Chainsaw Milling an Oak Tree
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- Опубликовано: 12 ноя 2024
- My friend Trent contacted me about picking up some Oregon white oak turning blanks. He had had a section of one of his oak trees come down in a wind storm. He was also going to have the rest of the tree taken down so we ended up chainsaw milling that section of the tree into quite a few oak slabs. This took us five Saturdays. I finally got a proper ripping chain for the chainsaw and this definitely helped. It gave a cleaner cut and it cut a little faster. Also, a ripping chain has fewer teeth so it is easier to sharpen. We used a Stihl 880 chainsaw with a 36" Alaskan chainsaw mill to cut the logs into slabs. I also wood turned a short section of the oak into an 18 inch diameter bowl.
Saw shop: www.starkstree...
Ripping chain: loggerchain.co...
Tools used in this project can be found at www.frankmakes....
wood turning tools: carterandsontoo...
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It's so crazy to see how much Calvin has grown. Shows just how long I've been watching
Yup. I started watching when he was designing his current shop how ever long ago that was.
I was about to comment the exact same thing. I haven't watched this channel much for a few years. He has grown up so much!
Same here Lucy! In fact, I don't think that Calvin was even born yet when I first started watching Frank's YT channel (Kidding of course)! 😂😂
Right!
I was thinking the same thing. I actually went back to the 2014 video "Making a Case for Books" where he's reading The Chronicles of Narnia at the end to the children just to make sure it was the same kid! WOW!!
Good to know that most of that oak will be used in the future by you and Trent, and not end up as firewood. An interesting six weekends condensed into 23 minutes, Frank. Thanks.
Your videos are so relaxing Frank, you tell the stories of each project in a really lovely way. Thank you for sharing 👍
builds a wood drying rack to get some of the wood away from the house, then fills the carport with a large tree :)
I hope I speak for everyone Frank I love your videos I love seeing the journey of your shop and your craftsmanship. Your videos are like meditation almost a type of therapy gives me so much happiness watching your videos thanks again man you’re an inspiration to us
That's a heck of a haul and a lot of work. Can't wait to see what you make with it!
I've always wanted to mill my own, I now feel that I am ok if I don't. Thank you for the vicariously grueling experience!
It's very cool to be able to see the inside of the tree as you slice it up. Especially if you know something about the history of the tree when it was alive, and then as it becomes furniture, etc, if you keep it for your own use later. But, yeah, it's a lot of hard moving all that heavy stuff around.
Hello Frank!
I love the amount of slabs you got from this saga 😀
Some tree anatomy:
The crotch of the tree comes in two ways. The two trunks can grow very wide apart, like U, or more like a normal branch. This is where you get interesting grain since the growth rings of both trunks overlap each other while they grow. This also makes for a very strong part of the tree.
In your case the trunks grew very paralel and they indeed grow like separate trunks - they both have bark. And as such they push on each other as they widen and cause it to crack. They never grow over this so it is a constant "wound". There is often some puss flowing out of the trunk with a smell of rot. This tends to be problematic since the crotch is now a weak spot. If you take into concideration the lenght and weight of the tree above this point you see there is a lot of force aplied on this part and due to the cracking i mentioned earlyer this is where the tree usually breaks. As it did here.
If your friend has this situation on other standing trees as well he should call a certified arborist to evaluate the situation.
Keep up the nice work!
Cheers
You should have a look at some of the winch designs for that style chainsaw mill and adding some rollers/bearings on the bearing surfaces. I destroyed my wrist chainsaw milling!
What happened that you broke yours?
Nice to see You got the chaisaw figured out.
For some reason it came to me as a surprise that You already didn't have a ripping chain. But we can't be experts at everything, the main thing is to never stop learning :)
Thanks for the video
Oh. I can APPRECIATE this video. My good friend had a white oak tree (70+ feet) taken down, but rather mill it himseld, he had a mill pick up the oak logs, do the rest.
Owning a pickup, I volunteered to help pick up the milled oak boards. Um, who knew how heavy an undried, milled, 20" x 10' slab would weigh. Numerous trips later, we has a stacked pile of enough white oak to build a garage! With much gratitude, I was rewarded a dozen slabs for my help, and they now rest, stacked for drying, in my basement. The aroma of fresh oak was nice, but getting the wood in the basement was a bruising task, along with moving them around to put spacers and allow a year or so to dry (meaning, I have lost useful space till I get a better spot to rack them to dry further). Glad to see the ripping blade sped up the milling!
😳... never thought someone could make cutting wood so interesting 🧐... excellent!!!
I always enjoy seeing the updates on 1) slabs and bowl blanks that have been drying for a few years, and 2) how tall the kids are now.
Milling videos are so cathartic and this is no exception.
Slabbing that first log really demonstrates the way a less than flat starter cut propagated through the rest of the cuts.
I enjoyed this. I made myself a Chain saw sled based on Izzy Swan's plans and have been making lumber for 2 years. I especially like to do in the winter. When the weather is reasonably nice it is a good day to get outside and work. I only mill dead trees but that is still 5 or so a year. Right now I have 9 logs staged. It is mostly red and white oak. Every now and then I get something other than oak. Each time I slab a log it feels like Christmas morning. I use a rip chain but with many more teeth. I am going to order one from logger chain. I found that a sharp chain and a clean air filter is key. A clogged air filter causes the saw to run rich which causes a loss of power. A dull chain really makes it hard. Anyway, I always enjoy your videos. (I use a Husqvarna 390 in my sled)
Great job and thanks for the video. I hope Trent was able to get that back yard cleaned back up. That's a lot of saw dust!
“Hey buddy, I have some trees getting cut down, want any of the wood?”
“Sure! And by “sure”, I mean, as long as you’ll help me cut it up for the next 5 Saturdays!”
“Uhhh, I’ll just have the tree guys take it.”
😂
The neighbours would probably have preferred that outcome. :x
@@danproposkanovovski amen to that. Neighbors are sipping coffee on Saturday morning. Here comes Frank’s white truck. 😂
Sourcing the material sure doesn't come easy, but at least it is cheap.
Yeah that’d be me for sure!
@@DiHandley yeah, what I’m really saying is that he has better friends than me haha
I milled some white oak and hickory logs 2 1/2 years ago and now are sufficiently dried. Moravian workbench will be the first project.
Great video as always Frank.
“On the fifth day of slabbing,
The neighbors said to Trent,
‘If we EVER hear another
CHAIN SAW START,
We’ll impale you with a stake of
Holly through the heart!
WE’VE HAD ENOUGH!
Thirty-seven slabs, ten bowl blanks,
Seven tons of dust.
Send Frank home with his wood you must!’”
lol. I thought the same thing...
That’s quite some friend you’ve got there Frank.
Nothing like watching this on a snowy Sunday morning with a nice cup of coffee
Good evening Frank, thanks for sharing. Looks like an intense 5 days. Have you seen my video on sharpening? Not so many ripping chains use the hyper-skip design you got - many have a full complement of cutting teeth just with an angle between 0-15 degrees (and often with the depth gauges slightly lower). My experience has been that I can get a better surface finish with more teeth (if they are all sharpened the same!). Hyper skip is great when the saw is struggling with a very wide / hard board though, and of course sharpening is quicker, although arguably you need to do it more often as each tooth is doing more work... Anyway, I'm rambling and am sure you know this already. Thanks again, Bongo.
Goodness.... I’d be bringing a chainsaw and the log splitter. Maybe slab the biggest log but the smaller ones..firewood. I admire your perseverance to get lumber out of those logs!
What a lucky deal. I'm sure those slabs will turn into beautiful pieces in the future.
I love watching your milling videos
I was watching this on my phone while drinking coffee and THREE times during the video I tried to blow away the sawdust from the slabs. I'm an idiot
It is hard to disassociate yourself when you get involved in a video
oh... You too... 😆
I find milling vids both soothing and incredibly satisfying
That's quite the haul! Can't beat American white oak, I know what you mean about it being a bit overused but it's good wood. Our oaks don't grow nearly as big, you've got enough there for many years of projects.
Great video. I hope you helped him clean up his back yard!
Wait, no bucket of water and the following wooooow!!!!! like Matt Cremona?????? hahahaha. Cheers Frank ;)
Yeah I bet the neighbours were really happy with you doing that several Saturdays in a row....
I bet the neighbours were glad that a tree that had already lost two large sections has since been removed, and they're no longer in danger of having their house/s crushed.
@@jessikabarkman5781 you two aren’t mutually exclusive, as you imply.
Nice video, as they all are. Hope you did something nice for the neighbors who shared in your project
I had some hot chocolate about an hour ago. With the arrival of this video, I'm now gonna have to make some more. A video from Our Frank always warrants a cuppa of some sort. I'll be back in 5.....
I chain saw mill quite a bit here on my property in Chile. I use a STIHL as well and have to adjust my oiler to oil the chain better. Other wise it works great. Thanks for the video. Jim in Chile.
A new slab is like a present on Christmas. But that time lapse @22:30 was like stocktaking On New Year’s
Frank, a local logger showed me recently how to sharpen my saw. I was frustrated because the saw shop always returned a nice sharp chain, but I could not match it at home. First, make sure you have a new file. Second, push from the inside out - this places the burr on the cutting edge. Third, buy a 12v saw sharpener, it will save your wrists!
lumber the hard way - well done, you have a good friend there helping with the alaska mill. i have turned very little oak, seems like you can turn half of it away, let it dry for two years and it's still as heavy a piece of wood.
Gotta get you one of those back-of-the-popular-science-magazine-advert diy bandsaw mills :D
"I usually poopoo oak a little bit" - frank howarth
You’ve got a lifetime supply of oak. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it.
GOOD Video Frank! Learned something today, never heard / seen a ripping blade for a chain saw, interesting. Nice pile of wood
Nice work Frank! However, I am glad that it was you doing the work and not me! Happy Holidays to you & your family! Be well & stay safe..........
Love it! Can't wait to see what gets made from all that oak!
That much American white oak would cost a small fortune over here in Europe, I am officially jealous! But then again I guess i do get to work with truck loads of Olive Wood on a daily basis, so it's fair I suppose. Nice video, I love seeing people making good come from a catastrophe, however large or small.
Rule of thumb for me....I hand file my chain every time I fill up the saw with gas/oil. I also flip the bar every other fill up to help keep the bar wearing even. This effort seems to keep the chain cutting well for an impressive amount of time. Remember to also occasionally file the height of the rakes to keep up with the diminishing cutting edge.
I bet the neighbors are glad to see you go after all that chainsaw work. 😂
Very cool. We appreciate the effort you put into your videos.
I'm envious of your slabs. We have some oaks on our acreage, but I couldn't cut them down. Also have lots of mesquite, and they die fairly young. Hope to mill some one day. I've seen mesquite slabs made into fireplace mantels sold for around $2000. Selling 2 of those would pay for a halfway decent mill.
Hello Frank, i really admire your work, especially the woodturning stuff, big thumbs up. I was wondering what is the rough thickness of the milled oak slabs?
A lot of projects in the making...ready to go in a few years
Frank, I know what you mean about oak being overused and uninteresting. Particularly red oak in 80’s cabinetry. I find white oak to be different enough and attractive though. I’ll be curious to see the projects that use this lumber.
Good lord that camera rig at 7:13!!! No wonder Frank gives us proper footage :)
Frank, If speed is your priority then a ripping chain may not be your best option. Depending on your budget, the best chain I've found for chainsaw milling is the Oregon CK (or CJ). Depending on the length you're looking for it can get a little pricy, but it's superior to any other chain I've used for milling. Great video!
Where I got my Alaskan sawmill from they sold me rip chains that are full teeth, but ground shallow and equally important are considerably thinner than the cross-cut chains and bars. Needs a different bar, of course. I'd suggest to use a winch that you can get for ~$80 for the Alaskan so you don't need to lift up logs and it's much less exhausting. For this bar length, I think there's also an optional oiler for the chain that might be useful.
Good milling!
You're the Man Frank!
POOPOO the oak, you got me there frank! haha
*Sunday Frank is among the best Franks!*
Neighbors must’ve been glad your done .
Re: trip to the moon and fear of forgetting something. I have the same issue every time I go cycling. So on top of keeping all of my stuff in the same spot, I also have a checklist taped to my door so that I can make sure I don't forget anything!
Good Afternoon, I was looking over your videos looking for information regarding how you store your slabs for drying. I didnt see anything as of recent, as such I am writing to you here. I live in the PNW around the seattle area and searching for information on the do's and dont's . I really am interested in milling down my own lumber, but dont have a good enclosed sheltered place. I would be really interested in seeing a video where you talk about your storage methods as well as time taken.
Love these videos
Hey Frank! Always love watching your videos. I'm really curious about that ripping chain that you got. I've been using ripping chain for years from Granberg. I have never seen that amount of spacing between the cutters. Where did you get that stuff?
Awesome haul! Maybe should try some quartersawing next time...
Thats a lot of work! Now we want to see you using the slabs from the previous sourcing. Live edge bench perhaps? :)
Excellent as usual!!!
Love the bowl
Every 2-3 times you sharpen the chain you should flat file the rakers in front of the teeth. Those control the depth of cut for each tooth and slow cutting is usually caused by those not being filed
lol the hole in the fence, not to mention the corner of the garage in the next yard!
i wis i could like more than once. i smiled the whole way through.
Merry Christmas 🎅 🎄
Nice to see Calvin becoming more useful, also that he's working with his brain and not his back. 😁
Weirdly happy and sad to see Calvin being a man. I swear, I followed this channel just a month or two ago! :P
I bet that wrapped wire dates back a ways, possibly a "temporary" clothes line tether, drying sleeping bags after camping maybe :D
Nice yield of Oak,Frank.
Great vid Frank. What kind of compensation do you give your buddy? Or is it more you doing him the favour of getting rid of the wood?
Hi Frank, can you post a checklist of items you carry for your Alaskan Mill? You mentioned there was a lot and it would be handy to pass this experience into others plus have a checklist for yourself in the future.
I bet you were exhausted after all that work. Usually takes me day to recover after planking out a trunk. Lol
Just curious, how long is a tree viable for slabbing after it has fallen? (Assuming 2.5-3 ft diameter)
Just cut a cookie and have a look. Don't fall into analysis paralysis. If it looks good it is good.
Three, four, maybe five years from now you will be watching Frank make something amazing out of this oak and you will say, "Damn! I remember when he spent 6 weekends milling that stuff!"
Nice work.
Hey Frank. I think it'd be fun if you did a Colab with Matias Wandel...and...maybe This Old Tony, to make a band saw mill for your wood projects, and then share some of your milled wood back to Matias to do projects with. It seems like you mill enough trees that it could be a thing. If this is a good idea...other viewers can thumbs up this comment, strawpoll style.
Ouch, when a 660 or 880 chainsaw is struggling, you know it's tough wood! Lol
Thanks Frank.
Happy christmas Frank!
Sou aqui do Brasil e estou sempre assistindo seus vídeos
Um trabalho lindo de se ver
Looks like you have the work cut out for you!
You’re officially in the Oak business now
So you now have enough oak slab to last you for how long? Looks like at least 3 to 4 years before you can think about using any of it. longer for the pieces you want to use as mallets. Thank you for sharing. Have a great day and stay healthy.
At some point it looks like someone use a wire to string the trees together to hold it up so it wouldn't split. Man, I need an Alaskan chainsaw mill. My brother has a saw large enough and is an arborist. I have got random chunks of black walnut and a cord or two of red oak fire wood. Really can't wait to get a bigger place where I could dedicate a section for cutting stacking and drying a few logs to work with.
At the end: Wow! What a stack!
Was someone shooting a new blockbuster movie in this guys yard @7:11??? That camera setup is insane!
Good job !!!
I think you've convinced me to get a skip tooth rip chain, I'm using a regular chain filed to 10 degrees, but it takes about 10 minutes for 8' of maple 14" in dia. Can you post how long per slab it took with the rip chain you were using?
Is there a commercial drying kiln nearby?
Love it. I would love to be able to slab a log like that. You will have some fine material in about a year once it dries. Have you thought about a solar powered kiln perhaps to speed up process?
What a good harvest ... !!! He had never seen anything like this ... Thanks for sharing ... !!! Question: How long does it take to air dry the oak boards ... ??? Excuse my "google-english" ... Saludos desde Uruguay...!!!
15:15 iron balls check ^^'
lmao this made my afternoon. You need balls of iron to take this job on!
Haha I think he was checking that it worked by scanning his belt buckle
I think he was using his pants zipper to test the detector.
Great Job !
Now you can building the Swedish Vasa ship:)
What are you doing with the drill on the inside of the bowl blank during the turning?
He’s creating a reference point to which he will remove material. He can subtract the depth of the hole from the edge from the total depth of the blank to determine how much material remains. That will eventually get him to his desired wall / bottom thickness.