Milling some oak

[Birdhunter1]

This is Typhoon's (wearing the black bibs) mill but my wood (I'm the one in the sweatshirt). We had a big storm last year and this is what we are now milling from it. Since he's had the mill he said this was the biggest log he has had on it. It is a white oak that measured 29" or so and 10' long. We ended up with a beam out of it that was 16" x 18".

Rolling that sucker over was a bit of work, even with the assistance of my tractor and forks. This is the biggest log I have had on my front end loader and when I first picked it up in the field my back end got alot lighter. For scale that is an 029 with an 18" bar.

 

[Birdhunter1]

Red Oak, this one was olnly about a 20" log 12' long with no knots in it.

shot of milling area:

 

[Typhoon]

A big log indeed! But the Norwood came through! (Rick had to whittle a little here and there with his saw). Was slow cutting but we got the job done. Was a great day milling. I think Rick is enjoying this so much that he may be getting the itch to get his own mill one day.

-Brad

 

[Birdhunter1]

Yeah if I can sneak a mill in with building a pole barn and a house then yeah there will be one. But considering both the barnand house will be built this year I wouldn't have time to use one till sometime next year anyway.

 

[BobL]

Good work Guys, thanks for posting the pics.

 

[jimdad07]

Nice project, thanks for the pics.

 

[820wards]

That's a nice pile of logs to mill and the beam turned out nice. Thanks for the pictures.

jerry-

 

[Ted J]

COOL, thanks for posting the pics, looks like a fun time was had all around.

I think I hear those front wheels grunting on that tractor...

Ted

 

[Birdhunter1]

Ted you are partially correct. That tire is a bit low on air as it is, but when I picked that log up in the field last week (it has been sitting since about July of last year when I cut it) I got it about a foot off the ground and laid her back down and took 2' off of it, so I had a slightly longer log and yes it was a heavy SOB. Brad (Typhoon) was quite amazed when I picked it up yesterday at how much the ack tires lifted off the ground, they were still in contact with the dirt but the back end was noticeably lighter. I don't like moving with loads like that because it is hard on front end components, even the beam we took off the mill when we were done was heavy. The tractors is a 50 hp Ford and weighs about 6500-7000 lbs loader, box blade and ballast.

We cut it into a beam because at the present time I am stacking them outside till I get my barn built, Brad needs the mill at another job, I am going to move them into the barn once it is built, the beams are easier to ransport than the whole log, and I don't know what I want out of them yet.

Can't wait to get into the other logs that are red oak and a few walnut logs that are rather large.

We've done alot of poplar and black locust and that is what I am building my barn out of, one stack of it is 6't 3'w 12'l and the other stack is only 4't 4'w and 12' l.

This is all from a 'derecho' that happened in Southern Illinois one year ago today. I still have this much if not more timber on the ground in the woods, this is just what was laying out in the fields or across fencelines that I had to tend to.

 

[Birdhunter1]

Here are some pictures of what we ended up with.
This is a mix of mostly White Oak, Red oak, Cherry and a few Walnut cants. The biggest one is cherry and the 2nd biggest is Walnut. I am thinking the biggest one is like 18x20 or something, they range in length from 8-12' long.

This stack is pretty much all Poplar, building a pole barn this summer and there is most of the materials:

And this is a stack o firewood that is both storm damage stuff from last spring and slabs off of the mill:

 

[7oaks]

Red Oak, this one was olnly about a 20" log 12' long with no knots in it.

shot of milling area:

A big log indeed! But the Norwood came through! (Rick had to whittle a little here and there with his saw). Was slow cutting but we got the job done. Was a great day milling. I think Rick is enjoying this so much that he may be getting the itch to get his own mill one day.

-Brad

Looks like you all had a great time. Those are some real nice looking logs.

 

[discounthunter]

nice work.looks like you got a nice pile to mill from too.

 

[Birdhunter1]

Yeah we had a good time and about 8 beers in that one. Would have had more but Typhoon and I work a job where we both work evenings and my days off are his days on..... Never do we have the same times off (except daylight or midnights, unless we use vacation time or happen to come down with somethiung).

Plannin on starting the concrete work next week (at least my conrete guy said we were). After that I guess I'll build a barn on it.

The sad thing is another

1/4 miule behind my place is some government ground all wooded that is flat on the ground from a big storm last year that will rot because they won't log it. Saddest thing is there are alot of Beech trees in there that are 3-5' DBH, not to mention the oak, hickory, maple, and whatever you can think of.

 

[deeker]

This is Typhoon's (wearing the black bibs) mill but my wood (I'm the one in the sweatshirt). We had a big storm last year and this is what we are now milling from it. Since he's had the mill he said this was the biggest log he has had on it. It is a white oak that measured 29" or so and 10' long. We ended up with a beam out of it that was 16" x 18".

Rolling that sucker over was a bit of work, even with the assistance of my tractor and forks. This is the biggest log I have had on my front end loader and when I first picked it up in the field my back end got alot lighter. For scale that is an 029 with an 18" bar.

Great pics!!

Mill is the same as mine, you have the briggs and scrap iron 23hp??

Kevin

 

[Birdhunter1]

Nah, Brad's mill has a Honda 20 horse I think, might be a 25? All I did was run my tractor, helped turn big logs, other than that I kept the mill fed, helped pull off boards, tried to break Brad's leg once, told Brad what I wanted out of each log, gave him **** for showing up later than I did, and paid the bill when we were done!