Question for anyone anyone that works with wood

upnover

upnover

Grumpy, decrepit Old Man
Moderator
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Morganton NC
From firewood, to lumber. If you had a large Hickory tree that had to come down(dead) how would you mill it up?
 
Hickory can make beautiful lumber for furniture.
 
This wasn't exactly what I was expecting. Then again, had it been what I was expecting...it would have probably been in "The Garage"
 
I’d cut it into 8/4 slabs or 4/4 and let it air dry. Most anyone that’s going to make furniture would want it 4/4. The 8/4 slabs could be used to cut down for chair or table legs or even large slabbed tables or benches.
 
Even here in the land of sawmills (3 LARGE operations within 5 miles of my house), nobody wants it... unless you load/unload/drop it in their laps... FOR FREE
Wonder if there's a CL/FBMP type deal for smaller/portable mill folks that would purchase said logs?

But sounds like you have that covered @upnover ?
 
Caver Dave said:
Even here in the land of sawmills (3 LARGE operations within 5 miles of my house), nobody wants it... unless you load/unload/drop it in their laps... FOR FREE
Wonder if there's a CL/FBMP type deal for smaller/portable mill folks that would purchase said logs?

But sounds like you have that covered @upnover ?
Click to expand...
I see adds for people around me with mills that come cut up downed trees for lumber. Never reached out since I have a friend with one.
 
Even here in the land of sawmills (3 LARGE operations within 5 miles of my house), nobody wants it... unless you load/unload/drop it in their laps... FOR FREE
Caver Dave said:
Wonder if there's a CL/FBMP type deal for smaller/portable mill folks that would purchase said logs?

But sounds like you have that covered @upnover ?
Click to expand...

I’m a member of a few groups like this. The challenge is, most Sawyer’s are not loggers and don’t have the means or desire to fell, limb, and buck a tree.

Some will come and pick up a tree if it’s a good species and it’s already felled and limbed and bucked. They don’t pay much, especially for common trees. If it’s a yard tree, then you will be luck to get someone to buy it unless it’s black walnut or curly maple.

Best and easiest you could probably hope to do with Hickory is give it to a Sawyer and not have to pay to dispose of it. Or, pay a Sawyer to come mill it for you. Some Sawyer’s will come and mill it for you for a 60/40 (or 75/25) or so split of the wood. Doesn’t cost you anything and you get some milled wood out of the deal.

If it’s a yard tree, it’s probably $30-$50 per piece of metal he hits with the blade. It could end up costing ya a lot of $ if someone was nail happy years ago.
 
So on a related note, how do you guys go about finding a place to have slabs kiln dried? I have several that have been sitting for 18 months with nowhere to go. The only small mills around me either don't want to mess with it, or charge such a ridiculous rate per bd ft that it's not worth it at all.
 
RatLabGuy said:
So on a related note, how do you guys go about finding a place to have slabs kiln dried? I have several that have been sitting for 18 months with nowhere to go. The only small mills around me either don't want to mess with it, or charge such a ridiculous rate per bd ft that it's not worth it at all.
Click to expand...

Check out the Facebook woodworking or Sawyer groups. Many of them have a library of local resources available, kilns included.
 
Caver Dave said:
Even here in the land of sawmills (3 LARGE operations within 5 miles of my house), nobody wants it... unless you load/unload/drop it in their laps... FOR FREE
Wonder if there's a CL/FBMP type deal for smaller/portable mill folks that would purchase said logs?

But sounds like you have that covered @upnover ?
Click to expand...
Yes sir, The fellow I contacted a few years ago to remodel my home bought one, I am impressed with how well and the quality lumber he is getting. So far he has built a two story barn and several other smaller out buildings. He bought it to mill for himself, but said he cut the tree and help me load it, and mill it all, for half the lumber.
 
rockcity said:
Even here in the land of sawmills (3 LARGE operations within 5 miles of my house), nobody wants it... unless you load/unload/drop it in their laps... FOR FREE


I’m a member of a few groups like this. The challenge is, most Sawyer’s are not loggers and don’t have the means or desire to fell, limb, and buck a tree.

Some will come and pick up a tree if it’s a good species and it’s already felled and limbed and bucked. They don’t pay much, especially for common trees. If it’s a yard tree, then you will be luck to get someone to buy it unless it’s black walnut or curly maple.

Best and easiest you could probably hope to do with Hickory is give it to a Sawyer and not have to pay to dispose of it. Or, pay a Sawyer to come mill it for you. Some Sawyer’s will come and mill it for you for a 60/40 (or 75/25) or so split of the wood. Doesn’t cost you anything and you get some milled wood out of the deal.

If it’s a yard tree, it’s probably $30-$50 per piece of metal he hits with the blade. It could end up costing ya a lot of $ if someone was nail happy years ago.
Click to expand...
Yep, My Sawyer hit metal on his second log. This was old growth, his dad had owned the property some 60years or so. First metal he hit turned out to be a horse shoe. After the first hit, he went and bought him a metal detector. So far, last we spoke of it, he said it had at least saved him 8 blades.

From what I have seen, Cherry, Black Walnut, and Cedar seem to be the money trees around here.
 
upnover said:
Yep, My Sawyer hit metal on his second log. This was old growth, his dad had owned the property some 60years or so. First metal he hit turned out to be a horse shoe. After the first hit, he went and bought him a metal detector. So far, last we spoke of it, he said it had at least saved him 8 blades.

From what I have seen, Cherry, Black Walnut, and Cedar seem to be the money trees around here.
Click to expand...

Yep. I just got a cheapo hand held metal detector for my mill. $40 for the metal detector and if it saves 2 blades, it’s paid for itself. Blades are starting to get hard to find. So blade costs are starting to go up, lack of supply.
 
rockcity said:
Yep. I just got a cheapo hand held metal detector for my mill. $40 for the metal detector and if it saves 2 blades, it’s paid for itself. Blades are starting to get hard to find. So blade costs are starting to go up, lack of supply.
Click to expand...
So your saying I should buy blade stock and a Welder for it? I actually used to help sharpen and make blades for band saws and such in my early teens.

Its stupid simple.....I wonder where the actually block is in the process to delivery? Or is it the fact that mills are selling like hot cakes so the demand is high? In actually hoping this market nets me a slightly used gem when the market gets flooded.
 
Last year I bought Woodmizer Doublehard blades from Woodmizer and they were $15/ea. I just looked and they have gone up to $20, but you can still get the slightly less durable Silvertips for under $15. It's hard to justify hundreds of dollars for a sharpener to then spend time sharpening 200 teeth per blade, when I can just buy one that is gonna cut better and last longer for $20.
 
I’ve been reading up and watching videos of some guys that have been using a simple file on the back side of the teeth to vastly extend life of the blade. Takes them about 10 minutes of filing with blade on the machine and it cuts as good as new. As long as teeth don’t need to be reset, this sounds like an economical option to extending blade life, similar to filing chain saw chains regularly

Ripper 37 blades seem to be popular right now and seem to be hard to find. I’ve ordered some blades from Woodlands, Cooks, and Jerry’s resharp with success. Others have been complaining their orders are placed on back order status. Many saws take different blades, so their issue may be due to the blade for their particular saw.
 
rockcity said:
I’ve been reading up and watching videos of some guys that have been using a simple file on the back side of the teeth to vastly extend life of the blade. Takes them about 10 minutes of filing with blade on the machine and it cuts as good as new. As long as teeth don’t need to be reset, this sounds like an economical option to extending blade life, similar to filing chain saw chains regularly

Ripper 37 blades seem to be popular right now and seem to be hard to find. I’ve ordered some blades from Woodlands, Cooks, and Jerry’s resharp with success. Others have been complaining their orders are placed on back order status. Many saws take different blades, so their issue may be due to the blade for their particular saw.
Click to expand...
How long are your blades and what is the cost on the Ripper37?
 
jeepinmatt said:
Last year I bought Woodmizer Doublehard blades from Woodmizer and they were $15/ea. I just looked and they have gone up to $20, but you can still get the slightly less durable Silvertips for under $15. It's hard to justify hundreds of dollars for a sharpener to then spend time sharpening 200 teeth per blade, when I can just buy one that is gonna cut better and last longer for $20.
Click to expand...
Mark says(My Sawyer) that his home made sharpener does a good job so far, lasts for as long if not longer than the new blades. I have no idea what blades he is using. And, hard to judge lasting power when so many many things factor in. Using things around his shop, he built his sharpener, IIRC he used a motor off of a wheel chair to do the pushing, and a Harbor Freight chainsaw sharpener to do the sharpener. He figured out the cam with trial and error. He did say, his test blade was ruined by the time he had everything dialed in. So, that's not too bad. Because of the spacing on the teeth from where the blade was put together, when it gets to that point, it will go through the motions, but it won't push or drop the sharpener. So, he can walk away from it. It doesn't take long to sharpen one either. Not sure of the time, but, it was just a matter of minutes. He first started going through his forest on his property to find downed trees from storms. He'd clean them up, saw to length and pull them out of the woods with one tractor, then use his other tractor to bring them to his mill. Between odd pieces he had been saving from odd jobs through the years, and some power poles he was given( a whole tractor trailer load) he built his mill shelter It's pretty nice, all of the roof framing, and poles were from the power poles, The only money he had invested was a couple or chains for his chainsaw, his hardware, and the steel roofing. he made a bank, he has like sized poles to stage his logs where can roll the logs right onto the mill, He has a 12v winch to turn his logs. He is currently building him a shelter to stack his lumber and air dry it. He has a place on the other side of the mill to stack his lumber, with some skids, where he can go up under it and use the forks to take it to where he stacks it to dry. He uses the sawdust for some animals, he chips all his slabs also, for bedding for his goats. So, nothing is wasted.
 
upnover said:
Mark says(My Sawyer) that his home made sharpener does a good job so far, lasts for as long if not longer than the new blades. I have no idea what blades he is using. And, hard to judge lasting power when so many many things factor in. Using things around his shop, he built his sharpener, IIRC he used a motor off of a wheel chair to do the pushing, and a Harbor Freight chainsaw sharpener to do the sharpener. He figured out the cam with trial and error. He did say, his test blade was ruined by the time he had everything dialed in. So, that's not too bad. Because of the spacing on the teeth from where the blade was put together, when it gets to that point, it will go through the motions, but it won't push or drop the sharpener. So, he can walk away from it. It doesn't take long to sharpen one either. Not sure of the time, but, it was just a matter of minutes. He first started going through his forest on his property to find downed trees from storms. He'd clean them up, saw to length and pull them out of the woods with one tractor, then use his other tractor to bring them to his mill. Between odd pieces he had been saving from odd jobs through the years, and some power poles he was given( a whole tractor trailer load) he built his mill shelter It's pretty nice, all of the roof framing, and poles were from the power poles, The only money he had invested was a couple or chains for his chainsaw, his hardware, and the steel roofing. he made a bank, he has like sized poles to stage his logs where can roll the logs right onto the mill, He has a 12v winch to turn his logs. He is currently building him a shelter to stack his lumber and air dry it. He has a place on the other side of the mill to stack his lumber, with some skids, where he can go up under it and use the forks to take it to where he stacks it to dry. He uses the sawdust for some animals, he chips all his slabs also, for bedding for his goats. So, nothing is wasted.
Click to expand...
See that sounds really great to me, I just don't have the time to invest. If I did, things would look totally different around my house. But instead it's my wife's house. :buttkick:
 
rockcity said:
Mine are 1 1/4” x 12’. They are about $25 each. I’d have to look it up to find the actual cost as I don’t remember.
Click to expand...
Close enough, just looking for a ballpark. Based on the 62 Rockwell hardness they list, they are probably some type of cobalt alloy bimetal tool steel. Woodmizer has a similar one (67 Rockwell), and they are $41/ea for my 13'2" blades.
 
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