Test For Attaching Pics...Milled Lumber

[roughsawn]

Thought I'd see if I could get a couple pics up, of some of the lumber I've slabbed with the new chainsaw mill. 1/3rd is red oak, front pile, and top of back pile is some of the white oak I recently cut down. Still have a bunch more on the ground to slab up.

[wtnhighlander]

Pics look great!

[Chestnut]

If they get direct sun exposure you'll want to do something to keep them in the shade. Oak can dry far too quickly if it gets direct sunlight. I had some messages from Bmac at some point discussing drying too quickly. It may be a surprise but you can air dry lumber too quickly and cause bad internal tension. Most of the discussion was time to 20% MC. I want to say the number for 8/4 oak was recommended over 150 days. But wait! what about the year per inch of thickness? That fallacy is intended for the slowest drying area, think Florida where the humidity is never below 75%. In MN our summer days get quite dry and it's possible with wind and direct sunlight to bring 8/4 material down to 20% MC in 40 days. This USDA paper has some interesting information on lumber drying. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiEyZeKxIH9AhVZM1kFHZPQAWoQFnoECCkQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fs.usda.gov%2Fresearch%2Ftreesearch%2F9684&usg=AOvVaw0dLJne9ML2XxSPhxY7UM9P

[roughsawn]

Good info Drew. My set up only gets about 2 hours sunlight at the end of the day. Opening faces west. The old inch per year has really been pretty close for me over the last 4 years. Remember, we only dry about 7 or 8 months per year. During the winter, whatever moisture is in the logs is frozen. I've sped up drying by bringing a pile into the heated shop during the winter. Then, the inch per year speeds up.

Our normal humidity in this area in the fall/winter is between 7% and 9%. My stuff is dry and ready to work with when it hits 7-1/2 to 8%. Never had a problem working with it then.

Just milled some today, for the solid oak cabinet part of the workbench. Outside rough sawn portion was about 6%. After planing, the inside was about 6-1/2 to 7%. Close enough.

[Chestnut]

That's interesting because I'm not far from you but I'll get my 2.5" material to outdoor EMC in about 13-14 months. Outdoor EMC in msp is around 12% I've had material outside for 3-4 years and it'll never get below that. It's usually only a month or so in my shop for it to reach EMC for my house though.

Wood does dry during the winter albit much more slowly about half the rate of summer. Water sublimates in the winter turning directly from ice into water vapor. In the paper I linked there is a chart that covers freezing temperatures. I don't think the link worked (https://www.fpl.fs.usda.gov/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr121.pdf) this one is better.

Another interesting tidbit is if you look at table 2 you can see the average temperatures and relative humidity for Madison WI not far from MN. The average RH is relatively constant for this region. The only reason winter seems dry is because we heat out houses. RH is an equation that uses the difference in temperature between a wet bulb and dry bulb. It can also be calculated from the dew point and temperature.

The reason i note that is because if the temp at 3pm July 15th is 98 and the RH is 37% at 5am when the temp is 72 the RH is closer to 88%. Any moisture lost during the heat of the day is replaced at night. This is why the average temp and RH need to be used.

[Bmac]

Great looking piles using the chainsaw. That's hard honest work.

Drying always seems so confusing to people, and esp when they think you have to have it down to the 6% you get with kiln dried stuff. With me in the Mid-Atlantic area my moisture in the outside piles (the EMC) don't get down below 12%, usually more like 14%. Inside the shop it gets down to below 10% and I have no issues working it then. I agree with @Chestnutthat wood often dries faster than we realize, but Oak does dry slower and I do try to avoid direct sunlight on my piles. The fact your opening faces west is good minimizing the sunlight. what I've done, which has worked great, is get some cheap windscreen fabric that the use on fences for privacy. It allows airflow still but shades the wood. People get confused and think I'm tarping, but I definitely don't want that, I want the air flow. Here's a link to something similar to what I bought;

https://www.amazon.com/Royal-Shade-Privacy-Windscreen-Grommets/dp/B07D9XSKGH/ref=sr_1_11?crid=3I6BSIU8I448K&keywords=wind%2Bscreens%2Bfor%2Bfences&qid=1675778855&sprefix=wind%2Bscreens%2Bfor%2Bfences%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-11&th=1

Here's an example of a few piles with the screens in place. This area is pretty well shaded in the summer but still gets a lot of airflow. The one pile without the screen was screened shortly after this pick. 

If you like the wind screen idea it would be very easy to attach to the posts that support the roof. It definitely sounds like you know the ropes so I'm not trying to be critical, but I'm always learning things so if any of this was helpful than great. If not you can just see how someone else does it. 

I always love seeing pictures of milling. Would love to see your setup. Is it an Alaskan mill or a different chainsaw mill? I have an Alaskan on one saw and I have found the Logosol Timberjig to be incredibly useful. I have that set up on another saw. Much lighter than the Alaskan setup and with the homemade guide lets me get 90 degree cuts after I flatten a face. 

This is a stock photo that shows the Timberjig being used with a homemade right angle jig. 

Happy Milling!

 

[curlyoak]

https://farmplasticsupply.com/shade-cloth-black-50 

 

I use this for growing orchids. Here in South Florida 50% is what I need. I think the further north the less percentage you need. I have had it exposed to Florida caustic weather for 8 years and still good.

[roughsawn]

Bmac, I have a couple pics of my set up. I built a pair of heavy duty brackets for the first cut, and they work better than I could have expected. It is, in fact, an Alaskan Chainsaw mill.

I had a buddy add 2' to an 8' section of ladder, and I have the 6' cut off for shorter slabs. I started out with Stihl ripping chains, full chisel, and they dull fast. I bought and am using a pair of Australian semi chisel ripping chains I bought off of Amazon...and they are amazing. Go forever, and cut just as well as the full chisel Stihls. 

I bought a 30" mill, and a new Husqvarna with 28" bar, and really enjoy the milling. Very enjoyable to me.

 

[JohnG]

This is making me want to mill up the logs in my pile! I set aside a few straight pieces of red oak and hickory that my neighbor had cut down. 

[Bmac]

That's looking good. Those brackets are working well. Looks like you have a good system in place.

 

Here's my set up with a small cherry log. 

I start with a 2x6 straight board that has angle irons screwed to the bottom of it and that board is screwed to the log. My 36" Alaskan makes the first cut. Then I either keep going with the Alaskan, or......

Or I attach my right angle jig to the flat face and switch to the lighter Timberjig, which I did with this log. On the timberjig you can see a black plate raised up, once I get a right angle that black plate can dictate depth and runs up on the logs flat surface, but need a right angle first.

Here's the saw with the timberjig on the right angle jig ready to make the cut.

Cut's been made, now have a right angle.

I went and repositioned the right angle jig and made another cut to get two right angles.

Now I can reposition the black plate on the timberjig to the desired thickness, the black plate runs on the flat surface top of the log, slicing off slabs.

Three quick cherry boards cut thick. As with milling, you never know what you'll find in the log. Here what I found wasn't a pleasant surprise, but I still got some decent lumber from this log.

 

Using the timberjig means more than 1 milling saw for it to be effective for me, but a small log like this can be milled up in no time. I've gotten a few milling saws used, which helps.

 

[pkinneb]

Thanks all for the info!! Couple of questions what size chainsaws are you guys using? Ripping chains?

[JohnG]

Bmac helped me find an awesome used Stihl MS 080, which at 121cc sounds like a dirt bike. I’ve got a 36” bar on it and 36” Granberg Alaskan mill on it. 

Here it is next to my “baby” MS 290 with 20” bar.

 

I had been looking at a new MS 661 with 36” bar but saved a bit going this route. I need to get a couple ripping chains for it.

[Bmac]

For chains I've used all different types, right now I have a carbide ripping chain on the Alaskan and a regular cross cut chain on the smaller timberjig. As I sharpen the cross cut chain I work the angle back to 10 degrees, making it into a ripping chain. I'm a big proponent of using a skip chain, less teeth, doesn't bog down as much. I have found using the reg cross cut chain gives you a little bit of a rougher surface, but obviously that improves as I change the angle. 

Saw sizes for me are an 080 Stihl (like @JohnG) on my 36" Alaskan and I have a couple Stihl 660s for the Timberjig. All my saws were bought used. Had the 660 on the 36" Alaskan but it's been nice having the 080 now. The 660s are great on the smaller jig because I'm often using that on the smaller logs. 

[Chestnut]

This is getting me excited about milling. I'm flipping through the City plans right now and identifying the trees i want to snag this spring with the road project starts.

I don't get the luxuary of milling where the tree falls so i have to haul all the logs I want to mill. I've gotten a pretty good system down though. Jack up the end.

Shove the trailer under the end.

Winch the log on.

This spring I maxed out the payload of my trailer with a 28" white oak that was about 9 feet long. Took me about 30 min. Small stuff tends to be about half that.

Unloading used to be easy with my basket ball hoop until the big white oak took the hoop down.

Now i set the parking brake of the pickup and yank them off with my ATV.

For my setup I just use a 2x12 and screw it to the tree. I should add some angle iron to the board to stiffen it up some but it hasn't been a problem to shim it up to this point. I set my depth of cut to include the board and use it for every cut as well. I've found it's easier than having to adjust the depth of cut.

With my 30" granberg Alaskan and a 36" bar i get about 27.5" of cut width. I have maxed that out on numerous occasions. The MS661 i bought handles it like a champ.

I sharpen every full width pass or every other pass that is 24" and under. The oak log pictured above did a number on my chain with a few nail hits. The one log took my chain from full tooth to nearly sharpened out.

I use the stihl hand sharpener, I think it works great. I just keep cross cut geometry. I tried adjusting the geometry once and it backfired on me. Getting skip rip chain would be helpful I'm sure i just don't have a good source for it locally. Ok that's a lie i have a great source for it locally i just have to order it 2 days advanced and drive 30 min to go get it. I can buy regular cross cut chain off the shelf close to home. Being diligent on keeping the angles and number of passes with the file on each tooth keeps the cut quality quite high imo.

I'd love to give an 080 or an 880 a rip to see how much of a power difference there is between that and the 661. Wish you guys lived next door, it'd be fun to share tips and tricks as i'm sure i'm forgetting a lot of mine. Dang now i really have the milling bug.

[Chestnut]

Oh i should note I've used stihl files and Oregon files. The Stihl files are far superior. I can't explain what the difference is but the stihl files cut smoother and faster.

[pkinneb]

Thanks guys! I have a 660 I'll have to give it a go

[Coop]

You guys would have had a hay day around here with all of the fallen trees. I never want to see another log!