milling thread

That's where the log fell. He had someone cut it in half but that's all they could do. I rolled them apart to mill.

The custy has no idea what they will do with it, but his dad owns a cabinet shop.
 
Will the chain binding not pretty soon show rust marring to the live edge slabs?

The hackberry looks like it will present nice grain, when finished.
 
You might consider a continuous vertical line of stickers, especially with a binder.

I've seen ratchet straps used. Tightens without loosening, with more adjustment increments.

Heard to sticker at the immediate end of the board to reduce end-checking. Dunno.

Also, consider more ground supports to prevent sag while drying.

You've dried more than me... just going off collected wisdom.
 
I have to restack soon, that is just a temporary stack for air drying. I have 44" wide by 9' maple thrown in a pile and that stuff was thrown on top. Next task is to get the maple stacked. I started this morning. Chain binders the way they are set up are more for anti-tip at the moment, with the little girl and big girl running around the space.
 
Just wanted to post a recent experience which may help someone. I had always hand filed in the field. This worked for maybe 360 hrs of hardwood slabbing and cookies. Eventually I found myself pushing hard, really hard, to get through the cut. Checked rakers, thought it was the log, sharpened and resharpened- nothing seemed to help. Saw a milling video by “Flowering Elbow” on YouTube. Suggested that the hand filing would basically over time change your tooth angles and stall the cut. I purchased a $200 ish Oregon grinder, set the appropriate angles, and ground the chain (all teeth even). Didn’t touch rakers. Went to test on some 28” black cherry and the saw basically pulled itself through the cut! 2 days earlier I was having to put lots of weight into the same log. I can’t believe I waited so long to get a grinder. Basically, as I now see it, resetting the teeth to same and proper angles is a necessity and needs to be carried out periodically. Hope this helps someone
 
Well, finally had a reason to put a 52 inch bar on my 395 XP. Currently milling up some 46 inch in diameter red Oak. That’s all handled it like a champ. Ran a skip tooth chain but not filed to 10* yet. I debarked thes logs first. Also, the sapwood is punky due to it being 5 yr old snag! Get this, the tree removal company didn’t leave any hinge wood and the 35’ stem fell over sideways taking the owners saw with it! Good thing no one was hurt! The tree is at a neighbors house. I offered to remove it but they wanted to go elsewhere.
 

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Nice!

When I milled a maple at my GF's place this guy stopped by. He has about 10 logs that need milling only a few minutes away. Been picking away at it, taking it easy. I have not seriously used my spare 088, so I used it today on a 25" dia 7' long oak log. Carb needed to be tuned, ran pretty good. Doesn't seem to oil well even though it's turned up. 20210924_104910.jpg 20211001_115719.jpg 20210929_104929.jpg
 
He's got an auxiliary oiler. I use one when I'm using most of my 36" bar milling. Mine isn't anything fancy. It just a trickle feed on the nose of the bar. It pools on the bar, and goes down in the chain.
 
Concerning the underpowered oiler, I don't see the difference between milling and bucking a full sized log, beside the duration of the cut. At any given moment, it should be about the same, no?
 
Milling is a dustier operation, and you're spending more time in the cut. No reserve capacity for oil, and higher temps. That's the way I see it anyway. The bar comes out of the mill looking drier than after a big crosscut.
 
A while ago I had bought a 1970 era EZ Loader boat trailer, as they have parallel tubing frames. While I have been in California a friend has added a number of cross pieces, and topped it with the rails and dogs from our stationary mill, so now we have a portable. Need to add four more pods for leveling and a system for loading logs. Lights, inspection, tags, and soon I’ll be able to get to my ‘backlog’ of logs.
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The Oscar is a manual mill which barely handles a 28” wide cut. One reason to get this finished is to make it more marketable. Sell it to help fund something like a Baker 3638G, or another Woodmizer LT40, the model I most-often milled on in the past.
 
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Got to finally finish one of the slabs cut last year.
People don’t understand that you can’t just make them a table right away. I’m not 100% sure this is dry enough but we’ll find out. When folks find out you just planted a vineyard, do they want a bottle of wine within week?
 

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