DIY Quartersawing Advice

[Helvetica]

Hi folks, my father in law asked me to pick up a log for him, he never told me it was 2' diameter, 4' long beech! It has some heart rot, but it looks reasonably straight and I'd love to plank it.

I can't exactly lift it into the bandsaw! So I'm wondering should I get an axe and a few iron wedges, chainsaw it up (too much waste), or build a bow saw and do it the old fashioned way. Any advise?

 

[G S Haydon]

Hi,

See if you can find a joiner who has a band re saw or someone who operates a horizontal band saw. It would make life easier. Your not going to end up with much timber by the time it's converted, do you have a project in mind for the wood?

 

[Helvetica]

Maybe a dining table? The beech looks spalted so it would make a lovely display. I'm thinking 2" boards allowed to dry for 2 years in the woodshed. I can make the legs from steamed beech

Could be a kitchen island too - we are building a house soon. I'd really like to do this myself to save money for the build

 

[G S Haydon]

Sounds cool,

Just don't think there will be enough wood there. Hope to be proved wrong though. I've attached a quarter sawing illustration, shows how much get's wasted http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/attachme ... sawing.jpg

 

[Insy]

Have you thought about asking about to see if someone has one of the mobile saw mills, its a jig which you connect your chainsaw to and you can cut thick boards using chainsaw.

You can load the boards 1 by 1 onto the vehicle and take them back to workshop and neaten them up with bandsaw/planer then?

http://www.alaskanmill.co.uk/Store.aspx#P2 This is the link to a alaskan mill, thought I'd provide link just incase you didn't know what i was on about.

 

[Jelly]

I wouldn't bother, better to track down a head-saw you can access. Woodmizer mobile band mills are an option, as would be finding an.estate sawmill or simmilar

Chainsaws and even large circular head-saws give unaccepably great losses to consider quarter sawing with them, the kerf of a bandsaw will be a fraction of any other option.

 

[custard]

Looking at the photos I'd ask if this is more trouble than it's worth?

If the log is 4' overall then you'll lose about 18" at one end where those big branches were because the grain will be all over the place in that section, and given that beech isn't the most stable timber to begin with then that end of any board will likely curl and twist like a witches hair style during drying. At the other end of the log there's a buttress, which suggests the tree might have been on a slope or otherwise subject to uneven growth...again, more potential problems. Unfortunately quarter sawing won't give that much stability if the grain's all over the place.

 

[Jacob]

Yers I agree. It looks like firewood to me though you might get some interesting bits for tool handles, turning etc

 

[AndyT]

Looking at the photos I'd ask if this is more trouble than it's worth?

If the log is 4' overall then you'll lose about 18" at one end where those big branches were because the grain will be all over the place in that section, and given that beech isn't the most stable timber to begin with then that end of any board will likely curl and twist like a witches hair style during drying. At the other end of the log there's a buttress, which suggests the tree might have been on a slope or otherwise subject to uneven growth...again, more potential problems. Unfortunately quarter sawing won't give that much stability if the grain's all over the place.

and for all the same reasons, I don't think that you would get anywhere trying to split it with wedges. Any splitting demos I've seen have been of nice straight sections - not like this with its 'challenging' ends. Sorry!

 

[Helvetica]

Ah well! I'm going to chainsaw it in half, or quarter, and bandsaw the rest - I get what I get. Probably just a blunt chainsaw!

 

[jakethebuilder]

Yes, I would recommend following through. I've been tinkering with the same sort of thing of late. I plan to post pictures when I get a bit farther along. All the comments about twisting grain are correct, as you will find, as soon as you start trying to split the log. I used a chainsaw down the center of each end, for about six inches, and then used two steel wedges to finish splitting. On some of the sections I split, the grain wound around nearly a quarter turn from one end of a four foot section to the other. I was amazed and disappointed. After splitting into quarters, I intend to use an adze to flatten one side enough to run the quarters through my bandsaw. I don't actually own an adze at the moment, but I hope to change that soon. As has been suggested, you may end up with nothing more than a few tool handles from that entire log, but I'm guessing you will learn a lot from the process of trying it out, and will gain a greater appreciation for the lumber you buy that has already been processed. Good luck!

 

[dickm]

Sorry to rain on your parade too, but the chances of getting much useable timber out of that at a sensible cost are almost nil. The only easy way that doesn't involve creating a lot of chips and very little timber is a bandsaw, ideally a Woodmizer or Forestor. BUT the guys who own those have to make a living, and usually charge a basic call-out fee of £100+. Just not economical for one log, unless you are very lucky.
If you can chainsaw it into manageable lumps and heave it on to someones biggish bandsaw, that's probably your best bet.

Otherwise, a strong partner and a two handed saw in a pit................... :twisted:

 

[Helvetica]

Ok I've split it in half, then cut away the bad end. I still have a clean 30" x 18" x 8" on the buttress end. I thought 'great, it's square already'! What are problems I'm likely to see with a buttress end?

 

[custard]

I salute your resolve!

Trees that grow on a slope sometimes develop a buttress like that, the problem isn't the buttress but the spiral grain that often accompanies it. I had a few acres of woodland once and about a third of it was on a fairly gentle gradient...I never got a stick of furniture grade stuff from that entire section. But if your grain runs true then you're in the clear.

 

[Dangermouse]

It would make some turning wood, but I think it will be all reaction timber, which means as soon as you try to plank it, it will twist as soon as the tension is released by sawing it.

 

[Helvetica]

I didn't bother trying to properly quartersaw, I just cut out the straightest section, split it in half, and made 2" planks. We'll see how it dries over 2years but hopefully I'll have a few 1" Lanka by the end. I guess I won't be making a dining table after all, but it is attractive beech.

 

[Nick Gibbs]

Good work. I have an Alaskan mill, which fantastic for the price for milling this sort of log, bit you need a big chainsaw.

Nick