Milling Macrocarpra

[echnidna]

I have 9 trees, due to their size I'll get an excavator to fall them.

3 of the stumps are 6' to 8' diameter and 10' high or thereabouts.

Are the stumps worth milling with a swingsaw or is the stump timber too squirelly to use?

How much timber a day can a lucas saw mill?

[Ianab]

Macrocarpa is what I mostly mill. It's a bit of a lucky dip what you get. Sometimes it's perfect, others it's full of bug holes and bark inclusions. But with 9 trees, the law of averages says you will have some good ones in there, and they are a dream to saw with a swingblade.

I wouldn't mess with the stumps, hit an embedded pebble and you are up for retipping a saw. Just take the log off as close to the root flare as possible. You may need to trim some some of the flare off those logs to get the mill around it.

As to how much you can cut, how fit are you ? :wink: If you have a good sawyer and a couple of keen helpers you can cut a LOT, but you will be dead at the end of the day. Keep the sawyer free to cut, the more of the time the blade is in the wood, the more you get cut. If he has to stop to clear side slabs or wait for you to get a board clear, the saw aint cutting.

The model of mill and the size of the board makes a big difference too, more engine power and bigger boards = more production. But with big logs like that you should be able to do a cube an hour, including moving the mill to the next log.

Ian

[echnidna]

thanks for that Ian.

[weisyboy]

i agere with ian.

if you wanto use the stump get them slabed across the grain but be prepared to pay for a chain or 2.:2tsup:

[echnidna]

Thanks Carl

[Sigidi]

Got to it a bit late Bob, but as for what can be one ina day, a bit like the old peice of string.

Like Ian said depends on helpers and how happy sawyer is to keep sawdust flying, how big the timber is being cut out of them, how big the logs are, just keeps going really, you get the idea.
To date the best I've done was with one helper, 6 cube of hardwood log in 15 logs, each 4m long, mill stationary, all logs rolled into the mill by hand (no hydraulics) waste left in one pile to the side, timber in one pile to the back, cutting 6x3's. Poor bloody helper was picking up something like 50kg sticks of wood and he did it for no pay, bit of a shame he has a reall job:(

[weisyboy]

was this 6 cube in a day? thats pretty good going for hardwood.