stress in pitch pine

[Tom L]

I am starting this topic because I feel bad for a customer that I did a job at yesterday. he had a nice load of oak that I sawed into boards for him. then he had a big stack, maybe 30 logs of pitch pine. all nice looking trees
17" to 24" straight 8'-6" long. he had them all stacked nicely to do the job.
here came the problem. after sawing two logs into 2 x 4's. they all had so much stress in them. the material after final cutting caused the lumber to twist and turn so bad that I don't think they are any good for lumber.
some where quarter sawn. some flat sawn. some rift sawn out of the logs. they all twisted. even the ones that
started off straight. after a half hour on the stack started to pick up on the ends or take a set sideways.
he put in a lot of work to get these logs to his house. full time air force. veteran.

so is there any other way to try to saw these pines to minimize the amount of stress in the logs? or is it a lost cause to get lumber out of them.

the planks 2" thick x tree width seemed stable. when cutting them into 4" strips is where the problem came in. using 10 degree. 055 x 1-1/2" blades, full flood on the coolant, no pitch buildup on the blades, tried cutting fast or slow didn't seem to make a difference.

[drobertson]

Tom, did you size up the cant, make multiple cants and then cut straight through for the 2x's?

[Magicman]

I am not familiar with "pitch" Pine, but I did saw some very fast growing Loblolly (SYP) recently that had ½"-¾" growth rings.  I had to flip the cant 180° after every cut.  I made sure that the customer was aware that it was his logs picking up on the ends as I sawed that was causing the problem, not the sawmill.

As you stated, I too felt bad for the customer because of the work that he had done to secure the logs.

[Jay C. White Cloud]

So Sorry Tom,

Lob Lolly can be really reactive.  We can use it to our advantage in pre-cambered beams for timber framing, other wise your instincts are great, go with heavy slabs fletch cut off the log and re-stack in log-fletch form as they came off.  Best use for the wood, other than timber framing, IMO.  He maybe be able to re straighten the 2x stock but it is not going to be easy or probably worth the time.  Your a good man for fretting over this, but there is nothing in your milling you could really do other that some of the advice you got from Magic on this one, he knows more than anyone I've met or read on the subject of 2x stock out of Pines.

Regards,

jay

[Tom L]

Tom, did you size up the cant, make multiple cants and then cut straight through for the 2x's?

I squared three sides with the width equal to three or four (4" dimensions), then placed the live edge on top and made two or three cuts thru them all to get the 2 x 4's.

the 2" thick slabs behaved nicely, no tension, it is only when I separated the 4" cuts that the boards twisted.

[drobertson]

Tom, there are many times this technique will work, however, I have never found it to work with any consistancy on the pine I have cut.  the outer boards with the rift and q-swn grain most always crook for me.  There are times I get (lucky) but I never have liked this approach. I go about it the slow way, which seems wasteful to many, and too time consuming for others. I find the sweep in the log, whether you start with the horns up or belly up, makes no difference. Make these two faces the sides you make the 2" drops.  The other faces will be taken down in 2" drops stopping at 4". (flipping to keep pith centered)  I turn this 4" cant up and then take the 2" drops. (makes very nice center cut 2x's)  With the remaining flitches I then trim the bark relieving the stress from one edge off the wide flitches, shooting for an 9+ inch board,  If the board still shows signs of stress I cut it in half and trim again bringing the two to 4" It won't always work but often times will. All this said it is quite possible you just happened to pick the two that had the reaction wood, the others might be fine,  I have become use to the way I do it and the time factor is minimal. I most always recover the majority of very accurate 2x's , I just have to say, I got tired of crooked boards just for the sake of making a pile of them.  just my way,  I would just keep cutting and remembering how these things react to your techniques, and adjust where you see fit.    david

[WDH]

Did you split the pith in one of your 4" cants?  A yellow pine board with the pith on one edge will almost always make a "C". 

[customsawyer]

Was the pith off center in the log before you cut it? Take a look at the rest of the customers logs, if the pith is a good ways off center then the stress is most likely there before you cut it. It will have to be released as you cut by lots of flipping. Like WDH says you don't want to split the pith when cutting pine.