Harvesting an urban Sequioa

[backwoods sawyer]

About a week ago a local tree service called to see if I was interested in a Sequoia tree they were taking down. I had drove by the tree that was located on a quite side street, scheduled a log truck and was ready to for a full days adventure. When I arrived along with the log truck the bottom log of the tree was ready to be cut free. It was a simple matter of the crane swinging the logs into position on the truck. The crane weighed the bottom log at 11,000 lb this tree was only 35 years old 5'6" at the stump and just over 4' DBH   
45 min later the truck was pulling out.

[Piston]

 
That's amazing how fast they grow.  I'll be interested to see some milling pictures of this tree ;D

How are you gonna mill it?  I can't even imagine what I would do with those logs but I would enjoy the challenge  :D

[Taylortractornut]

Thats a good looking  tree and  huge for 35 years.    I saw the biggest white oak ever that was 40 years old and nearly 4 feet across.   It had grown into  a sandy vein in a friends yard.  That sandy vein also shared a feild line from the septic tank.      They planted the tree there when they built the house.

[5quarter]

Wow! Great score! I would like the machine thats cruising around with that 11,000lb log... ;D

[Magicman]

Nice score Harvey.  Now I want to see it being sawed.   ;D

[backwoods sawyer]

I should be stating on it right after I finish up these fir logs unless more w/oak slipps in.
That old hyster lifts its own weight.

[backwoods sawyer]

Finished up the over sized fir and now I am sizing up the redwood.
When putting over sized logs on the mill, be sure the mill is on solid ground. The over sized fir logs were on fresh gravel so I set each of the mill legs on 1x12x18 oak. I will be on asphalt for the redwood.
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[redbeard]

Nice looking DF what did you mill those into?

[backwoods sawyer]

6x8 and 1x12 for a barn restortation.

[backwoods sawyer]

I started off taking four rounds off the big end which brought the diameter down to a more respectable 48"

Making a cut.

That left a 17' 9" log that I bucked into an 8' and a 9' log at the 36" diameter point. While I was handling these logs I knocked the knots so that they will not be an issue later when turning them on the mill

The 8' secton needed to be smaller.

So i split it in half then squared the edge that would put the flat side to the dogs

so that when it sits on the mill it fits nicley between the guides



These cants can now be processed on down when I am ready for them

all of the logs are now millable with out any futher prossesing

[eastberkshirecustoms]

Very nice. I would love to just see a log that big!

[Magicman]

Thanks for the breakdown pictures BW.