Milling Fallen Trees.... or not

wbhmX75 · November 20, 2023, 01:42:34 PM

Hi, new member here. I looked through the Milling forum and couldn't find an equivalent question so here goes/

I have 2 trees on the ground: First one is a PigNut Hickory that blew down 3 years but upended root ball was still keeping most of the tree alive until I severed it last Fall. After clean up I have a 18" diameter straight trunk of about 30' long. Trunk has no damage and bark is still intact. Is this worth milling for slabs or planks? I also have a similar 19" diameter white oak that was dropped 2 years ago that I thought might be worth milling for flooring a couple of small rooms in my property. I meant to get to the latter last Fall but got waylaid on other clearance on my property. I just cut the white oak up into 3 x 10' lengths. The wood has no mushrooms on it and no checking at ends, looks fairly "white" at the ends. I have chainsaw mill and 70cc 24" Husqvarna. Any comments on either tree or whether wood condition precludes milling?

sawguy21 · November 20, 2023, 02:00:20 PM

Welcome! I am not familiar with that species but might be worthwhile if the wood is suitable for flooring.

ladylake · November 20, 2023, 02:01:57 PM

Hire or buy a bandmill, the extra lumber would pay for most of the milling cost plus you wont wear out your chainsaw. Steve

SawyerTed · November 20, 2023, 03:35:30 PM

Hickory and white oak logs 2or 3 years old will be very hard. With enough time, patience and sharpening the chain, you can probably slab them.

I have a Husqvarna 372 xp I started chainsaw milling with about 8 or 9 years ago - on my second Woodmizer sawmill now.

Wlmedley · November 20, 2023, 04:43:50 PM

I milled a pignut hickory last year probably about the same size as yours.Cut a lot easier than I expected and made some pretty lumber but it is extremely hard to get it to dry straight.Maybe with a lot of weight on the stack and some ratchet straps you could have better luck.

jpassardi · November 20, 2023, 05:50:49 PM

You're looking at 2 of the hardest species so it will take some effort with a CSM. The WO will definitely be good, hickory may have some sapwood rot.
Be sure to spray borate on the hickory before stickering -it's candy for powder post beetles.

Nealm66 · November 20, 2023, 07:05:00 PM

One way to find out!

Brad_bb · November 20, 2023, 09:50:35 PM

I have a chain saw mill- 090 Stihl on a granberg with a 48" throat opening (widest I can mill). In only used this rig for milling slabs. I've done about 12 logs and it's HARD WORK. I don't look forward to chain saw milling. I've also got a bandsaw mill that has a 23.5" throat opening. Since doing my chainsaw milling, I've found a guy about 40 minutes drive away with a Lucas slabbing mill. I've had him do a number of subsequent logs because it's easier for him with his equipment and worth it for me to haul the logs to him and pay him.

Those logs you have can be milled on a regular band mill, and if it were me, I'd have them milled by a bandmiller. You didn't say whether you can load and haul the logs, but that would be my choice. It's cheaper usually to haul the logs to a stationary sawyer than to have a mobile come out, but that's the second option.

If you have a machine with forks, I'd build lumber pallets for your material. Makes moving bunks of material much easier. Have good stickers ready ahead of time. Here's a link to a post on lumber pallets.
Lumber Pallets

wbhmX75 · November 21, 2023, 11:30:09 AM

Thanks for the various comments. I enclose some pictures of the white oak I did the first cut on yesterday. I trimmed the ends to fit my 10' EZ rails and leveled the rails then took off first 3 inches. You can see the wood looks ok. I used a new ripping chain and found the saw cut through the wood (with some time to idle every 3ft of cut) quite smoothly. I thought it would be a bit harder given a couple of the comments. I also noticed the shavings were a bit more powdery that I expected though. Wood seems to be in solid shape.Took me only about 7 mins to cut through the almost 9' length. I also have a new winch kit (HOTELL) to assist although the key screw locking the stem on the handle dropped out after a few inches so I had to push the mill through the log but didn't have to push too hard.

SawyerTed · November 21, 2023, 12:44:26 PM

Glad it worked to your expectations! There are quite a few guys who get a lot of pleasure from chainsaw milling.

7 minutes isn't too bad. I suppose I'm too impatient.