Sawing Green Wood with a Bandsaw & Eucalyptus Lumber

im pretty sur jarrah is an example of a good eucalypt,used for fairly fine furnitture(or decking), as for the rest ive never really had to deal with so the best of luck to you

-- mwm! Before you criticise walk a mile in their shoes, and when you do criticise you will be a mile away and have their shoes!

I mill a lot of eucalyptus . It is a sub-tropical hardwood suitable for many uses .Lots of examples on this site alone. My customers use it for truck decking , fine furniture ,musical instruments , fencing ,mantels ,etc. Pink ironbark has rainbow colors in it ,other species red , browns , white ,different figure depending on cut .How do figure the wood is free ?

What type of blade are you using? You should have a blade with only 3 tpi so the sawdust has a chance to escape without clogging.

-- Julian, Park Forest, IL

Julian beat me to it, so: What he said!!

-- Chip -- Manchester, Connecticut "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."

Rob: The wood is free because the power company cut them down since they were too close to their power lines. So far, the wood is really nice… pinkish/red. But I wasn’t sure how it would perform as a furniture wood.
Julian: I’m using a 3/4” 3 TPI blade. The wood is so wet that it just clumps everywhere including the gullets of the blade. It still cuts normal dried wood just fine after I cleared out the gullets.

Thanks for the help so far.

Sounds like good hardwood. I have some blue gum and red gum eucalyptus. The blue gum is very textured, almost a porous spongy look but the wood is quite hard. The red gum is more of a traditional solid, fine texture. I haven’t done much work with them yet, but they seem to be good candidates for anything durable. You’ll want to seal the ends with Anchorseal or a similar product.

-- "They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." ~ Edgar Allan Poe

I don’t know if this will work on your wood, but cutting really pitchy fir, I squirt kerosene on the chain to keep it clear. It made a big difference, but that is a different situation.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

I think I do have red gum eucalyptus. I’m going to try waxing the blades. I’m not sure about kerosene, it might eat the band saw tires.

I thought about the tires after i wrote that ;-(

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

I tried waxing the blades today… works better but it still clogs. I’m not sure what to try next. Any suggestions?
Maybe I can let the logs dry for a bit.

I have some used saw mill blade. It has very shallow teeth. How deep are the ones that are plugging up?

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Had the same problem with some green Alder that I was cutting, finally gave up and let it dry for awhile before cutting.

-- Paul, La Center, Washington

I’m with Paul on that one – I’d let it dry before trying to mill it to boards. I have Some apple tree logs that were left as is to let dry before bandsawing them (which will be the next step).

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

TopamaxSurvivor: The teeth are about 1/4” deep, maybe a little longer.

Yeah, I’m going to let it dry for a month or so.

That is about what the old sawmill blade is. Sounds like it is chainsaw or wait.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Here in Aussie we use ‘Gum’ trees all the time Red gum, white gum, river gum, swamp gum, Sydney blue gum, rose gum, quiggley gum, spotted gum, jarrah Grey and Red Ironbark and stringy bark…as well as the timbers marketed as Victorian Ash, Mountain Ash and Tasmanian Oak,, all eucalypts Most are slabbed first and let air dry then milled into boards if they are not used as slab furniture.

-- Drink once, cut twice. New website up.... lazylarrywoodworks.com.au

I use a spray green kitchen cleaner something that is non toxic. It melts the crud away and wipes off with a paper towel. I then turn the blade by hand and clean off the tires. It usually does the job.

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

Thanks for the info.
I’m air drying the eucalyptus now but the pith has cracked all over the place. I guess I should have cut it out first. I think I’ll still get some usable wood, just not as much as I hoped.

For resawing on the band saw, I clamp a couple of brass tooth brushes to clean the blade, I also use a 3-4 skip tooth blade. The last I cut was Hawthorn, 8-10 inch from my sister in laws blow down. Should be good to work in a couple of years.

-- Life is to short to own an ugly boat.

I have had the same poblem with my lathe tools. a few days after turning very green wood they accumulate a black, hard substance on them.

any info on how to clean it off would be helpfull

-- BRODY. NSW AUSTRALIA -arguments with turnings are rarely productive-