Home made timber

[John Rumm]

I thought it might be interesting to play sawmill for a bit:

[Jeff Layman]

Did you check that at the end you had the same number of fingers as when you started? ;-)

What did you do with the pile of sawdust? It would make a reasonable mulch for a flower/vegetable bed, but you might need to add a bit of fertiliser as it slowly removes nitrogen from the soil as it breaks down.

[John Rumm]

Just had a count up, looking good so far!

Most has gone into the compost/grass pile at the mo - I also lobbed about a barrow full in the green bin as well. Once the last few remaining cut logs are shifted and stacked, I will clean up the remainder with the mower. Any that remains after that, I can blow into the tree line.

(I often dispose of woodworking sawdust on the bonfire - but that is dry

- not sure how well wet chainsaw dust will burn)

[Brian Gaff]

Yes, I remember one of those ambulance programs where somebody made or attempted to make two bits of timber out of one, but did not spot a knot in the wood, and managed to slice the tops off several fingers when it almost jammed and shot up in the air. I think all powertools, bench saws and such should have a first aid kit bundled in the package. Brian

[The Natural Philosopher]

I chipped a mountain of scrap branches - about a ton. Threw it in the ancient dry ditch. What was left on the rough lawn, is just vanishing

[John Rumm]

Quite often if I am chipping branches, I just direct the chips back under the trees in question. I find large piles of wood chips take quite a few years to decompose by any significant amount.

[TimW]

Looks like good fun. Poplar - soft and white? TW

[John Rumm]

Sapwood is very white. The heartwood actually has some (almost walnut like) colour at the moment - not sure how it will dry.

[Rod Speed]

Makes no sense. I would have dozens of them if that was done.

[Andrew]

Cutting into lengths of about a foot and stacking and leaving them is better for insects and bugs though.

[John Rumm]

Yup probably true, but significantly more work if you have any quantity of stuff to process - especially when loaded with brambles as lots of stuff round here seems to be!

There is a large chipper sat behind this 8' tall pile of hedge and tree prunings:

[nothanks]

That's interesting, John. Thanks! My attempts at converting tree cuttings to usable timber have always failed, but that gizzmo looks useful and would probably solve the problems. I've got a couple of Cherry trunks that will need to come down soon so I'll keep this in mind. Also, I didn't know that "rip" chains were available, so thanks again.

[John Rumm]

I found the difference in performance was quite noticeable. Rip chains are harder to find, but there are some places out there with a decent selection. I got mine from here:

(the RD designation is the code for a Oregon rip chain - other brands have their own codes)

If you have an electric chain sharpener, then it would be fairly easy to regrind a "normal" chain into a rip profile - at the expense of taking off a fair amount of metal. The Oregon ones seem to be pretty much like a normal chain in all other respects than the tooth angle. Some brands have other facets or slicing teeth as well.

You can also get "skip tooth" chains with much bigger gaps between teeth. That lets you run a much longer bar on a saw without needing correspondingly more power to drive it. Handy if you need to mill larger diameter trees and don't fancy forking out for a pricey 90cc saw!

(This being uk.d-i-y probably only fitting to note that I expect an angle grinder could make a skip tooth out of a normal one!)