Milling 1 x 6's out of 18" dia log

[Magicman]

I have watched Jake's video several times and always glean something new/different from it.  Listen carefully to what he says as well as watching what he does.

Note that Jake is mostly Jake's customer.  He has the option to recover that 1" side lumber because he is also in the selling business. 

In my instance, I am sawing the customer's cut list, and if there is no 1" lumber on his list, I don't saw it.  The majority of my cut lists are for 2X4's and 2X6's and any side lumber that won't make the cut list makes stacking stickers.

I very seldom saw 1" lumber except for board & batten siding.

[Southside]

Lot of truth to what Ted says there.  Myself I started out as a guy who owned standing timber.  The most beautiful timber, clear, veneer logs, #1 everywhere, straight, defect free, money wood, real money wood. 

Then I started logging, turns out some of those trees bend when they hit the ground and stay like that, no other way to describe it.  That's OK, I can work around those bends and make perfect logs.  Not sure how it happens but defects always seem to be on the face that is in contact with the ground, but those are definitely straight logs, I mean they are laying on the ground so it's obvious.  

Well then I bought a polygraph machine  sawmill.  Turns out the structural steel frame on a sawmill is a lot straighter than the ground in the woods, that or those logs bent again on their own.  Either way I began to see there is "straight" and then there is "straight".  It's no matter, I is a sawyer and I can fix it.  See - a perfect board. 

Then I bought a kiln.  Did you know that grain matters?  Did you know that knots fall out? Did you know that straight, green, lumber from a bent log is lying to you?  In case you don't know - a kiln will educate you on all of these things and more.  

Well, I got a handle on the kiln / drying thing and I bought a 4 head moulder.  Look at the beginning of this post.  There is straight, and then there is moulder straight.  They are not the same....

I don't usually build things with my lumber, I am not a wood worker and something tells me that just like the game where a grown man chases a tiny ball around a perfectly good waste of pasture while driving an EV woodworking just might be a pain in the ice, so I am better off to quit while I am ahead.  

[Ianab]

Well then I bought a polygraph machine  sawmill.

Very true, I must remember that one. Logs can hide all sorts of secrets, some minor, and other times "game over" defects. 

As for the original question, maxing out the 6x1s from an 18" log?

A swing mill deals with logs slightly differently, as it's sawed in "layers". Usually you don't move the log, but you can cut a 1x6, or a 6x1 with each pass. So, assuming you want flat sawed, you would start by opening up the top of the log, and I'd maybe make some 1x1 stickers as I get rid of the taper and open a clear face. It's time consuming, but it's otherwise free stickers from what is otherwise firewood, so I generally make a few.  Once I have a clear face that's wide enough, I can get a 1" deep x 6" wide board, saw that. As you drop down each layer the face will get wider and you might recover some 1x4s and eventually get to 2 x 6" wide boards. You can adjust the exact cuts to avoid defects / keep knots centred in a board etc. 

Around that time you will get getting to ~3" from the pith. Now you do a 6" drop, so a 6x1 now. As you are at pith level, it will also be flat sawed. Run across the full layer like that, although you might get some rejects from around the pith depending on the species. (and what secrets you have persuaded the log to give up).

After that, just see what more you can recover from the lower 6", cut the same as the top section. 

Now for a band mill, my suggestion would be you take a similar approach. Saw off some 1" live edge from that top 1/3. Roll the log 180deg, and repeat. Now you have a 6" thick "live edge" cant. Stand that up and make 1" boards. Again, depending on "things" you may want to roll the log / cant a few more times if tension starts making the wood move. But the basic plan is the same. Then you edge the live edge flitches to recover as best you can. This is different from "grade" sawing, where you aim for the widest / clearest boards, and hence the best "value" from the log. 

Now if I want quarter sawed, I reverse the procedure. Open the top of the log, and cut a layer of 6" boards, that will have close to vertical grain. Then swap to horizontal cuts around the middle, and leave a good 6" to go vertical again. There is of course a bit of rift sawed from the corners, because boards are rectangles and logs are round(ish). Quarter sawing on a band mills is a bit more complicated / takes more time, but it's still worth doing for some logs (for stability or visual appearance). 

And of course sometimes your Lie Detector finds a bunch of ants have been having a party in the rotted out remains of the middle of the log, and you just have to deal with that as best you can. 

[whittle1]

Southside you just wrote my story. I had high winds take down 15 pine trees that I took to a local sawyer. When I went to pick up the lumber and asked when I could bring him the rest of the logs he said he was actually thinking of selling his mill. I had been wanting one for awhile and with a little sweet talking to the chief financial officer "wife" that's how I ended up with my mill. Replaced about every bearing, rewired and painted. It was amazing that it cut as good as it did for the shape it was in. It is a 94 LT40HD g24 that now cuts really well but I still have a lot to learn. I watched the video you linked and read the flyer on cutting patterns. Like you those straight a perfect trees turned out not to be so perfect. Maybe the ground does something to bend em up kind of like ground shrinkage on that trophy buck. So having a Sawmill and wanting to use your own wood naturally you need a Kiln then it does its magic and bends and bows those perfectly straight and flat boards. So now I got tired of handling each board 5 or 6 times using multiple machine's to make T&G siding and have bought a 4 head moulder. Wondering what evil it will now expose.

Anyway thanks for yours and everyone's replys. 

[oldgraysawyer]

Unfortunately for me we had an F0 or F1 tornado a few years ago and my sawmill building for the old circle mill that was about 70' x 90' to have room for everything was not only blown down but all mangled up. I'm able to salvage maybe 'bout a little less than half of the material but luckily my B20 was not in it. Not to mention the downed trees I'll need to saw up.

I had been searching for a mill since my father gave our mill away and a buddy of mine went hunting up north and saw it setting in a field uncovered. He stopped and inquired and it had been setting there since 2005 about 20 mile south of the big super lake. The guy told him he wanted to try and fix it up so he could recoup some of his investment but after he got the quotes he finally called my buddy and told me to come and get it so I made the deal with him and brought it down here and been slowly rebuilding and repairing the damage.