What's your limit?

[Dave Shepard]

BBTom, I've "beenthere"  ;D If I have to trim up the side with a chainsaw, I know I am going to get plenty of wide stuff. I tend to be a little biased, as our goal is to always be in the 16" to 20" range with our boards, so when I saw up an 18" tree, I think, gee, I am "only" going to get 10s and 12 out of this. If it won't make a wane free 6" board, it doesn't even go in the edger, and I have never made a 4" board. I like the 24" pines with little taper and small knots.


Dave

[ohsoloco]

I'm running a Norwood, and I've sawn a few logs around 40" with some chainsaw work...trimming the sides, top, and cutting a slot for the guide like BBTom shows.  One of the 40 inchers was a white oak that tapered down to about 30" in an 8' log.  Not fun to turn.  Biggest was probably a 12' white pine about 36" diameter.  Took several hours to saw up, but got some nice boards for my B&B siding  ;) 

Some logs I have to hook the cant hook as far down on the side as I can, hunker down and put the cant hook handle on my shoulders, and slowly stand up.  Had to use a hydraulic jack to turn a big walnut years back. 

My favorites are the 16-24" straight ones  ;D

[Handy Andy]

  Guess I'm crazier than I thought.  My little mill only cuts 32" x 16' or so, but I've had bigger diameter logs on it than that.  Just cut a little off with the chainsaw so the carriage will go by, then turn it, have to use my skidsteer to do that, and usually the second cut will clear.  I had to hump some 24" x 14' boards up in the barn, now that was tough.  specially since it was about 10' high on the pile.  Jim

[Engineer]

My old WM LT30 is supposed to do somewhere in the 28-32" range.  I'm not sure.  I'm not sure I've ever measured my logs either.  I have several pine logs at 30-36" diameter right now that I am not looking forward to.  Part of the problem is that with a really wide cut, I can't get the blade tension up where I need it.  I sawed a couple that were 16' long and about 30" diameter when I was doing my house frame, and it took three men with cant hooks and a tractor to flip and roll those logs.  Not fun.  Even the slabs were hard to handle.

[fuzzybear]

just cut a log for a cabin (2 sided) it was only 20" at the butt. The real trial was that it was 45' long. My LT30 has bed rails 34' long.  It took me 2 hrs with the crane to mill both sides on the taper. (had to do it all by myself : )
   Now I only have 4 more to do again. : : :



It is the log closest to the crane controls.



I need to add about 25' more to the mill. ;D ;D

[Dangerous_Dan]

This is beyond my limit. I had to cut a foot off of one side to get the blade hub to pass by on the 1st cut of each level.





Finished size is 2 3/4 thick, 48 inches wide, 9 feet long.
What kind of price tag should I put on it?

[WDH]

Whoa  8).  I have never cut a slab that took a crane to move .  That is one fine piece of wood.  As to the value, I will let the experts chime in. 

What species is that?

[artenvielfalt]

hallo guys, i posted before, i have done a 1,8m diameter oak and 5,5m long, sorry no idea of the feet and inches that is.
BUT with the peterson 10" and large frame there was no problem, only getting up on that monster and stepping of at the end, used a ladder and walked on the log all the time until i got to the bottom slab.
i think that was the limit, as i had to block up my tracks and then cut with them about 60cm up in the air. was a little scary in the beginning as it was on a field and in the snow so all was a littel shaky and ,....
but with best results.
foto upload , still don´t know how to work these stupid computer machines,... i will go to a friend to load up all my pictures one day and then all of you can have a nice slide show of what was cut here in Germany.
cheers Ulf

[WDH]

Ulf,

We will be waiting for the foto upload ;D.

[schmism]

Whoa  8).  I have never cut a slab that took a crane to move .  That is one fine piece of wood.  As the the value, I will let the experts chime in. 

What species is that?

Gum?

[WDH]

Cottonwood?

[Dangerous_Dan]

It's Ash.

[WDH]

Ash should have known it  :.