My BIL and I were supposed to work on some more walnut today but he backed out. So I worked on my own supply a bit. Decided to add some prime BTUs to the stacks after all that pine. I cut down this little dead 8"er, and grabbed another smaller one I cut up earlier too. Probably a little under 1/3 cord. Cut up the bigger pieces and added the rest to the pile. I also milled the larger of the 2 locust logs that I tried to grab last weekend. The dark spot the I thought might have been some decay was totally gone - guess it was just wet! I'm going to get a beautiful 9x9 cant out of it, and some generous slab wood to add to the stacks.
No real specific plans yet - aside from getting them out of the woods and into my garage. I'd like to redo the inside wheel fenders in my wood trailer with some locust. I also have a park bench that will need some new slats pretty soon. Not sure if that will come out of this one though - I think I'll wait until I come up with a "real" project, and make those things out of the leftovers.
I got the other piece of locust out of the woods after work yesterday. The quality was a lot lower than I hoped after seeing the first cant. There's a couple big ugly knots, and the top 1/3 is actually 2 pieces grown together. So, this piece may never be fine furniture, but it might make a primo pallet for stacking some firewood. I got to work on that today. There was a fairly clear piece on the one side that I slabbed off first; that piece might become the new inside wheel fenders for my wood trailer. From the remainder, I made 3 4x4's for pallet skids. Final yield from both logs - 3 4 x something pallet skids: 9x9x7' beautifully clear cant, and a 2.75" slab that's pretty decent for about 5'. (on the right - on the left is some red pine) I'll probably saw a couple of decking boards from some of the thicker slabs, and the rest will be firewood:
Nice work man! You don't seem to be running that saw wide open, and the bar looks to be reeeeaaaal long for that size of wood- is that just a function of previous cuts and not changing b/c combos? I know nothing on the subject, which is why I ask...
I have a 24" mill, and it's best to run the 28" bar to get the maximum width of cut. I have shorter bars, but all the chains I have filed for milling are 28", so I always use that one. You want a bit of extra bar anyway to get on and off of the cut without too much snipe. I wasn't running wide open at the beginning or end because the chain will pull you pretty hard into the cut, and I'm trying to hold it away a bit to guide it in an out using the center rail where the handle is. In the middle of the cut I was basically wide open but I was pushing pretty hard.
Ah ha! Thanks for the play by play, man. Don't know if I'll ever get around to milling, but I've fielded some questions about it from some close local buddies. Now I've got a little more info to share. Thanks a bushel, Shawn!
