# Milling heaven



## BobL (Jul 12, 2008)

Spent part of today helping yard owner Jeff lay out the next round of logs for milling.

Some of Lemon Scented Gum cache, dumped on the ground.






The armpits of these branches promises some interesting fiddle.





Laying out the gluts.










This shot gives you an idea of the size of these babys. That's an 066 in the shot. In the background you can see the 30" diameter log of another Blue Tipped Leaf Jarrah


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## BobL (Jul 12, 2008)

*Milling Heaven part II*

Small Sugar Gum





Close up of cross grain of Lemon Scented Gum. This stuff is dense and H..A..R..D as . . . . .





All 8 logs ready to start miling, almost 20 tons of trees to mill. Jeff arriving with the well earned medicinal (Corona) beverages.





And one for your imagination!


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## slabmaster (Jul 12, 2008)

Looks like some nice logs to mill Bob.They should keep you busy for awhile.Looks like some nice crotch boards coming with flame.I'd like to see the pictures of them when cut.


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## Nikko (Jul 12, 2008)

opcorn: 

Nikko


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## dustytools (Jul 12, 2008)

Nice logs Bob!!! Im looking forward to some milling pics.


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## Trigger-Time (Jul 12, 2008)

dustytools said:


> Nice logs Bob!!! Im looking forward to some milling pics.




+1


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## Backwoods (Jul 13, 2008)

Nice


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## peterrum (Jul 13, 2008)

This is going to be good


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## BobL (Jul 13, 2008)

peterrum said:


> This is going to be good



Perhaps instead you should have said, "this is going to be hard" which it is. This stuff, also known as Spotted Gum, when green, is as hard as Pecan when it is dry, but it's not the hardest stuff I've milled. 

Cheers


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## woodshop (Jul 13, 2008)

peterrum said:


> This is going to be good



I agree... can't wait to see what you come up with opening up some of these (to me/us) exotic beauties. Blue tipped Jarrah... Lemon scented Gum... foreign language, makes my mouth water. I too can't wait to see some fiddleback figure in some of those crotches. Very interesting post.


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## BobL (Jul 13, 2008)

Cheers Guys.

One thing I forgot to add is that one of the Lemon Scented (or Spotted Gum as it is sometimes called ) trunks has been hit by a lightening strike. It can't have been a direct hit as there is no visible physical damage in the timber. When these trees get a direct hit they often explode. The bark is not visibly singed but on one side its been dried out like its been in an oven and is flaking off in half hand size patches. The is definitely some alteration since all the wood is a grayer brown that the other logs. We'll cut a couple of slabs and see how it goes.

Anyone else have any experience milling something like this?


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## deeker (Jul 13, 2008)

Looks like a lot of work, great pics...and keep it up!!!!!

:yourock: :yourock: Always need more pics.

Kevin


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## peterrum (Jul 18, 2008)

Waiting patiently for the show to begin but I am running out of popcorn.


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## BobL (Jul 18, 2008)

Sorry - major distraction in progress, plus wild wet weather to contend with. This week, arborist yard owner and I purchase a large (1/2 ton?) 3 phase planer/jointer, and I had to go back to the day job. Could be a while getting back to the logs.


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## HarryHarley (Jul 18, 2008)

Nice logs. But I'm not sure if I like the fork lift better!!!:hmm3grin2orange:


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## BobL (Jul 18, 2008)

HarryHarley said:


> Nice logs. But I'm not sure if I like the fork lift better!!!:hmm3grin2orange:



She's a little beauty alright but it's limited to about a ton so it couldn't lift those bigger logs. It's very good for handling slab with that long reach and decent height.


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## BobL (Jul 26, 2008)

*Lightening Strike*

This is the first of the 7 Lemon Scented Gums in milling heaven. This tree also called Spotted Gum and is pretty ho-hum for most aussies but I thought the rest of you would like to see what it's like. When green it's quite dense, 72 lb/cuft; and hard, when green it's about as hard as pecan is when it is dry! But it's not the hardest thing I have milled green.

This particular log is the narrowest of the pack, almost 2 ft in diameter, but the longest, 13 ft long and was also struck by lightening or more likely was in the vicinity of a lightening strike as a direct hit usually blows them apart. This tree lost its bark all down one side so we had no idea what it was going to be like.

The other thing this log had was bright green inner bark - that could be a reaction to the lightening strike or something else.










Some grain close ups.


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## BobL (Jul 26, 2008)

*Lightening Strike II*

First cut was OK in terms of speed because of the narrowness of the cut and the sharp chain but this stuff being quite hard dulled the chain pretty quickly. I should have changed the chain after the third slab so sawdust generation was down and the dust was coming off as powder rathe than chips.






I took this short for fun but now realize I can work out the chain speed from the blurred line of each cutter if I know the camera shutter speed.





Here what happens of you hand onto the mill frame at the same time as the camera when taking the picture! I could probably work out the vibration frequency if I knew the shutter speed.

Critters move in quickly to reclaim habitat.





Final shot of the day.


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## AndyR (Jul 26, 2008)

That is gorgeous wood Bob. Not a knot in sight.

Glad to see you found some time to get into these logs, I think we're all waiting on the edge of our seats for more pics.

Can't wait to see more milled lumber and the projects that come from it too.
Cheers,
Andy


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## woodshop (Jul 26, 2008)

Very interesting Bob... always look forward to your posts. That storage container should be getting pretty filled by now, no? Do you have a dry safe place to store you dead stacked wood once dry? Today I moved 300 bd ft of while oak up to my Dad's little farm to try and make some room here. But he's (at todays prices) $42 worth of gas round trip. So I just added 25 cents to every board foot of that oak taking it there. 

Keep those interesting pics coming Bob.


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## Trigger-Time (Jul 26, 2008)

Very nice, as always, love seeing the pictures.


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## BobL (Jul 26, 2008)

Cheers Guys, 

RE: Container for storage.
Yep, it's as we say here "Chokka" which means completely full! Currently we are storing the green slabs in the big green shed, but what we should be doing is putting the dry stuff in the big green shed and the green stuff in the container because the container seems to be quite effective at drying timber.

Plans are afoot to create more storage for the dry timber and to set up a wood/timber finishing shop. We have just purchased a big 16" jointer, and to help kick things along I will move my 10" thicknesser/planer and 19" bandsaw and 2 HP dust collector from my back veranda (My wife will be very pleased) to the site. We are also exploring acquiring a 30 or 36" thicknesser because we want to be able to to thickness whole slabs.


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## woodshop (Jul 26, 2008)

BobL said:


> Cheers Guys,
> 
> RE: Container for storage.
> Yep, it's as we say here "Chokka" which means completely full! Currently we are storing the green slabs in the big green shed, but what we should be doing is putting the dry stuff in the big green shed and the green stuff in the container because the container seems to be quite effective at drying timber.
> ...




Well Bob (and I hope you continue to stay that way) it looks like you're really getting serious here. Thats a pretty impressive list of cast iron. No weekend warrior shop that one... keep us informed. Do I see a business venture here? "BobL Exotic Slabs Inc...right off the saw or ready to install... your choice"


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## BobL (Jul 26, 2008)

woodshop said:


> Well Bob (and I hope you continue to stay that way) it looks like you're really getting serious here. Thats a pretty impressive list of cast iron. No weekend warrior shop that one... keep us informed. Do I see a business venture here? "BobL Exotic Slabs Inc...right off the saw or ready to install... your choice"



Well I hope so too - yesterday I was in the yard for ~10 hours but not all milling. I felt tired enough after milling that log but after a half an hour of moving slabs around in the container I was stuffed! To top it all off we had a foggy morning and I left my lights on all day so I had a flat battery and as every one else had gone home I had no one to help out. Fortunately there were two trucks in the yard so all I had to do was push the van over near one of the trucks and jump start - easier said than done. It was just not possible to push the van mainly across woodchips and sawdust. In the end I used my Log lifter as a winch to haul the van across the yard to the truck. Then being a diesel van and the battery being dead flat it took about half an hour for enough charge to trickle across from the other battery to get it started - then I had to sit there a while an recharge the truckies battery. 

RE: Weekend warrior shop. 
The primary driver and financier of this plan is the Arborist and his son who get the logs. I'm the weekend day labour, ideas man and chief bottle washer. Rightfully the main money will primarily be going their way. I get to play with and access to the timber and to have a lot of fund doing it! At the moment it's all just a plan because the yard itself is actually owned by someone else and Jeff is trying to purchase it . Land in Perth has also doubled in price in the last 2/3 years so some hard bargaining is in progress.


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## peterrum (Jul 27, 2008)

Well i have been waiting for this thread to continue and have not been disappointed in the least. Very nice colouring and grain to that wood. Great job Bob and good luck with your expansion ventures, it can only get harder but more fun from the sounds of it. Look forward to the rest of your pics.


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## irishcountry (Jul 27, 2008)

As always a wealth of info and entertainment!! Great stuff your one lucky guys with all those hardwoods! Awesome - Irishcountry


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## Backwoods (Jul 27, 2008)

irishcountry said:


> As always a wealth of info and entertainment!! Great stuff your one lucky guys with all those hardwoods! Awesome - Irishcountry



Out west we look at the northeast in the same way since that is where the majority of the hardwoods come from here in the us.


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## irishcountry (Jul 27, 2008)

Yeah but those softwoods out your way are huge and thats nice too!!


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