Milling Earl's Fir - Part 3 of 3

[Bob Smalser]

Continued from Milling Earl’s Fir Part 2.

The next log milled is the third log from the stump….a rougher (more knots) 16-footer I chose for Earl’s 6X6 stock...each well over 100lbs each. Notice this 6000lb log rests on the ground in front, and was rolled on a bearer in the rear. The mill’s blade only reaches 6” from the ground, so after most of the log is cut and lightened, we’ll dig a hole in front for the farm jack and raise the log remnant to a bearer so we can saw all the way to the bottom bark.



We finally get to the only log I came for, the clear 12-foot first log from which I need quartersawn doorjamb stock…we’ll use every inch of it. 9-10 rings per inch inside and 10-12 rings outside, this stock will grade No.1 Select if I can saw around the few pitch pockets. At 10,000lbs, this log has a few inches of taper we’ll have to compensate for at the pith. We begin with vertical sawing using the One Square Edge pattern after the mill’s tracks are perfectly aligned with the top bark…



At the next deck of boards we switch to horizontal sawing to maintain vertical grain in the boards. You’ll notice the next board to the right in the deck will not have vertical grain. With this mill, we could continue sawing vertically into the log beneath the first board shown, leaving the center, non-vertical grain wood. Using that technique, we’d reverse the powerhead and do the same on the opposite side of the log, leaving a beam-sized ridge of flatgrain wood in the center. We then would switch from horizontal to vertical sawing and take out the center, producing vertical grain boards. If this log were a rarer Oregon (Garry Oak) White Oak, we’d take the time to do that. But clear DF logs are common here so we’ll give the flatsawn boards for something else.



When we reach the pith, we readjust the mill’s tracks parallel to the bottom bark, removing and discarding the pith in the process…



Instead of a thick slab, this mill’s waste is a tapered pith center useable as stickers and tapered boards…



From heavily-tapered cedar butts, we even chainsaw them with deck screws and poly glue into rustic Adirondack chairs…I can make six of these a day and often give them to neighbors, some of whom even rasp and sand them smooth and paint them.



The end result is only a bit of sapwood and bottom bark…and if I tried hard, I could even squeak another 1X3 out of this one, although it’s quality would be poor. The ridge left on the right side of the slab prevents it from sagging between the bearers, producing “wasp-waist” board thickness.



The resulting 5/4 doorjamb stock…or at least my share…the others are in Earl’s stack. Having seen these go for a sawbuck or more each, retail, it’s not a bad morning’s effort.

[Bob Smalser]

“Milling Earl’s Fir” and “Falling a Big Fir” FAQ



Q: Why did you kill that beautiful huge tree?

A: Look at the lower right log on the truck...an upper crown log...that discoloration is Phellinus weirii (Poria Root Rot )...and the crown was dying. The entire pith would have rotted in another 20 years...and then it truly would have been hazardous to take down.
Bang your questionable trees hard with your falling axe and make some plunge cuts to test soundness, first....if they barber-chair on you during the face cut while you are on your knees, you may not live to meet your grandchildren. Better, smarter and safer to take the tree down and market the logs to offset the arborist costs...and also provide somebody somewhere some lumber that would have had to come from a healthy tree someplace anyway.

Q: How long does the drying process take on those 1x's?

A: These will be at 18pct M/C by next September here, whereupon they get stacked and stickered in the heated new structure for another few weeks to get below 10pct before planing and using.

Q: How's that blade attached so ya'all can saw flush with it?

A: Countersunk allen-head machine screws....I carry an awl to unpack the sawdust from them when it's time to change.

Q: What are the capacities? Where do you buy them? Can larger diameter blades be fitted? Are the blades easily sharpened or are they hardened and need professional attention/equipment?

A: These are swing-blade circle (circular saw) mills...blade mounted to a transmission that swings from horizontal to vertical, taking and L-shaped cut out of a log in two passes:

The advantages over a band mill are general speed, log size, no need to make a cant first, ease of quarter sawing (above) and ease of sharpening the carbide-tipped blades. The disadvantage is my 25hp saw only takes a 8.5" bite on any one pass...to cut a 12" - 17" board, the power head carriage must be swung around to come at the log from the other side...much slower for wide boards than a band mill. They come standard with three blades and a sharpening kit. Retipping and truing the blades are done for me by Shelton Saw Works for $17.00 a blade…usually after I hit a nail, which usually happens long before I wear out a carbide tip. I have 26' of track for 8'X17" beams and large rafters and also a bevel siding attachment. Smaller, 13hp and 18hp 6 1/2" saws are also made, as are full slabbing attachments that use long chainsaw bars and they also make these sawmills with electric motors. The blades are a custom design for each saw and cannot be interchanged. It's an Australian invention by the Lucas family of Wooragee, Victoria originally designed to be packed in to remote areas in the pacific Islands.

http://www.lucasmill.com.au

http://www.baileys-online.com/Mill.htm

Q: How much do one of the swing blade mills sell for?....a decent starter band mill starts about $5000-10,000.....

A: See the Bailey's link. $5995-$9995. But that's complete and ready to work....comes with 3 blades and the sharpening set and complete spares...you don't need another grand in sharpening equipment to do the 5 blades a day the band mills go thru....or the 2+ hours it takes after supper to do them.

Q: It appears the swing blade mills may be more accurate as well?... when I've had band mill sawing done. most of the pieces were not completely uniform thickness and could vary up to 1/4 inch from end to end or sometimes side to side or corner to corner....

A: Dull blade, most likely.... just like on your 14" Delta.... wanders around. Impossible to get all the mud off a log, and some logs, like cedar, have high silica content. Changing bandsaw blades 4-5 times a day and then sharpening them all at night for the next day isn't something Woodmizer advertises. We used to power wash the logs first when using band mills, but gave that up as not worth it. In contrast, carbide-tipped blades are sharpened 2-3 times a day depending on knots in fir, and 3-4 times a day milling cedar. I don't have to plane this wood for cutting accurate joints...often skipping that step by cutting the joints, disassembling, hitting just the exposed surfaces with the belt sander, and assembling/gluing up. This mill can cut accurate 1/32" slices. Where circle mills go off it's usually because of a warped blade.... they are routinely hammered true as part of the retipping/grinding process at the saw works I take them to for 17 bucks a blade...I have 4 blades...three come as standard equipment with the mill and I bought an extra in case of hardware trees.

Q: I basically don't understand a thing you said, but sure is cool looking at the photos.

1. "One Square Edge pattern" - there must be more to this than what its description implies, how do you get that first square edge, is it vertical or horizontal, does it matter?

2. …"mill's tracks are perfectly aligned with the top bark..." - this makes no sense to me, do you have a curved track to align to the bark.

3. …"next deck of boards" - what is this, how can you have a deck of boards before you saw them?

A: "One Square Edge" merely means sawing vertically thru the entire top half of the log, making a combination of quarter and rift sawn boards...more economical and wider boards than pure quarter sawing. Tapered logs are dead straight along the bark on either side...the bark sides are not parallel with each other, tho. A "board deck" is merely and entire horizontal pass thru the log, the end result being a dead flat surface.




Q: Aha, so you line up the frame/blade parallel to one side of the taper?

A: Yup. Then change to the tracks parallel with the bottom bark when you reach the pith. The mill also compensates for taper from side to side, if you want to do that too, adjusting the mill again when you reach the center of each board deck. This particular mill, because it doesn't make cants first and can be easily adjusted to the shape of the log, produces the least "grain runout" of any sawmill out there...it's products can rival riven boards for strength...that's why this is the perfect mill for boatbuilders and steam-bend woodworkers.

Q: Darn, bob... I've never seen an operation like that.. makes my 16" husky feel a little inadequate. What’s the winch?

A: And these are simple little 1000lb winches (3/16" wire rope) that run off a chainsaw power head.... either capstan or drum winches. They are still made today. The "Homelite Zip" is an old make of chain saw from the 1950's...all steel and very heavy.
http://www.baileys-online.com/store/.../store/USA.htm

[Bob Smalser]

FAQ....continued


Q: My sheetrock sub just offered me a used-two-weeks Stihl 046 Mag. For slabbing out small stuff (probably 24" dia.) here in the Adirondacks, will it drive a rip chain through a log using an Alaskan mill?

A: 046 and a rip chain mill a log alone in a Granberg Alaskan Mill? You betcha. Helps to put a handle on the bar tip and have a helper, tho. Serious ear protection too, eh?

Q: Don't know if it was in this thread or the other one...said something about topping the tree the hard way. What way is that? Also said something about a falling bed...? How long did it take from the first cut until a slab came off the mill?

A: Forest trees are dropped and skidded to the landings whole...slash then is piled and burned after limbing there instead of in the woods so's ya leave minimum fuel in the woods for uncontrolled, premature wildfire. That's the most dangerous way to do it, tho, when you consider falling limbs are probably the greatest hazard to fallers. Danger trees like this one are often limbed and topped first....you then know exactly how tall it is....with that knowledge you can rig a line onto it to a winch to help insure it falls exactly where you need it to and you can just park the winch truck straight in line with it w/o the extra trouble of an anchored block to keep the truck out of the way. Once limbed, the bole hits much harder...this one weighed somewhere between 20-30 tons. To keep from breaking board feet you arrange the slash into a padded bed. PS...oops...wrong tree....my previous post on the 52-incher weighed 30 tons and a bed was prepared. The tree in this post weighed only 15 tons and the trail we dropped it on was soft and flat so no bed was made.

Q: "How long did it take from the first cut until a slab came off the mill?"

A: We dropped that tree and bucked it at 10-11am...took me til 3pm to break the mill down and drive to Earls, then another hour before we made the first cut. But on flat ground, I can unload and erect the machine in 30 minutes alone, and 15 with a helper.

Q: I ran across these guys at a recent woodworking show. They sell a bunch of different tools for chainsaw lumber making, including bars for most chainsaws and chains filed to 10 degrees, which they claim is the optimum angle.

A: I've milled a bit of remote wood with an Alaskan Mill and the 046 Stihl...better for beams and big stuff, eh? Not the best choice for many 4/4 boards. You'll go deaf even with double ear protection. It's strenuous labor. Tediously and painfully slow, even with a proper ripping chain and a serious saw. A couple 2X4 rafters as a top guide for the cheap hundred-dollar Granberg Alaskan works just fine to make straight boards...your problem with these is the rough, large kerf, not straightness...and that's so for all of the chainsaw mills. That and you'll get real weary of making boards this way real quick. It's hard enuf on those 800-dollar saws designed for more intermittent than continuous duty that you might be better off financially to buy a real but used sawmill.
http://www.sawmill-exchange.com/index.htm

Q: I'm guessing the wood changes dimension quite a bit as it dries. Do you have to do any final milling once the wood reaches certain moisture content or is shrinkage figured into your initial cuts?

A: I cut 'em an 8th oversize, generally. 1 5/8 by 3 5/8 for a 2X4. Sometimes flatsawn 2X6 and larger shrink across the grain smaller than the 5 1/2 nominal size in the height of summer, but the extra bit of thickness means they always meet grade. 2X12's can be more difficult depending on degree of flat or vertical grain, which is impossible to control in an average size log. I cut them oversize at 11 1/2 and joint or rip down about 3 our of 12 to get them to acceptably-uniform size for joists. I always have them graded in our wet winter so there's never any questions. And drying with it's attendant shrinkage varies by species and is a whole different topic. Cedar shrinks hardly at all....flatsawn DF 2X12's can shrink well over a quarter inch across it's width while it's Q-sawn neighbor will only shrink an 8th. I air dry them one drying season (May-Oct here) per inch for fir, less than that for cedar....that brings them to 18-20pct M/C....fine for boats and framing. Interior wood needs to be restacked and stickered inside the heated structure for a few weeks or more to bring it down to under 10pct. Cedar can be dried fast...fir cannot...and maple has to be dried the slowest to prevent checking. The USDA Wood Encyclopedia has all the details.

Q: This is fascinating stuff. Please continue with grading, drying, etc.

A: Sure....stacked, stickered and covered and left to airdry for 1 year or so per inch of thickness to take it to 18-20pct. Cedar less, maple and hardwoods a bit more. DF and WRC dry well. The interior wood restacked and stickered in the new heated structure for a few weeks to get below 10pct before planing and use.
No.1 Sel DF Beam and Keel Stock

No1 Sel Q-Sawn DF Rafter Stock

Figured Maple Cabinet Stock stacked “In The Bole”

Only the structural lumber requires grading...and in many areas, the worst of that agony can be foregone if you are willing to accept a grade of No2 or Better. But ya call the mill grading organization who certifies local mill graders and the supervisor during his periodic circuit drops by and stamps your boards and beams after you unstack them. Many local graders aren't certified to do beams...so how you have it graded depends on what you have and the grade your structural engineer demands. But for garden-variety framing lumber, it's no big deal except for the unstacking...which is why God gave us teenage boys.


Q: I don't understand all of the terminology…

A: Ask questions, then. A "peavey" is a 5' ash pole with a steel tip and large hook hinged to the tip's ferrule...used to roll and lever around logs.
http://www.baileys-online.com/store/USA.htm And Bailey's will send you a free video on their Lucas mills, but more to follow on the mill.
http://www.baileys-online.com/store/USA.htm

Q: Thanks for posting, Bob - how many board feet in the big one you didn’t mill? I've done some fair sized mid-western trees, but that one's 85' taller and a foot bigger diameter - quite a k-rump as it hit, I'm sure - - it is a special feeling to make a project out of a tree .

A: 13,000 BF or so. But DF that rough is sold as "studwood" by the ton instead of by the BF. And this one will only bring $60.00 a ton. "Export" grade logs grown in forests with tighter rings and fewer large knots are sold by BF measured by the Scribner Scale and sell for $.60 to $.90 a BF. Also remember that these log scales were devised in the last century for wasteful mills...when I cut smaller logs, my efficient Lucas Mill yields up to 200pct of Scribner...the bigger the log, the closer it comes to 100pct of scale.

[Todd Burch]

Bob, this is and the other posts you made were very informative. I've had some wood milled before, and this post was very interesting for me. I've never hired out a swing blade style mill, nor have I had the opportunity to have had a sawyer as knowledgeable as yourself. I would suggest you request Keith Outten to make this into an article.

Thanks for posting this project. Todd