did you have any luck finding a mill that can handle a log that big? Most either can’t or won’t.

You said you wanted to make a wide table top and you had a friend with a chainsaw mill. How wide can it cut? I might be tempted to use the CSM to cut some flitches from opposing sides and leave the widest center part and the thick slabs that were removed to widen the fliitches to be flatsawn on a band mill. But there’s more than one way to do it.:) On second thought, I would buck the boule free from the crotch area. The I would use the CSM to whittle the boule down to size so it would fit on a bandmill where I would have it flatsawn. The crotch area I would cut with the CSM into flitches so it would preserve its character.

You said you had a bandsaw? Can it handle any of the burls and other unusual growths?

-- Wonderful new things are coming! - God

what is the address there at…...lol…..i hope its ok till ya get to it…i would probably be nervous myself….now a days folks just think they can take…...milling this weekend will be fun…seeing those slabs come out…you might want to have some minreal spirits with ya to wet some of it …just to get ya more excited…....and start planning those projects…have fun.

-- The Grizzone

Hi Tom, Nice work. I’m in Granby CT and would also like to to get to gether once in a while with other woodworkers in the area, new to internet stuff too, so I’m not sure how this works….l

-Chris