Thread: Todays milling - more lemon scented gums

Nice figure in some of that grain there Bob. Do you have any updates of how your kiln is performing in regard to drying times?

Also your embedded pictures never show up for me, crossed boxes. Only the thumbnails at the end show up.

Cheers,
Mike

nice slabs . the 10 degree certainly makes a diference. pics are fine on my computer . well done bob

Originally Posted by Burnsy

Nice figure in some of that grain there Bob. Do you have any updates of how your kiln is performing in regard to drying times?

Also your embedded pictures never show up for me, crossed boxes. Only the thumbnails at the end show up.

Cheers,
Mike

The solution to your problem is here.

Beautiful slab Bob, you say it took 2 full tanks of petrol, what does that equate to in time?

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Beautiful slab Bob, you say it took 2 full tanks of petrol, what does that equate to in time?

~25 -30 minutes for the widest slabs , it depends how well the chains is sharpened.

I arrive at the milling yard with 3-4 freshly sharpened and set chains and I touch up the chain after every slab. After 3-4 slabs the chain needs a proper sharpen and the rakers reset so I replace the chain with a fresh one, if I try to mill another slab with the same chain the time to mill and fuel use starts to go up considerably.

Hard work, but the timber looks worth it. Shame about the crack down middle (the pith?), but plenty of good wood on either side. You could always make a feature of the crack and use ties to keep it together.

Cheers

Originally Posted by dai sensei

Hard work, but the timber looks worth it. Shame about the crack down middle (the pith?), but plenty of good wood on either side. You could always make a feature of the crack and use ties to keep it together.

Cheers

Thanks Neil, I have so much of this stuff I might just make lumber out of this one. Jeff has picked up a 2+ m wide belt sander. It uses a 150 mm wide belt and has a carriage underneath to carry doors or slabs or whatever past the belt. It needs a fair bit work but it should be able to cross grain surface up to 2m wide and as long as we like.

Hi Bob!

Nice slabs! You've got me inspired to mill some large lemon scented logs that I brought down last week on a job! still not sure as to whether I'll cut slabs or boards or bit of both on my Lucas.

You have a kiln? How? What? Where? and i know Why! I'm looking at trying to source a kiln for myself so any info you care to volunteer wood be much appreciated.

Looks great BOB!! that's a hard way to get through a slab, my hat goes off to you. It does look like the one you featured will split right down the middle, but I hope I'm wrong

Originally Posted by comgreserv

Nice slabs! You've got me inspired to mill some large lemon scented logs that I brought down last week on a job! still not sure as to whether I'll cut slabs or boards or bit of both on my Lucas.

If you slab it, make sure you have a well sharpened chain!

You have a kiln? How? What? Where? and i know Why! I'm looking at trying to source a kiln for myself so any info you care to volunteer wood be much appreciated.

I have a drying shed - it's a 20' seatainer with vents and whirlybird fans. It dries timber in a bit less than half the time it takes to air dry. Most of the drying happens in the summer and when its completely full of timber since the timber itself acts as a heat sink and keeps warm overnight.

I'm not worried about drying so much any more. My drying shed is full and I have access to way more timber than I can poke a stick at right now and for the next few years I will keep milling while I am physically up for it.

Hi Bobl,
You said;
"If you slab it, make sure you have a well sharpened chain!" Which pitch did yo ufind works better on ship tooth chain? 30 or 10 degrees? 10 i think?

Good idea for drying shed, might have to sort myself out one.I priced up a solar kiln on a ex-refrigerated 20ft container... not cheap!

Originally Posted by comgreserv

Hi Bob!

Nice slabs! You've got me inspired to mill some large lemon scented logs that I brought down last week on a job! still not sure as to whether I'll cut slabs or boards or bit of both on my Lucas.

You have a kiln? How? What? Where? and i know Why! I'm looking at trying to source a kiln for myself so any info you care to volunteer wood be much appreciated.

Check out the link below. It's got a few ideas regarding solar kilns

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects.../wood_kiln.htm

Originally Posted by WillBrook

Check out the link below. It's got a few ideas regarding solar kilns

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects.../wood_kiln.htm

Thanks Willbrook!

Some interesting designs and ideas on that link.

Anyone know of a similar site that is Australian ie design variances for our climate and to suit our timbers?

Originally Posted by comgreserv

Hi Bobl,
You said;
"If you slab it, make sure you have a well sharpened chain!" Which pitch did yo ufind works better on ship tooth chain? 30 or 10 degrees? 10 i think?

I'm not using skip at the moment on the 42" bar, I'm using full comp 10º. I buy regular chain with the 30º top plate and gradually file it across to 10º as I sharpen it over time. The 10º definitely gives a much smoother cut. I have tried full skip 10º on the 42" and it just goes blunt quicker in a wide slab. I also tried square ground chain - it cuts like a demon at the start of a slab but by the middle of the slab it slows right down and by the end it is really labouring to get anywhere.

Boy that 30º brand new stuff really jumps then bar around when you first start the cut! It's got way too much side grab. The 10º is dead tame after that.

With the 60" bar I will experiment with skip chain probably 3 skip with 10º top plate angle.

Good idea for drying shed, might have to sort myself out one.I priced up a solar kiln on a ex-refrigerated 20ft container... not cheap!

I looked into kilns a fair bit last year. The more I looked into it the more I realized as a one day a week miller I'm just not in that league of needing large batches of timber dried really quickly.

A solar kiln operates best when it relatively large and is full of timber so batch lots are the way to go. It also needs good internal circulation (ie fans) so it consumes electrickery ie money . If the weather is in your favour a good solar kiln will dry a batch of 4" x 2" in 4-6 weeks, slabs take a bit longer. Then you need to take the timber out of the kiln - you can't really leave it in there.

What I figured I needed was a shed to speed up drying but would also allow me to leave the timber in the .

At the rate I mill it takes me about 5 months to mill enough to fill my drying shed. The mainly 2" thick 2' slabs take about 12 months depending on what it is. Meanwhile I am air drying other stuff under cover. If I want to speed up the drying of something particular I just put it in the drying shed. I could speed the drying process up in my shed by using a few temperature controlled fans - I may do that one day but for now it's a no $ system and drying the timber plenty fast enough - mainly because I'm just too busy milling to use it!