Milling eucalypt

[harrygrey382]

I may have a 075 available free-of-charge when I head over to our property in NSW mid year. If so, I plan on whipping up another alaskan and churning out a bit of timber (600+ acres, mostly timber).

My question is, what's eucalypt like to mill? I've seen people milling red gum, it looks great of course. But do you have to mill green, I know from experience how hard dry eucys are. Species I think are a mixture of box, peppermint, ironbark, grey gum, scribbly gum and heaps more I don't know/can't remember. Is dry dead eucy off the cards? How long does it take to season green - 1" thickness per year? I'm wanting to use it for construction and house maintenance.

Will it kill me, the chain and the saw? Or does it just take a while...

 

[Dai Sensei]

Certainly milling green is better, eucs are hard enough then, dry the can turn to rock . Scribbly gum may be a beautiful timber, but it is only good for firewood and pen blanks due to its terrible splitting tendencies. I think the others are Ok though.

Drying times, it depends on where in Aus you are and how close to the coast you are. An inch a year is not a bad guess though, but it is sometimes more.

Don't forget there are a lot of rules and regulations here about cutting trees down. Don't just assume you can cut what ever you like.

All the best.

Cheers

 

[harrygrey382]

Certainly milling green is better, eucs are hard enough then, dry the can turn to rock . Scribbly gum may be a beautiful timber, but it is only good for firewood and pen blanks due to its terrible splitting tendencies. I think the others are Ok though.

Drying times, it depends on where in Aus you are and how close to the coast you are. An inch a year is not a bad guess though, but it is sometimes more.

Don't forget there are a lot of rules and regulations here about cutting trees down. Don't just assume you can cut what ever you like.

All the best.

Cheers

I heard scribbly gum was good structurally, but I could be wrong. We're in the southern highlands - kind of on the great dividing range i guess. Can get pretty dry, but not lately. I won't be committing de-forestation, only cutting as much as I need, which isn't much. Not that anyone'd know (I know that's not the point but) - it's all our land and succluded. But we're also concerned with the land use/wild life so are careful not to leave a wake.

 

[BobL]

Asking how hard eucs are and how long they take to dry is a bit like asking, what's asian food like and how long does take to prepare it?

In general they are hard, harder, or F#^$ing hard, or if they are dry they are sanguinous effen hard. Some take up a lot of silica making them hard and abrasive.

Apart from being hard some have a lot of resin which gums the chain. Extra bar oil or water cooling/lub helps.

An inch per year for drying can be improved on considerably and depends on where you are. 1" per year is probably based on NSW coastal, Tasmanian or Victorian conditions. Properly stickered with some good air flow and out of the sun can speed up the process and reduce splitting. If you have a lot to do a drying shed (I hesitate to say kiln because that conjours up a 24/7 heating source) can force dry by a factor 2 or more.

Is it hard work - yes. Is it slow - yes. Is it satisfying - YES!
If you have a lot of construction to do I would consider a bandsaw or lucas mill.

 

[4batt]

Milling Eucylypts

I'm a newby to the site and a novice at milling but slowly learning and absolutely loving it. I've been milling a few Blackbutt trees (I think) near Blackbutt, Queensland that were dropped about 3 years ago. The bloke was going to burn them.
I have a Husky 395. The timber is as hard a rocks with the chain becoming blunt halfway through a 3.6 metre log. Well worth it though not only for the personal satisfaction but the money saved. I'm building a shed 15 metres by 6metres with all the timber milled being used for the structure.
I believe those trees are Blackbutt anyway. When cutting they have a brown and sometimes pinkish tinge that turns to an almost yellowish brown when exposed to the light for a few days. If anyone has any other ideas what the timber may be it would be appreciated.

4batt.

 

[derekh]

If the bark goes all the way to the top into the crown, I would suspect Tallowwood. The Tallowwood bark often has what looks like tiny volcanos, small circular mounds with a hole in the centre. Blackbutt I think is similar but doesn't have bark all the way up.

http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/dpi/hs.xsl/26_5704_ENA_HTML.htm

My 2c worth
cheers
Derek

 

[LAndrews]

I can't say anything about the Oz woods, but the local eucs is the most intensely splitting/warping wood I've yet encountered. The two logs I sliced up wound up going through the planer to make chips to cover walkways in the garden because there wasn't anything else I could do with the wood...I'll try and take a pic tomorrow. It's really something - but it really looked nice when it was freshly cut.

<shrug>

 

[4batt]

Eucs

Thanks Derek. I failed to mention the bark. It does go to the branches where it comes away in thin strips. I thought it may have been Tallowood but I recall a conversation I had with my dad way back where he mentioned working with Tallowood post WW2 in a sawmill and it tended to be greasy or oily. As I said though this timber has been down for about 3 years.

I'll be back up the bush next week so I'll try to get a few good pics.
Good gov. site by the way.
4batt