New lucas 6-14

[Hiway40frank]

Hey all, I finally ordered my first "real" mill the lucas 614 and the slabber. I plan on using the swingblade to mill up a small house for myself then I have a good feeling theres a decent market around here for milling huge slabs or remote acsess milling like for wilderness cabins with no road acesss. So im calling on all the lucas owners here to give me all your tips/tricks dos/donts. Any advice would be great and cant wait to start making dust within the next few weeks. Also for my personal use I will be milling med-large size pine and hemlock for my house with small size Maple and oak for flooring if you have any tips on working with these types of trees. Thanks.

[dgdrls]

 Congratulations on the new mill.

Take your time,
buy a bark spud, stripping bark off the logs really
helps keep the teeth sharp longer.

build a set of bunks to hold the logs.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,58028.0.html

here's a pretty solid cut pattern to start with


 

Get a Logrite hook 

Best
Dan

[Hiway40frank]

Thanks you, do you have a pattern for qs the whole log? Also is a double cut really possible or is it just more work than its worth?

[Ianab]

The pattern Dan posted is your basic swing blade quarter sawing plan. Yes you end up with some narrower rift sawn boards from the "corners", but that's the same with a band mill.

If you are aiming for flat sawn, then you swap things around. Take horizontal boards for the first 1/3 of the log, then vertical boards, then horizontal again for the last 1/3.

If you are used to some other mill, you need to think a bit different with a swing blade. Rather than sawing from the outside in, you work top / bottom

Double cutting? Yes you can do it. It's a bit more of a rigmarole on the Lucas because you need to spin the carriage around, but I think the newer ones make that easier because you can "park" the carriage on top of the log, with the blade horizontal. Then drop the rails and spin the carriage balanced on the blade. Lite the rails back into position and cut from the other side.  Another trick it to do a series of horizontal cuts, for 3 boards maybe, then spin the carriage and do the three matching ones.

It is more time consuming, so I wouldn't want to double cut everything. But if your plans call for some 12x2 rafters, you can saw them. But most of your construction and trim will be boards 6" or less anyway.

Another good trick for large beams or table / bar tops is to saw the log from one side, then flip it over, and cut from the other side. Leaves you with a live edge slab or an oversize beam.

[sigidi]

Do a search for "Lucas Mill Q's"  ;)