poplar milling

[outdoorsman0490]

Here are the ones I talked about yesterday. Peeled off all the bark first to get the mud and dirt off; this tree I cut down in October, moved them to this spot in March/April, and milled them today. The shorter log is about 7' the longer one just over 9'. The pics will speak for themselves about how nice the wood came out; and still no borers or bugs in these logs either. I ended up with 14 slabs, 7 from each log at 2" thick, plus the nice looking slab edges. I was somewhat surprised at how long it took to mill these, I thought compared to the red oak from yesterday these would have been like a hot knife through butter, but not so. They did mill quicker, but not a night and day difference. These were all milled with the same chain, the small log done at once, sharpened for the larger log, then halfway through the larger log. As a side note, it took about 1.2 gallons of gas to make these cuts, not bad when you look at the stack at the end of the day.
The last pics are in where the slabs set until they are sold. I don't stick them right away, I stack them in tight and wrap them with a tarp to slow down the drying process as much as I can for the first few weeks, then I will stick them and restack them to sit as long as they need to.

 

[outdoorsman0490]

the last of the pics

 

[mtngun]

You've been busy. Thanks for the pics. :msp_thumbup:

 

[Garmins dad]

Nice pics... :msp_smile:

 

[burningwood]

Here are the ones I talked about yesterday. Peeled off all the bark first to get the mud and dirt off; this tree I cut down in October, moved them to this spot in March/April, and milled them today. The shorter log is about 7' the longer one just over 9'. The pics will speak for themselves about how nice the wood came out; and still no borers or bugs in these logs either. I ended up with 14 slabs, 7 from each log at 2" thick, plus the nice looking slab edges. I was somewhat surprised at how long it took to mill these, I thought compared to the red oak from yesterday these would have been like a hot knife through butter, but not so. They did mill quicker, but not a night and day difference. These were all milled with the same chain, the small log done at once, sharpened for the larger log, then halfway through the larger log. As a side note, it took about 1.2 gallons of gas to make these cuts, not bad when you look at the stack at the end of the day.
The last pics are in where the slabs set until they are sold. I don't stick them right away, I stack them in tight and wrap them with a tarp to slow down the drying process as much as I can for the first few weeks, then I will stick them and restack them to sit as long as they need to.

Nice job on your milling, will you use any or just sell some.


bw

 

[imagineero]

Thats just about the best finish I have ever seen on a chain saw mill. Would you share which brand/gauge/pitch of chain you are using and what your sharpening settings are? I'm using 3/8" .063 carlton at 10 degrees and have never had a finish like that.

Shaun

 

[outdoorsman0490]

my set up is nothing special, as far as I can tell. The set up I was using for these slabs was the jred 2186 w/ 36" bar and mill. The chain is the basic woodland pro from baileys, .063 and 3/8. As other millers on here will attest, you need to keep the chain sharp and try to keep a constant amount of pressure on the mill, trying to keep the bar at the same angle to the wood throughout the whole cut. From what I have read from other millers on here, I tried propping up one end of the log in order to let gravity keep the saw moving through the wood; I also placed a heavy cookie on top of the mill. When I had everything set up properly, all I needed to do was squeeze the trigger, the mill cut the wood by itself.

I keep all my boards/slabs until I have a use for them, wether that be a project of mine, or someone's elses