high-value cuts for nth coast hardwoods?

[Darkwood]

g'day

i'm a farmer who has moved into small scale milling of late, using my own resources and equipment - now that most of my many on-farm projects (including a house extension) are taken care of and i'm fully familiar with the capacities and limitations of my Ecosaw (Lewisaw), i'm turning my attention to milling possibilities of a cash generating kind . . .

i'm working mainly with blue gum, rose (flooded) gum, tallowood, brush box, bloodwood, turpentine, white mahogany - some good specimens among them. i've also got a few dozen pecans to be removed, some of which are a nice size, but shaped for nuts rather than wood.

the mill does boards to 16inches (if cutting from both sides), and can accurately taper on both dimensions. I can slab also - at least i will when I get hold of a big chainsaw (a disadvantage of the Ecosaw) - advice on best models for slabbing welcomly received.

what i'm mainly wondering is whether this game is all about matching cuts to orders - or are there niche markets that can be pursued by small scalers able to provide high quality product in non-typical dimensions?

i'm also harvesting quite a few decent pole-sized thinings - is there a market for squared poles (i've used a few like that myself)?

apologies if this is old ground for this forum.

cheers

[glock40sw]

G'day.

It depends. We are always looking for good boards cut 110x28mm 2.1 to 5.4m long. In BBX and Blue Gum.

Slabing in hardwood is also a money spinner. Talk to the slab factory at Mullumbimby or the slag man at Ulmarra.

[Skylynx]

If only I were your next door neighbor!! I do Northwest Coast Indian carvings, most of them 14" by 48", larger if I can. But I live in Florida. So hard to find good trees to carve, as yellow pine and oak here are way too hard. I would think the shipping coast is going to be your main problem.

[DJ’s Timber]

as yellow pine and oak here are way too hard.

When you say yellow pine and oak here are way too hard, do you mean the hardness of the timber or too hard to source?

Because if it's the hardness, most of the timber Darkwood has listed is very heavy and dense compared to yellow pine and oak

[Arthur Dyason]

g'day

I can slab also - at least i will when I get hold of a big chainsaw (a disadvantage of the Ecosaw) - advice on best models for slabbing welcomly received.


give me a call or email me. 02 6655 0967 or [email protected].

We took over the production of the Lewisaw 4 years ago and moved it to Bellinden, NSW. We also took its new name EcoSaw and have built on that.

The standard slabbing attachment is powered by chainsaw but we do an upgrade kit for 15hp, 18hp and hydraulic powered chainsaws with blades upto 96".:D

If you are serious about slabbing the hydraulic unit can also have a gang of blades.

Remember the Lewisaw/EcoSaw is the only one you can use the sawblade with the chainsaw for even faster slabbing. Just adjust the chainsaw blade to be running in the same kerf as the sawblade and by using the sawblade you can have the first 200mm on each side of the log already cut or you can have boards wider than the 400mm width by just using the sawblade.

I have milled many boards that are 800mm width by intergrating the use of both units together.

I have been doing a lot of diagonal slabbing as well lately. Gives a slab with natural edge all the way round the slab. Just completed 20 slabs like this for finless surfboards.

arthur

[Arthur Dyason]

Ive also found a good market in decking.

Turps and white mahogony are excelent for pool decks so is pink bloodwood.

mill to any size x 50mm. airdry or kiln dry and dress to width x 35mm with 6.5mm pencil round top edges and a 'v' groove 10mm in on both edges of the bottom (this is a drip line).

The 35mm enables you to screw from below leaving a totally flat top surface and no nail holes to rot with water. Also good for pools as most people will want to be bare foot and nails lifting can cause large injuries.

Our most popular are the 90mm dressed deck because of the price but if you can dress to 120mm and 150mm you can almost double the price.

If you add the multi-catch attachment to your mill you can also mill 6 and 8 sided poles or do something different like cigar shaped poles (thin both ends fat in the middle). No other mill can do this.

Also when doing your slabs remember that most wide slabs end up as tables so mill the whole table kit. The slab, the 6x2 beams, 5x5 legs, 2x2 for chairs, etc,etc or whatever sizes loog the part.

arthur

[BobL]

I have been doing a lot of diagonal slabbing as well lately. Gives a slab with natural edge all the way round the slab. Just completed 20 slabs like this for finless surfboards.

arthur

Hi Arthur, I wouldn't mind seeing what this looks like. Care to post a few pics?

Thanks

[Darkwood]

thanks Trevor