My Milling Holiday

BobL · Jan 13, 2009

Hi folks, I've been holidaying on the South Coast of Western Australia on a farm owned by friends who recently bought a 3120XP with a 60" mill. The idea was that I share some of my milling expertise with them as they many fallen and pushed over trees on the property.

This post is just part of the first day's activities.

I thought we would start with something easy so we started with this small 18" diameter fallen sheoak .

Preping the tree. We used a tractor with forks to lower the tree onto small saw horses.

Watched on by the peanut gallery.

First Slab - unfortunately it was full of fungal rot. We cut a couple of slabs and then called it quits.

More pics in the next post.

BobL · Jan 13, 2009

Day1 - continued

The next log we practiced on was a small dry harder jarrah.

The timber had a few termite tracks thru it but some of it should be usable.

At that point we called it a day.

BobL · Jan 13, 2009

Day 2

Day 2 we decided to get a bit more serious and work on a fallen Jarrah that was about 2' in diameter and about 12 ft long. The log was located on a track thru the bush on the farm.

Here propery owner, Hud, has a go with my mill. As you can see after a promising start this log was also riddled with termite tracks.

After cutting 4 2" slabs we decided to give up on this log and leave it on the side of the track as a bench. Seated left to right are helper Roy, Hud, yours truly, and SWMBO. Here you can see Hud's tractor - it's a real beauty!

At this point we decided to give up on "falls" and look at a few push overs.
Here is a 25' long jarrah pushed over about 3 years ago to make space for a fence line.

We cut the log in half and moved the logs to a gravel pit which will be used as a milling area. As you can see these logs are a lot more promising than the previous ones.

More pics soon.

RPM · Jan 13, 2009

Hi Bob...it sure looks hot there....wheres the beer cooler. You guys look thirsty :givebeer:

Those last pictures of the 2 jarrah logs sure look like our western red cedar - shaggy bark and all.

deeker · Jan 13, 2009

RPM said:
Hi Bob...it sure looks hot there....wheres the beer cooler. You guys look thirsty

Those last pictures of the 2 jarrah logs sure look like our western red cedar - shaggy bark and all.

I second all of the above. Had to re-read it is Jarrah. Looks like WRC we have here.

AndyR · Jan 13, 2009

RPM said:
Hi Bob...it sure looks hot there....

Perfectly hot! I could use some of that. We're supposed to get down to around 0˚ F without the windchill factor for the next few days with high temps in the 10-15˚ range.

Looks like good a good time Bob. How is the 3120 doing? Pretty well, I'd imagine. How does it compare to milling with your setup?

Andy

woodshop · Jan 13, 2009

Thanks Bob, I thoroughly enjoyed those pics. Interesting flora and fauna you folks have down there. Just curious... is that pretty girl sitting next to you in that one pic wearing a mosquito netting hat?

Dai Sensei · Jan 14, 2009

Keep the photos coming Bob, looks like an ideal holiday.

carvinmark · Jan 14, 2009

Nice pics, wish you would send some of that nice wether my way, it's -11 right now.

Burnsy · Jan 14, 2009

Looks like you had fun Bob. I reckon we could have probably heard each others mills working on Sunday, I was on a block on Ocean Beach Road.

My weeks holiday was pretty productive, think I will be heading back down in during the Easter break.

stipes · Jan 14, 2009

Thank you for the pics Bob!!!

Looked like a fun day....I hope it warms up here soon...The last few weekends been rain,,and now going to be bad cold this coming weekend...Been itching to head back in the woods soon...Enjoyed the pics,,and at least I can see someone else enjoyin.... :clap:

BobL · Jan 14, 2009

Cheers Guys,

AndyR: 3120 Runs great and the 5 skip chain fair flies through the logs although I prefer my mill with the 076 because I am used to it even though it is a bit slower I arrive at the end of the slab with lesssweat and agggravation where as the 3120 kept driving the standard Granberg style mill into the side of the log and I was forever de-bogging it on the vertical leg of the mill : anyway we have come up with a fairly simple fix and I will post about that soon. Hud has a Husky 3120, a 385 and a 340, plus a Stihl 290. I think the 290 is my favorite - it is just so easy to use and I was carving up 24" diam logs with it while the smaller Huskies were ripping the skin off my knucles in a half day's use. n.

WS: The "girl" wearing a mosquito net is doing so for the flies! The farm has cattle but the local dung beetles have not yet kicked in because of the wet summer they have had down here. As a result as soon as you step outside you can be covered with a couple of hundred flies. Fortunately once the saw starts the flies disappear.

I have heaps more pics. Will post when I get home tomorrow.

Burnsy - I am/was on Scotsdale Rd - almost at the end. Marri/Jarrah/Karri country. No more karris left unfortunately but plenty of the rest. I am definitely coming back - the big jarrahs are calling me already. We spent most of today setting up a couple of acres of thefarm as a milling area . Next comes the drying shed and wood machine shop.

Cheers
Bob

DRB · Jan 14, 2009

Looks like fun.

Thanks for posting.

Looking forward to more :givebeer:

BobL · Jan 15, 2009

Day 3 - Post 1

We decided to turn our attention to trees that had been pushed over instead of falling down. In the vicinity of this boundary/ fence line track we found dozens of potential candidates so we set up a milling site to the side of the track.

One of the most interesting candidates was a 40ft millable Marri. Which we cut into 3 lengths.

I decided to have a go at boomerang shaped piece.
Here is the setup.

Every inch of the 42" bar was needed for this one.

Result was

BobL · Jan 15, 2009

Day 3 - Post 2

While I was cutting the boomarang, Hud and wife Sandi had a go at setting up their new ladder/rails on the bigger section of the same Marri tree.

Then Hud had a go at milling.

Marri is fairly soft for an Aussie Hardwood so it was a good log for Hud and Sandi to practice. Sandi is the real woody of the pair and has made some furniture. She's a real dynamo and really pitches in, drives tractor, drills fence posts, welds gates, belts in wedges, lifts slabs and eventually wants to mill as well.

Here is their first cut.

That 3120 fair chewed its way thru this log. The biggest problem was the mill jamming up on the side of the log and dodging the inhabitants from the nest of centipedes we found at the base of the tree.

Sandi lifting the rails!

BobL · Jan 15, 2009

Day 3 - Post 3

Here are a few other shots from Day 3.

Dueling CSMs!

BobL · Jan 15, 2009

Day 4 - Post 1

Here's a small sound jarrah log that was a push down about 2 years ago.

We rearranged the site to take advantage of the natural terrain slope.

A few yards further on was this big old jarrah.

It was felled at least 100 years ago but many of these trees were never recovered for a variety of reasons.

Generally these old trees are full of termite tracks and crumble to dust when cut but I decided to put the 385 thru a large (3') diameter branch and it was surprisingly sound!

Burnsy · Jan 15, 2009

Love the dualling mills :clap:

That big old jarrah looks like it could have some great timber in it if there is no termites and dry rot. Love to run the Lucas through it! I will probably be back down in easter as there is a big pine out on Torbay Bay Hill that my brother wants turned into floor boards.

rmh3481 · Jan 15, 2009

Fantastic Pics

Are you going to get alot of nice grain in the slabs out of the dry wood? Looks like we could use a little of your sunshine in Pa... Last night here it was 0 degrees Fahrenheit.

Thanks for sharing, looks like alot of fun.

Best wishes,
Bob

BobL · Jan 15, 2009

Day 4 - Post 2

I cut the other end of the branch off from the main trunk and we dragged the 8' length of branch away from the main trunk with the tractor .

The trunk still seems to be reasonably sound - the dark patches are moisture stored in the heart wood and in cracks.

This shot gives you the idea of how big this sucker is.

The main trunk ranges between 50" an 63" in diam and is about 35' long.
Fortunately Hud has a 72" bar but we will have to add bigger rails to the mill to tackle it!

As you can see it is quite twisted but that will help in holding it together.

We have no idea what this will be like but it's not going anywhere quickly and we'll probably wait for winter to have a go at milling it. If we can get 1 or two decent slabs out of it - it will be worth the effort

My Milling Holiday

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