How to saw pies on a WM lt40hd

[derhntr]

Does anyone saw pies or ovals on a bandmill? I am looking for advice on doing this. I am not sure the best way to secure the blocks. I think I have it figured out on doing long ovals by jacking up the end of the log.

Thanks.

[Magicman]

You can saw cookies.  You just have to clamp it really well and it can not be over 36" long.  I have done it several times.

Sadly, they generally split if the log is not well seasoned, and drying a whole log is another story.

[derhntr]

Thanks Magicman,  Cookies sounds better than pies , How is the best way to clamp them down? I was worried about cracking I need to have the bark stay on too for the live edge.

[Larry]

I've sawed several million thousand walnut ovals and near cookies.  Sold them to the school system for the kids to make clocks out of them. 

Made a jig that clamped to the mill.  Lagged bolted a 3' long log to the jig and started slicing.  That was the production way.  I also used to leave a short limb on the log and sliced them like that.  That made it easy to clamp.

With walnut if it is winter cut the bark will stay on.  Also ovals never cracked but as I got closer to a cookie those would crack sometimes.

[Delawhere Jack]

As far as drying-splitting issues, you might want to look into treating them with ethylene glycol.

http://owic.oregonstate.edu/pubs/peg.pdf

May or may not be worth the effort, but an interesting process. I visited Sweden in 2010 and saw (with my eyes, not a blade), a 500 year old ship pulled from the bottom of the harbor were it sank on it's maiden voyage. They used ethylene glycol to displace the water in the wood. It took over a decade, but the ship is now stable and on display in a museum.

http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/

[Magicman]

Use the "search" above and enter "cookies".  Of course some of them were chocolate chip, but I saw 18 pages about cookies, sawing cookies, cutting cookies, etc.

Remember, Search is your friend.   

[Don_Papenburg]

If you are going to make a table topout of the cookie , could you use a large forstner bit to cut a releif in the bottom center to within about a quarter inch of the finished top surface. 

[steamsawyer]

I have not sawed pies or cookies but how about watermelon?

You can saw anything with steam.... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnkQG8kgUzA

[beenthere]

As far as drying-splitting issues, you might want to look into treating them with ethylene glycol.

http://owic.oregonstate.edu/pubs/peg.pdf
...........

Make that Polyethylene glycol, as quite a different chemical than just ethylene glycol.

In your link, Figure 3A, I picked up those firewood blocks of walnut from back of my grandmothers home that had been piled up for over 7 years. Dropped them off with George (in the pic) who rough turned them and dropped them in a home-made vat of plywood lined with fiberglass and filled with 50/50 solution by weight of water and PEG-1000. He finish-turned the bowls in Figure 3B after drying. I might be able to find one, but over time it too cracked from drying. But it can be done somewhat successfully for some woods.
I still have the redwood table shown in Fig 1, collected while in CA in the early 60's. Its in the attic somewhere, according to my wife.

But PEG is not a good answer for stabilizing wood. Expensive, takes months to years to treat, and oil finish is about the only thing that will last for long over the PEG.
There is a better book written by Patrick Spielman on "How to Treat Green Wood With PEG" than this report in the link.

Don't mean to toss out a 'downer' or throw cold water on the idea, just experience with PEG makes me do it. ;)

[derhntr]

Well I did the search thing and for this subject it was about worthless (unless you like cookies and milk).

Here is how I did it.

I used the chainsaw to cut a long angle on the block I was going to saw in to cookies. Next I took a 2' x 6' piece of plywood to use as a table to set the block on. Had to cut a slot 10 inches deep for the clamp to slide in. Next I got a 2x6 to use as a backer against the log stops. This set up let me clamp the block securely. I used the angle cut off to support the block until I could clamp it.

I was easy after that. I ended up with 14  Cherry cookies 1.5 inches thick. The funny part was a guy driving by saw me sawing and stopped in to check out the WM. He looked at the cookies and asked if I was interested in selling a couple. I said make me a offer. How about $10 for 2 of them. SOLD!  Not to bad for what would have been a fire wood block. Oh the cookies were more of an oval 14 x 26.

Easy money


So now am able to cut cookies