OldJarheads Milling Thread...

[Bandmill Bandit]

I have cut 3 different types of Pine. Jack Pine; terrible pitchy with a LOT of pitch pockets but oh such beautiful wood and the wonderfully addicting smell. PITA for build up under the B57s Best sawdust high (read cocain) there is. Pondarosa; have only sawed about 1500 BF but not quite as much sticky pitch issues with the 4 trees cut up. White pine; seems a lot like white spruce with very minimal build up problems.

B56 on drive side and B57 idle side is how I run 100% of the time and have been for 4 years now.

The beating the blade to death is an interesting concept. I will say that I have a LOT less blade breakage over the last 4 years but I have not considered the switch to the B56 on the drive side as a factor in that regard. I can see where it could be a factor.       

[Czech_Made]

Looks like nice slice of Heaven 

Took the weekend off and spent three days building my deck roof at the cabin all with lumber I milled when I first got he LT40




So nice to be able to make your own lumber ;)

Now I'm planning my next milling adventure.  Guy has about 6 trees he's having dropped and ready for the mill.  Not sure of sizes or qty's (which seems common) and will do this one on a weekend in a couple weeks.  My guess is 18 to 24 logs from 30" to 12"...if they are big logs it will take a couple days.

Also got word of a poplar that is coming down nearby that I can have, even mill on site.  Not sure what I'll do with it but it sounds like something worth doing.

[OlJarhead]

One of my guys at my day job said I could have this poplar he's having removed from one of his rentals.  His faller, who has a CSM, doesn't want or need it as he has enough already apparently so it's mine and he will cut it into whatever lengths I want.

The base is 7 feet across but the two main trunks are about 30 inches.



I'm thinking of milling it into 4, 5 or 6" beams and letting it dry then remilling into whatever I want later from it.

Thoughts?

[Peter Drouin]

I would not touch the tree, I would let him have it. :D :D :D :D

[thecfarm]

2 feet long. Just the right length for my OWB.  ;D Looks lke those limbs are big and in the wrong place and too close together.

[47sawdust]

That tree looks like a perfect Halloween tree,then burn it.

[sandsawmill14]

if its poplar like we have here it dries easy enough there is no need to saw it in cants and then resawing and as already said the only thing you can make out of that log is 4/4 siding the knots will make it weak and it will break if you use it for anything else  if it was me i wouldnt fool with it unless i needed the lumber or was just doing it as a favor   remember their is a reason a guy with a sawmill would give a log away instead of milling it himself ;)

[OlJarhead]

Hmmmm I thought I saw on here people milling poplar for various uses...no?

[GAB]

That tree looks like cribbing material and some low BTU firewood.
Gerald

[Magicman]

Erik, Tulip Poplar makes siding as well as wall paneling and ceiling, but I have no idea what kind of Poplar that is??  That tree is limby (sp) but you will be OK if you can squeeze some 8' logs out of the trunk.  The left butt log should be OK if there is no metal.

[OlJarhead]

Thanks...makes me wonder if it's worth doing.

[Magicman]

That would be your call. 

Personally, unless I had a specific use for the lumber and a suitable place to store it, I would pass.  I do not deal with the lumber selling market.

[derhntr]

Bark looks like our cotton wood. I would save the blade and gas. Would only saw it if customer was paying.

[rjwoelk]

Oljarhead  I would saw it as an experiment.  I have a neighbor that is a cabinet guy and he loves cotton wood as trim base board etc. It takes stain nicely.I have been told by several folks that they prefer  cotton wood for Trailer decking were you have steel tracks  it gives and does not shred. 
Don't know till you try.

[ChugiakTinkerer]

I'm in the process of sawing some black cottonwood, mainly because I need the practice.  Here in Alaska the black cottonwood and balsam poplar are almost indistinguishable, and they occasionally cross-pollinate.  The best uses I've seen on FF and other places for cottonwood or balsam polar is dunnage, trailer decking, or barn wood.  Folks like it for trailer decking because it tends to not develop a polished surface over time, thus retaining good traction as it wears.  I'll be using it to build a freight sled, essentially a honking big pallet on runners.  The remainder I will probably mill up for interior siding.  At this stage in my sawmilling career I would take any log I can get my mitts on, just to see how different woods react on the sawmill.

[ChugiakTinkerer]

Forgot to mention, of the four cottonwood trees I had cut down, the largest one had tiny spots of dark rot at its core.  My understanding of cottonwood is that they grow fast and start to rot as they mature.  A tree that size may have a considerable amount of rot.

[rjwoelk]

Black poplar was used for barn stall floors the manure did not destroy it. Was used alot here I  the prairies.

[4x4American]

x4 looks like cottonwood from my house.  Around here it's just about good for nothing.  We also have what we call popple, which is a hybrid of cottonwood and aspen.  You can't give that stuff away.  Even though the pallet guys take "mixed hardwood"  they won't take popple.  There is a plywood place that buys popple though.  And I've heard of guys using it for trim.  I cut some to make ramps for a truck shop to drive trucks up on.

[Brucer]

The only thing I've sawn from the Poplar family is Trembling Aspen (which isn't what you've got in that picture). Two things I learned in a hurry -- it moves a lot when you saw out the stresses, and it moves a lot as it dries (although you can restrain it with weight while it's drying).

I did some flooring for one woman who was thrilled when she found the log had a very dark centre. She had great plans for making patterns with the sound white exterior wood and the nearly-decayed interior.

I also met a guy who had some clear Aspen milled up to make a wood ceiling in his living room. The wood was very white and looked very good -- kept the room light, but a real contrast to drywall (aka sheetrock).

[Chop Shop]

We call cottonwood "pooplar" at my place.  Smells like, well,,,,,,

[OlJarhead]

Customer decided he wanted lumber instead.


OK this monster is going to be work!


OK now things are getting serious!  The log didn't move, the mill did.  Gotta reset the mill, roll the log with the trackhoe and try again.


Reset, trackhoe rolled log over, and I bucked off a horn, then lifted the log onto the mill using a chain to help it along


Got it onto the mill but barely milled off one pass before having to have the trackhoe lift it off the mill, roll it 90 degrees, then I cut off another horn with my rebuilt new saw and we placed it back onto the mill.

Finally, at this point I was able to take narrow pass after narrow pass slowly whittling my way down to something I could actually mill.  This required at least two hours of rolling, cutting, getting out the chainsaw to whittle enough of the log away to get the rollers past and then rotating again.

Finally I got down to something closer to 32" and began taking better passes and squaring up a cant....and then I hit nails....and we pulled them and I hit more...and we pulled them....3 bands later and I was milling 2x6's 3 at a time (this stuff is not as hard to mill as Fir or Pine! ha!).....

At the end of the day I'd milled up over 400bf of polar and was squaring up flitches when, yup, you guessed it, I hit nails!!!! Grrrrrr

Four bands later and I'd done roughly 470bf of lumber in 6 hours.  Though, many of those hours were not actually milling.

[larrydown60]

Not to get off topic this was the biggest cotton wood tree I have see It fell on my favorite dinner I took pics of the stump is 6'-8' wide
The tree  was around 6'-8' round and 90 feet tall

  

  

 





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[GAB]

Referring to the third picture - I personally would not be wrapping a chain around a polished piston rod, unless it was a life and death situation. 
Gerald

[OlJarhead]

Referring to the third picture - I personally would not be wrapping a chain around a polished piston rod, unless it was a life and death situation. 
Gerald

I often wonder about that myself.  Need to find out how MM does it???

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Referring to the third picture - I personally would not be wrapping a chain around a polished piston rod, unless it was a life and death situation. 
Gerald

and I certainly would remove it before sawing...  ;D