Saturday and Sunday Slabbing!

[JSwigga]

We slabbed up 12 yard tree logs this weekend.  And can you believe it, NO METAL!  8)  Anyone else have a good weekend of milling?

[thecfarm]

WOW!!! Look at all those slabs!!! Nice stacking job and strapping them too.
What species? Do you sell them like that,dry the slabs? Must have a market for them.

[JSwigga]

7 black walnuts, 2 cherry, maple, chestnut oak and a beech.  We stack them up under cover and dry them down.  Sometimes we have people that come buy a whole log for their projects.   We give them a really good deal if they dry it.  I'm going to build a kiln this year so i can do the drying.

[customsawyer]

Nice looking slabs.

[beenthere]

Nice sawing job.
I'd a kept the first slab and used it to cap off the stickered log flitches, just to even out the drying of the top flitch. Until you get them under cover, the sun is doing a fast surface drying on that top exposed piece.

Your method of sawing (referred to as live-sawing) a log is pretty traditional for Europeans and their methods of the past.

[redbeard]

Very good idea how you keep the the slabs from the log all organized like that! Live edge seems to be getting more popular in our area and by leaving them on you always give the customer options. Thanks for sharing good ideas!

[clww]

Nice looking stacks. Thanks for the photos.

[Magicman]

The slabs look good and the entire yard looks very professional.   

[logboy]

How many chains did you go through? How often did you stop and sharpen? I'm surprised you didn't hit metal. I cant remember the last log I slabbed without metal in it.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I'm impressed! Extremely neat work. 

[JSwigga]

How many chains did you go through? How often did you stop and sharpen? I'm surprised you didn't hit metal. I cant remember the last log I slabbed without metal in it.

I have 8 chains.  Dulled 7 the first day.  Sharpened 5 of them afterwards.  Started the next day with 6.  I had to sharpen one during the day to finish off the last walnut.  It started to smoke a little about halfway through.  Figured I would spend the time to make sure it was easier to cut. 

I read your post about knocking the rakers down to .05.  I did that on a few of my chains for the smaller softer logs. Works like a charm.   I still kept a few at .03 for the bigger harder logs.  My mill would shake like polaroid picture if I was too aggressive on larger logs. 

Did you ever rig up that water attachment?

[JSwigga]

Nice sawing job.
I'd a kept the first slab and used it to cap off the stickered log flitches, just to even out the drying of the top flitch. Until you get them under cover, the sun is doing a fast surface drying on that top exposed piece.

Your method of sawing (referred to as live-sawing) a log is pretty traditional for Europeans and their methods of the past.

You're right about keeping the first slab on top.  I've noticed that we get a lot of surface checks if we don't get them under cover right away.   Luckly, all of these are now out of the sun. 

[logboy]

Did you ever rig up that water attachment?

I havent really needed to since I welded on a tool tray to hold things, like a gallon jugs of water. If I splash on water occasionally to keep the temp on the bar and chain down, I can get one or two more cuts before I need to stop and sharpen or swap chains. We'll see what happens in the future.

[JSwigga]

I really like the throttle extension! great idea.  Might have to steal that one.  I have a tool bag strapped to the rail to hold my wedges and rubber mallet. 

[sigidi]

Great to see some Lucas Milling on here  8) ;D

How many chains did you go through? How often did you stop and sharpen? I'm surprised you didn't hit metal. I cant remember the last log I slabbed without metal in it.

I have 8 chains.  Dulled 7 the first day.  Sharpened 5 of them afterwards.  Started the next day with 6.  I had to sharpen one during the day to finish off the last walnut.  It started to smoke a little about halfway through.  Figured I would spend the time to make sure it was easier to cut. 

I read your post about knocking the rakers down to .05.  I did that on a few of my chains for the smaller softer logs. Works like a charm.   I still kept a few at .03 for the bigger harder logs.  My mill would shake like polaroid picture if I was too aggressive on larger logs. 

Did you ever rig up that water attachment?

I rigged up a water attachment on my 6-18 a few years back - I used the blade guard bottle at the time to do it - pretty sure I posted a set of pics about it...maybe it was on the Aussie forum, doesn't seem to be any of the pics in my gallery about it...I could chuck a post up about it on here in the Lucas mill q's post if ya like?