Thread: Bobs Milling Holiday

Day 2 we decided to get a bit more serious and work on a fallen Jarrah that was about 600 mm in diameter and about 4 m long. The log was located on a track thru the bush on the farm.



Here propery owner, Hud, has a go with my mill. As you can see after a promising start this log was also riddled with termite tracks.


After cutting 4 2" slabs we decided to give up on this log and leave it on the side of the track as a bench. Seated left to right are helper Roy, Hud, yours truly, and SWMBO. Here you can also see Hud's tractor - it's a real beauty!


At this point we decided to give up on "falls" and look at a few push overs.
Here is a 25' long jarrah pushed over about 3 years ago to make space for a fence line.


We cut the log in half and moved the logs to a gravel pit which will be used as a milling area. As you can see these logs are a lot more promising than the previous ones.

We decided to turn our attention to trees that had been pushed over instead of falling down. In the vicinity of this boundary/ fence line track we found dozens of potential candidates so we set up a milling site to the side of the track.


One of the most interesting candidates was a 40ft millable Marri. Which we cut into 3 lengths.

I decided to have a go at boomerang shaped piece.
Here is the setup.



Every inch of the 42" bar was needed for this one.


Result was


While I was cutting the boomarang, Hud and wife Sandi had a go at setting up their new aluminium ladder/rails on the bigger section of the same Marri tree.


Then Hud had a go at milling with his mill.



Marri is fairly soft so it was a good log for Hud and Sandi to practice with. Sandi is the real woody of the pair and has made some furniture. She's a real dynamo and really pitches in, drives tractor, drills fence posts, welds gates, belts in wedges, lifts slabs and eventually wants to mill as well.

Here is their first cut.

That 3120 fair chewed its way thru this log. The biggest problem was the mill jamming up on the side of the log and dodging the inhabitants from the nest of centipedes we found at the base of the tree.


Sandi lifting the rails!

Here are a few other shots from Day 3.

Hi Bob,

A bit of a milling frenzy for 3 days. Shame about all the termite damage.

How does the Husky compare to your rig? Did you manage to get much usable timber after all the effort?

Thanks for all the photos.

Cheers
Pops

Bob Fabulous times!!!!!! Nice scavenging.

Originally Posted by Pops

Hi Bob,

A bit of a milling frenzy for 3 days.

But wait there's more - I still have two more days worth of photos still to post!

Shame about all the termite damage.

Yep - we quickly worked out that trees fall for a reason, usually they are in a poor state to begin with

How does the Husky compare to your rig?

The big Husky is a magnificent chainsaw but I think the Westford Mill it was attached to is so-so . The Husky 3120 is 118 cc compared to my old Stihl 076 which is 111 cc but the big Husky has 20% more horsepower. My setup was definitely slower than the Husky/Westford combo, but I arrive at the end of the slab with less sweat and aggravation where as the 3120 kept driving the Westford into the side of the log and I was forever de-bogging it on the vertical leg of the mill. I was thinking of putting the big Husky on my mill but my mill is made to fit the big Stihl saws so that would not work. The other thing I noticed was that although both saws has 42" baldes, the Husky on the standard Westford gives 840 mm of cut whereas my saw on my mill gives 1010 mm of cut. That does not sound like much but you always seem to need that little bit more!

Hud has a Husky 3120, a 385 and a 340, plus a Stihl 290. I think the 290 is my favorite - it is just so easy to use and I was carving up 24" diam logs with it while the smaller Huskies were ripping the skin off my knuckles every time I started them without gloves on!

Did you manage to get much usable timber after all the effort?

Not as much as we'd hoped for but we did invest a lot of time in extracting logs from the bush, cutting them to size and setting them up for future milling.

I was there for 6 days all and also spend a lot of time with Hud and Sandi showing them how to make a set of log rails, sharpening and general maintenance. Plus we took a couple of half days off to visit wineries etc.

Will post more pics soon.

Cheers

Day 4 started with more scavenging of push downs.
Here's a 600 mm diameter x 11 m long sound jarrah log that was a push down about 2 years ago. We cut this one into 3 ~ equal lengths.


We rearranged the temporary milling site to take advantage of the natural terrain/slope.


A few yards further on into the bush was this big old jarrah.

It was felled at least 100 years ago but many of these trees were never recovered for a variety of reasons.

Generally these old trees are full of termite tracks and crumble to dust when cut but I decided to put the 385 thru a large (3') diameter branch and it was surprisingly sound!

I cut the other end of the branch off from the main trunk and we dragged the 8' length of branch away from the main trunk with the tractor .


The trunk still seems to be reasonably sound - no termites, just a hollow heart and some fungal patches, most of the dark patches are moisture stored in the heart wood and in cracks.


This shot gives you the idea of how big this sucker is.


The main trunk ranges between 50" an 63" in diam and is about 35' long.
Fortunately Hud has a 72" bar but we will have to add bigger rails to the mill to tackle it!


As you can see it is quite twisted but that will help in holding it together.

We have no idea what this will be like but it's not going anywhere quickly and we'll probably wait for winter to have a go at milling it. If we can get 1 or two decent slabs out of it - it will be worth the effort

Hi BobL,
This is what I call a good photographic documentary of a interesting experience you and friends had.
I am very sorry to be again critical about the Forum Administration policy on the number and size of pics recommended on each thread, and I'm most certain someone will reply to this observation, giving me the the usual "advice" but, with all fairness, how can anyone not enjoy, learn, appreciate and be jealous, of such display of nice pics, is has to be a way to do this sort of thing on regular basis and not creating problems with space and speed on the server, huh Mr. Neil?
Some once said, "a pic tells 1,000 words", as far I'm concern a "good" pic can tell a lot more...! The definition of a good pic is obviously depending on the way each one of us see it and how much information is contained in within based on each one interests and ability to "see".

I'm particularly thankful to you BobL for the time and effort of making sure the pics were taken (that's the difficult bit, of not getting too excited and forgetting to take them or have someone is charge of it, until normally too late, huh?). I'm 99% ready to start milling with my new set-up, I have still not done the set-up system that holds the frame on each end into the log for the first cut. I don't recall to have seen any detailed pics from you or others of this particular step, and what I've seen so far requires the use of a good cordless drill to drive the screws into the log. I'm still not sure how it all works, as the pics are not clear (detailed) enough for me to see, and after this last lot, with the way you have it done with those 2 square pieces of square box coming up through the end of the log, confuses the life out of me, as I'm wondering how you get the mill to slide right to the end of the log, with those 2 metal up-rights in the way

I would like to find a system that is effective and doesn't require any electric or cordless tools to fix the frame to the log into position both ends, any ideas...? anyone...?

I'm quite surprised with myself, of not being too stressed out about the fact that I got the mill and chainsaw, about the 22 of December, January is half gone and I haven't cut anything with it. I believe, the moment that I attached the new chainsaw (Chinese copy of the Sthil 090 magnum) with the 36" solid bar, to the GB 44" mill, and tried to lift it, I lost most of the enthusiasm. I could have finished all the other bits necessary, such as the rails, etc., pretty quick but, my back did "cramp-up" pretty much at that time, taking by breath away with pain sometimes when I move in certain ways, and with all that olive timber that I had to cut and handle recently, I'm struggling quite a bit so, the thought of handling a 30kg or so (not weight it yet) mill, as killed my interest at the moment.

Now, back to the your trip issues, I've got a couple of questions. One is, what brand of mill is that of your friend Hud? does it oil the bar OK without the auxiliary oiler, how did it performer compared with yours?, and about the chain type he used?
What does your friend Hud does with the slabs? is he a woodturner?. I can see that Sandi is a good helper with the timber issues, I know how only too well, how "handy" is to have "one of those", mine is called Merissa, my sweet wife.
What timbers did you bring home?

Oh, I like that tractor too, I would have some use out of those forks, no problem!

If you got any more pics like these, please don't be shy, I could spend all day watching them...!

A job well done BobL, thanks!

PS: Sorry folks and BobL, my timing wasn't good, I was writing this "long" post, at the same time BobL was getting the last 2 post in so, some of my questions and observations were getting "addressed" as I was typing, damn....

Cheers
RBTCO

Good photographic view Bob.

Hey ya had better watch out cause Burnsy is also somewhere out there in the jungle.

Originally Posted by robutacion

I'm particularly thankful to you BobL for the time and effort of making sure the pics were taken (that's the difficult bit, of not getting too excited and forgetting to take them or have someone is charge of it, until normally too late, huh?).

Cheers for that, I really like photography and find it a very good way to document what I do. I often take 4 shots - 1 from each side of the things I do so I take dozens of photos and probably only show 10% of what I take

I'm still not sure how it all works, as the pics are not clear (detailed) enough for me to see, and after this last lot, with the way you have it done with those 2 square pieces of square box coming up through the end of the log, confuses the life out of me, as I'm wondering how you get the mill to slide right to the end of the log, with those 2 metal up-rights in the way

I only use the metal uprights when the log is so curved - either up & down, or side to side- that the rails cannot connect on each end. if you look at the pic below you will see the bar/chain will exit the log well before it gets near the metal uprights. Once I have broken through I make sure the other end of the log rails are attached to the slab, I unscrew the metal uprights, and then slide the mill thru.



The other way to do this is with timber uprights and cut right through them - bit of a waste really because it's not necessary.

For small curves I use a board like this.

You can cut right thru the board or if you are careful you can cut just up to it. Stop the saw, pull it back a bit, unscrew the board and pull the mill thru.

I would like to find a system that is effective and doesn't require any electric or cordless tools to fix the frame to the log into position both ends, any ideas...? anyone...?

This is possible for straight logs but I like curves, so it's much easier to chuck a cordless drill and a couple of batteries into my van. I also run an inverter in my car so I can recharge the batteries if I need to.

I'm quite surprised with myself, of not being too stressed out about the fact that I got the mill and chainsaw, about the 22 of December, January is half gone and I haven't cut anything with it.

I would not worry about it - I think it is important to take your time and do things right.

I believe, the moment that I attached the new chainsaw (Chinese copy of the Sthil 090 magnum) with the 36" solid bar, to the GB 44" mill, and tried to lift it, I lost most of the enthusiasm. I could have finished all the other bits necessary, such as the rails, etc., pretty quick but, my back did "cramp-up" pretty much at that time, taking by breath away with pain sometimes when I move in certain ways, and with all that olive timber that I had to cut and handle recently, I'm struggling quite a bit so, the thought of handling a 30kg or so (not weight it yet) mill, as killed my interest at the moment.

I used to be daunted by the weight and effort required but now it does not phase me. Besides, the weight of the mill is nothing compared to the slabs!!

I will answer all the questions for the sake of completeness
What brand of mill is that of your friend Hud? Westford
Does it oil the bar OK without the auxiliary oiler. No it doesn't - why they sell a 60" mill without an aux oiler is beyond me.
How did it performer compared with yours?, See my previous post
and about the chain type he used? He uses 5 skip - the husky with the 5 skip works very well but the chain goes blunt real quick in dry wood. I still reckon full comp works best in dry wood since the cutters are not working as hard so they don't blunten as quickly - others disagree.

What does your friend Hud does with the slabs? is he a woodturner?. I can see that Sandi is a good helper with the timber issues.

Sure is - Sandi is the driver behind the operation, she makes furniture. Their son is also a chippie and wants to get into furniture making.

What timbers did you bring home?

None - I never intended on bringing any back - I don't have space at home or at the yard for extra timber. We will air dry them at Huds. he is going to set up a big drying shed - I'll post details later.

Oh, I like that tractor too, I would have some use out of those forks, no problem!

Yep she's a beauty. Lacks a bit of tilt angle on the forks, and a bit more towing grunt for the big logs would be handy.

If you got any more pics like these, please don't be shy, I could spend all day watching them...!

Coming soon!

A job well done BobL, thanks!

No wuckers!

Originally Posted by BobL

The main trunk ranges between 50" an 63" in diam and is about 35' long.

...because it's important not to get TOO ambitious. Bloody hell Bob, that thing makes you look tiny.

No matter how many fence posts I recycle, it still surprises me when you cut into an old piece of jarrah and find that lovely colour still there.

On my milling holiday I helped Hud set up some basic milling rails using an aluminum ladder. We started with an ally extension ladder the two individual ladders being of equal width.

The 2 ladders were joined using a 5 x 50 mm steel strap like this.

The strap sits in the ladder C-channel very neatly.

The ends connect to the log using the commonly used angle iron method. 2" angle was used


Here is a close up of the way the angle is gripped to the ladder. A 3/8" bolt is welded to a short piece of angle and clips on as shown.


Here they are in use.


While we were at it we drilled a hole in the skid of my hosts mill so he can adjust the chain tension on his 3120XP.

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the replies. You have been a busy boy, along with your helpers. You make it look so easy.

One hell of a big log that one, can't wait to see the slabs you get fro it, next Winter.

Top photo essay.

Cheers
Pops

Thanks BobL,

Your last pics do help to understand how and why you got it set-up the way you do.

Thanks also for answering all my questions, most appreciated!

I can understand why your friend Hud, got things set-up so quickly, you know a thing or two, about this stuff, huh?

Take care,
Cheers
RBTCO