This Log Came Apart on my Sawmill

hey everyone my name is net welcome to my backyard and this time I'm gonna be slicing up just big elm log my advanced sawmill that I built right here in my driveway a few years ago so if you missed the video where I went out and picked up this log I'll leave you a link to that up in the cards and down in the description this was picked up out of a side yard it was kind of a weird and awkward kind of pickup but I went relatively smoothly got this thing back here got it on the mill and is pretty much ready to go well kind of I have a little bit of prep work to do on the log as well as kind of get set up and get ready to be sawing here so Before we jump into it let's walk around log a little bit see where can't get ourselves in to see what used to happen before we get sawing and just talk about the overall log itself so first off overall size on this thing the diameter down here cross is 45 inches right through into this kind of boldest area here and we're looking at about 38 inches here in the other direction so kind of an oblong oval type of log overall length is right at 10 feet but there is this big chain saw cut right here that we're gonna have to address so just like a lot of logs that I get this one was destined for firewood as well so there is this chainsaw cut here which goes pretty much all the way through here and there is just a tiny little bit material on the other side still holding it on but you know like that much a little strapped in there holding it on there so that's not gonna work out so well so that one's probably gonna get cut off or well it is I already decided that now on the other side we have a similar type situation where there is a partial chainsaw cut here this is further down the log then the other one is there's that one but at this orientation that cut would be removed after maybe the second slab or so so that could be left there and we can keep cutting all the way through or can be removed and this could be sawing as something separately that's a nice little crotch area there which would be pretty cool to see sawn as well so if we take a look at the butt and the log we can see this kind of fissure type thing going all the way through here and go all the way down through there as well so that is a bar conclusion that runs the entire width of the log vertically there's letters separating this thing into two halves so cutting it like this you would have a bar conclusion between two full slabs on your side so you have Mehsud slabs or two very easily separable slabs that we use for you know two different tables or two different projects or what have you so with that in mind the fact that it's gonna be two halves leave this attached it wouldn't be all that bad either because on this side you'd have a slightly longer slab on this side and if they're used separately as individual pieces that you just have two different length boards you can use or they could always be joined back together to make one big slab for a table top for instance so thinking about the orientations thing is laying in right now this is the way I'm going to cut it but it could be sawn nine degrees from here and then load exposed all the crotch figure here as well as a crotch figure on that side since that side is pretty much all cut away anyway is not a whole lot of purpose in me doing that at least in my opinion and I think cutting it this way will expose a little more interesting things since we have this kind of burl thing for you know kind of forming there we had that bar conclusion which should have a lot of figure around it as well now the other thing with this decision is the fact that base things play out so far from each other so that would be a big void if this was sawn all the way through which could still be cool for something but that's something to keep in mind as well if this was still sawn like this you would have this big hole here between the two halves of the slab so you know some more things to kind of think about so as far as I can tell this is an American elm as far as my kind of research kind of showed me the American elm has this kind of goofy base to it where like one side is offset like that or at least that's the way I've seen it so if anyone knows for sure what kind of elm tree this is feel free to let me know but there is the leaf so I think the first thing I want to do is just finish up this cut separate this chunk of the tree from the rest of it there I won't they keep in mind is that the trunk there is supporting this side of the log so if I were to cut that off is we probably roll probably fall off the bed but it's gonna go in the wrong direction because I don't have a whole lot of space it's not a whole lot of room here to get that saw head past there without this thing shifting all the way over which we could do but I prefer none I have to worry about that at all now I do want it to roll a little bit I want to even out the crotches a hair so I've put a board underneath it there to catch it a little bit as it starts to fall and that should allow it to rotate a little bit but not to rotate so much that it comes too far off the side of the saw [Music] [Music] so because I can't really stand back here behind there mostly because this law is going to roll and I don't want to be inside of a log while it's rolling so I have to be standing out here which means things gonna roll towards me it's terrifying enough so I have this wedge here which is gonna keep it from pinching clothes in the front and kind of jamming up my size I try and get out of the way as it starts to move so hopefully I'll work out okay I have a small amount material left that here it's only thing holding it on is from here down to right about here it's just a little strapped here but I have to cut and yeah I can't get it from in here I have to be on top of this log and don't let me stay on top of the log well it starts rolling with a chainsaw so this is the more safer spot in theory [Music] oh boy so now this is off of here I can show you what we're still connected so basically just right through back here which is where they couldn't reach with their chainsaw wasn't quite long enough so just right there so that would have been a lot of slabs with you go cutting it but looking at it now I'm gonna leave that for sure because it's actually them extend that far past there and it's this have some cool burrows and stuff so I think we're good now this is how it's gonna be all right let's get a blade on this thing that would probably be somewhat helpful so now as the saw head is going up one last little thing that I forgot to the show I've got some screws and stuff hanging out over here so I'll probably pull those out at some point there's a fuel in there it's a big one right there with a washer so should be some good stuff inside the flock I should probably take off this chain too that'll be pretty splint to try and cut through yeah I think I'm ready to make that first cut the log should clear the carriage so that's good and the current saw height is at 37 inches off the bed so I'm not super high which is a kind of nice [Music] so I think what this has got all these burrows on it I might cut this a few more times later and we'll see what's inside of there yeah that works it's a other way and it's kind of in the right area for when it's time of saw it again some good stuff in here I get the feeling this is gonna be heavy oh well good it got lighter so there is the start of that bar conclusion so you can see how it's been growing around itself for all these years this will expect all the way through the entire log to separate halves of the larger slab this is nice and light yes take a look what's going on up here I got that bar conclusion right there and you know there's some fun interesting bits of grain here so this first cuts kind of small so what I really want to do is be down more into this flat area to get more width off these cuts so I think for the first couple of cuts I'm just gonna make a couple pieces that are a sixth quarter so inch and a half thick that's also gonna get me through all those chainsaw cut here so that we can make continuous length cuts that are a lot wider than this currently is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] why does all the exciting stuff happen when the cameras off so the only thing holding this tree together was just it was first couple of cuts so as I was walking around getting ready to bring the saw head back heard something creaking and that bar conclusion was starting to open up and let go okay it's loosing some stress then it just goes boof so we got some little shorts six quarter boards off of here so that's a start the nice thing about this is that since I have a flat cut on here already it's I can keep these things nested together still throughout the cuts all I have to do now is just roll them over so that the flat cut is not down on the bed so that keeps the orientation the same between all the cuts which is kind of nice so this became a much bigger adventure than it was before [Music] [Music] [Music] so I feel like I should be all something like are you not entertained right now so this took right at two hours to get rolled over and repositioned not nearly as bad as if I was gonna be it's a lot of back and forth but that's how it goes there is now a six o'clock I'm gonna go in to have dinner and we'll get back to cutting this up some other day all right it is the next day sometime here this afternoon to get back out here and keep working on this log here now one thing I can't forget to do is pull these screws and things out here I'll probably do that after a few cuts here so there's less crap him away so it's pretty incredible this crew is actually still standing if there actually wasn't really connected by much at all so this is all that's pretty much all soil in there holding all together so that's a pretty incredible this tree was still standing now I had figuring that these were gonna calm part into two different slabs I just didn't think they would come apart while the log was still sitting there on the saw but I guess this is how the the weight of the log was laying there so just kind of opened up by itself but yeah alright makes for a more interesting story yes is all soil there's a little like a root or something here uh we're gonna cut it let's get the saw positioned I'm going to try and I come in I don't know maybe down in here somewhere and see where that kind of ends up get it rid of get rid of a lot of the waste stuff that's gonna be up here there's not a whole lot of width now the nice thing about the fact this thing is rolled over onto a flat is that I can now use the lumber scale door with myself down to the bed since now I'm everything off to the bed and not the previous cut like I normally have the other things nice about this too is that there's a flat file in the bottom there so these things are totally stable I don't to worry about them moving around on me as I'm cutting like I normally would if I was just cutting with the curse side of log touching the bed so really in this case I could remove slabs as I go I don't have to keep the slabs in place in order to keep weight on the log to keep it from moving around [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so I am temporarily gonna stack these over here because I've sold to like a quarter of my entire inventory the last couple months which left me with few of these stacks that are partial so this log and I log back there has a very sold through over half of the slabs so I have to consolidate so many stacks and then one of these bases become the base for this guy but for now temporarily Babel go right here that's nice like the color on this stuff it's got a nice light brown heartwood so since we're on the outside block still not a whole lot of crazy things going on but doesn't give us a nice preview of what we're gonna get into the actual log let's get these uh screws out of here drywall screw that's not good this one just ripped out or broke can't tell okay oh good one so there we go we got a few large screws and a little tiny drywall screw in there so uh yeah they're out now let's keep on cutting see what happens [Applause] [Applause] all right we hit something towards the end of this cut so let's start digging let's see what we got maybe I missed a screw or something so have you got something that's a good size I'm a blade or missing significant my teeth especially right here there's no tooth from this point all the way to here so off a foot missing teeth there nurse is pretty good so hunt through it pretty quickly which is always good you were teeth destroyed if you go through the inclusion at normal speed and said trying to slow down because he knows me metal there yeah there's a couple in this one these were deep in here fully embedded was this there that was he got mangled so there is where this was not exactly sure and this thing is kind of goofy it's all like little pieces take a guess on that one all right now yeah something that was fairly mangled by the saw blade whatever it is pretty big though all rights get these slabs out in here and take a look at them splits brush here we go we got a little rot pocket and going on up there one thing I like about Elmas is the color it's really beautiful it's not super dark it's not super light it's got a nice kind of hue to it cool this is a yeah it's kind of gross let's get the next one get an idea of how wide right here down here about 40 inches I think up here we're gonna be like a 48 ish or so 48 50 inches and then for the length I think we're pretty close to 8 feet 7 foot 7 so this size piece of wood things are looking pretty interesting and stuff I like the straight green kind of clean lines look here but we have again the stressed area in the middle and as we get further rivers should start seeing some kind of swirling green things going on around this bar conclusion as the wood gets a little bit of weird around that area also apparently there was something on this half as well that we cut through and then there's the other two on this side which we have previously seen all right let's get this blade off of here get a fresh one on there and get back to making some sawdust [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] so I think it's becoming pretty evident why this tree was kind of declining this is all ant tracks so probably had a good amount of rot as you can see it through here and some ant colony is living in here so it's probably been about a thing has just got so rotten so gross that started to die very nice clean looking green though so you can see all these ant tracks ant colony lines all through here so this has been critters living in it hollowing it up from the inside both limbs it looks like - so that was probably what I would did it seeing a little bit of the kind of Elm eyes in here that's sort of like kind of real figure oh I guess we did hit some more stuff I didn't notice a few more nails or something in here one two let's take a look at this one well found our friends the ants giving us some pretty straight green stuff now it's probably getting close to quarter sawn at least out here is quarter sawn so that's nice and straight yeah big ol hole in there there's our friends the ants I'll take care of them in a second we're starting to get some crotch figure on top of this limb here since we're sawing this instead of sawing it this way we're sawing it straight through that's gonna remove a lot of the crotch figure but it's gonna give us figure on top of the crotch area which we'll see more of this going through over here starting into those burly areas so we got those there which is pretty darn cool since it's been kind of cold out these ants have been a kind of dormant are getting ready to go dormant so they got some kind of rude awakening for me today so we're gonna take care of these guys with some this household ant killer this is gonna work out pretty well because I have to go in for the day I can leave this exposed like this I can check on it again tomorrow before I do hit it and I'll head over to the slabs on the sauce hill and see if there's any ants over there as well mister probably are a whole yeah there are so I'm gonna spray these guys and then what's nice is I can come and check on it again tomorrow when I wake up it's a lot of them in there night night ants I'll see you tomorrow so it's a little colder now we are now into heavy frost season so everything is now frozen so these guys probably frozen so lovely that insecticide does a pretty good job of killing all the ants in these things and then I just come back with the compressed air and blow it all the caverns since it's below freezing now and any answer so each hair gonna be dormant let's keep an eye on these slabs as we get into the spring class I see ants crawling around gonna know they're still in there I think it's pretty safe to say that this tree had some serious insect decay which is probably why it was dying okay we're getting that time of year where the sadhus just freeze it to the surface guys say he's in hot water can and you can see the extent of all those ants and how much damage they caused in this tree right through here which makes a pretty interesting look now but there's also some cool little figuring here on top of this crotch here so this is what you're going to get affray means like perpendicular to the crotch not parallel so with this cut orientation we're parallel to this main crotch right here but we're perpendicular to the two crotches that were up top there so I guess I was seeing some of this type of figure here as opposed to those long feathers which you would see to her saw parallel to the crotch down here all quarter-sawn really nice color really nice straight grade I had a look at some of that top side crotch figure we're gonna have the bullseye attempt effect with the feather going in this direction as opposed to in that direction so looks like we have three more custom-make to separate what's on the milling to be four remaining slabs or I guess since it is separate the eight remaining slabs will time to get back to song for a little while we're going to pause here and take a look at a couple slabs I heard something happen over here so I probably cut through a nail or halfway through that cut and I gotta move my side stops anyway so let's move some slabs and see what we got see what's going on here that's nice it's really nice especially without ant damage in there again we've got some really nice straight link yeah straight green clear stuff down here and both sides we get into the ant damage up here which is a really cool look we're getting up with some figure from the crotch on this side here's that partial chainsaw cut just looking really nice let's grab the next one splish-splash there we go oh that's beautiful I think this one might be my favorite one I like this pair a lot because you have some really nice like pretty much all 100% clear green through most of the slabs then you have a really interesting cavity here in the middle yeah I think that's my favorite best shape by far I'll walk them back over here where's that male there's a little man right there which went through please be kind of just fine though after that so I'm gonna keep going this play is already cut through I think that makes it three nails now it seems to be cutting okay it's a little slow this was probably dull but it's not really waving around her not cutting flat so keep on going [Applause] [Music] [Applause] okay so through my own lack of observation skills I did not notice that there was a 2x4 under this guy so that's going to have thrown things off quite a bit but I don't know doesn't seem noticeable this is in theory all of these cuts aren't perfectly like next to each other well I think you can really tell that you know this end here is higher up in the log than there it seems to kind of flow over just fine even these separations are still fine so I don't think it's gonna matter a whole lot other than that last slab on the right side here is going to be tapered and pretty much fire would things be pretty similar to the last one that I liked the same kind of thing there's some pretty clear stuff this has a little more Cathedral grain since we're getting away from the quarter sawn area this also has a little more grain going on here but we still have pretty clear material with a pretty cool little whole thing in the middle and whatever is going on here whew this is too much fun oh that's cool I'm really liking this now we're getting some more of the sapwood so we have this really cool to like half staff wood half Hart would kind of look so I'll kind of swirl it together there was nice Reds in there as well and over here we got some kind of straight green stuff surprise the price alright now for this guy I cannot believe I missed that okay so this is figure I want to do with this because it is not a consistent thickness it's not going to drive very well it's gonna drive very unevenly so I have one end that's about two and a half inches thick I have the other end that's about one inch thick but look this is towards the outside of the log so it's not all that important anyway it's getting towards the narrower spots so if this happened and I was making those cuts the middle of the log where there's a higher value that would be a little more of an issue this isn't too much of a problem though since this log already produced a few or several kind of short boards and odd boards I have those who deal with two so what I could do here is cut this into shorter sections and then it would be too much of an issue so this right here that's enough for a guitar body since there was an ask me Oh guitar bodies so I can cut this guy right here this would become a guitar body and then this area down here could just be sawn again or cut the smaller pieces or whatever for smaller projects it's not a complete loss but now this slab is doing separate from that one over there which isn't a big problem either because there's so many little pieces that I already got off this log and also looking at this guy I mean it's cut almost all the way through here so this could be some more shorts and things like I have got those slabs over there it's four from there and I have these short pieces and the small narrow pieces there as well so I have a lot of little stuff to deal with with the slog already as well as these little off cuts if I want to keep cutting these as well so things just going to go in a separate pile with all the smaller stuff so another nice stack of slabs I'm really happy that this worked out this way with the to kind of separate necess last because I am almost out of that style of slab so this Willick and of restock the nested slab inventory I have a few more slabs I gotta come out of here still and I'll get these things stacked but I'm not a huge rush to be out here freezing and stacking wood but I'll get around to it eventually so I hope you enjoyed this one it's always a nice change of pace when things don't work out perfectly makes things a little more interesting and that's what I'm in it for the the interest in the adventure so thank you as always for watching I greatly appreciate through the questions or comments on the sawmill anything back in the shop anything out here please feel free to leave me a comment as always to be happy I should be questions you might have and until next time have to order cake

Channel: Matthew Cremona

Views: 606,117

Rating: 4.8251195 out of 5

Keywords: woodworking, woodshop, furniture making, matt cremona, matthew cremona, fine woodworking, period furniture

Id: FmO3zMlsIpY

Length: 38min 55sec (2335 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 17 2020