Manjisann's Chainsaw Milling Adventures

[ManjiSann]

... sorry, too soon ?

Nah, you get a lot of leeway with the 2 bands and 5 chains adventure you posted ;D  I got way lucky only grazing it.. was a brand new chain though so that's a bit of a bummer but hey I guess I'm well on my way to being a real sawyer now that I've found my first hidden "gem"!

this is why in slabs, guys will try to "center the pith"  inside the slab.  when setting up to saw, if there is a prominent crack across the pith, you can try to make it parallel to the ground so it only is contained in one slab and not all.  

Ahhh ok that makes sense. I think I understood the reasoning in a vague nebulous sort of way but now that I've got the real world example and you point it out it clicks 8)  I will have to remember this and plan my future cuts accordingly. 

Thanks for the education Doc and Yellowhammer!

Brandon 

[ManjiSann]

Here's the gem once it was extracted 



Nebraska, your idea of drilling around the head, or in this case shaft, until I could get enough room to grab onto it was what worked! Thanks for posting the idea! When I'd initially asked the question I didn't know about this little guy, so your response was fortuitous. I kept drilling around it until it loosened enough it'd turn. 


So a few things I've learned today as I've milled. Be careful where you locate the center handle on your jig, mine's right in line with the exhaust from the muffler and it gets warm.

Milling is slow and tedious and I wouldn't want to do it for a living, but I enjoy it as a hobby and even though my back is a bit sore and I am covered in dust and smell of 2 stroke exhaust, there's a smile on my face and my heart is light... that could be the exhaust fumes speaking though  ;)

I really would like to build a bench or heavy duty saw horses or something that I can roll the log onto to get it a foot or two off the ground. The first few cuts aren't too bad but as you get near the ground it's really not comfortable and my leg muscles start to cramp. I'm going to have to come up with something that is VERY sturdy but can be taken down and moved when I don't use it since I mill on the back porch. 

Milling makes a LOT of man glitter, seriously it seems like I have enough to make a whole other log! Wish I could figure out something useful I could do with it instead of throwing it away. Good thing I have a truck I can start tossing bags of the stuff in to take to the landfill. 

Brandon 

[doc henderson]

Here's the gem once it was extracted

So a few things I've learned today as I've milled. Be careful where you locate the center handle on your jig, mine's right in line with the exhaust from the muffler and it gets warm.



smell of 2 stroke exhaust, there's a smile on my face and my heart is light... that could be the exhaust fumes speaking though  ;)




Milling makes a LOT of man glitter, seriously it seems like I have enough to make a whole other log! Wish I could figure out something useful I could do with it instead of throwing it away. Good thing I have a truck I can start tossing bags of the stuff in to take to the landfill.

Brandon
 

You will now refer to this as the "winter" handle position. you can later develop the "summer" position

SOB indicates carbon monoxide, smiles indicated unburned fuel, maybe we can incorporate this into a  carb tuning video  :D


ask at work to see who are the chicken ranchers @Southside and they will love it.  I also make fire starters as demonstrated last year @customsawyer

best regards. doc

[ManjiSann]

Here's the gem once it was extracted

So a few things I've learned today as I've milled. Be careful where you locate the center handle on your jig, mine's right in line with the exhaust from the muffler and it gets warm.



smell of 2 stroke exhaust, there's a smile on my face and my heart is light... that could be the exhaust fumes speaking though  ;)




Milling makes a LOT of man glitter, seriously it seems like I have enough to make a whole other log! Wish I could figure out something useful I could do with it instead of throwing it away. Good thing I have a truck I can start tossing bags of the stuff in to take to the landfill.

Brandon

You will now refer to this as the "winter" handle position. you can later develop the "summer" position

SOB indicates carbon monoxide, smiles indicated unburned fuel, maybe we can incorporate this into a  carb tuning video  :D


ask at work to see who are the chicken ranchers @Southside and they will love it.  I also make fire starters as demonstrated last year @customsawyer

best regards. doc

I have a neighbor that has chickens! I'd happily give him some. I'll have to ask him.

Southside, is sawdust from ripping logs too fine? I'd hate to try and help out my neighbor only to kill his chickens  :'( :'(

I'll have to try and mix some of the sawdust with parfin wax and see

Brandon

[Old Greenhorn]

We use the sawdust from my mill as mulch under out raspberry bushes, we also throw some in the compost bin in proper proportions. Good for soaking up some oil on the shop floor or as a sweeping compound. i am always looking for new uses. No way am I taking it to the dump. I'll spread it in the woods first. My grandsons like to play in a pile of it and move it with their toy loaders and dump trucks.

[Nebraska]

You neighbor will be happy man glitter is fine for chicken bedding, in fact good sharp chainsaw chain chips are about the same size as the compressed  fine wood chips in the plastic bags at the farm store.   

[Nebraska]

@ManjiSann  This  just got me thinking that might be your first happy customer 8), might pay you off in eggs.  8). Off shoot  business idea organic chicken coop bedding  8) 8).  Ok I better go get something productive done I'm having too much fun.

[Southside]

Sawdust and chicken manure makes the best potting soil you can get.

[ManjiSann]

We use the sawdust from my mill as mulch under out raspberry bushes, we also throw some in the compost bin in proper proportions. Good for soaking up some oil on the shop floor or as a sweeping compound. i am always looking for new uses. No way am I taking it to the dump. I'll spread it in the woods first. My grandsons like to play in a pile of it and move it with their toy loaders and dump trucks.

My youngest likes to play in it too 
I'll have to keep some around to absorb the odd spill. I hadn't thought of using it as mulch, I'll try that. Another neighbor has raspberry's I'll see if he'd like some for his bushes
Sadly I don't have a forest I can spread it in :(
Brandon 

[captain_crunch]

This is something that I learned takes more thinking than sawing not to be a wood butcher and become a sawyer 

[ManjiSann]

This is something that I learned takes more thinking than sawing not to be a wood butcher and become a sawyer

Too true! 
I ripped the boards and lost probably 15" total in board width cutting the pith cracking out  :( Good lesson on thinking before cutting!
Brandon 

[ManjiSann]

It was a light drizzle today... why is the weatherman only right when I don't want them to be? I didn't feel like trying to sweep up wet sawdust so worked on ripping the boards from yesterday.

Decided to make stickers out of one of the flitches. I think it was Doc that commented something to the extent that one board in every log can become stickers  :P



Woohoo first board!!! oh wait, I cut the 5/4 when it was supposed to be the 8/4 board...  smiley_dunce



So I cut it to the correct size... I'm sure I can figure something out for the other piece. 



Mid way through my neighbor texted asking what kind of fruit wood I had for smoking... so I had him come help me rip the 8/4 stuff as it was heavy enough to tip the table saw. He was super helpful and I got to know him better, nice guy and I sent him home with a wheelbarrow full of assorted fruit wood for his son in law to try out.  

Here's the results of the days work



I'm super excited to use this wood when it dries. There's some really nice coloring in it. I'm going to try and be a bit more careful when sawing the remaining two logs to reduce loss. Might even try quarter sawing a bit of it to see if I can get some nice coloring out of it. Unfortunately the forecast shows snow all next week    Hopefully it clears a bit after so I can mill more lumber

On another note... sawdust accumulates so much faster than I expect. Went to empty the shopvac figuring it was about half full and saw this



It's never a good thing when the filter is so packed in it pops off the motor  : :  I have to give Rigid props, it was still sucking up dust even though it was so full.

All in all a good day and I'm real happy with the stack of wood  8)

Brandon

[Old Greenhorn]

You make pretty stacks man. I wish I had the patience for that. But you work pretty hard for your lumber. I am going to have to work on that. In the spring I hope to make at least 2 more drying skids so I can stack by thickness. This fall I just have no time. I am hoping to take tomorrow afternoon off and get some work done, I hope I get lucky like you did today and move forward.

[Southside]

In the 3 rd photo, the board on the left, you might want to find a way to identify that board now, and see what happens as it dries, it will give you good experience on how that wood behaves.  It looks like you have sap wood and heart wood there and they are in competition with each other.  With lumber I saw that board would crook as it dries as the heart wood and sap wood don't shrink in the same manner when drying.  

[Old Greenhorn]

In the 3 rd photo, the board on the left, you might want to find a way to identify that board now, and see what happens as it dries, it will give you good experience on how that wood behaves.  It looks like you have sap wood and heart wood there and they are in competition with each other.  With lumber I saw that board would crook as it dries as the heart wood and sap wood don't shrink in the same manner when drying.  

That would make for an interesting, fun, and educational project. Just thumb tack a note to it with a tag and make note of changes on the tag time/vs flatness. I wonder if having it strapped will prevent some or any of the cupping? How often to you snug your straps?

[ManjiSann]

In the 3 rd photo, the board on the left, you might want to find a way to identify that board now, and see what happens as it dries, it will give you good experience on how that wood behaves.  It looks like you have sap wood and heart wood there and they are in competition with each other.  With lumber I saw that board would crook as it dries as the heart wood and sap wood don't shrink in the same manner when drying.  

I'm assuming you're referring to the board on the outer edge closest to the photographer (away from the other stack of wood?)  I'll tack a note to it as OG says or write on the edge with a marker.

I did notice as I was cutting some of the boards they wanted to start crooking... I hope it doesn't get too severe as it dries. Is there anything that I can do in the drying process to reduce this?

When sawing is it standard practice to try and separate heartwood and sapwood? So many principles to learn doing this  :P

Brandon

[ManjiSann]

In the 3 rd photo, the board on the left, you might want to find a way to identify that board now, and see what happens as it dries, it will give you good experience on how that wood behaves.  It looks like you have sap wood and heart wood there and they are in competition with each other.  With lumber I saw that board would crook as it dries as the heart wood and sap wood don't shrink in the same manner when drying.  

That would make for an interesting, fun, and educational project. Just thumb tack a note to it with a tag and make note of changes on the tag time/vs flatness. I wonder if having it strapped will prevent some or any of the cupping? How often to you snug your straps?

I believe it will reduce cupping, warping, twisting some but I bet in the end if the competing forces are strong enough the boards will still be able to move. 

Lately I check all the straps every couple days as I'm down there a lot. Haven't had to really tighten any yet.

I'm thinking I should to put a fan on a timer to circulate the air a bit now that I have so much wood in that small space. Have it turn on 15 minutes every hour or so, just enough to ensure the air between the stacks gets circulated to move the moisture out.

Once winter is over I'm planning to build one of those basic solar kilns that Doc posted but for now I figure the arid nature of modern homes will work quite well.

Brandon

[ManjiSann]

You make pretty stacks man. I wish I had the patience for that. But you work pretty hard for your lumber. I am going to have to work on that. In the spring I hope to make at least 2 more drying skids so I can stack by thickness. This fall I just have no time. I am hoping to take tomorrow afternoon off and get some work done, I hope I get lucky like you did today and move forward.

I won't lie, they do look nice and give me a bit of contentment seeing them    Mostly I'm making them look nice because I have limited space so I figure the more orderly they are the more I can fit in and also it is my understanding that the wood needed to be stacked and stickered to prevent/reduce wood movement in drying. 

I think we all work hard for our lumber, I've read your thread and I know you work just as hard for yours as I do mine. I know there will be loss due to lack of knowledge as I learn how to do this but I'm trying to reduce that loss since I never know where my next log will come from.

It seems like we're always racing time, I know I feel a fair bit of pressure to get the logs milled and stacked but mostly that pressure is from myself.

Hope you were/are able to make the progress you wanted!

Brandon

[Southside]

I'm assuming you're referring to the board on the outer edge closest to the photographer (away from the other stack of wood?)  I'll tack a note to it as OG says or write on the edge with a marker. I did notice as I was cutting some of the boards they wanted to start crooking... I hope it doesn't get too severe as it dries. Is there anything that I can do in the drying process to reduce this?

It's the one sitting your your table saw with the partial chainsaw cross cut into the bottom of it.  As far as stopping any movement during the drying process - that is actually where the chickens fit into all of this.  If your strapping doesn't do it then you can try sacrificing a few of the neighbor chickens and making the sign of the Santetia in their blood on the stack and hope for the best.  I am not sure how it actually helps with the process as I didn't develop the protocol, the credit belongs to @YellowHammer I am mearly a dedicated believer.  :D

As far as sawing goes, it depends on the species and what you are producing but it's generally best to treat the heart wood and sapwood independently.  Either saw them free of each other, or balance the sapwood equally to the sides of the heartwood.  The latter can produce some very nice visual effect and will tend to behave in most species enough to finish off fine.  Running in and out of the heartwood along a board will cause it to bow for the same reasons as it crooks.  That's where log handling comes into play and rolling the logs, think canthook,  I realize you are using a CSM so it limits what you can do in the log, but when edging / resawing on your table or band saw the same principals will apply.  

[ManjiSann]

I'm assuming you're referring to the board on the outer edge closest to the photographer (away from the other stack of wood?)  I'll tack a note to it as OG says or write on the edge with a marker. I did notice as I was cutting some of the boards they wanted to start crooking... I hope it doesn't get too severe as it dries. Is there anything that I can do in the drying process to reduce this?

It's the one sitting your your table saw with the partial chainsaw cross cut into the bottom of it.  As far as stopping any movement during the drying process - that is actually where the chickens fit into all of this.  If your strapping doesn't do it then you can try sacrificing a few of the neighbor chickens and making the sign of the Santetia in their blood on the stack and hope for the best.  I am not sure how it actually helps with the process as I didn't develop the protocol, the credit belongs to @YellowHammer I am mearly a dedicated believer.  :D

The poor chickens  :D :D Thanks for clarifying which board you meant. I should be able to locate it and mark it. I have a number of boards like that with the mix of sap and heartwood. At least if they move a lot I'll have a better idea as to why.

As far as sawing goes, it depends on the species and what you are producing but it's generally best to treat the heart wood and sapwood independently.  Either saw them free of each other, or balance the sapwood equally to the sides of the heartwood.  The latter can produce some very nice visual effect and will tend to behave in most species enough to finish off fine.  Running in and out of the heartwood along a board will cause it to bow for the same reasons as it crooks.  That's where log handling comes into play and rolling the logs, think canthook,  I realize you are using a CSM so it limits what you can do in the log, but when edging / resawing on your table or band saw the same principals will apply.  

In my mind the only real limitation to CSM is how much I want to turn the log and set the ladder up for a flat first cut... I find the set up rather tedious and boring but I'll have to get over that if I want to maximize usable lumber.

I'd imagine this is also where trying to center the pith comes in. I'll have to brain storm a bit on how to do it with a CSM.

All good information, thank you! I have a binder where I've been printing out the government info on logging and drying, I'll have to start writing/typing up a lot of this information and include it in the binder as SOP.

Brandon

[ManjiSann]

Not milling related (yet  ;D) but was helping a neighbor move some dirt he had left over from finishing his yard. I left my little S10 at his house so he could load the dirt while I was at work so we could make it to the landfill before it closed. I told him "you can load it until the bed hits the stops no problem." While he was stringing lights on his roof his wife and daughter were throwing dirt in the bed when I arrived. I look and it's sitting REAL low to the ground, tires bulging a bit. Well I've been wanting to find out how much the little thing can haul (they did offer to shovel some of the dirt out.) 

We drive real slow to the landfill, have to pull over a few times to let traffic doing the speed limit pass but we make it. Weigh in, unload, weigh out... 2300 lbs of dirt in my little truck  ;D ;D ;D ;D  Quarter Ton my eye. 

That being said, I don't plan to make THAT weight a regular habit, I'd prefer it was a one time thing. Just cause it worked once doesn't mean that repeating it won't bust it. Still pretty cool/funny/alarming to have done it once and it's not a "I'm guesstimating the weight at.."

Good neighbor, they put a tarp in the bed that covered the sides to try and reduce scratching... like I'd notice scratches on my old truck. Still I did appreciate the respect for my property and he is now on the short list of people I'll likely loan stuff to. 

Since we'd been discussing overloading vehicles before, thought I'd post this. I'm still chuckling a bit over it. 

Brandon 

[YellowHammer]

Chickens are a important part of the drying process, especially when things go a little sideways. 

I have given detailed chicken protocol advice to several people on this Forum and it hasn't failed yet.  We even discussed it at length at the last Project in Georgia, and it must have ranked right up there with other very technical drying topics such as preventing honeycomb, wet bulb readings, and such.  

KFC or Popeyes is a good substitute and certainly makes a frustrating drying situation go easier.  

[btulloh]

Got behind this on the highway the other day. 



 
Seemed to be heading towards @Southside 's house. Don't know, just sayin'.

[Southside]

Why didn't you wave at me?  I was just taking the family out for a ride.   :D  :D  :D

[thecfarm]

Southside, :D  :D