New to milling

[Fil-Dill]

I was looking for some help getting started in milling, but do not want to repeat topics. I just bought a new EZ boardwalk but have never sawed more than a few boards. I have 22 cherry logs for free, that have been in a pile for 28 months. I know Bibbyman said they would be harder and bought a few timberwolf blades for this. What I was wondering is what thickness to cut them to finish up 13/16" when dried and planed. They will be used for furniture. Up till now, I have always bought all my furniture lumber and it was already dried, so I don't know what  it would have measured green. Also wondering if shrink rate would be less after logs have been laying and if shrinkage would be different from one species to another. Thanks to Bibbyman and Haytrader for helping me get to this point. I am very impressed with Mr. Zimmerman's mill. Thanks

[Tom]

Any black cherry I've cut, dried better when sawed a full 4/4.  It did even better when sawed 1 1/8" to 5/4, though the 5/4 was a bit of overkill.  It's not just the shrinkage that you are concerned about, but the cup, and to a lessor extent, side bend.  Cherry produces its best grain figure when flat-sawed, so cup is a concern.  Side bend can be minimized by keeping the pith centered such that there are the same grain configurations on each side of the middle of the board.

Dry it under an open roof.  No sun.  Sweep off all of the sawdust to prevent shadow.  Use dry stickers.

Don't allow yourself to get hung up on commercial sizes.  It's your sawmill, your wood and you are going to use it, so it's in your best interest to maximize the boards from the tree and not worry so much about widths.  Instead, worry about he tensions being equal.   You probably don't even have to be too concerned about he boards being 13/16 in their final form.  If the board is pretty, you will find a place for it. 

[Fil-Dill]

I the 4/4 marks on my scale are 1-3/32" including kerf, will this be good enough. Also most of my drying is in a hay loft and 2 old grain bins. I don't need wide lumber as I usually rip to no wider than 4 inches, even if I flip board and glue back together. Also is flat sawing when you flip the cant after each cut?

[Tom]

Yes, that will give you a full 4/4 board, in most instances.  You need to have a bit of different mentality when breaking up logs than you do when creating a board to fit in a piece of fine furniture.  Instead of thinking of the fine measurements of making something fit, you must think of what it will take to get an end product that will allow you to make that critically measured board in the shop.  You are dealing with green/wet wood with an implement that can't be depended upon to saw consistently to the 16ths.

That is why most grade sawed hardwood lumber in commercial mills is 1 1/8" thick.  So was mine and you will find that most of the other sawyers who produce any quantity of lumber will be sawing in that neighborhood also.   The reason is that you are having to account for shrinkage, crook, bend, cup, knots, errant grain, rot, and the fact that no two boards, much less, two logs, are alike.  Once that board has been cut, it's mighty difficult to glue some back onto it and make it thicker or wider.

Flat sawing, or grade sawing, is getting the widest, clearest face available from the cant.  Yes, it might mean that you turn the cant every board.  When cutting for commerce, you have to fit into certain widths.  When cutting for yourself, you can take advantage of a weird sized width, knowing that you can handle it in the shop and get more lumber than if you size it critically on the mill.

Why get concerned with a 7 1/2 inch wide board just because some book says that lumber is cut on 2 inch centers (not necessarily true in hardwoods anyway).  Why split a 12" wide board on the mill because you usually use 4" wide boards?  There may come a time when you need a pretty 12" board and there it will be.

If there is anything you want to stay away from, it is twist.  Twist can be avoided a lot of times by keeping the heart (pith) centered and the grain straight.  Twist is almost impossible to fix in the shop.
 The other warps can sometimes be managed.

[paul case]

congrats on the new mill and welcome to the forum fil
i saw with an ez also. mine is the full size. on my mill with a new blade on most logs it wants to cut faster than it can handle. i have to hold it back. if i let it feed too fast the cut is not true. you will want to look at each cut as you are starting to get the feel of what is the best feed rate. my exp anyway.
narrower boards on cherry do dry better in my opinion. the cupping is less noticeable and easier to plane out.
as for flipping the board every cut, i think as long as you try to have the core in as few boards as possible you will probably do great.
i hope you will enjoy running your new mill as much as i do mine.  pc

[thecfarm]

A new mill to play with. Have fun. You will make some mistakes,no big deal. But some mistakes may not show up until it's stacked and drying. Meaning it will cup,and twist and start to move on ya. Up here that what's a wood stove is for.  ;D Good luck with your furniture building.

[Fil-Dill]

Is flat sawing the most stable lumber other than quarter sawn, for furniture.? Or does that differ from species to species? Almost all the charity peices we build are red oak. It seems to be the most popular wood in general. Also I would like to put up a saw shed, but all I have on my farm for framing is white oak, cottonwood and sycamore. Pine isn't to common in Central MO.

[paul case]

white oak , and sycamore will work for stuff for a saw shed.mydad my son and i just finished a 26' x40' leanto on his barn using only lumber i sawed. lots of post oak and some red oak. you just have to get used to drilling the first hole and the nails will drive in the second board.all green btw.  we screwed the roof on . that works real well even into oak. i hope to post some pics of that soon.pc

[Tom]

Is flat sawing the most stable lumber other than quarter sawn, for furniture.? Or does that differ from species to species?

Quarter sawing (verticle grain) and Flat sawing (horizontal grain) are just two different animals.  Each has its place.  Most commercially available hardwoods are sawed by grade sawing which is mostly flat sawing.  It generally shows the best grain figure. 

Quarter sawing is stable from a cupping standpoint, but its nature is to Crook.   It also shows off medullary rays whereas flat sawing does not.  It wears good too.   That is why it is favored for flooring.

Even rift sawing has a place.  It makes great legs for tables and stuff.   That's because the grain is the same on all four faces.   It has a tendency to twist, unless you are good and lucky.

Don't get too hung up on one type of lumber.  They all have there place and some woods favor one method over the other to show themselves off.

Flat sawing gets you the most lumber from the log with the least waste.

[paul case]

Tom,
is there one method that works best to keep sycamore from moving , twisting ,and cuppin better than the other? pc

[Tom]

Sycamore shows its best figure when quarter sawed.   It is a wood with interlocked grain and a twisted growing pattern.  That make it difficult to saw and dry without stress degrades, regardless of the sawing pattern.   My best luck with sycamore was to cut it on the heavy side and have some "meat" to dress with shop tools.  I've even flat sawed a bunch of it and gotten good results.   Lots of folks think that the sawyer is the reason that boards succeed or fail.  He's just one member of a very long equation.  You could screw up thousands of board feet of lumber by just being sloppy with your stacking and drying procedures.  

I've touted the Wood Handbook many times.  You can find it in the Knowledge base which is in Forum extras.  There is a chart in that book that recommends the better ways to saw different woods based on their grain configuration.

[Fil-Dill]

Paul, you said you have the larger EZ. Do you use the leveling legs that came on it and does it walk any as you load logs and roll them around. I am beginning to wish I would have went with the larger mill but cannot justify the price for a hobby. However it is not always easy to put a 12' log on a 12' mill and have it in the right place. I am extending mine already to 17'. Just happened to work out with the metal.

[paul case]

i do use the leveling screws. i cut 3 6x6 cants and put the feet on them with screws. i am set up in an old chicken house so it is flat and mostly level.the mill does want to scoot when loading logs on it so i put some 2x8's on the floor between the wall and the 6x6's so it cant move back. i load mine with the tractor so i do bump it quite a bit.  i loaded a 32'' x 10'6'' post oak log on it yesterday. my tractor wouldnt lift it so i rolled him up there with 2  4' boards and the loader. slabbed some big chunks off before i turned it to make it roll easier. if you put some cants under your mill dont let them stick out on the operators side. i did and trip over them all the time. i need to cut them off, just waiting for the saw to get dull again and me to remember before i sharpen it.
i have some trouble hitting it just rite on those mill length logs too. so i cut the logs longer and try to get the one end as close to the saw as i can and cut the other end off after i get it loaded. sometimes i have to cut off both ends.  its not perfect but it works and i wind up using the firewood too .  pc