First post... just starting out

[Doss]

Hey everyone, been reading this forum for a while and it's been full of helpful information. Bear with me, I may ramble on this one.

My friend and are have a huge stockpile of wood. Most of it is in the 30-40" diameter (not much taper) and 10-14' long. A few are 45-51" diameter and 10-12' long. These are, I think, red oak.

We plan on making some furniture with a lot of it, but there's no way we can use it all (most likely will have 80-110 3" thick slabs ranging from 24-51" wide). Anyone have any ideas on how we can move some of this (sell it off)? I'm not even sure of the value of the wood. Any help would be appreciated. I know the ends are dry, but I can't do anything about that... they're sitting in the Mississippi sun (100 degrees for the last few weeks) and we're trying get them out of it as fast as possible.

I've attached some pictures to give you guys an idea of what we're dealing with. Enjoy and thanks in advance.

Just in case, we're using an MS880 with a 41" crosscut chain. We have a ripping chain we haven't put on yet but plan to this weekend.

View attachment 189866View attachment 189867View attachment 189868View attachment 189869View attachment 189870

 

[mtngun]

I wish I had your problem ! ! !

You're going to get tired of chainsaw milling in the hot sun real quick.

And if you don't have a market for it, what's the point ?

I'd mill what I wanted for personal use, and sell the rest of the logs, if there is market for them.

 

[Doss]

It is a great problem to have I guess. If I had enough room to store all this wood so I have a stockpile for furniture-making, that would be great. I know some people sell their slabs off, but I have no idea how you could ship these monsters anywhere. I can't just leave them out in the sun forever and the wife isn't going to let me store them in the backyard. Maybe I can disguise them as a deck or something.

I figure for a carpenter or furniture maker they'd be great after they've dried out some (err... in a couple of years if air drying). I hear what you're saying about having a market for them. There is always a market... it's just what that market is willing to bear and what it's willing to do to get what they want. We tried to unload some of them on the local mill, but they said if we don't have about 18 truckloads they can't help us. They did offer to take them off our hands though if they were just going to rot there. :frown: I was going to list them up on the usual spots but I was just wondering if anyone knew of a place where this kind of thing is normally listed (besides craigslist, classifieds, etc.). It'd be nice to know a price to sell these for. I'd be willing to unload whatever I don't plan on using for a low price just so they don't go to waste.

If you want to come down and help mill... I've got some chain oil, files, fuel, and some cold ones (for later of course). All you have to do is work in Mississippi heat and 95% humidity (when it's dry).

 

[SDB777]

Typically most of my customers looking for slabs are wanting crotchy, curly, or unique slabs....or all of the above!

Slabs with little to no unique qualities typically sit for very long periods of time until I decide to make them into some sort of outdoor furniture(benches or what have you).


With the supply of logs you have there, you might want to think about making some sort of roof type structure so you can mill in the shade. And possibly a bandsaw mill.....maybe?






Scott B

 

[mtngun]

And possibly a bandsaw mill.

I thought about the possibility of hiring a bandsaw mill to saw most of the logs into 1" for furniture makers. Eventually it would sell, though it might take years.

But, it sounds like the OP has no place to store the resulting lumber. Why spend the money up front to mill it, just so it can sit out in the weather and go to waste ? Even if the OP finds a place to store the lumber, it could take years to pay back his initial investment.

It's a frustrating problem. I'd dearly love to have a dozen of those logs -- that would furnish my entire house ! But realistically, timber is a local market, so if the OP doesn't have a local market, then those logs will go to waste.

 

[Doss]

Thanks for the input so far. Yes, storage space is limited for so much wood. I can honestly store about 50 slabs at this size (3" thick). And yes, I do plan on making furniture with it. For the roof structure, we're going to get a pop-up tent (10x10 or bigger). It's not so bad sitting out there, but the tan I'm getting isn't working out like the one I get from the beach.

I know the market is local. So, besides the normal routes, I'm going to pitch it to people with hunting camps and people needing unique fencing and other outdoor items.

I told my wife I might build a fort with it :msp_cool: She was not amused.

I was just checking to see if you guys knew of some other markets to aim at. I don't like seeing wood rot. I think it's such a waste to let things that took this long to grow just sit and go unused.

For the uses, I was planning on making some benches, bars, countertops, flooring, deck material, etc. I think it's beautiful wood for oak. I'm guessing it was tapped into a mineral deposit at one point. It's hard to make out, but the heartwood is almost black.

I'm open to ideas though for sure. Thanks so far.

I may open another thread to see what common thicknesses are for milling. I cut at 3" in order to leave room for planing and drying.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

Logs that big are normally a problem for most band mills. My LT40 prefers logs 16 to 24 ". Smaller or larger and production rates go down. However, as you already have the saw that can quickly quarter the logs it may be a good idea to hire a sawyer. Quarter saw the good stuff into 3/4" thick paneling, saw a bunch of 4/4 boards and maybe saw a few mantels as well.
Carefully stack and sticker in stacks about 6' high and 4' wide. You can get quite a bit of lumber in a small footprint if properly stacked. Cover the tops with cheap tin roofing to protect from the sun and rain. QS Oak or Sycamore paneling that is air dried should sell for at least $2.50 per Bf. Try contacting any pallet companies in you area. I did some sawing for one in VA that worked out ok. Didn't need to wait for the wood to dry. They took the mid grade stuff and I dried and sold the better stuff to woodworkers.
Rick

 

[Doss]

VA, thanks for the suggestions. I didn't think to contact pallet makers or to offer it as paneling. Those are some great avenues to explore. Also, thanks for the stickering and stacking suggestion. I didn't think you were supposed to stack that high. That makes a huge difference on the footprint I need to store in.

So you're saying we should cut them at 4/4 or 5/4 to allow room for drying/planing? I'm not much of a mill guy (yet). I'm still learning. I just had an opportunity to make my own lumber and jumped on it.

We were also considering cutting down some of the big ones with little to no character into workable sizes. If the wood looks great on the inside, we'll slab them. Like I said before, I can make things no problem. It's storing that much wood that is.

Keep 'em coming y'all. As usual, this forum isn't letting me down for the wealth of info.

 

[SDB777]

Milling slabs that are 4/4 or even 5/4 with a chainsaw mill is going to net you the loss of one board for every two cuts you make. That is a LOT of waste.

Bartops, fireplace mantles, table slabs, outdoor furniture.



Here's a thought:
What about some tin to cover your pile of slabs? Get them off the ground, stick the slabs for better airflow, and then cover with roffing tin to keep the water off?






Scott B

 

[gemniii]

First of all - don't cut it before it's "dedicated". Either for your own consumption or a buyer. As soon as you cut a bunch of 3 1/2 inch slabs someone will want 4 inch slabs.
Second - where in Ms?

 

[Birdhunter1]

I had a coworker mill some big oak for me with his bandsaw mill. What I did on the really big ones of oak (comparable in size to yours) was to square them off into a cant and I stacked them on timbers in the shade with tin on top till I decide what to do with them. Didn't know if I wanted thick slabs or thinner slabs, real wide or cut narrow.

 

[Doss]

gemniii, these are on the outskirts of Jackson. Where do you own land here (if you don't mind me asking)?

Again, thanks for the suggestions everyone. To clear things up, I am moving the slabs under cover when I'm done with a pile. They won't sit out for long. I am negotiating space with a carpenter in a warehouse as well. I've got "permission" to build a workshop in the backyard with an overhang for lumber.

I can't do anything about where they're at now (where they fell). They are too big to move log by log and the guy that cut it up decided 8-14' was "good enuf."

I would just wait to cut them to size, but since they're not on my land, I don't have that luxury (city lot). I'm cutting as fast as I can while a house is being built near them. When the house is done, they have to be gone or they'll become firewood (a waste I think).

So, in the interest of storage, should I just cut them down to 4 or 5" thick slabs on the smaller (< 30" dia) logs? I'm unsure of what to do with the huge 40-50" ones. I know I need to cut them down, but I'm unsure about the thickness (these luckily are under 10' long).

If it comes down to it, I may just sell off the logs if I can. I don't want them to go to waste. Sure, oak under 30" isn't uncommon. That could become firewood. These larger 10' long x 50" dia logs needs to go to something better though. I hate to think of them just being cut down to common stock and stored.

I appreciate everything y'all.

 

[jimdad07]

Good luck with the wife. Mine is just getting used to the place looking like a logging landing most of the year. You have to start slow, bring just a board or two home every now and then and it will be such a slow transition that she won't even notice until it is too late.

 

[Talltom]

That's a lot of logs! Large oak logs are good candidates for quarter sawing. You can get lots of valuable wood with nice ray fleck, but the wood needs to be clean. From the pictures of the log you sawed, it looks like you have the initial stages of rot (the lighter colored wood inside the sapwood) extending well into the center of the log. Have the logs been sitting on the ground for a while and/or standing dead?

Slabs are much more appropriate for gnarly and spalted wood (it's called spalting when the rot looks good.) In general, though, oak is not prized for spalting. Oak is also highly attractive to borers. Getting the logs up off the ground and stripping the bark will help minimize the rot. You can apply a borate treatment to minimize both rot and borers, but that's lots of work. Kiln drying will also stop both, but that doesn't sound like an option for you. The sapwood goes first and may present problems if you want live edge slabs.

You can make beautiful things out of wood that has started to deteriorate if you try hard enough. The key is to delay additional processing until it's necessary. Why treat or strip the sapwood from an 8 foot slab if you end up making a 6 foot bench out of it in the future? If you open up a log and it's spalted but you like the look of the wood for slabs, cut and stack them to air dry and delay further processing until you're ready to use them. Further spalting will abate as the wood dries. If the wood is sound, consider cutting boards out of the center of the log to get quartersawn and riftsawn lumber. Cutting the log through and through yields a combination of quarter, rift and plainsawn lumber. Leave it thick and it's a slab. Cut it thinner and its a board (you'll need both to make furniture, and boards are much easier to put on top of a tall stack to dry than slabs.) It's also the fastest way to cut the logs. You can trim the boards later. If you're cutting for slabs, maximize the number of limbs and knots in the pieces - they make more interesting slabs. If you're cutting for boards, minimize them.

I'd start with the thickest logs, since they will yield the most good lumber. For logs that are too wide for your saw, cut what you can from the top & bottom and then split the middle through the center. If you want slabs from the middle section, leave it the twice the slab thickness plus saw kerf, split the log, cut each side in half and bookmatch the halves. Center cut slabs usually split at the pith anyway. For boards, use a multiple of the desired board thickness plus the kerf.

Good luck!

 

[Doss]

jimdad, believe me, I have tried similar tactics. She catches this type of stuff before I can get away with it. My best plan to date is to leave enough room behind the workshop I'll build to "store" wood. I have figured out if she does not see it she usually doesn't mind. I'll pass some of them off as extra building materials if I can.

Talltom, thanks for all the great suggestions. The logs are on the ground (been there since about May), but we have only had about 3-5 days of rain since then. The temps have been averaging around 95-98 (actually averaged 100 over the last 3 weeks or so) for highs. The humidity is sticky from 60-95% over the day. The tree was alive when it fell (tornado). I'm not sure how healthy it was, but it had leaves and no real signs of rot or disease (though there is a spot in there where a branch was overgrown and was rotten).

The wood is solid. Our crappy milling technique may be to blame for the look. We have a ripping chain we plan on putting on, but it's for our 66" bar (we used a 41" with crosscut (35 deg) chain to mill these). We keep the chain sharp though.

Your suggestions on ways to handle the cuts is also great. It completely slipped my mind to bookmatch some of the pieces. I had actually planned on doing that at one point and forgot. :msp_ohmy: I'll probably cut some at 4"+ kerf to allow for bookmatching. That should leave plenty of room for me to plane them down. If not, I can try 5"+kerf.

I'll try to get a picture of a piece that has been leveled (router in a planing jig). It should give a better idea of how the wood actually looks.

Got any ideas on how I can store the big pieces? Remember, these are about 10' long and 50" wide with little to no real taper (maybe down to 48"). I thought about maybe halving them and then trying to stack them. I don't know if that's a good idea though. I just wanted to make sure if someone needed a straight-cut, live edged slab that I'd have the halves in place to do so. Otherwise, I could just quarter and bookmatch them.

Thanks again everyone. This has helped me a lot.

 

[BlueRider]

I mill to supply wood for my furniture making business. I don't do monolithic slab styled furniture but even so I mill everything at 2 1/4" thick, this will shrink down to a hair over 2" when dry. With just over 2" I can net out a 2" leg if I need it or I can resaw anything up to 12" wide on my bandsaw and 12" is the max I can send through my planer. Resawing on my band saw is faster than milling thinner slabs with the chain saw mill and the band saw has a much smaller kerf. Also leaving the slabs thicker usually results in less warping than milling thin boards.

I don't hassle with trying to quarter saw anything (quarting a log and and taking every other cut off each face, or quartering the log and radial slicing it) or even sawing into cants. I saw every thing through and through which will net a couple of slabs of quarter saw a bit of rift and some plain sawn( the shab on each side of the pith will be quarter sawn and usually the next on on each side of that will be either quarter/rift with the outer slabs being plain sawn). In my furniture I prefer quarter sawn but sometimes the plain sawn figure is nice for panels and rift sawn looks best for legs so having a mix is really nice.

Most of the logs I get are less than 8' but for the few that I get that are longer I leave them long on the theory that I can always cut it when I use it but I can't uncut it. I have cut a chair seat out of a 10' long slab before, having an awsome supply of wood is only awsome if you use the very best for each project and not wory about yeild.

Most of the time I mill by myself and 2/14" I can push around fine but on the rare ocasion that I have a helper I will cut a couple of 3" or 4" thck slabs. I always end up using the wood usually wish I had more thick stock. By the way a 4" thick slab will shrink down to about 3 5/8"-3 1/2" depending on the species and if it is quarter or plain sawn.

The firt couple of years are frustrating because you have a big pile of wood and nothing is usable so the temptation to mill it thinner so it will be dry sooner is reall high. After a couple of years you will have more wood than you can use each year so at that point there is no incentive to mill thinner unless you need green wood for construction.

Just my $.02

Ps keep the wind off those oak slabs, you want air to circulate but not too much.

 

[mikeb1079]

Ps keep the wind off those oak slabs, you want air to circulate but not too much.

that's good advice. oak dries slowly compared to some species. very prone to cracking if it dries to quickly....

The firt couple of years are frustrating because you have a big pile of wood and nothing is usable so the temptation to mill it thinner so it will be dry sooner is reall high

so true. luckily i am past that stage to the point of having so many slabs that i have to focus on what to do with em....

 

[Doss]

Bluerider, thanks for the advice. I'm cutting at a few different thicknesses just to have some variety. I'll keep an eye on airflow too :msp_thumbup:

From what I've figured out, this is actually water oak. I had a few red oak logs mixed in (cut one today). Their bark pattern is very similar (same family), but after looking at them I can now identify them pretty easily.