the debut of the mikeymill

mikeb1079 · Oct 4, 2009

well, the mikeymill (in honor of the bilmill) made its debut today with the assistance of my newly acquired 066 magnum. holy crap, what a difference. formerly, i was using a vastly underpowered (all i had at the time) 54cc dolmakita saw and my neighbors aluminum 8020 milling jig. that setup worked--barely--for about 3 to 5 slabs. then, it was nothing but trouble. the saw wouldn't cut, the jig's screws kept vibrating loose causing the depth of cut to widen and jamming the saw, it was fight fight fight. so much so, that after the last milling session i was seriously questioning whether it was worth all this trouble/struggle. i immediately liked milling; the freshly cut lumber, the smell of the cherry, the freeness of the wood ($) but i was pretty discouraged by how it was going. enter the 066 and the mikeymill. as you may recall from my earlier post, i made the mill with perferated square tube for my uprights so that i would never have the screw vibing loose problem ever again. in addition, you can accurately set your depth of cut in about 2 seconds by simply counting the number of holes from the top of the upright on both sides (making sure they're equal).
With the 066 running beautifully, in 1 1/2 hrs my buddy and i equaled our output of the prior two sessions. not only that, our cuts were straighter and cleaner (due to the fact that we no longer had to wrestle the saw constantly) and we were far less fatigued. so many thanks to you fine folks around here that helped with input and ideas. :cheers:

i'm really psyched and can't wait to the next mill session!
check out the pics, the freshly cut cherry looks really nice.
http://s774.photobucket.com/albums/yy26/mikeb1079/

BobL · Oct 4, 2009

and another one bites the dust . . . . . .

Onya Mike, and nice wood too

mtngun · Oct 5, 2009

I like the use of telescoping perforated square tube. Heavy perhaps, but functional and sturdy.

mikeb1079 · Oct 5, 2009

I like the use of telescoping perforated square tube. Heavy perhaps, but functional and sturdy

.

i agree. even though you sacrifice some fine depth adjustment, the time and headache it saved me was well worth it imho. i plan on resawing the slabs anyways, as they're about 2" thick now. :chainsaw:

BlueRider · Oct 6, 2009

There is a great deal of wisdom in milling 2x the thickness you want and resawing once the wood is dry. Most woods will warp less the thicker you mill. the down side of course is the extra time it takes to dry. once you have a good supply of wood milled the extra time is a non factor. I have several years worth of dry wood so I can afford the time to wait.

Your 2" slabs are likely to end up just a hair over 1 3/4" thick by the time they dry. this will make it difficult to get two 3/4" surfaced boards, particularly if there is any warping. I mill everything at 2 1/4" thick for this very reason and often wish I had milled it at 2 3/8".

I don't get cherry in my area so you should check with others on this forum, but I have read that cherry is always boxed around heart and the heart discarded.

Good looking slabs, furniture in the rough.

mikeb1079 · Oct 6, 2009

Your 2" slabs are likely to end up just a hair over 1 3/4" thick by the time they dry. this will make it difficult to get two 3/4" surfaced boards, particularly if there is any warping. I mill everything at 2 1/4" thick for this very reason and often wish I had milled it at 2 3/8".

this is good advice. i was wondering about the ideal thickness of a slab. i had heard about the shrinkage/warpage factor but wasn't sure how thick to go. 3/4" is a pretty common thickness for projects so i'll keep that 2 3/8 in mind. i hadn't heard that about the heart of cherry being cut out. my retired co worker (runs a ripsaw mill) was telling me that cherry is really prone to split down the middle, especially if the tree was a leaner, so he just rips them down the middle after he slabs em out to remove that stress. at least that way you've got a straight cut. i'll have to read up on my woodworking before i start hacking away at those slabs. at least i've got some time, eh?