Big plank!

[sachsmo]

Helped take some slabs off a big Oak a guy at work had taken down.

We thought it was White Oak, when it started raining it turned pretty red.

He ended up with 6 planks and insisted I take one home (7 total).

My mill will only go 29" and the biggest part measured 38".

Needless to say we spent some time freehanding the sides.

We cut them all 3.125 thick and he is going to have a bar made for his basement.

I will probably make a work bench from mine and put it in front of a window in my barn.

There is still 45% of the trunk there, he is going to buck and split the rest, what a shame!

The log was 18' long, we had to cut them 9' so we could lift them.

Wish I would have remembered my camera, they were all very nice, really eye popping wet!

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[BobL]

They certainly do look very nice.

This is the best I could do in photoshop to show the grain.

 

[sachsmo]

Thanks Bob,

What size rim do you use for milling? I use 8 pin, but think a 7 may be better.

Especially on these big wide cuts. I did get 63 feet of cut with 2 chains, the average width was ~27 inches. could of used at least another 2 or three chains, you can sure tell when they start going South!

 

[BobL]

Especially on these big wide cuts. I did get 63 feet of cut with 2 chains, the average width was ~27 inches. could of used at least another 2 or three chains, you can sure tell when they start going South!

63ft of cut is the sort of thing I dream about!
I still reckon its better to learn to touch up on the mill than swap chains - I can now touch up the chains for my 42" bar on the mill in about 5 minutes which is faster than I can swap..

RE: What size rim do you use for milling? I use 8 pin, but think a 7 may be better.
I use 8 pin up to about 30" and 7 above that, but I don't measure the next cut size and change rims for every cut. I normally leave it on 8 and switch to seven when the next cut is >30". I then leave it on 7 at least for the rest of that log and maybe only change at the start of the next log or when I next flip the bar.

I have a couple of 9 pins in the mail. I will have to make a new loop up to try this but could be fun.

 

[sachsmo]

Thanks for the tips Bob,

I probably left them chains on for much too long. I was happy that my hand filed chain lasted twice as long as the out of box chain. Next order will be sure to get a 7 pin for the big splines.

 

[sachsmo]

I'm bored, (or drank too much rum)

bumping my own thread,

I just think it's cool that we saved this (and 6 others) from the burn pile!

 

[mikeb1079]

agree

that sure is a nice big ol slab. i think you're dead on with red oak. looks identical to some that i milled up this summer. smells very particular, kinda like swiss cheese or something. i too love milling giant slabs but they present alot of challenges, not the least of which is simply moving them around and storing them. drying takes a while too. like you said it's a shame to burn the rest of the tree but there's only so much time in a day!
cheers
mb