Monster red oak, got a question.

[backwoods sawyer]

Those over sized logs can be a challenge. Talking with some of the folks and seeing there reactions to the wood that you mill for them can be rewarding. 

[Don K]

They sure can be. That first quarter really threw me outside the box on my thinking. Learned a few things that will make the next quarter easier. 

Don

[Magicman]

   The next everything will be a little different.  We learn something from every job.....

[petefrombearswamp]

Wow what a great project.
Beautiful lumber!
Don't have RO that size around here without being yard trees and hardware.
Pete

[fishpharmer]

Thanks, its not my project, but I was glad to be a part of it. The RO was a yard tree, there is a pic of the stump in my gallery.  And we detected some metal.    DonK hasn't found ot with the blade. Yet. 

[WDH]

I see some beautiful quarter figure!  And I mean on the lumber from the log  .

[Tom]

Good Show!

Y'all did good.  Just look at those pretty boards. What a great job with the chainsaw too.

I'm sure glad you took pictures.  There's going to be some tales to tell Great Grandchildren one day. 

[fishpharmer]

Here is a little clip of DonK jacking the log apart......
I added some random music so you may just want to turn the sound off.

[nas]

The music sounds good   Looks like Donk is pumping the jack to the beat

[fishpharmer]

In this video, the log comes apart.  Sorry about the bad angles .

[Magicman]

Looked     like "teamwork" to me.....

[Don K]

Well, today the last 3 quarters were reduced to a trailer load of boards and some firewood scraps. I have a few pics but I'm whooped. James, I found the metal in the last log. 4 nails evenly spaced near the center of the tree. Those nails have been there a looong time. I was able to cut right down next to them with minimum waste. I think the widest boards were 14".

The Deere was the ticket to moving the sections James. Didn't even grunt. I need a bigger tractor.   I will stack the wood tomorrow and put up a few pics. Thanks for the video.

Don

[fishpharmer]

Glad to hear you got it done.  Wish I could have been there.  Maybe we should have tried marking the metal better. 

I look forward to the pics. 

Hope you didn't mind the music, I was afraid our northern friends wouldn't understand what we were saying.

[pineywoods]

The Deere was the ticket to moving the sections James. Didn't even grunt. I need a bigger tractor.   I will stack the wood tomorrow and put up a few pics. Thanks for the video.

Don

Don K you always need a bigger tractor, more power, bigger chain saw etc. there's never any end to it. 

[Don K]

The wood is stacked and tallied, so i guess it is time to finish this thread with a few pics from the last day of milling. My stepson helped me saw the last three sections will he is on spring break. The final tally was 580 bd ft ranging from 2" to 18" wide.

 



First section of the day on the mill.

 



Different angle.

 



A sample of what we were getting.

 



Loading the second section. My 47 hp tractor wouldn't lift them. Had to move up to a 81 horse.

 



My stepson hamming for his mom. The sections were too big to stay on the loader without some help from the tractor.

 



On the way up.

 



I then had to flip it onto the mill with the forks.

 



There she is ready to cut.

I don't have any pics that I would call tutorial as I was doing good to get the blasted things whittled down. It was quite a learning experience for me. You have to do things a little different with these big ones. Now I'm just waiting for the next one to come along. Maybe in about two years we will build something from the wood to put in the wood working board.

Don

[Radar67]

Don, you have some awesome wood from that log.

[backwoods sawyer]

This is a hollow over sized oak that milled up. The tree was below the road and over sized. Several other sawyers had turned it down. There was no room to get a tractor into it so I set up with the boom truck so that the quarters and a second log could be drug to the mill. The log owner wanted thick slabs for counter tops and three of the quarters yielded them. But they were to heavy to handle so the boom was used to swing the wood to the other side of the truck to be stacked there. These over sized logs present challenges all there own and can be very addictive as you conquer them.   
Thanks for posting all the pictures.

[Magicman]

Thanks Don for the "rest of the story".....   You are very correct in stating that every job is a learning experience.  That's part of the joy of being a "sawdust jockey".....

[WDH]

Nice!  580 feet is quite a haul from one butt log.   It is amazing how much the big logs cut on the quarter can slow you down. 

The perfect log is 24" with no taper.  I wish they were all perfect  .