Telephone poles?

[keddle123]

Has anyone milled telephone poles ? we have an unlimited supply on red Cedar poles and I'm not sure how it will go
Thanks
Mark

[isawlogs]

 Yes I have , and no I won't anymore.   :-\

Most times they are   A: full of nails

                               B: Most are treated .. nasty stuff to deal with

So question here would be are these poles treated  ???

[Jeff]

If you do a search, its been discussed numerous times. Most of the people that have report a very negative experience.

[Bert]

I've sawn many, many utility poles on a circle mill. Cedar poles typically do not have creosote so that should not be an issue. What is an issue is harware. Be diligent with your metal detector and you will have no problems. They make good lumber for treated needs. I've noticed many protest sawing these, but its really pretty common for to saw these for pole bldgs where I'm from.

[terrifictimbersllc]

Weisy has cut up telephone poles on his Lucas maybe he will be along to tell about it.   

I'd like to know if anyone has ever felled a telephone pole and what you do about the wires.  8) 8) 8)

[DRB]

When we were running we sawed a lot of cedar poles on 50/50 shares the linemen would bring them by on the company truck and pile them up. Makes nice siding for a building or looks real nice as paneling inside. It makes for great beams for post and beam construction. Some of the poles had the butt dipped in creosote. It soaks up a couple feet. trim that off if you have such a log.  Creosote is nasty stuff try not to cut any of it on you mill. Nails can be an issue but lag bolts are the biggest concern. Dry cedar is dusty wear a face mask when sawing and be careful of ignition sources.   Expect splinters galore do not handle without leather gloves. It can be great stuff if free of creosote and metal.  I would welcome it myself as a source of nice lumber.  Nice green clean cedar logs would be better but where we were cutting in Ohio there was no Western red Cedar native only ERC and it was scattered and scarce.

[Banjo picker]

I sawed some of the ones we have down South for my own use, and as Marcel said I won't do it again for myself or anybody else...Tim

[Kansas]

We did in our hungry early days. We aren't that hungry anymore.

[keddle123]

I don't Believe they are treated, and these are rural poles so I'm hoping there are not a lot of nails 
 

[Woodwalker]

Creosote, that stuff ain't bad. (twitch) Worked with and around it (twitch, drool) for the last 35 years. Just because the stuff will prevent rot and most bugs from eating the wood for several lifetimes don't mean it'll bother anyone's health (twitch, cough).

I'll cut some for myself when I need treated wood. I've got some poles cleaned up and waiting for it to cool off some so I can cut some bridge decking.  I wear a powered\filtered respirator, long sleeves, collect all the dust I can and sweep up the rest. Usually burn the dust and slabs a little at a time. Metal is a problem, but  having installed most every type of hardware on them over the years, I pretty much know where and what to look for.
Dry cedar won't pose the same problems as the treated SYP  I've got here, but the is a treatment used to prevent rot where a hole is drilled into the pole near ground level and an aluminum tube with some very nasty (as in will poison and kill you) chemicals is inserted into that hole and a wooden plug is driven in to seal the opening. 
Other than dealing with the dust and slabs, It does make some nice lumber. (twitch, cough, drool)

[paul case]

i have sawed some of the creosote poles and they made real nice treated lumber. check twiceoften for hardware .

as far as felling them someone knows how.
in a comunity near me called picher  the epa forced a buyout and almost all the residences were bought out and moved. abandoned lead mines. the county sheriff is in charge of law enforcement there and now someone had been climbing power poles and stealing the rural elec company's wire. the latest bunch of theives have started cutting the poles down to steal the wire. so now in order to sell copper wire  to a recycler you must prove place of origin.  most wont buy it.   pc

[Magicman]

Yeah, twice.  My first and my last on the same job.  And I didn't charge for doing it because I only sawed one.

[redbeard]

I'am with woodwalker the chemicals are very harmful especially the poles from the 60 s - 70 s you can find the dates stamped on pole or tagged with a metal circle plate. Wear all the protection you can on the treated ones. Good housekeeping around mill when your done is also highly recomended. The cedar poles in my area are not treated i welcome those but the Doug fir ones are nasty don't like to cut them anymore only for my own projects. Excpect alot of smoke also i thought i was frying my blade on my first one but its the treatment.

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

I have cut heaps of Telephone/Warf piles and bridge timbers they all get lumped  under the same heading for me ;)  Recycled and I have done over 1milion bft sawn in that class over the years    ;) some treated ones with creosote but most of them where untreated like some have said hardware is an issue but once you have been dealing with them awhile you know where the main points to look for are for removal as they are pretty predictable for where the hardware is  if they are coming out of the same structure or run of poles my trick is if they are looking abit iffy just dock that section out with the chainsaw  ;) ;D 8)

It would be a cheap and ready source of log supply if you don't mind a bit of Hard n Dirty work ;) Id say bring it on if it was myself  Mate ;)  ;D 8)

(edit) Ill also add that with processing recycled timbers budget the extra time it will take you in log preparation and processing will cost between -50% to about the the same as buying logs to saw it just depends on how rough the material is you have to work with and how much of it  you are willing to sacrifice to get a good log  ;)

My best run production wise was in warf piles  that had come out of the silt bed some of it was waterlogged but still worth sawing 40' long with the only hardware being at each end jut dock those off and whatever lengths you needed and give them a quick blast with the pressure washer then strait onto the mill to saw 6x6 to 12x12s two of us on a good day on the Kara was abot 20m3 or about 8500bft sawn Mate  ;)

Regards Chris

[SamB]

In regards to cedar utility poles, I've climbed a lot, worked on, placed and removed several, made cross cuts, but never milled any. Have seen some that were recycled and milled for pole buildings, very nice lumber and squared poles. Never saw one that wasn't treated the entire length and were usually pressure treated the bottom end ten feet or more. Ones that have been standing in the elements for years give the appearance of not being treated other than where they are in the ground. Maybe in other locals they use cedar poles for utility lines that are only butt treated. The only butt treated only poles I've seen in my area were ones that were placed during the WWII era and were stamped BTF.

As far as felling utility poles with wires on them, I've done quite a bit of that kind of work and my advice would be to leave that work for the utility companies, too many variables and risks.   

[fat olde elf]

First you need to get your saw built.............

[keddle123]

if someone would email the pictures?

[redbeard]

These are some i picked up on a deal had to buy whole pile half fir half cedar what caught my eye on the deal was 4-5 were Alaskan yellow cedar made my money plus back on those. The red cedar poles are dipped at the butts they quit using cedar pole around here in the 80s, You have to have a connection with power company to find any in my area.

I see my plastic culvert that i ripped in half to lay next to mill to catch sawdust i will have to try that again been wondering were that was.

[Magicman]

It's obvious that your treated poles are much different from ours.  Then our rot factor is much greater also. 

It's nice to see how different areas of the world can use different standards and methods to defeat rot/insects.

[bandmiller2]

Their was a subcontract crew replacing highline poles in my neighborhood.They would tie a 50' rope on a 70' pole and pull on it when the outher guy cut it.I reminded them of their folly but they just laughed and said watch when the pole started to lean they'd run.Those poles came down like a safe falling three stories.I use alot of poles but use them round and just notch with chainsaw. Frank C.