Big, old white Oak!

[Grey]

Well, It's been a while since I've been on this site. However, this winter was brutal on my woods. This beautiful, old white oak decided to tip over, across my drive during one of our ice storms. Me and the neighbors have been working on it for a while now. So far, we've gotten 2+ cord of firewood and two logs, 9'6" long 25-27" diameter. Saturday, we're planning to mill it with my friends Woodmizer LT40 (diesel with all the fixin's) Probably do most of it 4/4 quartersawn. I might throw some 6/4 QS boards in too, for table tops and bed rails. Oh, and by the way, I went to get a 24" bar and chain for my MS361, but darn if I didn't come back with an MS461 with 25" and 32" bars and chains. This is one heck of saw!!!!!!!!!

Stay tuned for pictures of the green lumber...

 

[mopar3]

Nice

 

[SDB777]

Having milled a few White Oak logs not long ago on my LT10 that were in the 22-26 inch range. I can say it would have been fun to have a mill that would do the work for me. But I still ended up will a LOT of great board footage!!! Do forget the milling photo's, or maybe video?



Scott (hint, hint....video is fun) B

 

[Time's Standing Stihl]

Quite the lineup of saws!!! Doesn't get any better than White Oak

 

[Grey]

P.S. I used to have a beautiful MS260. but my wife did not like the high compression on the start. I had to trade it in for a MS251CBE. She totally loves this saw and it is almost as good as for occasional use.

 

[groundup]

White Oak is a beast to move around, just milled some last week. Tougher than the maple we usually move.

 

[Grey]

The rain held off this morning just long enough to saw up the logs, all quartersawn. We did about 2/3's of it at 4/4 and about 1/3 of it at 6/4. We also sawed up a funky log from the base of the tree. It was about 3.5' long and 30" diameter with a big rotten hole on one side. We took two 6" thick slabs for my friends to turn on their lathes and we did a couple of 3" thick slabs just for kicks. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to take many pictures. My sawyer friend is really fast and keeps us moving, and we were racing against the rain that showed up about 10 minutes after we finished.

 

[Grey]

One more pict.

 

[Grey]

Final tally: 52 boards at 4/4 for 328 bd-ft and 27 boards at 6/4 for 217 bd-ft. Total 79 boards for 545 bd-ft. Calculations from measurements of the logs predicted about 500 bd-ft, so that's a 10% gain. Extra impressive considering we quartersawed, which of course makes more waste. I have to give props to the skills of my sawyer-friend and his WoodMizer band mill. Once I get this air-dried and kilned, I'll be way in the black even including the cost of the new MS461. I have to say this turned out to be a nice gift from Mother Nature after all the terrible weather she threw at us this winter.

 

[SDB777]

Your friend charging by the board foot...or did he get a percentage of the milled?

By the way, nice stack! I would be worn out after the bottom row of concrete blocks! That is a lot of stickering too.
The rain will wash the driveway off too!!! Glad you decided to get this milled instead of making it into firewood. Any projects planned?





Scott (sharing is fun) B

 

[Grey]

Actually, my friend charges by the hour + a nominal setup fee. He also requires me to help with moving and loading the logs on the hydraulic lift and offloading the boards. Even though we quartersawed (more time and waste) and I gave him a considerable tip, I still wound up less than $0.50/ft, not including the funky short log. As I said, he's very experienced which means he is very quick. I always feel like I'm 3 steps behind. Too bad he's retiring from sawing. This was our last project together. Now I'm going to have to find another local sawyer. He and I have been makin' lumber for 5+ years now (1-2 prime trees / yr), so we have a very efficient system, including the stacking and stickering set up. Thanks for noticing. I actually got the bottom cinder blocks set up a couple days before. I had a bunch of stickering sticks, but my wife seems to have absconded with many of them, so I had to "make" new ones. I use 1x3 lathe, cut in half and ripped down the middle. It's mind numbing but necessary work and I wind up with very nice and uniform 4' x 1.25" x 3/4" sticks

 

[Grey]

P.S Planning to make a Craftsman style bed and bedroom set for my guest room.

 

[Nato]

I like it! A back up, to the back up!

 

[Mike Van]

You should use those 3 Stihls sometime, you know? Get some sawdust on them?

 

[Grey]

You should use those 3 Stihls sometime, you know? Get some sawdust on them?

I totally agree! I was almost embarassed to put such "pretty" saws up. As I said above, the 461 is brand new to me and the 251C is also brand new because I had to trade in my old reliable MS260

 

[olyman]

Actually, my friend charges by the hour + a nominal setup fee. He also requires me to help with moving and loading the logs on the hydraulic lift and offloading the boards. Even though we quartersawed (more time and waste) and I gave him a considerable tip, I still wound up less than $0.50/ft, not including the funky short log. As I said, he's very experienced which means he is very quick. I always feel like I'm 3 steps behind. Too bad he's retiring from sawing. This was our last project together. Now I'm going to have to find another local sawyer. He and I have been makin' lumber for 5+ years now (1-2 prime trees / yr), so we have a very efficient system, including the stacking and stickering set up. Thanks for noticing. I actually got the bottom cinder blocks set up a couple days before. I had a bunch of stickering sticks, but my wife seems to have absconded with many of them, so I had to "make" new ones. I use 1x3 lathe, cut in half and ripped down the middle. It's mind numbing but necessary work and I wind up with very nice and uniform 4' x 1.25" x 3/4" sticks

hes retiring?? see about buying it from him,,on time,,with him teaching you....dont know,,lest you ask...

 

[Grey]

Believe me, he offered it to me for a fair price and I thought long and hard about buying it, but honestly, I don't have the time to pretend to be a real sawyer. I'm happy paying an experienced, full-time sawyer a couple times per year to do "boutique" sawing for me. Fortunately, he was able to sell it to a relatively young and experienced lumber dude who can put it to use like it is meant to be.