cherry tree

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Matthew Groves on November 2, 2009 at 11:00am

Sounds like a project.

How long is it between the ground and where the first major limb starts?

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Philip Sharpe on November 2, 2009 at 11:32am

You should go ahead and cut boards to rough sizes before drying. The wood will change dimension as it dries mostly across the grain. the bandsaw can work if you can support the length of the tree. It may be hard to achieve 5-6% moisture content by air drying depending on your environment. If there's a kiln near you that may be your best bet.

It's best to cut logs into manageable lengths. I'd cut 6' logs and hope that I and a helper can manage them.

Most people with mills will saw it for half of the lumber. I think you're better off doing it yourself.

Good luck!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by O on November 2, 2009 at 11:45am

Thanks Matthew and Philip

the tree has been trimmed a couple of time but i think the first limb that hasn't been cut is about 10' from the gound.


Matthew Groves said:

Sounds like a project.

How long is it between the ground and where the first major limb starts?

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by nateswoodworks on November 3, 2009 at 4:27pm

I agree with the manageable lenghts but at 10" across it is going to be hard to get much wood out of it-but little wood is better than no wood. I live in Minnesota so for every inch thick it takes between 1 1/2 to 2 years to dry. I had gotten free trees about 6 yrs ago and grabbed them. * Black Walnut and 3 Maple (2 of them are Spalted!) The absolute best advice I can give you is to go out and buy FineWoodworking's Wood and How to Dry It. It helps with every step of the process and working with wood all together. I payed $10 for the book and just like all other books you will always refer back to it. Good luck.
Nate

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joe Corda on November 3, 2009 at 4:51pm

First my friend has a bandsaw mill .. and it is sweet .. .. we guessed and cut our boards about 1" thick .. figuring we would plane then down to 3/4 for final

If air drying is a problem in your area .. One thought is to search for "solar kiln plans" in google .. you can quickly build a structure to speed up drying

Good luck
Joe

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Steven on November 11, 2009 at 3:39pm

All good advice, in my area (ontario) the other sawyers and I charge $0.05 a board foot to cut it with a move in fee of anywhere from 0 to 75 depending on how far away you are, some ppl stay away from a "yard" tree since they can have some interesting things hiding in there from spikes to clothes line hooks to stones, I've even hit a horse shoe once! Or you can bring it to the the mill and its just the five cents a bf, and alot say if we hit something you bought a blade.
If your going to do it yourself, decide what you think your going to build, if you dont see any tables or beds and such in the future i'd nock it down to 4 or 5 feet so its easy to move, then rip it into 5/4 thicknessess so you can be sure you will get 3/4 once you plane it. Sticker it with the stickers within 6" from the ends and every 12" in the middle. I use a heavy pvc electrical pipe cut in half for small piles since you will get no staining this way. If you are going to leave it outside after you cut it is fine just make sure its a level area up off the ground( cinder blocks work well, one under each sticker row) and cover the pile with a piece of tin weighted down with some stones or more blocks so it doesnt blow away

▶ Reply to This

▶ Reply to This