My brother owns a tree service,wood such as black walnut,oak,maple,cherry, and etc He cuts soo much down its seems like a waste to cut it up for firewood.Is it worth it to mill this. I own a small cabinet shop on the east coast NJ. I’ve heard some guys will bring the mill to your location.
-how much is worth it to mill?
-how long until I can use in the shop?
-can I air dry?
-Where can I obtain info?
Thanks, Lou
Replies
There are actually people around the country who build businesses around these "urban trees" that have to be cut down for various reasons. If you're inclined to think of them as an important resource, you might find this article interesting.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Milling your own lumber can be very cost effective especially if you have someone that gives you the logs for free. You can end up with a lot of wood real fast. I have a porch full of slabs from about 8 different trees. Most of it has been air drying for five or more years. In my part of the country 1" thickness takes about 14 monthes to dry. I'd talk to someone at the local woodworkers hangout like Woodcraft or Rockler or do a Google for sawyers or mills in your area.
were about in east nj i live in bergen county 7 miles from the gw bridge
tommyp, Southern NJ on the east coast I meant, Sorry
Hi Lou,
I recently had some cherry sawed up by a local sawyer. It cost me $.17/bf to saw and $.20/bf to have it kiln dried. Three foresters have seen the wood and said it came out beautiful. I figure at $.37/bf for cherry is a GREAT bargain.
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
Use whatever tool needed to Git 'r Done!
This forestry forum is the one to visit if you want to learn about lumber making.
http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php
Thanx, QC For the good site.
-Lou
Does anyone know of any portable mills who will travel to Southern NJ
Thanx, Lou
Check the Woodmizer site and other portable mill sites, from what I understand, they usually have listings of owners and where they are located. I have not checked this out myself, so cannot vouch for it - you may be able to call them and get the info if it is not on their site.1 - measure the board twice, 2 - cut it once, 3 - measure the space where it is supposed to go 4 - get a new board and go back to step 1
Talk to your local tree service guys. I followed a long trail and finally found a few that were recommended by the guys who cut down my 135 year old oak. The guy I used charged by the hour $80/hour with 1 hour for travel and setup. Any damaged blades cost and addtional $60 for putting on new carbide teeth.
My tree had a 33' long trunk 40" in diameter and yielded 2000 bd ft of white oak! I just planned my first boards and the wood is beutiful.
Do search for local forestry groups and follow that trail as well.
You buy a cheap tool twice and then you're still stuck with a cheap tool!
You have to consider that this material requires a lot of handling and a lot of storage space. You will have to stage the logs for the sawyer (heavy you will need help), stack the green freshly sawn wood for air drying (takes up a lot of space), and then carry it to a dry kiln, and carry it back. After all that you have log run material, which could contain anything from select grades to unusable materials. When I was younger I did some of this, I have since found out that I am better off just buying select grades materials and getting on with the woodworking.
I knew a fellow that had his own kiln. He would buy pregraded air dryed hardwoods. He would put them straight in the kiln and come out with good stock at a reasonable cost and minimal handling.
Ron
as mentioned, some outfits will mill this for you. others can provide kiln drying facilities. simple answer to your questino is to find out what species your bro cuts down, whether any of it is stuff you would find useful, what the board foot cost at your lumber milll would be for the material and what it wuold cost you to have it milled and kiln dried. If the cost is not significantly less given the trouble, then dont bother. air drynig is probably not practical because you have to store it smoewhere and it takes forever to get to cabinet grade dryness of 7-8%, esp in thicker stock.
If the economics work out and you arent spending hours tracknig down service providers and/or hauling the stuff around, then do it. DKA
Hi Lou, I wish I had a brother that was in the business of turning up free logs for me. I am one of those guys who has a little portable mill, and am happy to saw up urban trees when I can get good ones.
It is a lot of work, but I think it is worth it, especially when you can get the really big ones. sometimes I can get trees in the 4 - 5' diameter that I have to quarter with a big chain-saw so it will fit on my mill, but it is great to get QS lumber over 20" wide.
Before you go out and buy a mill though, I would suggest that you try to find someone near you that has a mill, and get them to saw the logs for you and let you help. Most guys are more than happy to have someone help move the lumber around, and turn the logs.
To try to find a mill near you try this link. http://www.woodweb.com/Resources/RSSDG.html
There is a lot more to it than just having the mill, but it is handy to have a nice big flat-bed trailer. I ended up getting a tractor with a grab-bucket for the logs, and fit it out with fork-lift tines for moving the lumber stacks. I have not built my solar-kiln yet but I am hopeful of building one soon.
To start learning about drying lumber, here is a good place to start.
http://www.woodweb.com/KnowledgeBase/KBPPAirDryingLumber.html
a resounding yes Lou, find a person who band saws lumber, you get more boards out of a log. air dry one year under cover per inch of board thickness. There may be a kiln dry service to speed up the drying time for an extra fee. Boards that are quater sawn are more valuable but gives you fewer boards per log. Quarter sawn dry flater without cupping. If you saw lots of wood then mill run is O.K. because you can rip stock a little narrower and glue up wide flat lumber. I'm a retired aborist and am building boats out of trees taken in from tree customers. The kinds of wood are blue spruce, florida cypress, madera mahogany, red oak, white oak, cherry, black wallnut, white pine, black olive and southern pine.
Hey Bush Man, If I air dry in southern NJ. will air drying make the wood ready for furniture building. My brother has about 9 oak trunks about 36''-48'' round and about 14' long, about the same with cherry, poplar,and walnut. every time I go to his shop I lick my chops.These tunks seam to straight as an arrow. I gotta get on this soon.
-Lou
Hey Lou, sounds like you have a good enough supply that you ought to go for it.
I guess your brother already has the equipment for handleing the logs so you already are over that hump. Check out this site.
http://www.sawmill-exchange.com/band2.htm
I agree. I would suggest that the sawyer, if you find one, go to your brothers yard because it would be easier to move if he has large equipment already there. Plus cleanup will be easier because all the stuff should be there, rakes, shovels blowers etc... and the cutoffs that are unusuable can be disposed of easier as well.
I am an arborist as well and there are more times than i care to remember where we had to dispose of, leave or cut up into firewood, beautiful timber that i would have loved to get my mitts on, but due to time, logistics etc, there is basically nothing i can do. But for any consolation anytime we can get sawlogs out, they get taken away to a recycler or even a mill. O well good luck.
Tree guy, I was talking to my brother. We are thinking of puchasing a saw mill and putting up a pole barn. It would be great. He has a successfull business and I have a cabinet shop. I think we are gonna go for it. I'll wing it and learn as I go.
-Lou
Hi Lou' Bush man is your half goombardi. Keep logs high and dry spring and summer to stop worms from invadeing logs causing lots of pin holes. Today at Home Depot, saw red oak boars at over six dollars a bd. foot plained and kil=dried at 10 inches wide. AS for green cut oak, lots of water in red much less in white oak. Dry 9 months minamum , less time for white. Start to soon and your work will reveal sharinkage as boards loss width dimention. Best to pick a projest in a hurry and ruff cut your stock over size and bring just what you will need for the work and kil-dry. It'll be well worth the effort. For fine woods at your diposal you'll reallize hundreds of dollars of value to finished projects. Keep on chucking wood, more fun than a man should have! John Rynne ,, esquirer Bush Man
Thanka you very de much 1/2 Pisano. I'll keep in touch
-Lou
Lou: I'll add my penny's worth to the discussion. About two years ago, I bought some white oak from a single tree- 28" by 14'. Just slabs, not trimmed in anyway. It dried for about 8 months before I rough cut the boards to get rid of the bark and sapwood. At that point if rough planned and started to roughcut pieces for a table and chairs. I moved the stuff in the house to further dry.
In one of your last posts, you said the magic word. You said you intended to "build furniture". It is hard for me to believe that "an ordinary person" can afford to buy the kind of finished lumber (quality) that you can get by having it cut on a bandsaw and air dried. You can build from a single tree, you can match the grain patterns, you can maximize the wood with straight grain, you can bandsaw to whatever thickness you need, etc. Also, I much prefer the texture and look of air dried lumber over kiln dried. You can also use short logs and crotch pieces that ordinarily would be left to rot.
It is a lot of work and sure eats up the time, but if you're like me and have more time than money, it's the way to go. Think a year ahead of what you want to build. The results are worth it.
about a year and half ago I had some oak , fir and madrone cut into lumber with a woodmiser machine. The boards have been air drying all this time. I am now in the process of building a woodshop so I can finally use some of this material. If you mill up your own wood you need to have the space to stack all the lumber and the patience to allow it to air dry if you go that way. The wood miser can handle a log 6 feet long or more, and you have to have enough diameter in the log for the machine to get at least 2 sides ( 4 is better) square. I was raised in nj and know there are some wonderful large hardwood trees, even in the cities. There is a product called an Alaskan mill that attaches to your chainsaw that can be used to mill lumber "in the field" if you are so inclined. Check out wwwbailys-online.com for some ideas as to what is out there in milling products. good luck
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled