Thread: Silky Oak

I ended up with -
22, 5" x 1" boards, mostly 10' long.
4, 4" x 1" boards, 9' - 10' long
2, 3" x 3" legs, 9' long
1, 2" x 3" leg, 9' long
some shorter 4" & 5" boards.
a pile of stickers
several turning blanks &
some very good kindling for next winter.

So thats what the container was for So, some classic Queensland furniture coming up then?

If you cut the boards into lengths I can fit into my
ute, I will take take it away and dump it for you.

It is lousy burning wood so forget about feeding it
into your heater.

Originally Posted by Barry Hicks

If you cut the boards into lengths I can fit into my
ute, I will take take it away and dump it for you..

Too late, it is already dumped... in my container.

Originally Posted by Barry Hicks

It is lousy burning wood so forget about feeding it
into your heater.

Yup, but once it is dry, it makes good kindling to get the fire going.

Silky is very nice to turn . . .

Cliff,

I hope you meant silky is a nice timber to Turn not Burn!!!!!

It would be a crime to burn wood like that

Chipman

A bit of both, this is the burn pile, all the offcuts.

Cliff,

I guess if you saw what we down here do to red gum, you might think the same!

Keep warm!


Chipman

Nice log supports Cliff, I might make some like them, but then would need another two fella's just to move 'em around

I have been thinking about changing my log supports, but no time at the moment, another day.

Nice pics, do you find silky iritates the nose and throat?

Originally Posted by Sigidi

Nice log supports Cliff, I might make some like them, but then would need another two fella's just to move 'em around

I have been thinking about changing my log supports, but no time at the moment, another day.

Nice pics, do you find silky iritates the nose and throat?

These blokes call them 'ramps' & they cut them out of hoop pine the day that they set up & they will ditch them when they finish.
The diagonal cut was made with a chainsaw.
They also have a couple of good long wide packing slabs in variuos thicknesses made from waste that they slip under the end of a log that it level.
The day that one of them had to work on his own, he trimmed the sides off the heaviest one.
They have been cutting up some hoop pine & I wanted to get this silky milled before they moved the mill down the other end of the property.

They have been loosing weight each week as the dry out, the ramps, not the blokes.

The silky is sopping wet... It had been on the ground for less than 2 hours.
The watery sap smells a bit, it is very strong inside the container.

If I knew I could get some done at each job, it'd be sensible to do it that way.

I carry around two supports, with a separate tapered ramp for each, they work well, but sometimes I end up losing a layer as the mill bottoms out before the log does, so I've been toying with the idea of making the supports from maybe a 6x6, fixed to an 8x2 for stability, then a longer tapered ramp to get the log on top, but the drawback I have at the moment is the extra height, the logs tend to slide back down the ramps, if I go higher up. I've even put 'tread' on the ramps by way of the Husky taking some shallow perpendicular kerf's on the ramps to aid in log traction...

Still one of those things which will need time to get around to it

Hey Sigidi, Have you seen the new Lucas aluminium chocks. They're a bit expensive but do a great job of holding logs steady in the mill. I've had a set since Feb and found them invaluable

Funny most blokes like the aluminium stops but the strange thing is the Blades Don't , I nail tapered wedges to the log the nails are always below half of the wedge hieght this way you never cut them (Oh and they're cheep)

My mill gluts are simple 8x6s of spotty about 2' long so that I have 2" of adjustment for log taper without having to pack in any way. It does help to keep the mill closer to level fore and aft. Not tried the log dogs, because I'm entirely happy with simple wedges, usually bits of ironbark sapwood from a 2" cutting pass that I trim to about a foot long. They rarely slip, but do need to be kicked into place a couple of times during a slabbing session. When swingblading, the beauty of loos-ish timber wedges is that you can cut right to the glut and if the wedge gets hit it simply gets cut or goes flying - no damage to anything.

In terms of a ramp on the gluts, I've gone right away from that idea. I prefer to get the log into position and then lift the ends high enough for the gluts to slip under. If I don't have any lifting gear, this is achieved by use of a crowbar and a series of blocks. I've used that method for logs up to about 6 tonnes in weight which I'd have no hope of rolling up a ramp.