Felling large Eucalypt - thoughts on sawing?

[willcall]

Hi all, I am about to have a large Euc. felled. It is in my front yard and stands around 20m tall. The trunk is very straight to around 8m high.
Girth is approx 2m at the base and aound 1.8m at 1.3m high and stays pretty thick up to 8m high.
A tree lopper said he can fell it and use his 'Alaskan Saw Mill' to mill it into rough slabs to a size of my choosing.

Any thoughs on how he should mill it? ie, Quarter saw, simple slabs, wedges etc.
As for the use of the timber, I haven't any specific purpose in mind but thought it would be nice timber for someone to use.

Any help and ideas would be much appreciated.

Cheers, Will

[xray]

make sure you remove the stump also and keep in mind this is usually where all of the best figure is. as for the rest of the tree, i would do some of the backsawn as slabs and process the good middle wood as 12x2 lengths. Theese are easy to handle and air dry later. if the timber has figure in it the quarter sawn option is best as it will move less

[willcall]

make sure you remove the stump also and keep in mind this is usually where all of the best figure is. as for the rest of the tree, i would do some of the backsawn as slabs and process the good middle wood as 12x2 lengths. Theese are easy to handle and air dry later. if the timber has figure in it the quarter sawn option is best as it will move less

Thanks,
Can you only tell if it has figure once it is cut up or can you tell a little earlier than that?
I plan to have it cut to ground level to get the most out of it.

CHeers, Will

[DarwinStrings]

Any thoughs on how he should mill it? ie, Quarter saw, simple slabs, wedges etc.
As for the use of the timber, I haven't any specific purpose in mind but thought it would be nice timber for someone to use.

Any help and ideas would be much appreciated.

Cheers, Will

First try to identify the type of Euc it is (shouldn't be too hard as you have the live tree) then google it and find out what it has been used for in the past. Maybe take some flowers or gumnuts to the local plant nursery. A "Alaskan mill" usually limits the milling to just slabbing it up but you will get some nice quarter sawn stuff in the guts.

Jim

[willcall]

Hi all, well the tree is coming down this saturday. I have asked the loppers to cut is to ground level. I can't remove the stump as a whole as there are services running nearby and would surely get ripped up.

I am trying to ID the tree but am finding it difficult so far.

The 'Alaskan Saw' is out. Instead, I am having the tree felled and cut into lengths before getting a 'LUCAS MILL' in to do the sawing (at some later date). Approx the same cost as the Alaskan saw.


Q: What lengths should I have the trunk cut to, I am thinking a general length incase the timber is used for furniture, construction etc.

Q: With the Lucas mill, should I have it sawn differently, ie. slabs, quarter sawn.

Cheers all.

Will

[willcall]

I just had a look on the wood working forum and think that the species is bluegum (eucalyptus tereticornis).

Will

[Daniel_M]

that is a great photo - everything is dwarfed by that monster!

[Allen]

Wouldn't have wanted that one in my yard during the cyclone.

8 foot long is a pretty common length for lumber. Whatever the heck that is in metric. Then 10 foot, 12 foot etc. but that limits you to where you're going to stack it, and it's going to be pretty heavy as well.

[Steve]

I just had a look on the wood working forum and think that the species is bluegum (eucalyptus tereticornis).

Will

It's a bit hard to see in the picture, but bluegum (aka Forest Red Gum) often has a distinctive blotchy bark with patches of darker grey & silvery white.
Steve

[Kim]

What a great tree, seems a shame to drop it. Best think twice before you go ahead because you won't have it to point to anymore when directing those non English speaking cab drivers on ur way home from the pub and none of your mates will be able to find your place now either. Could be a decision that leads to on going expense and much loneliness.

Cheers

Kim

[Kamusur]

Now thats what ye call a tree.

Steve

[Bob Connor]

Yep - that's an FB Tree.

[Nick]

Even the Koala's would get nose bleed climbing up that beauty, certainly stands out in the neighbourhood. I would have thought 8 foot (2.4m) lengths would be a useful size if you plan on furniture making as well.

[willcall]

Yeah, you can see the tree from the end of the street alright!

I personally would prefer to keep the tree but as you can see it is rather tall and within 15m of both our house and the neighbours. I get a little nervous leaving the ute under it also.
It gets really hairy during a storm. We live on a ridge that runs North South and the Westerlies really hit the tree hard pushing it straight towards the neighbours house pelting the house with branches and bark.

As for the species, it is a hard one. The tree did it's annual bark shedding so it's a lot lighter in colour (light grey). We have 6 or so more of equal size in the backyard so I guess I can always confirm the species type using them.

Will

[willcall]

We also have these 2 Euc's. to be removed as the are too close to the shed.

The guttering on the roof is approx. 4m off the ground so there should be some good timber here also.


Will.

[duh Padma]

Well what nobody has mentioned is metal.

Metal as in nails, screws, bullets, ya knowd, things you fin inside trees that can really mess up a saw blade, or can be grabbed by a chain saw blade and snap it or be flung out like a projectile.

Don 't know about down under, but there aren't very many sawyers in N.A. that will touch a tree felled in a urban area or a rural farm yard because of the metal.

Just something to think about.

Oh ya, slap some paint on the end grain the min. you fell her or she dries out way to fast and cracks and splits and then whatya donna do.


blessings
duh Padma

[willcall]

Well what nobody has mentioned is metal.

Metal as in nails, screws, bullets, ya knowd, things you fin inside trees that can really mess up a saw blade, or can be grabbed by a chain saw blade and snap it or be flung out like a projectile.

Don 't know about down under, but there aren't very many sawyers in N.A. that will touch a tree felled in a urban area or a rural farm yard because of the metal.

Just something to think about.

Oh ya, slap some paint on the end grain the min. you fell her or she dries out way to fast and cracks and splits and then whatya donna do.


blessings
duh Padma

Good tip with the paint.
Not too worried about metal in the tree(s), not much tree shootin happnin in these parts since the koalas were all shot out about 100yrs ago (seriously).
My neighbour just had one of his big euc's milled by the local Lucas Mill operator. He had no issues with the thought of metal. If I had known I would have had my tree felled in time for him to mill mine also.

Will

[Steve]

Not too worried about metal in the tree(s), not much tree shootin happnin in these parts
Will

Funny you should say that Will - in my last job, I did heaps of tree shootin'. It's a very common way to collect seed samples from trees. Not sure that it would have gone down too well in suburbia though. For the record, we didn't shoot down in that mill-able section - all the seed is conveniently located at the top of the tree.
Steve

[Kamusur]

Keep the 2 good ones and get rid of the one with termites

Steve

[Nick]

Hey Daniel your new avatar is just plain scary

[willcall]

Well the tree is down. Came down Saturday afternoon without much fuss. Due to the requirements of 'urban' tree felling some good timber was lost for safety reasons. Still plenty of timber in it for use of some kind.

The Arborists believes that it is spotted gum. Not sure about it's qualities for instrument use but I know it make good flooring and decking.

Will.

[Steve]

It does look like a spotted gum. There's a few sub-species, but it looks not unlike the one that I have leaning over my back fence. The older leaves on our one have a great lemon smell when you crush them (hence the botanical name Corymbia citriodora). Historically, they have been a pretty common street planting. Not sure that too many are planted these days - no-one likes a big old tree being blown on their house in a storm.
Steve

[willcall]

Well the tree is finally milled into lengths.

I decided, on the advice of Allen the tree miller to go for structural timbers rather than slabs or boards. So I went for 6x2's and 2x2's from the waste.

The timber was/is a nice pink colour which surprised Allen as he hasn't seen many Spotties this colour. I quess it could be a sub species or something.

Ended up getting 18 lengths of 6x2 and 6 lengths of 2x2 some 3m long most 3.5m long.

Here are some pics.


Will