Thread: How big is my problem?

working full days to mill all of these trees you would be easily looking at weeks to a couple of months ahaha depending on the mill, the chain or blades used. sharpening the 8 foot long chain on my mill is one of the most time consuming parts!
Would be a good job tho, also are the tree's dry or green?

Hmmmmmm didn't realise it was that big a job.
I have a loader/backhoe with forks so that might take some of the hard lifting out of it but it still sounds like a big task!

The logs are green.

Forgot to mention there are a couple of nice Leichhardts, don't think it's much chop structurally but apparently it's used for turning and as a cabinet timber.

A heap of log on sizes you mention, would take about a week

if you wanted to use the timber structurally you would probable need to kiln dry it unless you naturally season it. how thick did you want to mill them?

Ye sigidi on your new 1030.

Originally Posted by jordan4

if you wanted to use the timber structurally you would probable need to kiln dry it unless you naturally season it. how thick did you want to mill them?

No reason at all to kiln dry it, only reason to kiln dry it would be for flooring or decking, but defs not for bearers, joists, rafters, battens etc. (search "The house that Lucas built")

Traditional timber framed buildings always used green timber; Hardwood was the norm.

Regards
Paul

fair enough i would take care as it will shrink and move

Originally Posted by jordan4

fair enough i would take care as it will shrink and move

Remember that while timber shrink in it's width, shrinkage in the length can be disregarded as non existent. Therefore, for example, your top and bottom plates will shrink probably around 5% to 10% according to species, but the studs won't (at least not in their length.)

As you will see, even 10% of a 50mm thick bottom plate is only 5mm (plus another 5mm for the top plate.)

Regards
Paul

and besides timber in its nature will always move in response to extremes of weather, lots of wet makes 'em swell, lots of dry makes 'em shrink - something you have to accept with timber seasoned and green...

well cheers you learn something new everyday

Originally Posted by gonetroppo

Hi all

I've been absent from here for a bit, last year work got a bit out of hand, and then on the 2 February we got flattened by Cyclone Yasi.

So I've been getting things back to some sort of normality. In case anyone is curious, here in Mission Beach Yasi was way worse than Larry in 2006.

Anyway to my point, I have some trees that were uprooted that I'm thinking might be good for building another house.
At a rough count there is 20 to 30 trunks anywhere from 8 to 15 metres of usable length and typically 750 to 1250mm diameter.

As far as I know species are Black Wattle, Milky pine, Bloodwood, Silky Oak, Quandong, and a whole lot of stuff I don't know what it is.

These are the logs that are easily gettable, there is more but more difficult to get out.

My Question is what sort of time would it take to mill this stuff assuming you would want some pretty big 8 x 12 etc etc for a "massive beam" type building.
As well as smaller stuff joists, studs etc. Am I talking days or weeks?

I read with interest the thread about "is it worth buying a mill"

As you probably guess I'm trying to workout how to tackle this?
Any advice will be gratefully received.

With that amount of timber you should be able to build a home.

It is quite common in the United States for a person to buy a good mill & set out & build a house, after they finish they use the mill for a part time income.
I hope it catches on here.

Alan.

I don't then I'd be out of a job but one good thing our hardwoods play up so much it's a lot harder to just buy a mill and cut something, you need experience and knowledge to cut good timber

Originally Posted by Sigidi

I don't then I'd be out of a job but one good thing our hardwoods play up so much it's a lot harder to just buy a mill and cut something, you need experience and knowledge to cut good timber

Very true, but we all had to start somewhere to get our experience. What about
the old Australian saying "Get out and have a go"

I can remember a journalist asking the late Sir Reginald Ansett how he became so successful seeing he had started out with an old passenger bus in country Victoria. His answer "PERSEVERANCE"