Most everything I mill is at first 8/4 or 10/4 rough,at least half of that is 12/4 to 20/4 to be resawed on bandsaw later. Its been 10 yrs easily since I milled any 4/4 stock from the get go,half the log ends up as sawdust that way.Cut everything big as you can handle,reduce it to a more manageable size on the bandsaw at a later date.
Finished up the log this evening, in a freezing cold rain.... Ended up with some very nice boards, a nice and thick 10/4 board that I'll cut gunstock blanks and some bench legs out of, and a nice thick outer slab that will become two benches! I left the rest with the property owner to become bar tops and benches. The two 5/4 boards that I kept. Awesome grain, around 18" of heartwood on the fat end..... The thick (and very heavy!) 10/4 slab.....right at the heart of the tree. I expect it to stay fairly stable, with little cupping, because of it being at the center..... And lastly the nice slab. All boards are 9' long........I'll take the bark off soon.....
Sorry to say but it will crack badly.I always remove the heart/pith when milling,especially on anything over 12"-14" diameter. An example - I cut a slab off 1 side first,make several more cuts until I'm an inch or so from the heart.Either turn/roll the log to one side OR cut off another slab then start anew.My goal is random sizes to get the most yield.Rarely cutting just 1 thickness x width throughout the log. The square heart center that's left can be anywhere from 4 x 4 to 8 x 8(depending on what my previous lumber was) is normally used for blocking (rolling a log on top of it to keep the saw chain from hitting the dirt or concrete driveway underneath) or eventual fuel. But if I have a wide 2" to 4" thick slab over 18" from the very center that includes the heart,I sometimes will rip a good piece (its edge grained or quarter sawn in appearance) 5-7" wide from either side,then discard the heart.
Yep. You will need to rip the pith out of the slab or it will do very bad things. This will leave you with 2 perfectly qs pieces that should dry super flat and stable.
I'm gonna cut gunstock blanks out of that slab this weekend. The pith is on the bottom side of said slab, only on the one end. It's not in the slab on the opposite end.
Approximately 5 minutes, IIRC. I didn't actually time a pass, but it felt like 5 minutes, give or take. Granted I wasn't using a true milling chain but a full chisel-full skip Stihl 28" chain. At any rate it's worth using from time to time. I'm gonna give it a go on some big pines I have coming up soon. Maybe make some dimensional lumber for chits and giggles......
Can you hold the saw at less than a 90 degree angle to the wood and get more of a noodling type cut? I doubt that would work on large logs but maybe on the small ones?
I imagine you could if the log diameter was smaller.....but I don't think it'd make much difference in cut. You're still pretty much going across the grain......
It works great on larger ones too,I did that 36" Honey Locust last month.With years of practice,a sharp chain I'm within 1/8" of being parallel on the wider pieces.That's respectable for rough sawn stock that will be planed,sanded or turned into bowls later on.When wanting planks slabs thicker than 2" from logs less than 6 feet long its actually faster cutting freehand than setting up the mill. One of the tricks I learned is keep your feet planted in one spot,move your arms/shoulders when working.If your feet move,your cuts will be off. Also sometimes referred to as the ''woodturner's sway''.
How the heck didn't I see this thread? Looks awesome Scotty Overkill! I'm just glad that my redneck packing job got it to you safe and sound.
Here's the first saw log I brought home from my sisters house. Should yield around a 12" cant. I'm going to leave it set up like a bench for my Memorial Day BBQ.
