Tag: Woodmizer LT15

  • Re-sawing Dried Pine Lumber

    Re-sawing Dried Pine Lumber

    A while back, we had the opportunity to harvest some really spindly, small red pine from a grove which had never been thinned. A custom sawyer milled them for us at 2 1/4″ to give us the chance to use them for something. That time never really came because it’s very tedious to cut live edge off a board with a table saw. Today, we have the sawmill to help with this and it is uniquely designed to cut rounded, bumpy edges off a piece of wood! Just clamp it in and it is held securely while a flat, straight cut is made.

    We also discovered these pieces all twisted after drying, too. This is caused by the uneven growth rate throughout the tree’s life. They grew quickly for the first 10-15 years and then became overcrowded and grew very slowly for the remaining 50 years.

    Note the wide rings at the center and the narrow rings at the edges.

    By clamping one end of the piece square to the mill, the twist can be cut out by removing wedge-shaped slices from each side. In this case, a 2.25″ thick piece of twisted wood will become a 1.75″ thick piece of flat wood.

    A stack of finished, flat lumber

    Since these pieces have already been dried and warped before re-sawing, their flatness will be much more durable than if they were fresh cut. We still have nearly 100 of these boards left to square up to build the floor of our future sawmill building!

    When you’re going through your lumber piles and find some thicker timbers or beams (without nails!) that have dried or warped in challenging ways, keep in mind that re-sawing them is a way to put them back to use. Check out our Custom Milling page for more information.

  • Milling Salvaged Willow

    Milling Salvaged Willow

    Willow log after first cut on sawmill

    Recently, we had the opportunity to mill two large logs from a 90 year old peach-leaved willow that came down in a storm. At first, we were skeptical it would yield much good lumber because willow are known to be susceptible to heart rot. But these 20 inch diameter logs had a lot of great grain figuring caused by heartwood staining and the early stages of decay while still being solid.

    A large willow log milled in half on the sawmill showing the heartwood streaks

    These beautiful logs were mostly cut into 2.25″ live-edge slabs to be used for making small tables or 1″ thick pieces for shelves where the live edges add to the character of the piece. Some shorter logs were cut even thicker to be used as benches. They were all left at full width with live edge on both sides for maximum flexibility in future use – they can be cut down to clean, square lumber later if needed.

    A pile of freshly milled wide willow boards on a trailer

    These pieces have been stacked to dry and are available for sale as-is or they can be re-sawed and customized to fit your next project. Check out the Custom Milling page for more information.