hello from a newb / quarter sawing tips?

[mrbentontoyou]

hello all,

i've been a lurker for a while now, just searching and reading and trying to gain as much info as possible in regards to different saws and alaskan style milling.

Well, the time has come and a 394xp and granberg 48" mill are in the mail as i type, and the first load of logs to be milled up are 4 sycamore logs, 7' x 26"-32". I understand that sycamore is best quarter sawn, both in terms of the lacewood-like figure that results and it's tendency to cup/twist/bow when drying flat sawn.

so now i ask the experts for tips on quarter sawing with an alaskan mill... i'm really interested to see some solutions to positioning the logs once halved or quartered and initiating the cuts. any advice will be greatly appreciated.

also, a quick thanks to the members here who have made this such an informative site. this has been an invaluable resource for me in the last few months.

-Roger Benton

 

[gemniii]

Welcome aboard -
First thing you should try and do is get some softwood, like pine to practice on.
Learn how high you want your milling position to be, what's comfortable, how to set up guide rails etc.

Then cut on something you want to keep.

And WAIT for cooler weather!!

You don't say where you are planning to mill, but if it's anywhere near Queens, New York IT'S HOT.

/edit - and break that saw in before milling.

 

[BobL]

Well, the time has come and a 394xp and granberg 48" mill are in the mail as i type .. . .

Whoo - hoo!

so now i ask the experts for tips on quarter sawing with an alaskan mill... i'm really interested to see some solutions to positioning the logs once halved or quartered and initiating the cuts. any advice will be greatly appreciated.

True quarter sawing is very difficult to do full stop let alone with an Alaskan and wastes a lot of wood.

Most quarter saw produces a few true 1/4 sawn boards and the rest are only partialy 1/4 saw.

I have only done this on a few small logs with my small mill and my method was pretty standard. 1) Quarter the log and then place two adjacent quarters back together and peel off 1 or 2 boards.
2) Flip the quarters so the other two faces are in contact and and peel off 1 or 2 boards from these faces.
3) Repeat until the pieces can not longer be held.

And holding the quarters is largely where the headaches lay. I made a clamping jig that hold teh quarters together and while it works the whole thing is a PITA. The easiest way to get quarter sawn is to just cut put plenty of boards and the two or 4 inner most ones will be quarter sawn so if you mill enough logs you will have plenty of 1/4 sawn.

One more thing, before trying to quarter saw any thing just break the saw in and practice using the mill.

 

[mrbentontoyou]

good advice on doing a trial run- hopefully i can get hands on another log or two to practice on before hand.

as for the saw, the powerhead itself is already well broken in, it's an ebay purchase. the "big" bar/chain (42" oregon with granberg ripping chain) will be brand new, as are the chains coming for the 33" bar already on the saw. will breaking in the chain with bucking cuts prematurely wear/dull a chain filed for ripping/milling?

BobL- yeah the prospect of coming up with odd jiggery to hold everything in position for q-sawing is what was boggling my mind, i think i'm leaning towards doing like you mentioned and just flitch cutting everything, loose the pith and try to strap the plain sawn stuff down tight for drying. May on one of the larger pieces i can try to take a healthy enough top and bottom slab so I can half those and get a few extra quartered boards from them.

oh and gemniii- the heat/humidity isn't too much of a factor, i'm used to working outdoors. in fact, it will be fitting to mill these up in high heat, seeing as how i spent two days in 100º+ heat bucking these by hand with an axe and loading/unloading them into two pickups. compared to that escapade, milling these in the shade of my shops' loading dock will be a breeze.

thanks for the advice gents- and keep the work holding ideas coming!

 

[gemniii]

You Da MAN!

I would definitely have found something else to do until the saw arrived, rather than "bucking by ax".

Of course I've also gotten in the habit of using my Kubota tractor to move logs, whereas I used to roll them around.

 

[mtngun]

It's not practical to quartersaw small or medium diameter logs with a CSM, but it's not too bad on large (36"+) diameters. Like BobL said, quarter the log, then keep turning the quarters.

Here's how I did it. Quartersawing with a CSM

 

[mtngun]

will breaking in the chain with bucking cuts prematurely wear/dull a chain filed for ripping/milling?

It won't damage the chain. Ripping chain will cut slow in a cross cut, though.

When I go milling, I take a smaller saw along to do bucking.

BTW, the WP ripping chain from Baileys works just as well for less money.