I've been thinking about this one for almost a year. This is the reason my CAD got so bad. I decided to open it for my birthday. My Dad and BIL looked at selling it to an Amish fellow but he didnt want anything to do with taking it down. There were a couple logs he said he might be interested in but he pointed out the lightning damage and said he might not even want it if it was too bad. Lucky for me. Lots of branches on the one side, but the other side was nice and clear. There's not a lot of clear lumber to be had on this tree, so I wanted to get as much as I could. I made 2 logs out of the upper section and sawed them with the branch side down mostly.
Here's the take for this weekend. This one broke when I slid it onto the ground. Starting to get into some of the lightning damage. I'm going to keep the pieces together - I kind of like it; its part of the history of the tree. This slab is 4" thick, center cut from the larger log. Some of the choicest meat on the entire tree. I'm going to resaw this one into six 4x4s. This piece is interesting - it's the center cut from the branchy side; also 4" thick. One side is pretty clear and matches the bottom of the other 4"er. This side gets into the lightning damage. I think it could be really interesting. There's a bit of old honeycomb in the hollow. [EDIT] Posted duplicate pic
Lookin' good! The piece that split can always be bow-tied. Love the look of a bow tie in contrasting color.
Yeah I've seen that one a couple times. I've spent a few hours watching Linda's videos. That LT50 is certainly a dream machine - but the monthly payments would be more than my mortgage! I'd rather save my money for the 30 acres of trees next door. Maybe someday ill have one of the smaller models. I've been seriously considering offering my milling services on the side, but I can't quit my day job just yet.
That old gal in the video is surely a hustler !!! I've seen a lot of her vids too. Well heck, her son, hubby and herself are ALL hustlers. They gotta be though to pay for it plus make a fair living too. But I'm like you, I wouldn't quit my day job for a milling career either...... Edited it to once again applaud your efforts witht the Alaskan mill. You ARE the man. Walnut makes some absolutely beeeeutiful material.
Oh, I wasn't suggesting getting an LT50.....I'd seen those vids before and thought they were cool. No matter how you slice it , milling is a lot of work. I also applaud your milling effort, and results.
Man! that is a nice Walnut there, you're kicking azz now, that's a meld of man and machine whole lot more work than slapping a board on a table saw running it through
Ok. First off very cool Shawn. Maybe i missed something or maybe its the time (past bedtime) and couple beers. But WOW no comments on the bar length - if playboy still did centerfolds - you would have to unfold all three pages to see the whole bar and saw from Shawn's bottom pic in the above post. Keep up these posts for those of us who have 18" bar and Sthil 310 (me).. great stuff - like the old barn in the background.
That's a 60" bar, 172DL chain - 404, full chisel, skip sequence. Made 1 cut and now it needs to be sharpened. I like 18" bars. The tree is at my great grandparents old farm - my sister lives there now. That barn will need to come down too eventually here - the roof leaks and they don't have the money to maintain it. I'd like to salvage some of the timbers out of it and maybe build them (and myself) another building.
Thanks for the info Shawn. . Just like top fuel dragster - one pass and break it down - but how many folks run top fuelers or 60 inch bars? #bigsteam. Keep us posted on additional milling and end products.
That last picture is dead sexy! So handsome! Perhaps you could photoshop out the guy in the background..
Only on FHC can you see a centerfold of a guy showing off his wood and everybody oohing and aahing over it! Gary
Speaking of which... I knew there were a few in there, but I thought I got around them in the first slab. I'm surprised how nice it cut even after hitting it. I could feel the saw slowing down, but I was also getting into the maximum cut with after that point too. Must have been pretty soft metal - made a nice clean cut at least. I was only getting 45" cut width from the 48" mill, and I still had some bar left over and I wanted to use it. So I used the pieces from my granberg length rails, which are 9' long. That allowed me to make a 54" max cut, and I used all of it today. My noodling cut was pretty good but I wanted something a little smoother for the first cut. So I just put one of the slabs I made from a smaller log up on top. I'm almost to the really interesting part - the intersection of the main trunk and a 30" branch. Unfortunately I have to sharpen two 172DL chains first. [EDIT] My sister took a ton of pics and a few videos as well. Ill post those up later.
