Thread: what is teh finish on your slabs like.

Hey laurie,
I noticed that you are using 2 rakers and 2 scribes I am only using 1 raker (goes back to my saw doctoring days) and did some tests today with the granberg style versus the standard semichisel carlton (both carlton originally) and the granberg left the standard for dead in both finish and in speed. was easy twice as fast and thrice as good on the finish.

you can check how I did it here. https://www.woodworkforums.com/f132/h...-chain-109843/

I have left the scribers longer taller and wider than the raker and as old saw doc rules say 2 scribers 1 raker. I find it works really well, and will be making a couple more the same.

The required HP to drive it is a lot lower as well and the chip clearance is much better.

Basically every third tooth is ground to give a full top plate at 7 degrees (as you can imagine this reduces the length of the cutter) and the 2 in between lose the top plate and get filed at 25 degrees but doesn't get filed back to match the length of the rakers. this means that the scriber will be cutting deeper than the raker at all times and the side plates of these cutters act as planes to give the finish. I do not want to go for 2 rakers for reasons stated in the link. I do want to try this with full chisel chain as at the moment I have only done it with semi but I think it would be an improvement. I just don't have a full chisel 84 dl chain to try it with.

I also found that it required less sharpening and when the chain did go "off" I was still able to make it cut although it did sacrifice some finish quality, mind you it made twice the cuts of standard chain before it was sharpened.

Originally Posted by charlsie

just wondering, are you blokes slabbing trees that have been down for a long time or newly felled trees? i know it's good to have a clean finish but for most of my slabs that are milled green, once dried they still need at least 5mm taken off both sides to get them flat.as for the more back sawn slabs and boards the cup has to be taken into account as well. so if the slabs have a bit of washboard in them it doesn't worry me to much. on the other hand if i'm lucky enough to score dry dead logs a fine finish with little washboard in it is a lot more desireable (just my 2 cents)

If you sticker your boards and strap them or use weight on top of your stack you probably will not get as much distortion. I cut both green and dry and find that if I stack em right I get a lot better result. unless it is ti tree that stuff could have a bulldozer sitting on it and it would still warp and distort.

yeah i'm hearing you travis. anyone can slab all day and knock out a heap of slabs and pat themselves on the back at how much timber they've cut only to find out down the track that because they haven't stacked and banded it properly it's a pile of firewood.having said that,i've got a few piles of fire wood too.now instead of cutting all day and congratulating myself on how many cubes i've cut,i stop at 1 o'clock and clean up the yard. this means that everything that has been cut is sticked out loaded and banded. all the offcut is banded and stacked so my sundays are left for family day.i might not cut alot of timber but the yard isn't as messy

Originally Posted by charlsie

yeah i'm hearing you travis. anyone can slab all day and knock out a heap of slabs and pat themselves on the back at how much timber they've cut only to find out down the track that because they haven't stacked and banded it properly it's a pile of firewood.having said that,i've got a few piles of fire wood too.now instead of cutting all day and congratulating myself on how many cubes i've cut,i stop at 1 o'clock and clean up the yard. this means that everything that has been cut is sticked out loaded and banded. all the offcut is banded and stacked so my sundays are left for family day.i might not cut alot of timber but the yard isn't as messy

I do similar but when I have logs to mill I still mill sundays after 9:30 am and sometimes till 3 or 3:30. As for the offcuts they usually are chopped for the wood heap, unless I think I can cut useable timber for knife or tool handles from them, but the sawdust is always off the ground and in the garden etc.personally I would rather spend a day cutting 10 nice slabs which can be easily be made into coffee tables or something than spending all day cutting 30 or more slabs which then take a day to flatten by hand with a plane before you can use them.

I had one log there sunday, I looked at it for about 15 minutes before I decided which way to cut it, Then when I did cut it I cut half of it and spent another 20 minutes setting up to cut the rest of it so I could get anything out of it and honestly I am glad I spent the time because it was a small log that would have been easy to go "well the only thing I can get out of it is firewood" but the outcome was quite a few very nice useable slabs with some very nice fiddleback and some very beautiful colour as well as grain.

Anyone can cut good slabs in good timber, It takes a bit of foresight and skill to cut good slabs in quantity from more "difficult logs" and often the result is carp but sometimes it is just GREAT. I am still learning about the skill and foresight...lol

yeah that foresight is a great thing.when you find out where you can buy it let me know as i need plenty of it.theres been a heap of logs go through here that copped the "bugger it,it's a piece of crap,firewood it" tag. only later wishing i had kept it for better things, now i hold onto them a little longer till they find a purpose

I keep 'em too Charlsie, but Wifey is gettin nervous, gotta start slicing some...

I think thats why I brought the planing disc as well

waste of money as far as im concerned.

Why's that Carl?

what he said I d prefer to plan them seasoned

Originally Posted by itsposs

what he said I d prefer to plan them seasoned

I'm thinking you meant 'plane' them seasoned - is that right?

If so, the planer head from Lucas is meant to be used when the slab is seasoned, it doesn't leave as good a finish if done green and regardless of if it did a good job green or not, once someone spends some time with slabs they know there's no benefit from dressing them green. All that work will need to be re-done once the slab is stable.

sorry bout the typo been reading to many of weisyboys posts lol

Originally Posted by itsposs

sorry bout the typo been reading to many of weisyboys posts lol

That wood be teh exucse I wloud sue oot..lmao

pmsl