Milling Dry timber

[Nazjaz]

Hello, I am just getting started milling. I have a Granberg mill and Stihl 064.
I can't seem to find any clear cut answers about what to expect when milling wood that has aged several years. Most of it will be Cedar, Black Walnut, Ash and Hackberry. How much shrinkage and or cracking should I expect or any other concerns?
Thank you in advance.

 

[cponick]

In my experience, when the tree has been down a while (say a year or two) there is still quite a bit of moisture inside the log, but not as much as there was when it was first felled. The slabs you take off will be mostly stable, not dry by any means, but at least stable enough that if you stack and sticker it properly the warping and shrinkage will be minimal. Your going to get some cracks no matter what you do, anchor seal the ends very well to help minimize that. after that the drying time does drop a little instead of 1 year per inch, depending on your climate, it can go down as much as 6 to 8 months per inch. keep the sun off them as much as you can. i like to cover mine in that weed preventer cloth from the garden store and throw a piece of sheet metal on top of the stack to keep the weather off them. the cloth breathes but does help keep them all in the shade. Bottom line there really is NO clear cut answers, it depends so much on so many variables. the type of wood, the climate your in, the place you store the slabs. how much air flow they get ext. Get a good moisture content indicator and watch it closely.

 

[chunky]

I just went back looking at the dates my phone has on some stored pictures so here's a little timelaps. A big oak fell in my yard on 5/20/20. About year and a half later, Dec 2021, I start milling it, so bought the moister checker thingy at Lowes just to see how wet it still was. Year and half in it was still around 20%. I go ahead and start milling it and pile it stored in my shop with fans on it most of the time.....and let me say " my shop didn`t like all the humidity".
So 2 years since the tree fell I found the driest of it I could at 12-15% and started building the wife a shelf. By the time I got it finished it was down to 10-11%. so I finished the shelf and took it inside. Now a few months, (2 years) later it is still shrinking.

 

[Rodhaven]

Most milled lumber air dried in US will only get down to 12-13% MC - so if you want to use the lumber indoors you have to get the MC down to 6-8% by either kiln drying or bringing inside a heated area. I experimented with bringing in air dried 4/4 red oak into my basement during the winter and the measured the MC every day. The MC went down to 8% after about 10 days. I would suggest to also use a quality moisture meter - either Wagner or Delmhorst which are costly but worth it for accuracy.

 

[motolife313]

I think half dried lumber dries and cracks out worse after milled then fresh milled fallen wood.

 

[sonny580]

dead wood is hard on blades. I know that much and unless its green wood I wont cut it.

 

[grain man]

Hello, I am just getting started milling. I have a Granberg mill and Stihl 064.
I can't seem to find any clear cut answers about what to expect when milling wood that has aged several years. Most of it will be Cedar, Black Walnut, Ash and Hackberry. How much shrinkage and or cracking should I expect or any other concerns?
Thank you in advance.

I have had black walnut that was left in log form for a year and the cracks were very disappointing. My thoughts are that cutting the wood while green to a size that is going to be used and then letting dry will turn out better. With wood that is not milled before drying, some of the logs can develop stresses that cause rapid movement while cutting. This can bind saw blades and cause a hassle. Be careful.

 

[J D]

This pic was taken mid run using the edging mill to take a 4x6" sleeper of a freshly cut 4" slab from macrocarpa log that had been felled about 18 months prior.
The bow the sleeper had after being cut was close to a 1/2"

 

[grain man]

View attachment 1114251
This pic was taken mid run using the edging mill to take a 4x6" sleeper of a freshly cut 4" slab from macrocarpa log that had been felled about 18 months prior.
The bow the sleeper had after being cut was close to a 1/2"

Nice work. Looks great.

 

[SeMoTony]

Hello, I am just getting started milling. I have a Granberg mill and Stihl 064.
I can't seem to find any clear cut answers about what to expect when milling wood that has aged several years. Most of it will be Cedar, Black Walnut, Ash and Hackberry. How much shrinkage and or cracking should I expect or any other concerns?
Thank yoHu gu in advance.

I've got 460 and 046 that sees most use. Both muff modded to reduce held in heat. And breath better for more power. The 661 is ported and is a bear for hard wood milling over the 42" bar capacity. When sharpening chain bring angle towards 0-5°.
The middle of that log is wet still. End grains are split from drying while further in did not yet. Old logs I find are turned into firewood. Trimming the dry/split ends leave too short a functional length for me

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

What I've learned with higher movement woods is that even when dry, altering the grain connections by milling it or cutting it in anyway can cause some surprising bows. The damn red oak I've milled never seems to stop moving in some direction every time I trim or plane it, no matter how dry. I also got a lesson in outdoor "dried" logs/slabs that haven't been protected from elements is they never really dry. I re-cut a crude slab of live oak my neighbor had abandoned, five years drying outside, reasoning it was dry and stable. It cupped like crazy afterward. After I thought it was stable, I finished it and sold it this spring with promise of delivery this fall to a friend, and it cupped some more in between and have to re-level and refinish it.

 

[grain man]

What I've learned with higher movement woods is that even when dry, altering the grain connections by milling it or cutting it in anyway can cause some surprising bows. The damn red oak I've milled never seems to stop moving in some direction every time I trim or plane it, no matter how dry. I also got a lesson in outdoor "dried" logs/slabs that haven't been protected from elements is they never really dry. I re-cut a crude slab of live oak my neighbor had abandoned, five years drying outside, reasoning it was dry and stable. It cupped like crazy afterward. After I thought it was stable, I finished it and sold it this spring with promise of delivery this fall to a friend, and it cupped some more in between and have to re-level and refinish it.

I concur, some of the oak slabs I have milled end up continuing to move even after drying for years. It's a long learning curve for me to be able to produce stable wood.