Milling truck bed decking from Euc

[David B]

I have an 8'x12' bed I want to deck with 1" boards. I have an oval log 21" dia  x 28" dia x 14'.  Euc cracks and warps a lot. I have been advised to avoid the pith. I'm wondering what the best way to mill it is. Maybe boards on the narrower side will twist less? right now the truck has 7" wide apitong boards, breaking down. Planning to screw it down green. 

Thanks  

[RetiredTech]

The only thing I could suggest is that you use the driest wood you can find. Green wood is going to shrink and leave gaps in your truck bed. Good luck with your project. Share some pictures when you get it done.

[TimW]

What is EUC?

[David B]

Eucalyptus 


Somewhere on here another fella said he screwed it down green to prevent warp. A little bit of gaps are ok, will let the dirt fall thru. Once desert dried, Euc is quite hard and hard to work with, and also full of cracks. 

[RetiredTech]

Well I learned something today. I thought you meant ERC and just hit the wrong key.

[caveman]

Ian, surely has a lot more knowledge about Eucalyptus than I do.  There are many species with different characteristics.  The ones we have sawn were smooth barked, and the wood was red.  The pith would split due to tension, but the wood away from the juvenile wood behaved a lot better than I anticipated it would.

[David B]

Progress