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Free Red Oak and new addition to the sawmill (ok! it was actually sweetgum...)

Started by MSSawmill, July 25, 2013, 02:14:06 PM

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Al_Smith

As been already mentioned if it were oak the smell is unmistakable .

After thought : I'm not familiar with a bandsaw but with a chain saw cutting much oak the tannin in the wood will cause the chain cutters and bar to turn black from the acidic reaction.

dboyt

Congratulations on the mill and the logs.  One thing about the forum, there are always folks who put things in the perspective of the bigger picture, as well as noticing details.  Speaking of details, did the blade take a dive into the wood (looks like it might have, from your picture of the board)?  If so, you might want to increase the blade tension, and possibly change blades.  Sweet gum ought to saw pretty straight.  It takes a lot of hours of sawing to get everything dialed in, and there are a lot of variables to solve before you find that "sweet spot".  The main thing here is that the mill should cut straight, and to figure out how to make it do it.
Norwood MX34 Pro portable sawmill, 8N Ford, Lewis Winch

MSSawmill

Thanks, dboyt. I definitely have a lot to learn, but you have to start somewhere.

And I don't think the blade dives into the log. I think, and it's been a few weeks since we've run it so I'm struggling to remember, but I think it actually starts low and them climbs up the cut a little and then levels off. So the start of the cut is actually lower than the rest of the cut. Once it levels out, it's nice and straight, but the first 4 inches or so are a rise.

At least, I think that is what was happening. It might have been that it started out high and dove until it leveled out...

On that note, is there way to add a blade tension gauge to a homemade mill? The fluid filled one on the Woodmizer we helped out on was great, but can I get anything like it for our mill?
Home-built bandsaw mill
2004 Kubota M110 with LA1301 loader

roghair

MSSawmill, I think dboyt is referring to the 5th picture where the board is a lot narrower near the knot.
built a sawmill

pineywoods

MS, if you have the gumption to build a mill, building a woodmizer style blade tensioner would be a piece of cake. Peek at a woodmizer parts manual to see how simple and elegant the design is. Couple of blocks of aluminum, rod out of a hydraulic cylinder and 2 simple cheap seals..The indicator is a standard off-the-shelf pressure gauge.
1995 Wood Mizer LT 40, Liquid cooled kawasaki,homebuilt hydraulics. Homebuilt solar dry kiln.  Woodmaster 718 planner, Kubota M4700 with homemade forks and winch, stihl  028, 029, Ms390
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Magicman

In the OP he stated that he sawed everything "live edge".  My take on that planed board was that the live edge dipped in, not the blade.
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MSSawmill

Thanks, pineywoods. I'll check into that.

And you're right, magicman. That's the edge of the log.
Home-built bandsaw mill
2004 Kubota M110 with LA1301 loader

Okrafarmer

Sweetgummery! Very beautiful wood. Congrats on some nice big sweetgums.

One thing I've always noticed about the heartwood on sweetgum, is that the heartwood is irregularly shaped (is neither circular, nor does in mimic the outline of the bark). It is often star-shaped, approximately, or what I call "antarctica-shaped".
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