Thread: First time milling with home made chainsaw mill (Redgum)

Originally Posted by 19brendan81

Attached are some photos of our first go with my home made chainsaw mill. Its a redgum log sourced from an arborist in Canberra. Log was 2800 long and 350 to 450 wide and each cut would take 10 mins to complete. The milling attachment is my own design based on common principles - safety guards were quickly added after the first cut which was always the intention and probably should have been done first but alas...we walked away with all limbs intact. The mill will do up to 800mm diameter cuts but I imagine these would slow down proceedings significantly.

It was a lot of fun and I cant wait to do some more! I really want to stockpile some spotted gum so am looking around for that and am already thinking of building a horizontal bandsaw mill!

Brendan

That's a fantastic job you did there on those logs. I especially appreciate that you did something useful with the logs rather than feeding them to the fire or the bugs. And the slabs are beautiful.

I recently had to take down a stom broken pear tree... It was about 24" diameter and the log was about 7'... It could have made some good lumber - but I had no way to do anything with it when it came down... And so the tree service took it to wherever they dispose of such things. Such a shame - as the heartwood was beautiful.. Orange going to red...

Originally Posted by truckjohn

That's a fantastic job you did there on those logs. I especially appreciate that you did something useful with the logs rather than feeding them to the fire or the bugs. And the slabs are beautiful.

I recently had to take down a stom broken pear tree... It was about 24" diameter and the log was about 7'... It could have made some good lumber - but I had no way to do anything with it when it came down... And so the tree service took it to wherever they dispose of such things. Such a shame - as the heartwood was beautiful.. Orange going to red...

One of the most memorable trees I milled 11 years ago was a 100 year old apricot about a ft in diameter and some 5 ft long and yes, it did smell like apricot while I was milling it.
Notice the finish is not as good as the previous photo as I was using a full chisel chain as opposed to the semi chisel chains I use now
Aprigrain.jpg

I have made some useful tool handles with this timber perhaps my favourites being the oval cross section handles for the top two Japanese saws, the lower one is Sheoak.
All3.jpg

Also these float handles.
handles.jpg

Originally Posted by truckjohn

That's a fantastic job you did there on those logs. I especially appreciate that you did something useful with the logs rather than feeding them to the fire or the bugs. And the slabs are beautiful.

I recently had to take down a stom broken pear tree... It was about 24" diameter and the log was about 7'... It could have made some good lumber - but I had no way to do anything with it when it came down... And so the tree service took it to wherever they dispose of such things. Such a shame - as the heartwood was beautiful.. Orange going to red...

Thanks John. I really like that the tree was an urban tree which was felled and that I was able to use it for something. I see so many good trees come down where I live only to get burnt or mulched. id like to turn more into furniture if I can. That pear sounds awesome -I'm particulary interested in species that aren't normally used for woodworking (like my other recent post). Theres a valid reason for that, but when you are a hobby miller you can put up with odd shapes etc that the commercial mills cant.

Originally Posted by BobL

One of the most memorable trees I milled 11 years ago was a 100 year old apricot about a ft in diameter and some 5 ft long and yes, it did smell like apricot while I was milling it.
Notice the finish is not as good as the previous photo as I was using a full chisel chain as opposed to the semi chisel chains I use now

I have made some useful tool handles with this timber perhaps my favourites being the oval cross section handles for the top two Japanese saws, the lower one is Sheoak.

Great stuff Bob.