Tree to Lumber - Milling Logs with a Bandsaw Mill
Two ash and one beech tree. The beech and one of the ash trees had grown together. The ash were dying and all were on a slope above houses, so it was determined they had to come down before they wound up in someone’s living room
A very skillfully operated crane took the trees down safely and stacked the trunks in preparation for milling into planks. The longest of these is about 11’
28” wide white ash plank (flitch) sawn from near the center of the log. We had these center “flitches” sawn at 2.5” thick
Woodmizer portable bandsaw mill with a 30” diameter beech log in position for first cut. The Woodmizer’s hydraulics can fine-tune the position of the log so that we get the exact orientation we want
A half-day of milling and another full day of transporting and stickering the heavy ash (behind) and beech (foreground) flitches resulted in these nice stacks. Now we just have to be patient for a few years while they air dry!
How beautiful trees become beautiful lumber
A few weeks ago, an offer was made by one of our students for us to help mill and then share the lumber from two large ash and one beech tree that had to be taken down from his property. We gratefully accepted the offer, met to come up with a plan and started the wheels in motion.
A tree removal expert with a large crane successfully took down the trees without “redesigning” the roofline of the house. The branches were taken away and the trunks were stacked.
One of the smaller diameter logs was set aside and cut into 40” lengths for riving or splitting for some upcoming green woodworking chair projects. The longest of the seven logs was initially about 11’ in length. We determined where the longer logs would best be cut to shorter lengths and did so with chainsaws. The photos and video below tell the rest of the story.