Some milling at the Macadamia Farm

**dai sensei** · 29th April 2013, 05:48 PM

I finally got back to the mac farm to do a bit of milling (see here https://www.woodworkforums.com/f132/g...ing-do-161067/). I took the camper on the back of the ute to stay in, and took the trailer for the timber. The plan was to travel down Sat morning, mill Sat & Sun, then pack-up and come home Mon. John Gawdelpus also volunteered to come and help me out (thank goodness

).

To make things a bit easier, I made a simple stability frame for my high lift jack (based roughly on BobL's design), plus some steel A-frame stands to support the logs with adjustable height legs and variable length chain between to support the log. The log lifter worked well, but the attachment of the lifting jig on the jack was a bit sloppy, so I will modify the way it attached to the jack slightly. The A-frame stands however worked to start with but didn't take long to twist and collapse in the soft soil. So I will need to attach a piece of SHS at the base of the legs to stop this.
log lifter.jpg stand test.jpg stand1.jpg

Ended up with the old blocks of timber and a top one with a V cut to support the logs, which work well, but not easy to get in underneath to the level necessary whilst the log is jacked up high. We milled up the two remaining large red cedar logs that were already cut and on the ground, after docking to trailer length

, with the 42" bar in the blue beast mill (see https://www.woodworkforums.com/f132/m...ill-3-a-68826/). Then I cut down what we call the twin stump that was left. It is a red cedar and camphor laurel that have grown together forming a tree over a meter wide. They both had branches coming off at the base so I took them off, cutting from both sides, leaving what will become the top of the first slab slice.
twin1.jpg

I cut it off at ground level giving me a 1.8m long trunk, then I went to slab it, hoping the join will hold between. Unfortunately I had to use my super sized chainsaw bar, 60" long, but the chains I had seemed to be one link too long and I couldn't tighten them up as much as I thought it needed. This is especially annoying considering the trouble I have already had with the chains (see https://www.woodworkforums.com/f132/b...-chains-67904/). When we went to slab the chain just kept coming off, so we gave up

. Decided it was best to spray the slabs we already had with boron spray, then have a go at the twin stump on the next trip, with numerous other improvements.

We ended up with just 11 slabs (~0.5-0.6m wide x 2.1m long), a number of huge turning blanks (~0.6m diameter and up to 0.2m thick), plus a few cants to cut up for future stickers. Had to leave a few other large turning blanks behind, I used them for packers under the twin stump.
cedar feather grain.jpg cedar turning blank.jpg trailer load.jpg

When I got home we stacked it all, taking up more room in the carport

, using tomato stakes as stickers. The cants and turning blanks will work well in the short term as weights

.
stacked cedar.jpg

Pretty worn out now but had a great time and cannot wait to get back. Apart from the twin tree, there are all the Camphor Laurels and the Crows Ash.

Cheers

**DJ’s Timber** · 29th April 2013, 07:24 PM

Nice haul Neil

**Bushmiller** · 29th April 2013, 10:37 PM

That lot'll keep you busy.

Regards
Paul

**Cliff Rogers** · 29th April 2013, 10:48 PM

Did you get some of the small branches?

Get some bits about the size of our finger, cut them into short bits & set them in your resin trough end up & turn them like you do with the casurina seeds.

You could even stand them in dye for a while first.

**shedbound** · 29th April 2013, 11:41 PM

you've been a busy boy!

**Swino** · 30th April 2013, 08:32 AM

Nice haul Neil

Looking forward to seeing it in person.

**Christos** · 30th April 2013, 09:07 AM

I love it.

**dai sensei** · 7th June 2013, 02:43 PM

Although still quite wet on site I managed to get back to the trees to mill up the Twin. I planned to mill the logs together and then tie them up to dry as one, but things didn't go to plan, as usual

Although the majority of the tree was joined, there were curved surfaces unjoined above the exposed branch cut-offs in the above photo, plus a lot of mud/bark between them. So the first slice I did at 300mm thick to get under it all, using the big 60" bar. Worked at treat, cutting slow and steady with the 660, but wedging on each side made the joint between the trees to give way on the slice. As I removed the big slice, the remainder of the trees also parted company, so ended up having to mill each tree's trunk separately.

I swapped over to the 48" bar to mill them, and due to some stuff ups by me, some of the slabs were not cut straight (a slight taper from one side to the other). Hence as I cut through the logs the position of the joint varied slightly and hence I have not got a perfect joint match between the slabs. I managed to get 4 no. ~1.7m long matching slabs with 1.2m overall width and the remainder, including the top thick slice, were blocked up for turning blanks.

As the base of the tree had the best coloured timber with the best grain, I also decided to cut a few more blocks out, unfortunately by cutting from my knees. I managed to cut out a 400 deep by 400 wide block, then cut it into 200-400 thick pieces. I took a panaramic photo of the site just before we packed up, just to show the spread out mess of the lower site. The remainder of this site will be left for the club, still a heap of cedar and camphor laurel trunks up to 500mm dia. I'm sure they will also take some more blocks from the root stock left in the ground. I will next start on the other site where the large cros ash and camphor trees are, where there are another ~4 trips worth of slabbed timber for me alone, then I'll let the clubs loose on the remainder.

We packed the trailer with the 8 slabs and a heap of blocks, plus other large turning blanks I had cut but left behind last time, up to 700mm dia by 400 thick. I also scored the trunks of some macadamia trees that had broken off in the big storms just after Xmas, I reckon I was right on the trailer's limit of 1.5t and didn't make it out on my own. The farmer and his son, both on large 6 wheel drive tractors, were needed end to end to get me out due to the wet slippery grass around the macadamia trees (one on its own was not enough

).

Anyway, made it home and have stickered the numbered slabs (to ensure matching slabs stay together), with a heap of big turning blanks on top to weigh them down. I also have a small stack of other pieces that I will cut up ASAP for pepper grinder/trinket boxes/smaller carving blanks, and yes some pen blanks too.

John (Gawdelpus) who came down and helped me also took home another pile of blocks for his own collection. Unfortunately as we were packing up, he caught his thumb in the under tray tool box on my ute, ripping the nail clean off

. He was lucky he didn't lose the end of his thumb. Hopefully it will heal Ok before Q-Turn next weekend

Next trip will be to mill the Crows Ash

**artme** · 7th June 2013, 03:00 PM

Very nice haul mate!!

**shedbound** · 7th June 2013, 06:28 PM

some nice looking timber there, I hope it seasons well for all your hard work.

**tdrumnut** · 7th June 2013, 09:16 PM

Great work Neil (and John) some nice stuff amongst that lot.

**Bushmiller** · 9th June 2013, 12:17 AM

Good thread Neil.

When will you get the time to put all that to good use? I hope John is OK.

Regards
Paul

**dai sensei** · 9th June 2013, 07:56 PM

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

When will you get the time to put all that to good use?

I plan to travel for 12 months from October, so the slabs should all be dry by the time I get back, then I can get stuck into furniture

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

I hope John is OK.

He says thumb is healing Ok. Just don't know if a nail will every grow back as the entire nail including root was ripped out

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Some milling at the Macadamia Farm

Milled up the "Twin"

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