Oak Wood from tree trimming

[LCHIEN]

Today I trimmed a pretty big branch off the live oak in my front yard, its about 17 years old, was planted when they built the house.

You can see the pic below I saved a few sections that were close to 5-6" in diameter and around 2 feet long. (The $5 bill is six inches long for reference.)

Is there any hope of making these into some 1/2" x 3" to 4" planks to make some small boxes? Or am I just dreaming.

What do I need to do?
rip to rough oversize (3/4"?) planks first then dry or dry and later rip to planks. I assume it will dry faster if i rip first but it may warp? If I rip to planks first how long do i need to dry?

Do I need to seal the ends with paint to prevent end checking?

I know to rip I need some sort of milling fixture for the bandsaw, mine has about 6" capacity.

[JimD]

I believe the "rule of thumb" is 1 year per inch of thickness.

You can use paint or parafin to seal the end and it is reportedly necessary to avoid checking. I have seen checking in pieces I cut from the firewood pile so I think the need is real.

Everything I have read says that you need to sticker the boards and some say to weight the pile to control warping. Limb wood is more prone to warping than the trunk would be because the growth rings are different on the top versus the bottom of the limb. I would consider quarter sawing or at least something close to quarter sawn. If you split the limbs down the center and then use the resultant flat surface as a reference, what you cut off will be close to quarter sawn.

I made a fore-stock for my side-by-side out of a crotch piece of unknown hardwood from the firewood pile. I roughed the piece with a chain-saw. I did not allow it to dry as I should have but it came out OK anyway. The grain in the crotches is very nice. Oak has less showy grain than cherry or maple but the crotches should still look nice.

Jim

[just started]

Nice fresh almost round already turning blanks!

[crokett]

I am thinking turning blanks as well.

[dbhost]

I saw a video on Youtube about sawing lumber from logs like that. I think it was made by Jet, or Powermatic. They built a jig that rode in the miter slot on the table, this in turn had shallow table of plywood, then an adustable fence that the log or whatever rode in. You screwed the work piece to the fence, and ran it through a slice at a time.

Just search for "Resawing Found Wood"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUL6FN4bQNs

[LCHIEN]

so should i slice it first while still green and dry as planks? Take less time to dry but but will the planks stay straight?
Take me only a year to dry, not 6 years.

[cork58]

I mill alot of my own wood. Seal the ends asap. I have used lots of different things that I was told to use but after looking in the big guys yard one day I realised that my first choice was the best. PM me and I will tell you the secret. O.K.!!!! No secret. Any good enamel paint will work. I change colors every year so I know when to mill.

Just my thoughts

[Seedy]

I have read that if you put them in the freezer for a while, it will really speed up the drying time. Freezing explodes the cells in the wood fibers allowing the water out faster. I have some logs that I let freeze this winter, but I haven't gotten any of them sawn yet; so, I don't know if it actually works. It does sound good in theory, though. I have read that boiling them will do the same thing. Good luck.

-Craig

[Brian G]

Loring,

I made the "Bandsaw Lumber Maker" that appeared in the May 2007 issue of Wood Magazine. I, of course, made a few modifications.

I just finished it about a week ago, and have only done some test resawing of a chunk of ash from the fireplace stack. Now that I have had a chance to test it, I'll put together a post with some photos sometime soon.

In the meantime, seal the ends with some paint, like cork said.

[Black wallnut]

Just a bit of informed guessing here but thinking that you cut them during the dormant time of year, assuming that the tree has not leafed out yet. Seal the ends quickly and then mill into lumber. Stack and sticker and let dry for one year. Quarter saw to avoid cupping. Crooking and twisting may happen no matter what you do. I think branch wood is more prone to this anyway. As the leaves form the weight of the leaves cause the branch to bend down. Once the leaves fall the branches spring back up.

Either way, if you are going to cut it now it might be interesting to leave one aside. Peel the bark and seal the ends and then mill it into lumber a year from now and see if the lumber is straighter. Realizing that a year is not long enough for it to dry all the way through.

[LCHIEN]

been tripping over these logs for 6 years now...
I did spray paint the ends, no checking has occurred.

[capncarl]

Does that mean that you will saw them into slabs this year?
I HAD a small stack of Mayhaw logs stacked behind the shop like that waiting on the moment. Termites found them. All of the Pecan that I have cut and sawed seems to have a mind of its own. It lays flat when stacked but several days later it perks up and warps so bad that you do not need stickers. I slice mine slightly thicker than 1" hoping that I can get a 1/2" board out of it due to waste trying to cut the warp out of it.

[LCHIEN]

so how long was that pecan dried?

[capncarl]

My pecan is 2 and 3 years old. I have planed some but not used it. All was cut short, 2 ft or less so it is for small stuff like boxes. All of this pecan was from large branches from a productive grove. If you are not familiar with pecan that is commercially grown, the main limbs grow really long and have a lot of curve to them. Most of the tree is limbs with very little trunk that would have some straight wood in it. I was able to get 2 loads consisting of 2 car trailers and 2 pickup truck beds full of pecan to use for bbq smoking wood. These boards were just something I tried just to see if it would be usable. I am not sure it is worth the effort. I met a man with a portable saw mill set up in his yard about 8 miles from my house that cuts up large pecan and oad trees. He works full time and has little time to run his mill so it is difficult to catch up with him. I hope to get some large planks from him.

[Mr__Bill]

It's my understanding that you can mill any log that stood vertical and should turn into firewood the logs that stood horizontal. Anything that grew out of straight up is pre-stressed and when sawed into boards will twist and warp into screwy lumber.

Now I have no experience with this using a saw*. Splitting long logs to make split rail fencing the limbs turned out unusable except for going around corners. And, I might add was so much work that the fence never got built.

It will be interesting to see how things turn out.


*I have cut wet 2x4s and watched the pieces curl in directions cumming out of the saw but that's another thing.

Bill
one of the majority of left coasters