Milled A 17' Bench Top

[820wards]

While milling at my friends place I had the opportunity to mill my longest log. It was 17' long and was to milled into a bench top to replace an old cedar bench top that was starting to rot. Since I did not have rail that were 17' long I decided to use the old bench top that still was pretty straight and flat. I used scrap pieces of a tree we had previously milled to attache the old ceder bench top to the Ponderosa Pine log to be milled. I flushed the top edge of the scrap to the top edge of the old cedar plank and used drive screws to attach the plank and the log after setting my desired cut line based on the center pith at each end. In this case 8".

I had to use additional wedges to keep the guide plank from rocking when it was time to mill. Here are the pictures of the milling.

Here you see the old cedar bench/plank attached to the Ponderosa Pine log to be milled into the new bench .

In this picture you can see where my top and bottom cuts were to be made.

Top cut made, and my friend Gary is already trying the bench out.

Here I have made the bottom cut and made the bench top. Talk about heavy!

Here is the mill that I used to make the bench top with, a 134cc milling head. Only thing I had a problem with was making sure I didn't run out of gas or bar oil.

jerry-

 

[discounthunter]

nice work.

 

[betterbuilt]

Nice stuff.

 

[olyman]

and that is something,,that cant be done with any other type mill..theres a place for all diff types!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! nice work......

 

[SDB777]

Have you done a 'write-up' on your mill somewhere here?

Sure would enjoy a 'pictorial' of your saws powerhead and mill set-up!!



BTW, sure looked like a fun day for ya!!!!!


Scott B

 

[Hank Chinaski]

Have you done a 'write-up' on your mill somewhere here?

Sure would enjoy a 'pictorial' of your saws powerhead and mill set-up!!



BTW, sure looked like a fun day for ya!!!!!


Scott B

Agree w/my fellow Arky! Please post up more pics/details of your rig

 

[jimdad07]

Great work Jerry. Looks like you are having a good time for sure.

 

[deeker]

It looks great!!

 

[mikeb1079]

nice work jerry, looks great. how is that ponderosa pine when left out in the elements? i suppose it's gonna be up off the ground, should last quite a while eh?

 

[820wards]

Have you done a 'write-up' on your mill somewhere here?

Sure would enjoy a 'pictorial' of your saws powerhead and mill set-up!!



BTW, sure looked like a fun day for ya!!!!!


Scott B

Scott,

We spent Tue-Thur doing this work. It's work yes, but also fun work. I'm having my friend send me pictures of where the bench now lives at his place. He actually has a gold mine on his property that was established in the 1860's and was still producing gold ore up until 1987 when the price of gold dropped.

Any way, here is the link to the build of my mill. The motor is a 820 PowerBee motor. It is 8.2 ci at 134cc's and was used on a verity of chain saws. I have an old Mongomery Wards saw that has the same motor. Some of the people who build race chainsaws like these motors because they are still in production including brand new 'Copperhead' versions. With all the milling and chainsaw work we did in the three we worked/played, we burned just over three gallons of fuel.

I have on my footer the three links for the mills I have built. Here is the one for my Alaskan style mill. Happy to answer any questions.

jerry-

http://www.arboristsite.com/milling-saw-mills/58090.htm?highlight=building+my+first+mill

 

[820wards]

nice work jerry, looks great. how is that ponderosa pine when left out in the elements? i suppose it's gonna be up off the ground, should last quite a while eh?

Mike,

Thanks, if posting pictures of what I have been doing gets other people to give milling a try that's even better. That is how I got started. BobL and that guy with the Dough Boy hat.

I milled some Ponderosa pine logs last October that we stacked and stickered and just covered with a sheet of plywood. When I checked them Tuesday they had not warped. Might have been the 20" of snow holding them down that kept them straight. We milled then at dimensional 2x4's. My friend needs to make some repairs to the original house on the property and needed real 2x4's so now he has a pile to work with.

If you leave the wood out to the open air it will get a gray hue to the surface of the wood. I find the Ponderosa pine pretty strong lumber. I'm planning to make some new beams for my deck this year from trees at my buddy's place. The mini-mill is a great way of making beams.

jerry-

 

[820wards]

Great work Jerry. Looks like you are having a good time for sure.

Here are some more pictures of the bench seat.

jerry-

Here is the saw I used to mill.... Not! As you can see we made sure the log was in the shade.

We first had to transport the bench to it's resting place and at 3" thick we had no intention to carrying the darn thing. So we surfed the waves to get it there. That's my friend Simon, and he's not hanging 10... So we strapped it to a hand truck, I put a few half hitches on it with a rope and we towed it to where it needed to go. Ya gotta have fun, right?

Here I'm taking the bark off the edges of the bench with a draw knife I made from an old horse shoe file a few years back. Worked great.

We had to leave before the finish went on, so my friend Gary sent me a picture of the bench with a coat of finish. Don't know what he used. That's a huge Black Oak right behind the bench. This bench is next to his BBQ pit, a great place to sit while BBQing and having a few brews.

 

[jimdad07]

Looks great Jerry. Going to make a fine bench top for sure.