Thread: What's the hardest timber you've milled?

cut some ironbark in typical ironbark country (rocky ????) & done 3 tyers in on my ute ......& had to cart it all & my mill on my ute about 40km back to a mates farm....never again.

Originally Posted by BUNTA

cut some ironbark in typical ironbark country (rocky ????) & done 3 tyers in on my ute ......& had to cart it all & my mill on my ute about 40km back to a mates farm....never again.

was this the typical kind of mates rate job - I always seems to have the worst milling days when "helping out" somebody...

My worst day was helping out a fella after a storm, he had a large bluey down in his back yard almost wiped out his carport. Anyway was told the tree would be docked and lined up ready for milling and with only being a medium log I thought I'd do it on a day when I had to drop off and pick up kids from school leaving myself 5 good hours.

Well I got there - log not docked up or moved at all. So knowing that I was up against it I jump right in. Get the saw caught in the log go to the neighbour introduce myself as a sawmiller next door and after a brief embarrasing conversation borrow a chainsaw to cut my saw out!

Then I need to turn the log 90 degrees and roll it slightly down hill onto my log supports, the turning goes fine, now I'm looking ok for time. Well wouldn't you know I lose the bloody log right off my supports until it comes to rest 6m downhill. The next hour and half see me sqautting under my cant hook and rolling this now seemingly much larger log back up hill far enough to place the mill clear of trees.

The fella comes home and wants to chat for what seems like two more hours (normally pretty easy for me) and I have to excuse myself knowing that my wife will kill me if I'm not able to pick up kids and I don't want to leave my gear there and come back later.

Well I got the job done and picked the kids up all was good except even by doing the fella a deal on price to "help him out" to this day he still owes me about 30% of the price for the job

sigi, how long have you had your mill? my hardest jobs have always been the ones that i take on sight unseen because they sound so good. the time i craned my mill over an 8' high fence with the owner asking me "so how much public liability do you have?" rates about 3 out of ten .another job was a simple pine tree ,9 mtr log that needed to be winched over the stump .it was a big log on a small incline (easy job to get into position .just get it over the stump and it wont roll back) .We wrapped the cable around the log a heap of times so when the we start the winch the log just rolls up hill ,easy heh
the offsider was running the winch, all of sudden the log stops,half way up the stump. I look up and start waving my hand to keep going ,this bloke looks back at me with the look "its not working". So now i've got a nine metre long wet pine log that i reckon weighed near three tonne perched half way up the stump. i'm down the hill s#^ting my self waiting for the cable to snap or something. I run up to the truck to see what's going on! while the offsider was watching me he's got the winch control wire hooked up in the winch cable , a quick bit of work with the pocket knife and duct tape got the winch going ,the log over the stump and into position ready to cut. we got the job done, but if oc health and safety were there they would have shot me.
moral of the story! dont bite off more than you can chew
p.s i now have public liability and dont take on jobs i know i cant handle

One job we did quite a few years ago was in a back yard with a gateway that was only 750mm wide, had to lift the mill over the gateway, the log was a London Plane at 1400mm dia x 5mt long. Started cutting the sucker up and about a 3rd of the way into it run into concrete , back when it was a younger tree the long gone homeowner filled hole in the trunk from where a branch had either broken or been cut off and had been rotting away, took us half a day chipping away at it and clearing it out.

I bought a Nice old Jarrah log a few years ago that was about 12-1300mm diameter and burnt. Started my first slab cut and got half the way through and had to replace my 1st of 3 chains. By the time I finnished the log I was a expert chain sharpener and buggered but the timber I got out of it was worth all the sweat and tears.

.....Mark

It was red bloodwood 5000 years old from the tunnel between central station and the airport in Sydney. It got caught in the drillbit for the tunnel about 50 meters below the surface. It was an old log jam where the Cooks river was 5000 years ago.
Some boffins from a uni in Sydney carbon dated it.
I used a double ended chain saw ( one 090 each end ). The 090's did the job. It took one roll of chain. We had one bloke just sharpening for 3 days why 2 others did the cutting.
Cheers,
btm_54

Welcome BTM_54,

good to have a newbie in here