I finally got around to having a single 8' x 24" (heartwood only diameter) milled up. I accidentally forgot about it back in October when I had a portable miller here. First off, this beast was exactly at the max capacity of the FEL (Kubota LA681) on my tractor. I could get it about 2 ft off the ground and then my helper had to push up on the forks to get it up to the last foot to the height of the truck bed. After about 1 hour of struggling, I had to cut one foot off to actually get it from the FEL to the truck bed. Then off to the mill. I had it grade-sawn (flat sawn) into 5/4 and 4/4 boards and three 4x4 beams,for a total of ~235 bd-ft. The outside of the log did yield a few nice, wide and clear 5/4 boards, but as we got into it, lots of knots started to show up, so many of the boards wound up "imperfect" ( #1-#2 common?). Here's some of the better boards. On a side note. I have to say that my FEL weight rating is VERY conservative. For Kubota, the number of the loader is about the max. weight in kilograms, so my 681 is rated at 1500# at the pin to full heigh. That log was calculated to weigh 1900#, not including the pallet forks and SSQA attachments, which adds another couple hundred pounds. Sorry no pictures, but we were pretty focused on not killing ourselves, damaging the tractor or truck at the time. It was quite a scene though.
Very nice! Why is there some saw blade variations at the ends? Kinda appears to be CSM'd. Mine look like that after the front rail drops off the log.
Hmmm... good eye there. I'm not sure why. Probably a little aggressive on the forward speed entering the log +/- frozen log. Also, I know he was using a 7* blade 'cuz he was fresh out of 4*'s.
My sawmill does the same thing. The blade rides up just a touch as it enters the wood, and leaves that mark. I actually like boards with knots. More character, but thats just me.
Yeah my JD is the same way. It has a 1600# lift at the pin for full height. I picked up a red oak log with my grapple the other day that was 2000#+. It was 26" on the big end, 20" on the small end and 12' long. It would only lift it 4-5' off the ground. Amazing what these little tractors can do.
