urban sourced logs

Okrafarmer · September 22, 2012, 10:47:01 PM

For best results, scan the log before you put it on the mill or another metal structure. It gets interferance from backstops, log dogs, and so on. Not to mention the bed of the mill.

drobertson · September 23, 2012, 10:04:27 AM

I have intertained the idea of getting a metal detector. But in the end you still have to decide whether or not to cut the log. Most of the time stain will appear, I will always give a trim cut to freshen up the bottom of the log, getting an idea where the junk might be. I position the log so that I can slab that portion off when I start getting close. It is a touchy feely kinda thing, been successful and not so successful. Going back to an earlier post one wrote on being ripped off, I think a good rule of thumb to follow is one should get back real close to what the log scaled, if not just a bit more. The only trick part is when it is custom cut to certain sizes and there has to be waste to get the desired dimensions. I will give the customer everything back if they want, most of the time they don't.

Slab Slicer · September 23, 2012, 07:36:30 PM

I haven't run into any metal yet, but then again, everything I've milled was from deeper in the woods. Nothing from the roadside, fence row, or back yards. That time will come though, and I'd rather not find out the hard way. Thanks for all the tips and infor guys. I need all I can get.

Blue Sky · October 03, 2012, 08:56:07 PM

I bought a Woodmizer before I bought a chipper for my arborist business. Been milling since '88. Built my addition, chicken castle , barns, garage etc all from sourced trees in suburban yards. Someone wrote a book lately like they had a new idea. Book was called something like milling lumber from urban trees. i had to laugh about that one. I sided my new addition on my home from one 36"DBH white pine with clapboards and still had leftover material. Great that you are honoring these beloved trees.

learner · January 10, 2013, 07:54:44 PM

Quote from: Slab Slicer on September 23, 2012, 07:36:30 PM
I haven't run into any metal yet, but then again, everything I've milled was from deeper in the woods. Nothing from the roadside, fence row, or back yards. That time will come though, and I'd rather not find out the hard way. Thanks for all the tips and infor guys. I need all I can get.

After today I just had to add something here. We were finishing the day cutting a nice pine from deep in the woods. When we got to the center, I hit this.

That is a six inch nail. The point i'm trying to get at is we have hit as much metal in trees from the woods as we have in urban trees. I've hit nails and bullets while sawing deep woods trees. We musn't forget about hunters when sawing logs. We figure that nail was from an old hunting stand someone put up about 50-60 years ago. How it came to be parallel to the pith is anyones guess.
So don't let a nice urban log go to waste just because you Might hit metal.

Rob Bocik · March 05, 2013, 09:51:08 AM

Quote from: Blue Sky on February 20, 2011, 07:30:42 PM
I bought a Woodmizer before I bought a chipper back in '87, so that I could mill up all the trees I was cutting down in clients yards. Running a tree service generated all these beautiful trees that no one wanted except hardwood that they wanted to cut up into firewood. What do you do with a 125 year old cherry tree that is 35 feet straight, 28" in girth. Cut it up for firewood?--I do not think so. I built the home I have lived in for the last 20 something years, mostly from trees I cut down in clients yards. In 1999, In cut down a 38" White Pine-85 feet of usable timber. Cut it into 6" flitches and sawed the whole thing into clapboards. One tree covered my whole house, the outside sauna and still have clapboards to boot
Years ago, I saw someone had written a book on milling urban trees, like that was a new idea. Bandsaw blades are roughly 14.00 a blade, and worth the risk of hitting hardware.

I would love to see some pictures of your house

isawlogs · March 05, 2013, 05:53:49 PM

Before blaming the hunters for those deep woods nails, think about this a bit.

When my grandfather was young he worked the bush with horses, when lunch came around he did not go back to the house , a fire was lite, a can of snow was put on, tea was made and sandwiches where warmed up... The horses also had there lunch, while the tea was warming up he would take a six inches nail drive it into a tree and hang the oats bucket to it, a bale of hay was opened and the horses had there portion of oats and hay for lunch... Fast forward to the WoodMizer I bought..... I did not remember ever seeing my grandfather pulling one of them there nails and I dont ever beleave he gave it an after thought until I brought one back to him after sawing it with my mill. ;)

WDH · March 05, 2013, 08:26:10 PM

Marcell,

Your Grandfather really covered some ground (From Quebec to Texas) :D.

Rob Bocik · March 07, 2013, 11:16:16 PM

I found this the other day in a big old sweetgum. I had been wondering what that string hanginf out of the tree was attache to. Glad I missed it

Axe Handle Hound · March 08, 2013, 08:16:53 AM

I'm with Okra on the live edged board with hardware. I can just about promise you that boards with remnant metal stuck in them, stains from iron, and/or anything else that's "unique" will sell big time as finished furniture. Especially if you have any sort of story to go with it (true or even just a guess). Obviously you can't run that stuff through your equipment to finish them up, but if you made them into a Poston style bench or table people would buy them in an instant.

learner · March 08, 2013, 09:12:01 PM

Quote from: isawlogs on March 05, 2013, 05:53:49 PM
Before blaming the hunters for those deep woods nails, think about this a bit.

When my grandfather was young he worked the bush with horses, when lunch came around he did not go back to the house , a fire was lite, a can of snow was put on, tea was made and sandwiches where warmed up... The horses also had there lunch, while the tea was warming up he would take a six inches nail drive it into a tree and hang the oats bucket to it, a bale of hay was opened and the horses had there portion of oats and hay for lunch... Fast forward to the WoodMizer I bought..... I did not remember ever seeing my grandfather pulling one of them there nails and I dont ever beleave he gave it an after thought until I brought one back to him after sawing it with my mill. ;)

Very good point sir. It just goes to show that when it comes to metal, it isn't confined to urban logs.

dboyt · March 11, 2013, 10:20:52 AM

The woodworker who purchased the slabs has a wide belt sander, but they'll have to dry for another year before I find out for sure. A large part of the woods around here were once part of Camp Crowder, in southwest MO. They were a communications training camp (also know as Camp Swampy-- Mort Walker, creator of the Beetle Bailey comic strip trained here). Antenna wire and ceramic insulators in random places all through the woods. I'd rather hit a nail (or spike) any day. They have more give to them!