Guitar Build - The Prequel. Milling the lumber...

[mew122]

Not technically a guitar build, but I thought it might be of interest to some here on the forum. About a year ago I got this crazy idea in my head that I wanted to be able to produce my own lumber for building guitars. My parents owns a fair amount of land, and frequently have trees that are dying or have blown over in storms. Seemed like a waste of good wood to me, so I decided to start gathering supplies to put together a chainsaw mill. Well, I finally got to use it yesterday and here are the results.

The tree that I ended up milling was a sugarberry (aka hackberry). Three of these massive trees fell over on the old barn that my grandfather used to house chickens back in the day. This happened about four or five years ago I think.

But one of the trees was still alive and suspended off the ground, so I figured the wood was still good. So I cut out a seven foot section of the tree.

Set up my guide rails to make the first cut on the log.

Set my depth of the saw and made the first cut.

With the top off, I was able to ride the mill along the flat surface of the log for subsequent cuts.

As I was hoping for, the log had some interesting color and spalting in it.

And here it is neatly stacked.

I put some ratchet straps around it to hold it in place and hopefully prevent any warping. I also used some scrap tin from the barn to cover the top to prevent it from getting rained on.

Unfortunately, the pasture was too wet to get a truck out there to move it. So it will stay there for now. I'm hoping next week I can get out there and load it up so that I can move it to my house. Of course, this wood won't be used until it is thoroughly dried out. Probably 2 years minimum I would guess.

Although this wood will make fine electric guitar bodies I think, this was mostly a test run to get my feet wet. The real prize that I'm after is a large walnut tree in the pasture that we think is dead. Hopefully, I can get that one milled up and drying soon.

Like I said, it's not a guitar build, but maybe it's of interest to some you here. And hopefully you will see me back here in about 2 years with some build threads using this wood!

 

[LeftFinger]

How long is the piece with the crotch of the tree ? can you get 2 ft out of it ?

 

[mew122]

How long is the piece with the crotch of the tree ? can you get 2 ft out of it ?

Not sure. That section would probably be too short, but I may have to give it a second look. I was able to cut another section from the tree that has a crotch in it though. I may leave it on the ground for a few months to allow it to continue spalting before milling it.

 

[Bergy]

Very cool!

 

[tubegeek]

One source of interesting wood sometimes is old barns. Just sayin'.

 

[mew122]

One source of interesting wood sometimes is old barns. Just sayin'.

I did grab a nice pine board from the barn. A few nail holes in it, but it should make for a nice tele body with some real mojo lol. I'm hoping to get more wood from the barn, but it's so unstable, I'm afraid to really get in it to pull out wood for fear of it collapsing. May have someone pull it down with a tractor, and then I can maybe get some decent pieces.

 

[tubegeek]

I did grab a nice pine board from the barn. A few nail holes in it, but it should make for a nice tele body with some real mojo lol.

Indeed! Mojo for days!

I had a coworker years ago whose house had an old barn made from old growth American Chestnut. She had wood dealers harassing her constantly with competimg offers to knock it down and salvage it. It's nearly extinct and there's little or no old growth trees left, as I understand it.

 

[epizootics]

That is one cool little portable mill
Never seen hackberry in the flesh but it looks interesting, something like ash with the texture of elm when you take a closer look. I also like the last picture - "this is what will happen to the next tree that tries to fall over that barn!"

 

[NightOwl]

I've recently cut some dead ash trees out of my buddy's yard. Ash borers got into the area and wiped out every ash tree there was. It stood dead for several years and I slabbed out a few pieces that should work. They were slated to be squared and glued up today, unfortunately the current craziness got in the way of those plans.

I totally understand your excitement. Keep us posted on your progress!

 

[nnieman]

Very cool!!

How long did it take you to mill the log?

Ive got access to a sawmill but it’s only good for 24” ish logs.
I was thinking about getting (or building) an Alaskan mill for wider stuff.

Nathan

 

[OldDude2]

We have a mill right down the road, but they're not cutting since it's just too wet - likely close to 5" of rain in the last week.

 

[trapdoor2]

Very cool indeed. I hate Hackberry trees. In the 1950's they were used as 'quick growing' landscaping for new housing in North Alabama. They're nice looking and all...but they attract a type of aphid that enjoys the sap...and excretes it all over whatever is underneath. If you have a Hackberry that overhangs anything, it will turn black with mold in just hours during the spring/summer. You can't have lawn furniture, can't have them near your cars, it destroys roofing, etc. I don't know if the aphid is simply a 'southern' thing or not. I imagine they're here in SC though.

The wood is decent stuff though. Not considered particularly useful, low strength, no figure, etc. The spalted stuff is what most users want. I would expect the clear wood to be a good basis for a guitar you wanted to paint (much like Poplar, Paulowina, etc.).

I'd be going after the Walnut too.

 

[Jim_in_PA]

I had a coworker years ago whose house had an old barn made from old growth American Chestnut. She had wood dealers harassing her constantly with competimg offers to knock it down and salvage it. It's nearly extinct and there's little or no old growth trees left, as I understand it.

It's very true that American Chestnut is largely gone. There are still some trees out there that for some reason were genetically resistant and research arms of universities like Penn State have been actively working on finding a way to leverage that and cultivate the species while leveraging that trait. Old growth chestnut timber can be really valuable and expensive, so offers like your former coworker got are sometimes common.

I've recently cut some dead ash trees out of my buddy's yard. Ash borers got into the area and wiped out every ash tree there was. It stood dead for several years and I slabbed out a few pieces that should work. They were slated to be squared and glued up today, unfortunately the current craziness got in the way of those plans.

We've lost every single ash tree on our property. Some is down and I have "worthy" logs waiting for milling later this year and a few more trees that will join that pile. I will not mill it myself, but will have a portable come in for most of it. One tree will likely require me to get it slabbed off-site because of the size, but the folks I'll be using for the portable work also have a larger Lucas mill that can handle really wide stuff. (They supply some of the slabs for the nice folks at Nakashima studios nearby)

 

[NightOwl]

It's very true that American Chestnut is largely gone. There are still some trees out there that for some reason were genetically resistant and research arms of universities like Penn State have been actively working on finding a way to leverage that and cultivate the species while leveraging that trait. Old growth chestnut timber can be really valuable and expensive, so offers like your former coworker got are sometimes common.



We've lost every single ash tree on our property. Some is down and I have "worthy" logs waiting for milling later this year and a few more trees that will join that pile. I will not mill it myself, but will have a portable come in for most of it. One tree will likely require me to get it slabbed off-site because of the size, but the folks I'll be using for the portable work also have a larger Lucas mill that can handle really wide stuff. (They supply some of the slabs for the nice folks at Nakashima studios nearby)

Here's a pic of one of the ash tree's being cut. There might be a few bodies in there. A 20" chainsaw isn't enough on that thing. It's also covered in poison ivy. That's why that's not a picture of me with a chainsaw!

 

[SuprHtr]

We've got a hackberry that needs to go, but also a fairly large black cherry, which I mistook for a trash tree. I'm now trying to figure out if I want to do anything with it.

 

[Jim_in_PA]

Here's a pic of one of the ash tree's being cut. There might be a few bodies in there. A 20" chainsaw isn't enough on that thing. It's also covered in poison ivy. That's why that's not a picture of me with a chainsaw!

Yea, that's a nice size one. I get it on the saw, too...my bar is only 18" and my .029 Farm Boss really can't handle something longer. (it came with a 16" bar) I have a dead-out near the house that I'm going to have to have taken down professionally that will likely yield some "table worthy" slabs at 30" plus width and a couple others that are in the 24-30" range. The latter I can cut up to length by coming at them from both sides, fortunately.

 

[telepraise]

Hey Mew, your first effort is looking good. You've got nice straight cuts off of that saw rig. I can't tell from the last pic, but if you haven't already, paint the ends of those slabs to keep end checking to a minimum. Onward to the walnut!

Also, glad to see you're smart enough to be using appropriate safety gear. I did some dumb things with a chainsaw when I was your age (and just got lucky). Happy wood butchering! TP

 

[mew122]

Very cool!!

How long did it take you to mill the log?

Ive got access to a sawmill but it’s only good for 24” ish logs.
I was thinking about getting (or building) an Alaskan mill for wider stuff.

Nathan

The cuts themselves went fairly quickly. Probably about 5 minutes per cut including stopping in the middle to let the saw idle and cool down a bit. But overall, the job took about 5 hours. That was with my brother helping me. Of course we wasted about 45 minutes trying to figure out how to get my saw blade out from being pinched when cutting out the 7 foot section. Rookie mistake on my part. Ended up having to get the jack from my truck and lift the tree. I will admit that it was a lot more work than I was anticipating. I knew it would be hard, but I was exhausted after just milling that small amount.

 

[mew122]

Very cool indeed. I hate Hackberry trees. In the 1950's they were used as 'quick growing' landscaping for new housing in North Alabama. They're nice looking and all...but they attract a type of aphid that enjoys the sap...and excretes it all over whatever is underneath. If you have a Hackberry that overhangs anything, it will turn black with mold in just hours during the spring/summer. You can't have lawn furniture, can't have them near your cars, it destroys roofing, etc. I don't know if the aphid is simply a 'southern' thing or not. I imagine they're here in SC though.

The wood is decent stuff though. Not considered particularly useful, low strength, no figure, etc. The spalted stuff is what most users want. I would expect the clear wood to be a good basis for a guitar you wanted to paint (much like Poplar, Paulowina, etc.).

I'd be going after the Walnut too.

Yeah, my parents were kinda surprised that I wanted to mill up a sugarberry tree lol. They're definitely not highly regarded around here. But I have seen some nice looking furniture made with it. And the spalted wood seems to really be in vogue these days. Hopefully it will turn out nice and be a fairly easy wood to work with.

 

[mew122]

Hey Mew, your first effort is looking good. You've got nice straight cuts off of that saw rig. I can't tell from the last pic, but if you haven't already, paint the ends of those slabs to keep end checking to a minimum. Onward to the walnut!

Also, glad to see you're smart enough to be using appropriate safety gear. I did some dumb things with a chainsaw when I was your age (and just got lucky). Happy wood butchering! TP

I put a good coat of Anchorseal on the ends of the log. Haven't found much information on air drying this type of wood, but I'm hoping it will dry straight.

That was actually my first time using a real chainsaw (other than the little electric one I have). It was rather terrifying using a 90cc saw with a 36" bar. Kinda like holding a small dirt bike engine in your hands lol. Needless to say, I have a very healthy amount of respect for what that saw is capable of doing - to either the tree or me!