Wood butchers' suggestions

Charles in Aus.

Well-known Member
I have three giant storm fallen Monterey pines at my hobby farm . They are about 12-15 feet around the base , dead straight and close to 20 metres long each .
I just can't get anyone interested in milling them, surprising but there it is , they are too big for me to move as whole logs and they are just sitting there getting in the way of clearing the paddock.
Short of cutting them up into lengths small enough for my Ferguson 35 to pull and dump over the edge of the nearest gully I can't think of a use for them .
Firewood is well taken care of , I have six huge fallen bluegums that burn like the fires of Hell .
A few suggestions on how to use them would be welcome , out there ones especially :)
Pictured here is a small one , the other three are close to twice this size .

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Hi Charles,
As far as I know, there aren't any Monterey pines in northeast Texas, unless some have been introduced as part of a landscape. I think our dry weather might keep one
from ever reaching that size. It looks like those are good and straight, probably make a lot of lumber. What's causing all those big trees to lay over? I have made
some pretty furniture out of gum lumber, but I've never heard the term bluegum in reference to trees. Just the better hunting dogs. Sorry I don't have any useful ideas
about handling those big trees. I don't think I have a chainsaw that would cut halfway through the trunk of one of those.
Butch
 
Charles, go to the " Forestry Forum " and introduce your self. Their may be a mobile sawyer in your area that can saw the trees into lumber for you. Good luck.
Jo
 

I am in Aus . That's Australia :)
The big island down under with kangaroos and bitey things under every rock .
Sorry Woodbutcher , I didn't know there was a member with your name . I was asking carpenters in general for some ideas . The Monterey pine was introduced to Victoria in the early 20's as a plantation tree , it has been planted extensively ever since and provides the framework for almost every house built here .
Blue gums are big old Australian hardwood trees from the Eucalyptus family , you often see Koalas sitting in them , though they prefer Manna gums . It's hard brittle wood but looks great polished as furniture timber, it makes excellent firewood as well .
Most trees on my place were planted in 1915 at the onset of WW1 , a hundred years of age and some really severe wind storms and rainfall lately have laid them over. It has made a huge amount of work .
You are right about the size of them , my Stihl Farm Boss looks like a child's toy up against them .
It is a constant source of annoyance to me that just no one is prepared to mill them , not even vaguely interested . There is probably enough in all four to frame two decent sized houses , such a waste .
 
Charles: one possibility is milling them yourself with a chainsaw mill. There's many different models, with the "Alaskan" and Granberg mills being two of the more popular ones. The basic technique is to use the mill as a guide for a chainsaw and make planks or other timbers from large trees in remote areas without access to a conventional sawmill. It's not terribly efficient, and becomes even less so if you're trying to make thin boards, but if you have a use for some large timbers it might be worth your time and effort. It typically requires a large chainsaw with a long bar and special ripping chain, though of course you can often make do with what you have if you're only doing a small number of cuts. I'm linking one typical setup (around $220 USD) from Northern Tool, though what you can get your hands on in Australia might be a bit different. Another possibility, especially as you're from Australia, is to find someone with a Lucas mill, which are specifically designed to deal with large trees that need to be milled in place, and, I believe, were invented there. I believe their website is lucasmill.com
alaskan chainsaw mill at northern tool
 

Thanks for the link Tim , that mill is a simple and effective device . I am madly trying to think of uses for giant slabs of pine now :)
 
Of course, Charles, and yes, they are simple and effective. The down sides are they're rather wasteful (having a much larger kerf than, say, a Wood-mizer bandsaw mill) and of course they're entirely manual, which equates to quite a bit of work flipping the logs, running the saw, and such. Still, they're commonly used for just what you're looking at--low-volume rough cutting for things like floor joists, squaring and trimming logs for backwoods log cabins, timbers for bridges, and other heavy, rough-and-ready construction in remote areas. The link below is to Northern's full range of chainsaw mills (if it doesn't work, just search Chainsaw Mills on their site) and I'm sure whatever similar logging or even farming store chains you have in Australia will have some form of the same thing if it's not cost-effective to buy from Northern--very few of these are exclusive to them, they just happen to have a good selection.
more chain saw mills at Northern
 
Charles,

Not to do with your timber problem but I want to say I have always liked Australia, the open
country, different types of country, not overcrowded, and what seems to me an independent attitude
of the people. At least the from the cities. The only thing I don't like is the anti gun attitude
of the government. Also I have heard that you don't let anyone in to live there unless they have a
skill and can contribute, unlike the U.S. where we have to support many of those who show up legal
or otherwise. An I right, or do I just have a nice fantasy?
 

Like all fantasies and dreams this one is fading Tom .
What you describe was correct some fifteen years ago . An increasing willingness to ' import ' unskilled welfare dependants has made, my state at least , resemble a dole queue in some areas . Our car industry has collapsed and most small manufacturing concerns have succumbed to Chinese imports . So there are few of the factory jobs our idiot Government imported the unskilled workers to fill, left .
Still it is a beautiful place to live if you have the skills to look after and provide for yourself .

Gun control is strict here , I have a limited licence for longarms only . Sidearms are restricted to Police and Security personnel .
I have mixed feelings about this , I know I can use a weapon wisely , I also know that some can't . If it was up to me these types wouldn't even be allowed to vote let alone carry a firearm .
I realised I have much of the material I need to make a mill for myself already half made and able to be adapted .
I am going to give it a go and see what I can do . It certainly won't be up to Loren's standards but it's worth the effort .
 
Thanks for your reply and I am sorry that things are sliding down in your country too. But you
sound happy and I hope you are and enjoy living there. Tom
 
Be careful with that bugger, while servicing a tractor at a local farm, the farmer started to cut a wind blown old man pine up, when he cut
the trunk through the weight of soil on the roots pulled the tree back up getting him along the way.
All his ribs broken, punctured lung, cracked his neck. I got him a ride in the Westpac helicopter to Christchurch hospital, he is o.k. now,
but it scared me half to death, and it was the longest wait for that air ambulance to arrive that I have ever had, only 10 minutes but seemed
like hours. Accident happened about 1.30p.m. nobody would have missed him until around 6 or 7, they told me if I had not been there he may
have died.
 

Thanks Richard , that is a timely warning , but not timely enough for me :shock:

This particular tree was on the ground when I started to limb and top it . Fortunately for me I am methodical about these things and cleared the area , burning the trash as I went and making sure there were no stumps of branches sticking out from the trunk .
I noticed the end going light at the next to final cut , but dismissed this as imagination . To my horror as I had almost completed the last cut I was making the trunk started to lift , and fast at that ! I kept cutting , I could imagine the trunk acting like a huge catapult and flinging the four foot top section onto the roadway below the farm . I just managed the last inch or two when the beast flicked upwards to almost vertical before settling down to the position it is in now . You can see where the last bit peeled off , fortunately for me .
I was grateful I wasn't hurt and now I am even more wary of the latent forces held in these things .
 
Unless you've got a much larger saw than your Farm Boss, it will cost you more to set up a chainsaw mill than the value of the boards you'll get from milling the trees, especially if you have no use for them.

When you say "nobody is interested" that only means you haven't talked to the right person yet.

Frankly you are not equipped to handle that situation any further than you have, and unless you're willing to invest in adequate equipment to finish the job, or rent some, I would highly recommend you leave the job to someone who is equipped, be they professionals or neighbors. That tree probably could have flung your Massey 35 into the road when it tipped back up.

I think the solution here in the US would be to hire a large excavator to come in and finish uprooting the tree, then someone with a large chainsaw could lop it off at the base to make a log. Don't know if that's possible where you are in Australia. It would probably cost a fortune, but the trees are a hazard right now as they are. Here in the US the insurance company would pay for it because it's cheaper than paying out a wrongful death settlement if a kid got squashed under the root ball playing in the dirt...
 

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