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Too Heavy ??

Started by Magicman, November 29, 2017, 12:01:05 PM

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Magicman

Still standing and this White Oak tree is available to me, for free.  The problem is that it is......


 
about 34" DBH which would put a 16' log weighing close to 6K lbs.  A Kubota skid steer would load it onto the sawmill, but would not be available to assist with the turning.  This would clearly be the heaviest log that I have ever had on the sawmill and I have my doubts whether the log clamp and claw in tandem would be able to turn it.

Sure, I could buck it into two 8's, but I have no need for 8' lumber.  I am sure that it would contain some amazing QS lumber but I am not in that market.

I have a couple of weeks to think about it.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

DanMc

Wow, that's one beast of a tree.  My largest log to date was a 24" pine 16 footer and that was one bugger for me to work with.  But it sure did produce a lot of lumber.  Could not have done it without the JD4600 tractor and forks.  A 34" oak log at 16 feet would require larger equipment, or would need outside help.

I find that pushing the limits adds a great deal to the learning, but boy does it eat up a lot of time and requires a lot of very careful thought. 
LT35HDG25
JD 4600, JD2210, JD332 tractors.
28 acres of trees, Still have all 10 fingers.
Jesus is Lord.

uler3161

This summer I put a ponderosa pine on my lt40 that I think averaged about 42" diameter. I have pictures of measurements on the large end of 42" and 45". It was 17 feet long with virtually no taper. The log weight calculator says almost 7400 lbs. I was able to turn using claw turner and my forklift. At 34" I think the claw turner would be in a little better location to turn. Not sure whether the weight would be an issue. Your mill should be a lot more powerful than mine, so I would guess it shouldn't be a problem.
1989 LT40HD, WoodMaster 718

Dan

mike_belben

Might sound crazy but could you halve it with a chainsaw first?  Seems to be how the big trees are lugged out of the amazon on foot
Praise The Lord

Don P

We took the Alaskan mill over to a friends house who has a bandmill, he had a poplar that was too big. It was faster and more accurate to break it down with that than freehand splitting on with a saw, which isn't that bad either really.
He's running half our kerf... we'll work it out later, a good win/win  ;D

There's a WO 54" at the flare we'll take the lucas and slabber to next week hopefully.

francismilker

MM,
If you're in for adventure go for it. However, I've found with my small mill I'd rather saw two small ones that would equal the production of one big one. (1+1=2). Just my two cents!
"whatsoever thy hands finds to do; do it with thy might" Ecc. 9:10

WM LT-10supergo, MF-271 w/FEL, Honda 500 Foreman, Husq 550, Stihl 026, and lots of baling wire!

alan gage

Seems simple enough. Host a forum gathering. Everyone bring food to share and a cant hook.

Alan
Timberking B-16, a few chainsaws from small to large, and a Bobcat 873 Skidloader.

Dave Shepard

My approach on logs like this is to quarter with a chainsaw.  It solves many problems. And if you are quartering anyway, it saves s bunch of struggling, and relieves some of the stress.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

Magicman

I have sawn many 16 foot 36" - 38" butt SYP logs which would weigh in at about 5K pounds or probably less.  They had some taper.  This thing has virtually no taper.

Heck it may be hollow and no good anyway, but time will tell.   smiley_headscratch  I am just hating the thought of letting it get away and going to a landfill.  I doubt that chainsaw quartering it is in my future.


 
So here she stands.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Weekend_Sawyer

I like the idea of splitting it with a chainsaw mill.
If I were closer or not working so darn much...

Jon
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

GDinMaine

I sawed some monster Red Oak a few years back. One was so big that my mill (LT40 Super) could not lift it. The customer - a very skilled heavy equipment operator - put it on the mill with his excavator. It took me 4+ hours to saw that bad boy. After that I told him that was the last such huge log I will ever saw. The log was uglier than a frog's behind and didn't yield much good lumber anyway. He had three more that went onto the firewood pile.
It's the going that counts not the distance!

WM LT-40HD-D42

drobertson

I like the idea of making 8' logs, unless you just need 16 foot stock, and if this is the case,, why Q-saw?
only have a few chain saws I'm not suppose to use, but will at times, one dog Dolly, pretty good dog, just not sure what for yet,  working on getting the gardening back in order, and kinda thinking on maybe a small bbq bizz,  thinking about it,

campwags

Magicman,

  You stated:"Sure, I could buck it into two 8's, but I have no need for 8' lumber.  I am sure that it would contain some amazing QS lumber but I am not in that market."

What do you normally cut Oak into?  What size?  I cut my first Red Oak and it was beautiful...  I cut 1X6 12-14' and 1X4 same lengths.  That is just what worked out best with what I was sawing.
Life is for Living, Loving and Laughing; Not Crying and Complaining!

TK 2000, Woodmaster 718, Kioti DK65s w/Farmi JL501, Kioti NX4510 and a Kubota KX 41-3 excavator, Japa firewood processor and an assortment of trailers, solar kiln and out buildings.

Raider Bill

The First 70 years of childhood is always the hardest.

Stuart Caruk

I'm pretty sure your mill is bigger than my LT35Hyd was, but I've milled several green firs that pushed the limits of my mill to the max weighing right around 9000 Pounds. (My crane has a scale). My 6000# lift truck wouldn't touch them, and they tipped my T320 tracked Bobcat that can move way heavier items than my lift truck.

Getting them on the mill was simple enough with my log loader and log deck. Turning them as you suspect is the hard part. By hand... forget it without 2 or 3 stout Canadian friends, 4 or 5 if only my American friends are around... The log turner would turn a well balanced log with no problems, other than the silly fact that it never had enough stroke to flip the log 90 degrees. I always had to start to rotate the log, balance it with the log clamp, regrab and continue. The biggest problem is that the turner always wanted to swing under the log to try to lift it from that position, which it simply couldn't do. I keep a bunch of thin chunks of wood that I bust to jam in the log turner to hold it open. Then snap and fall out once the log starts to roll. I suspect your overthinking it, as you'll likely have no issues.

I sold my LT35 and went for the 450 because of the larger logs I typically have to work with. Rumor has it that it's finally supposed to be built next week.

Go grab the logs and bring them home. You'll be fine.
Stuart Caruk
Wood-Mizer LX450 Diesel w/ debarker and home brewed extension, live log deck and outfeed rolls. Woodmizer twin blade edger, Barko 450 log loader, Clark 666 Grapple Skidder w/ 200' of mainline. Bobcats and forklifts.

YellowHammer

Quote from: alan gage on November 29, 2017, 01:18:11 PM
Seems simple enough. Host a forum gathering. Everyone bring food to share and a cant hook.

Alan
Save it for the Sycamore Project next year? :laugh:
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

Don P

That is a beauty.
A chunk of my shoulder was a long cant hook on a healthy red oak log by myself. That mechanical advantage lever thing turns into swinging back fast and hard when you lose. "To the moon Alice", be careful with those honkers.

DelawhereJoe

Sounds like you need to invest in a chainsaw mill and slab that bad boy into live edge slabs. Everyone always needs a reason to buy another chainsaw....right.
WD-40, DUCT TAPE, 024, 026, 362c-m, 041, homelite xl, JD 2510

goose63

 

 

Linn if ya need some help I'm do for a road trip  8)
goose
if you find your self in a deep hole stop digging
saw logs all day what do you get lots of lumber and a day older
thank you to all the vets

Chuck White

I've sawn 38"x16' Red Oak a few times!

My poor old mill loaded and turned them with no issues.

Just be systematic as you are moving the log on the mill, they are heavy and they can kill!

I really don't think you will have problems with the log, Lynn!

You'll never know unless you make the attempt!
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

fishfighter

Lynn, I told myself I will never deal with a big one like that ever again. Takes so much time to saw one of those big boys. :o

If you do saw it. I would fell it. Seal the ends and put it to the side for a spring saw date. By that time the log could loose close to 1,000 pounds of water weight. ;D

LaneC

  This may sound stupid, but I have seen the following done on you tube(seriously).  Black powder! Seriously.  I want to try it bad.  I have seen them make a cut in the top center of a huge log, the depth of long bar (not sure of the length) with a chain saw. They then poured a pound of black powder in the slit, ran a fuse down to the powder, put sand and dirt over the top, light it and run!! It worked very nice on that huge log. One day I would love to try it. If no houses or anything is around, I would surely try it. It split it almost perfectly in half.
Man makes plans and God smiles

flatrock58

Lynn,
Don't do it!  At least that is what I continually tell myself after i cut a big log.  Since I am older now I tend to forget that I should not do it any more.
2001 LT40 Super Kubota 42
6' extension
resaw attachment
CBN Sharpener
Cooks Dual Tooth Setter
Solar Kiln

ljmathias

My experience with logs that big has been both positive and negative. I had a part of a very old yellow poplar that sadly was only about 5' long- neighbor didn't realize I had a mill and had someone haul most of the tree off. The section I got was too small for his friend to take. Long story short: after much chain saw whittling, I got the 44" diameter log onto the mill and started slicing it down. WOW! Some of the most beautiful dark colored wood I've ever seen and certainly some of the prettiest I've been able to work with. Made a desk and work table out of some and they are glorious. Lesson here: sometimes there's lumber inside the monster that makes it worthwhile. Besides, poplar is one of the easiest woods to saw there is.

Red oak, now, that's another matter. Heavy, yes, but if you can get the big boy on the mill and are actually able to begin making cuts, again WOW! Some of the most beautiful red oak I have came from a log that (again) I had to whittle down to get on the mill. Reminds me, I need to pull some of that- been drying a few years now and should be ready to make something with.

Now for the cons list. My son the plumber was working at a house out in the country (new construction plumbing) and said, "Dad, you might want to come and see his burn pile." Turns out he had a big excavator rip up some really old pecan trees: biggest was about 3' diameter. I managed to get some 5' long sections onto a trailer and hauled home; longer sections were too heavy for me to handle. Problem then was I'd left my backhoe out in the country and had no way to unload them. After a couple of hours of trying this and that, mainly involving my biggest tractor still here and several chains, I just chained one of the logs to a big pine tree near the mill and goosed my non-4-wheel-drive F150 as fast as it would go till I hit the end of the chain. Wham and Pow! Took several jerk-and-backup pulls before I finally got one off. In the process, tore the back lip off the trailer (ouch!). Got several loads this way (trailer was already busted, so why not?) and then the fun began.

If you've ever sawed pecan, you know it gives new meaning to the definition of a hard wood. Probably ate up a dozen blades over the course of a week sawing all those pecan logs. Mill went through them real, real slow but hey, cutting a full-throat log is putting a whole lot of friction on the blade even with lube.  Ended up with mostly 1 1/2" slabs that I planned to make furniture and counter tops with. Long story short: after air drying a couple years, I found an entirely brand new meaning for the "hard" in hardwood. Couln't sand the slabs (too wide for a planar) and couldn't do anything to smooth them down. To this day, I have a few dozen of these slabs waiting for me to buy a humongous planar that can handle them. Keep waiting, pecan, your day will come (or not).

Summary: big logs are a real pain to work, and can be dangerous even with good toys to move them around. Sometimes you get great lumber, and sometimes you get what would be great lumber if only you could figure out how to work it. Maybe a cutting torch? Maybe an asphalt road refinisher? Maybe a few young and stupid summer helpers who will work at the impossible for a while because they don't know what's impossible yet?

Life's challenges are what make it fun, so if you want to have lots of fun (and oft times get incredible lumber), go for the big logs everyone else is afraid to touch.

LJ
LT40, Long tractor with FEL and backhoe, lots of TF tools, beautiful wife of 50 years plus 4 kids, 5 grandsons AND TWO GRANDDAUGHTERS all healthy plus too many ideas and plans and not enough time and energy

Southside

I sawed a red oak a couple weeks back for a customer that was 32" on the small end and almost 40" at the butt, 16' long.  We ran a chalk line down the middle of the log and I handed him my 372 with a 24" bar - only because I was sawing other logs - it took him about 15 minutes without a ripping chain to cut down the log with the bar buried, done over a couple of passes.  We rolled the log and did the same, maybe another 10 - 15 minutes and the log was in two pieces right down the pith, which of course was split some horribly so it really did not waste any wood.  We put one half onto the mill at a time and I broke down those halves.  I cut some wide live edge pieces and quarter sawed some really beautiful wood.  I had no issues standing up or rolling a half log.   

 



 
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

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