I finished up the last piece of my big ash log today. Almost 6' long, 27" at it's widest point. I had planned to take a 4" slab out of the center for some 4x4s, but after I made the first cut I changed my mind and made it all into 2" slabs - ended up with 6 of those. My girlfriend got a video of me making one of them: Exiting the cut:
That is what its' all about. Those can be made into some nice furniture. I was at a barn sale yesterday and the guy having the sale sells milled logs. They are second quality, odd shapes and rejected ts from a small band mill operation. Nothing really stood out like those planks.
Nice boards. Next time take a car jack and put that baby on a slope. All you'll have to do is hold the trigger down.
Those slabs are gorgeous! With an 880, I figured it would be faster than that. Makes me wonder how long my 066 is going to take to make a cut thru 20" hardwood.
The first half of that log contained a huge "ingrown" crotch, and I was sawing almost through the center of it while making that cut. It was pretty slow going through that. You can see it pick up some speed as soon as I was past it - right before I set the first wedge in the video. My rakers might have also been a touch low for the width of the cut and the grain difficulty.
Now Shawn, you'll forgive me pointing out that's no way to talk about a girl tree.... Or that log once posed for a Cereal box..... And yes- you mill sweet lookin lumber, and I digress.
I'm going to buy a mill like that, just don't know much about them. I'd be using my 372xp. I've gota 28" bar, so i'd get a milling chain as well. Can you point me in the direction of where you got that? And maybe what I'd need or don't need? Videos were great!
Thanks! I make my own chains by re-filing regular chisel chain to 10 across, 5 up. You can buy milling chains already ground that way (loggerchain.com is good) but they're bit more expensive, though you would end up with more cutter - as you end up grinding a bit off of a regular chain. I'd consider 372 a little small, but it could probably handle an 18" wide cut I bet with the right chain, maybe more in soft woods. It will probably struggle to put enough oil the chain. I double the oil in the mix to 25:1, and recently switched to some 2 stroke racing oils recommended by friends of mine.
Its the Granberg Alaskan mill - I think I ordered mine through Amazon and it shipped from Baileys. You can order them right from Granberg too. You'd need the 24" mill for that bar. Unless you can convince the wife you really *need* a bigger saw now. In that case I'd go with 36". You'll probably bump into the size limit pretty quick like I did with the 24". I'm running 48" rails and a 36" bar in the video.
I've milled a couple that were on a slope before and it was definitely easier all around. I'm making another cutting board for my auto mechanic in partial payment for some work he did for me. Wonder if he knows where I can find an old bumper jack or something?
