I took down a nice size walnut for a friend last week that had a pretty unique shape to it. Couldn't bear to buck the whole tree into firewood so I saved 6' of the trunk for some live edge slabs. I am very new to milling so today was a huge learning event for me. Luckily I've been scouring this forum for information from the experienced guys and for the most part things went pretty smooth. I had to take the spikes off the saw and remove the aux. oiler feed nut to accomodate the log. I was surprised that my 32" bar would only allow me mill 26.5" max. I have a 36" mill so I guess a 36" bar and milling chain will my next purchase. Stihl MS 661 was working nicely. I ran a bit heavier oil/fuel mix just to be on the safe side. For the aux. oiler I was using a 25% bar oil/ 75% mineral oil blend. I had to use a nylon tie strap to hold the feed hose to the nose of the bar as a temporary solution for having to remove the nut from the bar which I had pain stakingly drilled earlier in the day. Hopefully the oil got to the right place.
Nice millin, Smoke What are the plans for the slabs? Anything in particular? As to having to reposition the oil situation, did the rails on the bar "blue" at all? If not, I'd say ya done gooder.
Great job, I sure couldn't have cut that on my circular mill !! I love walnut. BTW...is that a Kubota or a Kioti ??
Ya, 2 of the 3 have already. Not much strength in that type of growth. But they fit exactly back together, so I think when I get to the building stage I can inlay a plate on the bottom and join them back together. I hope.
That would be a four year old kubota 3540. It's been a real work horse. No issues yet at 1000 hours. I use it for my fabrication / custom welding business to move material and finished products, but it certainly is at home in the woods with a grapple on the front.
Yeah I was going to suggest intentionally separating them and the joining them back together later. Use a circ saw and a straight edge if you can. That is a cool looking log!
The rails still look good. I was running the oil wide open to make up for lack of precision. For a project I'm thinking of a live edge coffee table with some type of metal legs. I've never built anything so big but there are tons of ideas on the Internet. I was surprised how much power it takes from the saw to do the milling. I have bucked oak with a 32" bar buried and not stalled the 661, but milling is a different story. Did someone say 880?
Had a chance to stack and strap all the wood today. I am a total rookie at this so either I totally overdid it, or I didn't do it correctly and the wood will warp. Feel free to comment. I added a cover from some old tin roofing then weighted it down with about 100 pounds of steel c channel.
Make sure the weight is over a point in direct contact with the ground. I like the bunk idea but i think I'd still want a little more load support closer to the ends long term. Maybe turn it diagonally until you get another pallet. Looks great though nice work.
Shawn Curry is correct, you always want to 'sticker' very close to the ends because the ends dry the quickest. Drying too quickly will allow the board ends to crack and with stickers within a couple inches of the ends help block that free airflow to a great extent. Always keep your stickers in line from the bottom of the stack to the top as you have done in your pic. It wouldn't hurt to paint the ends of the logs with old paint prior to milling also. That also helps the stickers keep the ends from cracking so badly. Looking good, more pics are always welcome.
