Milling trees

[AJB Temple]

By far most of the wood I have used for framing work, was milled from trees we owned. In my experience we preferred to get a miller to visit site and cut to order several large and trimmed trunks at a time. For the very large mature trees we had, machinery to handle them was a necessity.

Although I am competent with a chainsaw, these days I find big ones quite scary. I would like to see more threads and pictures about this.

 

[topchippyles]

By far most of the wood I have used for framing work, was milled from trees we owned. In my experience we preferred to get a miller to visit site and cut to order several large and trimmed trunks at a time. For the very large mature trees we had, machinery to handle them was a necessity.

Although I am competent with a chainsaw, these days I find big ones quite scary. I would like to see more threads and pictures about this.

Loads of it on arbtalk and most of us own mills of some kind .

 

[shed9]

What part of wales are you as i have a nice setup and love talking shop

Hi topchippyles Im in Brechfa forest nr Carmarthen.

Although I am competent with a chainsaw, these days I find big ones quite scary.

Yup, I have a healthy fear of chainsaw's whatever the size. I take regular brakes whenever I use mine to make sure I don't get complacent.

 

[Oddbod70]

Spent the day restacking last years milling. Nicely seasoning scots pine and some oak. The oak was leaning (reaction wood) so its not the greatest. I‘ll get a bit out it but in hindsight it was really firewood only.

My big saw (80cc) runs a 24” bar for felling, and im not sure i’d want anything larger in the woods. It‘S quick but gets quite heavy after a bit. TBH its surprising how much you can do with a 15” saw If you're not on the clock.

complacency is definitely my enemy. Its so easy not to change into ppe when “its only a couple of cuts”. My dad was a country GP and fairly regularly had to sew up the odd landowning hobbyist who’d got a bit ambitious. I guess that like most things its safe if you know what you are doing and not if you don’t. Its well worth doing the cs30/31 Beginners course (not sure if its still called that)

 

[AJB Temple]

I agree with you Oddbod. I bought chainsaw trousers (Stihl - the ones that stop the chain by fibre entanglement) boots, helmet with mesh screen, and gloves. It's hot and uncomfortable. Hence I save up chainsawing work so that it is worth me getting togged up.

 

[topchippyles]

Hi topchippyles Im in Brechfa forest nr Carmarthen.


Yup, I have a healthy fear of chainsaw's whatever the size. I take regular brakes whenever I use mine to make sure I don't get complacent.

Nice part of the country down there,I am up on the heads of the valleys where winter is fast approaching

 

[Jelly]

Whenever I've wanted timber converted from logs I've rung round local sawmills and usually found that someone is willing to do it for pretty cheap... As long as I'm willing to put up security on the price of a bandsaw blade.

The indication that I know why they're worried about converting other people's logs, and understand the seriousness of a snapped sawband (the sawmill I worked in as a young man dealt with a lot of Latvian timber where shrapnel in large sections was an issue, and the metal detectors weren't 100% reliable) seems to be the factor which gets them on board.

 

[shed9]

Whenever I've wanted timber converted from logs I've rung round local sawmills and usually found that someone is willing to do it for pretty cheap... As long as I'm willing to put up security on the price of a bandsaw blade.
My big saw (80cc) runs a 24” bar for felling, and im not sure i’d want anything larger in the woods. It‘S quick but gets quite heavy after a bit. TBH its surprising how much you can do with a 15” saw If you're not on the clock.

There is generally a higher risk the closer the trees are to the house or outbuildings. You can usually find nails for bird boxes, festoon lighting or more often these days security lights or motion triggered cameras. It doesn't take long (relatively) for a tree to swallow iron into the growing process.
I concur on the smaller bars being competent if you take your time, I have a smaller Stihl 180 which is generally for logging up firewood but this has often been just as or more useful than the larger saws for limbing and taking certain sized trees down. The larger cc saws get very heavy very quickly.

+1 on the PPE and whenever you start the saw up for however short a time you do it. PITA but not as time consuming if it goes Pete Tong.

topchippyles, yup, it's getting very cold here too. We're still quite high where we are and sort of protected by the valley itself but Winter is definitely on the way.

 

[topchippyles]

There is generally a higher risk the closer the trees are to the house or outbuildings. You can usually find nails for bird boxes, festoon lighting or more often these days security lights or motion triggered cameras. It doesn't take long (relatively) for a tree to swallow iron into the growing process.
I concur on the smaller bars being competent if you take your time, I have a smaller Stihl 180 which is generally for logging up firewood but this has often been just as or more useful than the larger saws for limbing and taking certain sized trees down. The larger cc saws get very heavy very quickly.

+1 on the PPE and whenever you start the saw up for however short a time you do it. PITA but not as time consuming if it goes Pete Tong.

topchippyles, yup, it's getting very cold here too. We're still quite high where we are and sort of protected by the valley itself but Winter is definitely on the way.

We have the highest golf coarse in the uk and my saw mill is even higher than that so possibly the highest sawmill in the uk