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Milling and Slabbing American Elm

Started by nbrendel, February 23, 2015, 06:59:42 PM

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nbrendel

Hello- I am a newer member and it's been a while since I have visited the site, combine that with the fact that I am somewhat of a luddite so finding topics under the search engine is proving difficult for me.  We have recently had an "icepocalypse" (not really) in GA and as a result a lot of trees have fallen.  I was given a really beautiful American Elm that measures around 5'5" at the base and was healthy.  I have never sawed any elm so wanted to reach out and see what some of your experiences were with this particular species.  My intentions are to slab it into 3-4 quarter slabs with my 880 alaskan mill rig.  I have been told that it's an unstable species and I wanted to see if that was true.  I also want to know your thoughts on sawing it now and stickering it for a few years v.s. leaving it as a long and sawing it up later on down the road.  Any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Gasawyer

Never cut one that large, smaller ones were no problem. Just sawed and stickered dried well. Let a 24" diameter log lay and it started to rot after one and half years. Hope someone has more experience with the larger ones that may better answer your question. Good luck!
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nbrendel

Thanks Gasawyer. Ill most likely end up sawing it up to avoid that rot. Gotta love the humidity down here.

Den-Den

I have cut some (not a lot).  It is less stable than many woods so expect some warping.  Once dry it is fairly light weight but quite strong.  It can be very pretty wood (I love it for turning).
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beenthere

QuoteAmerican Elm that measures around 5'5" at the base

I'm taking this as a circumference measurement, not a diameter. Correct, or not??
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WDH

Elm has spiral grain and is notorious for twisting and warping.  You might fare best by quartersawing it. 
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ReinkeFandS

I'm interested in how this turns out for you. I've got a large log I've been waiting to mill out.
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nbrendel

It's actually the diameter of the base or trunk of the tree, it's an impressive old Elm. 

The base section starts at 5'5" ( at it's widest) and tapers down 40" over roughly 9', the trunk itself was nearly perfectly straight and I was able to get 3 logs (including above mentioned) that total around 24' linear ft.

According the the crane operator that picked it up, he said it weighed in right about 5200 lbs.  I will most likely end up slabbing it and once I do I will post some photos. I am really excited to see how it turns out. 

Magicman

Pictures will be nice.  That is a HUGE Elm.   :o
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