BigOakAdot
ArboristSite newb
My good friend works for a large tree outfit here in PA and his boss has recently taken an interest in milling.
Specifically some monster ash and scarlet oak pushing 60"+ with tons of other wood in the 30" range. He was picking my brain about attacking such large trees.
With the little research I did, I saw that Grandberg makes a 56" Alaskan mill. I'm sure almost any size is possible but are there any other Alaskan style mills that can handle that kind of log? With a 60" bar is the bar bowing a huge concern? Any info on that would be greatly appreciated. We would be running one of his 880's or my 076. With access to almost any piece of machinery, getting logs up into the air shouldn't be a problem.
As for drying, we talked about trying to contact some local kilns and see if they had some extra room. I know a lot of guys have built their own make shift kilns. If any of you have good or bad things to say about diy kilns, I'm listening. He has space to store the wood but I think air drying it is pretty much out of the question because he wants it sooner rather than later.
He wanted to do a smaller log with me to get a feel for what it's all about. Almost a practice session if you will. It seemed like he wanted to start with one of his oak logs that has lots of knots and places where branches were shooting out the trunk. Is there any reason why this wood wouldn't be good for milling? I know kilns want straight lumber with minimal knots. Is this because with the grain changes, it will be more susceptible to warping and cracking? Or because they want uniform lengths of wood?
The top pick is ash and the bottom is scarlet oak. Apparently there was a plaque that said the oak was 300 years old or something crazy. There is some rot all the way though the trunk but definitely some nice boards. He also has the crotch which is massive and had multiple leaders. Whole thing is solid all the way through. The ash trunks are pretty damn solid as well. Is there much of a market for large ash like that?
Thanks for any help in advance guys!
BOA
Specifically some monster ash and scarlet oak pushing 60"+ with tons of other wood in the 30" range. He was picking my brain about attacking such large trees.
With the little research I did, I saw that Grandberg makes a 56" Alaskan mill. I'm sure almost any size is possible but are there any other Alaskan style mills that can handle that kind of log? With a 60" bar is the bar bowing a huge concern? Any info on that would be greatly appreciated. We would be running one of his 880's or my 076. With access to almost any piece of machinery, getting logs up into the air shouldn't be a problem.
As for drying, we talked about trying to contact some local kilns and see if they had some extra room. I know a lot of guys have built their own make shift kilns. If any of you have good or bad things to say about diy kilns, I'm listening. He has space to store the wood but I think air drying it is pretty much out of the question because he wants it sooner rather than later.
He wanted to do a smaller log with me to get a feel for what it's all about. Almost a practice session if you will. It seemed like he wanted to start with one of his oak logs that has lots of knots and places where branches were shooting out the trunk. Is there any reason why this wood wouldn't be good for milling? I know kilns want straight lumber with minimal knots. Is this because with the grain changes, it will be more susceptible to warping and cracking? Or because they want uniform lengths of wood?
The top pick is ash and the bottom is scarlet oak. Apparently there was a plaque that said the oak was 300 years old or something crazy. There is some rot all the way though the trunk but definitely some nice boards. He also has the crotch which is massive and had multiple leaders. Whole thing is solid all the way through. The ash trunks are pretty damn solid as well. Is there much of a market for large ash like that? Thanks for any help in advance guys!
BOA
