CSMing for grade & yield w/ multiple dimensions from one log

[Brmorgan]

Well, I did a bit of milling back in April for a friend, but haven't had much spare time this summer to do any since then. Not to mention it's been extremely hot and dry - we had two weeks straight over 30°C a while ago, and haven't had a good rainy day in well over two months where I live. They don't even want people operating ATVs in the bush, much less saws, but I don't think there's an actual ban in place yet. Anyway I dropped a nice Douglas Fir behind my parents' house last week, and since I'm house-sitting for them this weekend it's convenient for me to go work on it.

One thing to actually like about working with dead Douglas Fir - the bark is usually easy to remove. A series of axe strikes along the top of the log and a few good pries took it off in big sheets.

All set up for the top cut. The log is 16.5' long (the bottom log is 21') and handily fell on top of an old rotten log, giving me a nice slope to work with.

Top cut done. It was a bit heavy but I can still get a 1X8 or maybe a 2X6 out of the slab later on.

Second side cut off with my mini-mill jig. As you can see from the wane in the middle of the log, it had a bit of sweep to it - about 2.5" - 3" at center.

To get rid of the edgewane, I turned the log 90° and took a 1" slab off. Between the 1" cut and the 3/8" chain kerf, the wane was totally eliminated. The only significant knot in this board is the one in the foreground of the previous picture; there are only a couple other much smaller knots. Very nice riftsawn board with some nice cathedral grain.

 

[Metals406]

Looking good. . . Makes me want to mill wood now, with all you guys doing it on AS. I need another hobby like a hole in the head.

Thanks for the cool pics!

 

[Brmorgan]

I needed to make some more 4X10 stock to finish some stairs for the deck I built on the back of the house last summer, so I rotated the log 90° again and cut a 4" 3-sided cant. This would be squared up later.

My uncle needs some beams to replace the runners of a staircase in his yard that goes up to his garage, so I told him the next time I tore into a suitably-sized log, I'd try to fit some in. They need to be 6" X 9", so I cut the third side off of the log at 7-3/8" thick. This allows for the 3/8" kerf to cut a 1" board to bring it down to 6" wane-free. This only defect on this board is the knot cluster at the exact center - with the excess length, it will still produce two almost-clear 8' 1X8s. You can see the sweep of the log a bit more prominently in this picture.

6" wide cant all done. It's between 5-15/16" and 6" very consistently. I dropped the mill to 10-3/8", so I could take a 1X6 off and end up with a 6" X 9" beam.

6" X 10-3/8" beam all done. Now to take the 1" board off to remove the edgewane at the near end. I also got another 10' 1X6 out of the resulting nearby slab, and could probably get another 1X4 if I get picky with it. All pretty much clear.

It's a pretty nice piece of lumber, just a couple knots of any significance. The heart isn't dead center but it is in the same position at each end of the beam, within maybe 1/2" variance. The deviation of the heart due to the sweep of the log is across the wide face of the beam, so it should be fairly stable.

 

[Brmorgan]

There's what I've cut so far. I was able to get the fourth side cut off the 4X10 beam, but I ran out of time to do any more. I got the 6"X9" beam, 4"X10" beam, 16' 1X6, 10' 1X6, two flitches which should produce a 16' 1X10 and 1X12, and I should still be able to get three 10' 1X4s and a 16' 1X8 out of the remaining slabs tomorrow or Monday.

I should be tackling the other log tomorrow - it's kinda across our trail out back there, so it's a bit of a priority. Not looking forward to it though - it is sitting flat on the ground and has many more small trees closer to it which I'm hesitant to kill just to mill a log. I may end up jacking it up onto some roller logs and drag it up to where I milled this one. There is a big stump over that way that will work well to winch/come-along it from. I do have my 2.5-ton floor jack out here but I'd have to dig a hole under the log to get it underneath. Oh well, that's tomorrow's problems! All in all I was happy with yesterday. It was the first day milling with a new chain grind profile (or file in my case... took awhile!). I was very happy with it on the 395 - it hardly slowed down at all, and is still sharp after making all those cuts. Well, except for one - I did use the 181SE on the vertical mill jig to make the second cut. I was equally impressed with that saw - it was the first time using it for milling since doing the port job over the summer, boy did it pull that 3/8" full-house chisel chain strong!

More pics to follow as I get the rest done up. There are three other decent Firs a stone's throw from this one, so no shortage of work this fall if I don't have anything better to do.

 

[LAndrews]

Wow - nice work. Very smooth and very straight cuts.

Some beautiful country up that way too...

 

[mtngun]

Nice to see someone besides myself milling doug fir. It's not a beautiful wood, but it's extremely versatile. You can do just about anything with doug fir.

Is your guide board wood or metal ? If it is wood, how do you keep it from warping ?

Your 1024 pixel wide pictures don't fit on my monitor. I prefer 800 pixel wide.

Thanks for posting. I'd rep you, but it probably won't let me.

 

[Ted J]

That is nice. You definetly had a full day there. Keep it up. Nice pics!

Ted

 

[DRB]

There's what I've cut so far. I was able to get the fourth side cut off the 4X10 beam, but I ran out of time to do any more. I got the 6"X9" beam, 4"X10" beam, 16' 1X6, 10' 1X6, two flitches which should produce a 16' 1X10 and 1X12, and I should still be able to get three 10' 1X4s and a 16' 1X8 out of the remaining slabs tomorrow or Monday.

I should be tackling the other log tomorrow - it's kinda across our trail out back there, so it's a bit of a priority. Not looking forward to it though - it is sitting flat on the ground and has many more small trees closer to it which I'm hesitant to kill just to mill a log. I may end up jacking it up onto some roller logs and drag it up to where I milled this one. There is a big stump over that way that will work well to winch/come-along it from. I do have my 2.5-ton floor jack out here but I'd have to dig a hole under the log to get it underneath. Oh well, that's tomorrow's problems! All in all I was happy with yesterday. It was the first day milling with a new chain grind profile (or file in my case... took awhile!). I was very happy with it on the 395 - it hardly slowed down at all, and is still sharp after making all those cuts. Well, except for one - I did use the 181SE on the vertical mill jig to make the second cut. I was equally impressed with that saw - it was the first time using it for milling since doing the port job over the summer, boy did it pull that 3/8" full-house chisel chain strong!

More pics to follow as I get the rest done up. There are three other decent Firs a stone's throw from this one, so no shortage of work this fall if I don't have anything better to do.

Nice work. Like to see a nice log like that cut up with very little waste. Good job of resawing the slabs. Also good to see another person who thinks about not killing or damaging the small trees while working in the woods. Selective logging at its best.

 

[Brmorgan]

Nice to see someone besides myself milling doug fir. It's not a beautiful wood, but it's extremely versatile. You can do just about anything with doug fir.

Is your guide board wood or metal ? If it is wood, how do you keep it from warping ?

Your 1024 pixel wide pictures don't fit on my monitor. I prefer 800 pixel wide.

Thanks for posting. I'd rep you, but it probably won't let me.

I personally disagree about D. Fir being a beautiful wood - the only major commercial softwoods I'd put above it would be W.R. Cedar and perhaps Hemlock in the right situations. Juniper is definitely much more attractive but isn't considered a commercial species up here due to its (relatively speaking) diminutive size.

My guides are all wood so far, which I keep sitting nice and flat with some weight on top when not in use. In this case I used one 14' 2X8 and an 8' 2X8 mounted in line since I didn't feel like having to un-mount and move the 14-footer to do the entire length. The 8 footer has remained flat and stable for three summers now; it's a nice reliable piece to use but its short length can be either limiting or time consuming when dealing with longer logs. I got the 14-footer last summer and while it isn't quite as straight as it used to be, it's nothing that I can't correct with a few shims and lag bolts. It is still quite flat, but does have a bit of warp over the wide axis (crook), though that isn't an issue with the Alaskan. I mount my guide board a bit differently than you in that I do it a bit more in the style of Mr. Malloff in the "Chainsaw Lumbermaking" book - I level & place my end blocks and then run a string from end to end stretched tight, drive lag bolts into the top of the log until they're level with the string at 3-4' intervals, and then lag-bolt the guide board down to the log as well. This way the board has lots of support for the entire length of the log, and there is minimal danger of it lifting or sagging as I push the mill down it - and as a bonus it's possible to cut a log many times longer than the guide board and do it fairly accurately; just un-bolt the board, slide it down the log, and bolt it down again. It's a bit more time-consuming but I've found it to be much more accurate when milling timbers. A little bit of deviation isn't a very big deal with 1" lumber, since it can usually be corrected with proper stacking and drying, but if I make a slightly convex or concave cut on a 6X6 it's going to stay that way, and throw off every subsequent cut on the log.

As for the picture size, my apologies. I guess I just don't normally expect people to be running less than 1024 X 768 for resolution anymore in the age of flat-panel monitors. Have you tried turning on Automatic Image Resizing in your browser? That should shrink any images down to where they'll fit in your browser window, but if you were to right-click and save them they would still save as the original resolution. I like to keep mine as big as possible to show as much detail as I can, especially when shooting with the 10-22mm wide-angle lens in close quarters like this - it makes everything look both smaller and much farther away than it really is. I've found so far that if I resize to 1024 wide and then change the JPEG compression to about 70-75%, it puts the filesize in the 250-300KB range, just under the size limit.

Nice work. Like to see a nice log like that cut up with very little waste. Good job of resawing the slabs. Also good to see another person who thinks about not killing or damaging the small trees while working in the woods. Selective logging at its best.

Yeah I try to waste as little as possible, and truth be told I rarely waste anything at all because what won't make lumber will burn in the woodstove just fine! I frequently re-saw and save pieces up to 1X3" or 2X2" out of the edge slabs if I have the time or equipment with me.

I tried my best to save the little spruce tree in the foreground of the pictures, but it did get bent over to allow the saw engine room to travel past. It may survive OK if I can prop it back up straight when I'm all done in the area. As for the ones around the other log, a little selective thinning wouldn't hurt since they're growing thicker than corn in a field and won't all survive anyway, but I don't want to annihilate them all because the bigger trees (like the one I'm working on) are dying in the area and are creating a fair bit of a clearing which will let the small ones grow nice and straight.

 

[SilverBox]

Good work, good post. My guide boards never stay flat . I should put them on something flat and weight them like you do .

 

[mtngun]

I level & place my end blocks and then run a string from end to end stretched tight, drive lag bolts into the top of the log until they're level with the string at 3-4' intervals, and then lag-bolt the guide board down to the log as well.

OK, I didn't see the lag bolts in your initial setup picture, 1024 pixels notwithstanding. I can spot 2 or 3 of them now that I know what to look for.

I tried the Malloff method once and that was enough.

Another way to do long logs is to place a 3rd or even a 4th "end board" in the middle of the log. This requires sawing out a one foot long section from the slab, then screwing an "end board" to the end of the sawed out section. Stretch two strings across the far end boards to determine the height of the intermediate end boards. Then just as with the lag bolt method, slide the guide board down the log as the cut progresses.

With either method, it can be challenging to install the supports in a perfectly straight line.

. I guess I just don't normally expect people to be running less than 1024 X 768 for resolution anymore in the age of flat-panel monitors. Have you tried turning on Automatic Image Resizing in your browser?

A large flat-panel is on my wish list, but you know how that goes.

I am running 1024 x 768 on this PC, and I can view the entire 1024 image once I scroll sideways to center it. Problem is, the forum page will always be wider than the image, so I can't view the entire forum page without scrolling sideways. It's a nuisance.

Automatic Image Resizing is turned on, but it doesn't seem to engage on a 1024 image.

I've had good luck with 800 pixel images on every forum I visit (though one of my favorite forums recommends 700 pixels). I compress my images to 50% which usually puts it under 100 kbytes. Cuz in addition to not having a flat panel monitor, I don't have true broadband, either, just a satellite with punitive bandwidth limits.

You'd be surprised at how many people are still using dial-up. Broadband options are extremely limited in the rural U.S..

Thanks for posting, though. That's some nice lumber you are making out of wood that would otherwise rot.

 

[mtngun]

Bmorgan, tonight I ordered a widescreen 19" flat panel, so I'll be able to read your excellent posts without scrolling.

 

[Brmorgan]

Bmorgan, tonight I ordered a widescreen 19" flat panel, so I'll be able to read your excellent posts without scrolling.

LOL... Hope I didn't come across as being condescending or anything about that. I've just spent my whole life around computers and they're my second hobby next to all things wood-related, so sometimes it just doesn't cross my mind to take into consideration that everybody might not be looking at things the same as I am. Heh, I found a beautiful 19" CRT monitor last week at the "share shed" at the town dump. Thought I'd take it to replace the old one I have with my shop computer; turns out it was better than the one I was using as my secondary display on the main computer (I run dual display upstairs) so I kept it for that. Also I know what you mean with the broadband availability in rural areas - if you're more than a few miles from town here, you're SOL. Quite a few folks farther out around here use satellite setups like you though, but they aren't cheap and do come with a few limitations as you stated. Anyway, enough computer talk.

I milled up another nearby smaller log today, maybe 14" dia. Cut it 17' long and milled another 6X9 beam out of it to match the one from Friday, and got a couple random 1" pieces out of the log as well.

First load of finished product ready to haul back to the house:

It got the job done, but it was an interesting couple of slooooow trips with that setup. It's the same rig I used to haul the beams I made behind my own house last summer, the only problem is that I cut the tongue and hitch off the front bunk to use on the log arch I built a few months ago. Speaking of that project, it still isn't done - haven't had the money to replace the hubs yet. Anyway since there was no actual hitch, I was forced to chain the remaining stub of a tongue as tightly as possible to the ball on the quad. It worked great going uphill or on the level, but even the slightest downgrade would let the wood and "trailer" hit the back of the quad or go all off-track.

Here are the weekend's spoils:

In front of the main stack is the 4X10X16.5' beam, on top of which are all the random-width flitches that need resawing. Behind these are the two 6X9s on edge. In the small pile behind are two nice 16' 1X6", a shorter nice one about 12', and a not-so-great 1X6 that should probably be resawn to 4". There is also a short ~10' 1X4 that I got off the bottom slab of the 4X10 cant. Not too bad for ~8-10 hrs. work between the two days, considering that the majority of that time involved hauling the gear out, setting up the logs, setting up the guide board, and hauling everything back. In the very rear of the photo you can see two stacks of Poplar (Aspen) flitches that I cut out of a ~18" tree that we took down at my parents' place last spring. That's a story for a different thread though...

Pssst... The pics are 800 wide this time!

 

[mtngun]

Not too bad for ~8-10 hrs. work between the two days, considering that the majority of that time involved hauling the gear out, setting up the logs, setting up the guide board, and hauling everything back.

Yep, that's how it is when you CSM in the woods.

Good job.