49 foot beam on a 21 foot bed?

[Brucer]

The most important thing is to support the beam at frequent intervals over it's whole length. The supports have to be absolutely in line with each other.

You have 49 cubic feet of wood to shift there -- 1200 to 1500 lbs. Sliding it on anything is going to be a problem. Lifting it, rolling it, and setting it back down will be easier.

Keep in mind that the vertical stiffness of a beam varies with the cube of the height. Cutting the beam in half means each piece will be 1/8 as stiff as the original, but still weigh half a much. In other words, each half will sag a lot more under it's own weight than the original beam. You don't want to find this out as you're shifting the cut portion off the end of the mill. If the ends ever droop, they will push the centre up :(.

Magicman and I both use pieces of old sawblade to drag sawdust out of the kerf. I hammer some of the set out of mine, and dull each tooth with a file. When I've got a thick board or slab on the top, I use a (new) plastic bucking wedge to pry the kerf open. It's easy to insert and can be tapped in as you get further down the cut.

You can raise and lower the toeboards a little with the (stopped) blade in the kerf. It will flex enough (but be sure to open the throat right up first). Adjust the head up or down to centre the blade in the kerf.

I have sawn open a couple of glulams and they had hardened aluminum nails in a few places. These didn't damage the blade but they will probably dull it slightly if you hit too many.

[Brad_bb]

I've cut a beam 7 feet longer than my mill before, but stopping and moving it, but I removed the slab to free my band.  In your case, you'd have to keep your band in the cut and move the saw head with the beam, which means you'd have to slide the beam along the mill as opposed to picking it up and repositioning it with equipment. 

If you are going to slide it, wax your rails(bed cross bars) with johnson paste wax first.  As a side note, I've never hear of anyone on here waxing their bed cross bars.  I do it a lot to more easily slide cants.

You're going to need a forklift or loader to push the beam.  The mill may want to move a little, be careful.

The alaskan mill is a good idea for something so long.

It will definitely require some belt sanding after to smooth the transitions if using your band mill.

I would question what he is intending to do with the re-milled beams?  How will he know what the strength of the newly sized beams are?

I'm assuming the glue lams are doug fir.  Most of those large ones are.

[Chuck White]

Eric, got a pic of this beam you could post!

[Timster]

I seem to remember something about the material in the middle of the glulam being of a lower grade that on the top or bottom. I'm not an engineer but I would think twice about using a beam that was split in this way.