How to break down free walnut log

[Cannon51]

My wifes cousin cut down a 18 inch diameter walnut tree in his barn lot about a month ago. He told me I could have it for my woodworking hobby. The bandsaw mill guy I buy some of my lumber from doesn't want to cut stuff from house and barn lots + its a pain to load and haul. I have been looking at mini and alaskan mills posted on the forum and think I could build something that would work for occasional use but don't know if my saw would hold up to it. I would only need to cut it up into pieces I could lift and do the finish cutting on my woodworking bandsaw. My saws are 359 husky, 3.7 roper/craftsman, homelite XL12. If one of these saws is big enough what chain should I use?
Cannon

 

[gemniii]

My wifes cousin cut down a 18 inch diameter walnut tree in his barn lot about a month ago. He told me I could have it for my woodworking hobby. The bandsaw mill guy I buy some of my lumber from doesn't want to cut stuff from house and barn lots + its a pain to load and haul. I have been looking at mini and alaskan mills posted on the forum and think I could build something that would work for occasional use but don't know if my saw would hold up to it. I would only need to cut it up into pieces I could lift and do the finish cutting on my woodworking bandsaw. My saws are 359 husky, 3.7 roper/craftsman, homelite XL12. If one of these saws is big enough what chain should I use?
Cannon

Open up the muffler on the 359, get two loops of ripping chain and have at it.
Actually any decent chain should do since you are going to cut it again.

 

[huskyhank]

I'd ask around some more and find someone who would mill it. There's got to be more than one miller where you are. Check at places that sell woodworking tools and equipment. They may know of someone.

 

[BobL]

At 18" diameter you only need to quarter the thing in before you can get it on the bandsaw.

I'd use the 359 as is (ie don't open the muffler) with your usual (well sharpened) chain and just take it nice and easy.

 

[mikeb1079]

At 18" diameter you only need to quarter the thing in before you can get it on the bandsaw.

:agree2:

i agree with the maestro. just quarter it and then you can resaw with your band saw. you'll save lumber because of the thinner kerf. just make sure to throw some pics up.

 

[buzz sawyer]

Seal the ends and spend some time looking for someone to bandsaw it. Won't hurt it to set a couple months off the ground. Offer to buy the guy a new band if he hits something. Otherwise, quarter it. I don't know how big your woodworking band saw is but I would think a bandmill would be a lot easier.

You probably have only about 14" heartwood and you would lose a lot of that with a chainsaw mill.

 

[rarefish383]

I'm not going to tell you to try and kill a small saw milling, and others have allready said the saws you have will get you by this project. This is what I did just for fun with the Boy Scouts. We have a 40 acre campsite with a 99 year lease, for a buck a year. The Iisac Walton Leage owns the property and the timber rights. A few years back they logged it and all of the Scouts were helping to clear paths and chip brush. At lunch time there was no good place to sit. I had my little Echo 305 with a 14 in bar. In the back of the truck was a cheap mini mill I bought 40 years ago and had never used. I found an 8' 2X4 and some bent nails. There was a dead Black Locust laying across our patrols camp site. I cut 4 blocks off the end and cut V's into them. I centered the saw in an 8' section of log and cut it in half. It was slow going, but the little 305 did it. I took the 2 halves of the log and put them in the V's to make benches. The boys were thrilled. It won't take much to square up that log, Joe.

 

[oldsaw]

Don't quarter walnut, you will have litte heartwood to work with. In a farm lot situation, you will have extra sapwood anyway, which is cream colored. The dark heartwood is what you want.

 

[Cannon51]

I took some pictures of the log and of the Harbor Freight "Lumber Maker" I bought for $15. It's actually about 22 inches at the butt. I have sawed it into 7' lengths and sawed the limbs into firewood. I was playing around with one of the limbs this morning making some file handles.
Cannon

 

[rarefish383]

Your Lumber Maker is the same one I used to cut the Locust log in half for our Boy Scout benches. That is one pretty file handle, Joe.