Son of a gun, it works!! Delta band mill Part II

[bmyers]

Got a blade made and installed on this bad boy and it works! Some getting used to and good strong friend and VIOLA! Lumber from a tree.

My first victim was maple. It is from a tree limb that was once destined to re-arrange my floor plan some stormy day so it had to be taken down. The rest of the tree is still there, just the limb was cut.

Anyway, I saved this chunk from my wood stove knowing I would find myself a mill someday. This is maple and I've cut it quite thick. It will someday be made in to a Blonde Stratocaster and maple neck, clear finish. That project is down the road a piece but I will get there.

Obligatory Phuzzy Phone Pics:

[greenacres2]

That is very cool!!

[Pappy]

I'm jealous!

[JR]

Here's the part I don't understand. With the saw resting on the log and blade cutting horizontally, why doesn't the blade bind?

[tommyt654]

More than likely a logging wedge placed in the back of the cut

[Bill in Buena Park]

JR - in the picture background, looks like the saw doesn't rest on the log, but on some jack stands that I suspect may be on some type of mobile platform. My guess is that the jack stands make the saw height "adjustable", and it just gets pushed over/above the log - and then Tommy's comment about using a wedge to hold the kerf open prevents the binding.

Nice system - I'm jealous. Any planned action to keep the wood from splitting or checking?

[Joe DeFazio]

My first victim was maple. It is from a tree limb that was once destined to re-arrange my floor plan some stormy day so it had to be taken down....

It will someday be made in to a Blonde Stratocaster and maple neck, clear finish.

Congratulations! That looks like an excellent setup, and I hope that you get lots of good lumber from it.

However, limb wood is reaction wood - the stresses on the wood as it grows are inherently unbalanced, resulting in lumber that is unstable, prone to warping, twisting and possibly splitting down the road.

It would probably work just fine for a Strat body top (say, a drop top of about 3/8" or 1/2") if you give it some years to dry out, mill it oversize, wait for it to move again, re-mill to close to the final dimensions, and glue it to your main body wood.

It could possibly be OK for a one-piece body if it does dry well for you (the stresses on the body are not that great as compared to the cross-section of the body), but it would be a really heavy Strat (yes, I made a Strat body with lots of maple, and it is painfully heavy). However, the prospect of possible dimensional changes down the road would probably lead me personally to steer away from that option; making an instrument takes so many hours that it is no fun to see it go awry afterward.

Your best bet here would be to use a drop-top from your maple glued to a much lighter main body wood.

Your maple would not be suitable for a one-piece neck, due to the stresses in the wood and the stresses on the neck caused by string tension. You might be OK cutting some thin stringers from it and using it in a glued-up laminated neck (with strong, straight wood from another tree providing strength and stability), but I wouldn't risk it. You need the most stable possible wood for a neck.

Limb wood is best used for smaller projects that are not subject to great stress. It is excellent for small turnings (provided that you turn it oversize, wait for it to distort, and then re-turn it), and the like. The smaller the project, the smaller and less problematic any distortion will be, so I hope that you will be able to find some smaller projects to be made from the bulk of this wood.

[tommyt654]

"Blonde Stratocaster and maple neck", why do I suddenly have a craving for hotcakes and HOTCAKES

[chopnhack]

Awesome, I too am jealous. Great work and if you can still count to 10 on your hands, even better ;-)

[schloff]

That really is very cool.