LARGE Big Leaf Maple Milling Suggestions?

[Brigade]

Betterbuilt:
great info..thanks. FYI big leaf maple is considered I believe a soft maple about the same hardness as cherry. I think it has more colour (pinkish) than eastern maple and more interesting grain & figure but that may be just me.

I've got an adjustable dado blade that should produce that lap in one pass. That may just be the way to go! Good idea.

BobL:
Now that looks like a painless $$ way to make a tool that will produce a cant(s) that will fit a band mill.

This site has people with a wealth of information who are ready & willing to share. I never fail to learn something new after reading a few posts.

 

[mtngun]

Another method is to half lap. Here is a picture of my kitchen floor. Made form Local White pine. Face nailed

Any chance you've got a pic showing a closeup of the finished floor and the nail holes ? I'm curious how that looks.

I presume you set the nail heads below the surface ?

 

[betterbuilt]

Any chance you've got a pic showing a closeup of the finished floor and the nail holes ? I'm curious how that looks.

I presume you set the nail heads below the surface ?

I was actually trying to get a specific feeling for my kitchen floor the ceilings are really low. The floor has been down for five years and I'm pretty happy with it.

About mid way across the floor I realized I was short on boards. I went out to the barn and grabbed so left overs from a job that had sat out in the rain and got stained from the boards being cold packed. I was actually happy with the way the knots and colors worked in the room.

I started out face nailing with nails I had bought through http://www.tremontnail.com/ but I ran out so I called up a friend who has building full of old nails and bolts and we found a few cigar boxes of cut nails that were perfect.

The maple floor I did I used concrete cut nails and after predrilling they did't pull out of the maple rafters they would actually break the floor board before the nail would budge.

I'm glad to hear big leaf Maple is a soft maple. I've had pretty good luck with drying soft maple. It mills pretty easy also.

 

[mtngun]

Thanks for the nail pics. I'm still debating how to do my doug fir floors.

Those Tremont flooring nails cost over $5 a pound. Whoa ! That gets expensive real fast.

My subfloor is OSB, and I'm not sure it would hold a nail well. Screws would be more reliable, just a PITA to plug 'em.

 

[betterbuilt]

Thanks for the nail pics. I'm still debating how to do my doug fir floors.

Those Tremont flooring nails cost over $5 a pound. Whoa ! That gets expensive real fast.

My subfloor is OSB, and I'm not sure it would hold a nail well. Screws would be more reliable, just a PITA to plug 'em.

I was trying to say the concrete nails were a lot cheaper. They look the same as the tremont nails. The only problem is they are hardened and they snap if you bend them to much.

I think plugs could be fine. Maybe they would be neat if you used another color. I make dowels by ripping square stock on the table saw and chuck it in the cordless drill and run it into a hole I've drilled in a piece of steel. They work really nice. Its a lot cheaper than buying walnut or cherry dowel.

 

[RPM]

You asked...

Just pinch the log between the blade and the bucket and you'd be suprised how much she'll lift.

Excellent ... another example of big and bigger - JD 992 excavator moving Douglas-fir 7 - 9' dia x 16'. Almost too big for this machine although the guy running it dosen't own it either.

 

[poleframer]

Another way to deal with those big chunks it to 1/3 saw them. I did this with a big doug fir I had, I ripped a cut to center of the log, then rolled it 1/3 over, then ripped to center again, the 1/3 cut piece slipped right out, than flipped it on over and ripped the remaining piece in half, easy cut as the missing third was underneith and I didnt have to block the log up as I did it in place.
I did the cuts freehand with the bar vertical, so in two cuts I had three pieces ready to mill.
When I went to milling, I stood them up on edge, and got close to quartersawn boards, with more wide planks out of each piece.