Replies

1. 
   jackplane | Feb 21, 2006 08:14pm | #1

   snapped a chalk line??

    

2. 
   Pippins | Feb 21, 2006 10:04pm | #2

   bolton, once they had a string stretched end to end, they proabably used a plumb to create the vertical.

   Steve  

3. 
   KeithNewton | Feb 22, 2006 12:12am | #3

   I like getting big trees for my woodmizer, and I rip them with a big chain-saw into quarters to put onto the mill. You can see a chalk-line on bark, and it would be buried as soon as I started sawing if I could, so what I do is to tack or screw a long thin straight batten to the log, and saw right beside it.

   I have a good eye for straight, level and plumb, so I just keep the blade plumb by eye.

   If anyone who reads this and decides to try it themselves, I would like to point out there is a big hazard when you rip a big log once you get to the end. If it is not bound together , it may split apart unexpectedly while you are still on it, and when those two halves fall apart, they will likely rock past their mid-points, then rock back together.
   If you were on top, and fall into the space while they are apart, you or some part of your anatomy may be crushed when they rock back in.

1. 
   bolton | Feb 22, 2006 03:27am | #4

   I had thought about a board but they had none. They were very careful with their string line so I am sure they didn’t try to cut along it. Thank you for the warning. I also have woodmiser (LT 30) and hope to be cutting up a Sycamore that is about 4 feet in diameter at the base so I had thought that I would split it first with a chain saw but I hadn’t thought about it splitting on the final cut.
   Bolton

1. 
   KeithNewton | Feb 22, 2006 05:14am | #5

   Hey Bolton, Yea this is defiantly the way to go at that tree. You really want to QC as much of that sycamore as you can so you can get that nice medullar ray fleck as you can. I think it is under-rated, and should be used for more major works. When I go onto the mill with a quartered log, I try to put one face up and the other to the fence stops. Oh yea and the side that is down, I cut with the chain-saw a flat that is parallel to the top face, so I have a little base to sit on, and go start out with the top chain-sawn face parallel to the bed. I then try to wedge some chocks that fit onto the beds that match the curvature of the log to hold it into that position. I will then cut and jamb in some braces off of the other side of the bed to higher up on the back side of the log, and start sawing until I start loosing the fleck, then I turn it.I hope you have a kiln to run it through. I cut up a big one a few years ago, and left some of it out in a covered stack too long, and PPB got into it, so I lost a good bit of it.

1. 
   bolton | Feb 22, 2006 07:13pm | #6

   Keith, You are too much of a purest! I lay my quartered log flat side down and set the saw to cut one or 3/4 inch above the bed. I rotate the log 1/4 turn after every cut. I have on older style WoodMiser so I had to make 2”x2” square tubing two feet long that will set on top of the present bed of the saw to do this.I built a drying shed several years ago. I sticker the lumber and allow it to dry for at least a year. I find that if I weight the new lumber down with about four layers of dried lumber, I have almost no warpage. The only problem that I have are with boards that are less than 4” wide because they tend to twist.Chris Bolton

1. 
   KeithNewton | Feb 22, 2006 07:35pm | #7

   I wish I could do it that way, My LT 15 only has 10" of clearance above the blade which is about 14" shy on a log this size, and I have a hard time repositioning a log of this size and nature.