Thread: Banksia Breakup

It's been ages, well almost a year, since I posted in this forum.

Today I par milled up up 3 short Banksia logs I scored from a tree removal at my brothers place about 18 months ago. One of the mens shed members said he wanted some for boxes and a carving mate was after a couple of pieces so I though I would at least break them up to make them accessible with my bandsaw. What this means is basically chainsaw milling a top and bottom parallel slab off each log.

This is the milling rig - I made it in 2006 from bits of steel I scored from the skip at work.
The cream coloured base is from an old X-ray machine.
Rig.jpg

The saw is an Stihl 041 running Lopro (thin kerf) chain and it cut through the banksia like a hot knife through butter
Milling1.jpg
I took the Aux oiler off as the wood was relatively soft and the oiler was dribbling bar oil all over the patio bricks!

Here you can see the grippers that hold the log while it's being cut.
The logs sit on the green brackets and the crank handles turned so the grippers bite into the log.
I can hold almost any shaped piece of wood with these.
Milling2.jpg

A few of the cuts
group.jpg

Close ups - normally Banksia logs crack up very badly but these small logs seemed to have held up very well.
Grain1.jpg

Grain2.jpg

Grain3.jpg

This shows the finish that can be obtained with even a chains saw that is sharp and has constant steady pressure applied to it during the cut.
The remain ing chain marks can easily be taken out with a sander.
Closeupgrain.jpg