Big Eucalyptus Slabbing with WoodMizer LX250 sawmill - How to

[@ArrBee6]

Crikey, that was a good video. Cheers.

[@ThePaulv12]

River Red Gum it looks to be. Botanical name Eucalyptus Camaldulnensis. The wood is believe it or not, fairly light by comparison to some other Eucalypts. Red & Yellow Box immediately come to mind. The wood in them is amazing too. So, River Red gum is a fantastic wood and tree in every way. Great habitat tree. On flood plains here it often grows with a lean and they get to enormous proportions particularly the trunk and lower branches but height wise typically top out around 60'. They can and do grow in forests and have a more upright habit compared to when on open country so growing beyond 60' isn't uncommon. They're a great honey tree, great for charcoal and fire wood (it is exceptional firewood and the smell is divine), great for stumps, great in water since it is a predominately a flood plain species, hard, strong, tough and durable, excellent for heavy construction. Extensively used for railroad ties here too. The interlocking grain is called fiddleback grain. Around where I live suburban jettys were made out of it in salt water. Many of them lasted over 100 years and when taken down the wood was extremely valuable for high end furniture making. It was so expensive only the rich or businesses could afford to buy it. It has heaps of character.

[@lindsaybrown7357]

When I extended my house in Hobart about 30 years ago, I got DAR eucalypt framing timber. Wasn't that much more expensive than crappy pine. Was a pleasure to work with, no warping or twisting. Certainly heavy going, lifting the wall frames 😮

[@roberthamilton9730]

Great job once again! I love that color and grain ... I'd love it even more if you posted more of your work. Nice to see you back.

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

Thanks Robert! I wasn't planning on not being able to post on here, but I just had a super busy summer and didn't really make time, I know I should have tho!!! I totally love the color and figure of Eucalyptus logs!!! some of the best color most of the time

[@ricksfarmart6150]

Love the videos! I've had my eye on that mill, it came out shortly after I took delivery of my LT15 WIDE. I went to a Wood-Mizer demonstration and was impressed with the features. When I was stationed at Naval Construction Battalion Center, Port Hueneme in CA i saw those giant Eucalyptus trees on the base and wondered what they looked like inside..... Amazing! Thanks..

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

It is a pretty nice mill Rick! We enjoyed having our LT15 Wide while we had it but like this mill more because we do cut a lot of larger logs! This Euc did turn out really good and the color was just awesome! Thanks man & glad you like our video's, keep an eye out for more in the future! And BTW Thank You for your service man!!! 👍

[@ricksfarmart6150]

@@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx yea, BTW I am a Brock from North Georgia mountains. I plan on a mill like yours, kiln and a slab flattner. Large wood slabs would be great to have. People really want tabletops. I started wanting to mill logs for a cabin. And get the plainer moulder but it runs on the LT10 rails. Hahahah gotta make up my mind!

[@kangaroo505]

Awesome.. Being an Aussie I love it. Great work

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

Thank you Peter! Most people around here don't like milling Euc but we do every chance we get! There have been a few that didn't turn out well over the years but when we look back on it we probably should have not milled those logs lol... Always seems to have beautiful color and figure tho...

[@davidcrandell1172]

Beaut log. I work with Aussie hardwoods regularly. Colours are awesome in them.

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

Thanks David! We have had pretty good luck milling Euc over the years! it always seems to have some nice figure and the colors are amazing! Stay tuned for more from us!!!

[@davidwyby]

How do you prevent checking ? Thanks

[@cathybenson5119]

Beautiful red colouring

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

Yep! Pretty wood for sure! And super dense and hard as can be too! Thanks Cathy!

[@DudeThat251]

Holly shit i was not expecting that! thats badass. the color really pops

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

Thanks Ronnie! The color is really awesome for sure! I love milling this stuff for sure!!!

[@rajendrakumar8419]

Nice

[@colddiesel]

There was a fair amount of splitting in that log though it was not as bad as first appeared from the ends. Might have been less if it had got to the mill as soon as possible after felling?

[@matthewcullen1298]

As an Aussie carpenter., Im a little embarrassed that i didn't know America has qute a few eucalyptus trees growing there until recently. We have them growing on my dads property. Beautiful tall old trees . They can be dangerous as they drop limbs without any real warning and the oil is highly combustible and turns to an explosive gas in some eucalpts when heated in a bush fire situation. Down south the treetops were exploding long before the bushfires hit them in the horrible fires we had a few years ago. It was just high winds driving the embers into the treetops which were offgasing .But its beautiful timber and the smoke smells beautiful when you burn it on the campfire. Please don't use it if you have a smoker. It taints and poisons the meat. We use Ironbark in ours or macadamia if we're doing buffalo wings 😊Love your videos Mate 😊 nice mill. Warm greetings and best wishes from Queensland Australia 😊

[@grasshopper8621]

hi great video could you please tell mee how wideis the head unit from outside to the other side

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

I have not put a tape measure on it for width, but I would say that it's about 9' wide total but when using it you would need about 11' to 12' to be able to run the machine effectively 👍

[@tomsommer54]

How much do buyers pay for those slabs? Thanks you sharing your work.

[@mandmmilling3716]

great video demonstrating the lx250. I have been thinking about getting one. There are not a lot of options in a ultra wide band slabber other than cooks, oscar, and now woodmiser. On a side note, i gotta ask. Isn't California in the midst of a water shortage this summer? I love seeing the clean slabs but it seems kinda wasteful if others are being shutoff.

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

Thank You! It has been a pretty good mill so far and works out well for what we use it for! As far as using water to wash slabs off, California always claims to be in a water crisis... But we are in the country and pump our own water, not to mention in the grand scheme of things, it does not really take a whole lot of water to wash the sawdust off of them... As far as water being shut off in our area due to shortages, that just isn't happening.

[@pup734]

Beautiful log. I have never cut one does it smell good while cutting it?

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

Smells pretty awesome! just like hoe a standing Euc tree smells, except for the entire sawmill yard smells that way for weeks! it is very aromatic for sure!!!

[@pork269chop]

Now that you have it slabbed and stacked, how do you go about stickering those massive slabs? Do you still use the kubinec strapping? I ask because I started using it when I saw your video on it

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

for large logs we stack and sticker just like with smaller logs but sometimes we use more stickers spaced closer, it just all depends on the log and how much we think it may move during drying... and yes, we use the Kubinec strapping on pretty much every log that we stack to dry here, on large logs we use a loop of Kubinec strapping at each sticker to help minimize movement 👍

[@SamuraiSwimmer]

Wow that is gorgeous wood and a great machine! Do you seal the ends after cutting the slabs? Do you air dry it all? How long does a 4" slab take to air dry for you in California?

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

We do not seal the ends of logs here most of the time but we do have customers that do... A big downer to sealing the ends is that when it goes in a kiln it all melts away from the heat... And once we have our vacuum kiln we wont really need to seal them for the most part. Different woods dry differently here where we are, we can get something like redwood dry enough to build tables with in about 1.5-2 years for 3" thick slabs but hardwoods take longer... 1x we can get dried really quickly with the way the summer temps are here... These 4" thick Euc slabs will take about 2.5 years to dry, but I'm betting we will get them in a kiln to finish them off sooner than that... 😎

[@anooseholay]

I have an LT40HD and I love my mill. Would love to own one of these as well but the problem I’m having is the price. This is a $17,000 all day long but 26k is just too much for what it features. Woodmizer is trying to sell it at that price point because of the 54” cut width.

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

Our LT40 Super Hydraulic has been a very good mill to us over the years and we have experienced very little down time with it due to any small issues that have popped up here and there 👍 As far as the LX250's being over priced... We use our mills every day to make a living and have paid for our LX250 many times over since we made the purchase... As with all of our mills, each one is pretty good at something, and this one is pretty good at cutting wider slabs up to 55" so it works well for us for now for stuff not big enough for one of our Lucas mills... 😀

[@jerrylittle8922]

You had any issues with your power feed?

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

Issues with power feed such as? What kind of issues are you having, We have had no issues with the power feed on this machine, we have four woodmizers and they have a great customer service department that has always been very helpful for us when trying to diagnose issues.

[@jerrylittle8922]

@@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx I havent added Powerfeed to my new Lt15. I seen another channel with same mill who had issues with his Powerfeed on manual mill. I been wanting to order this addition for my mill.

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

Ahhh I see... Well, the power feed on an LT15 is totally different than a power feed on an LX250! We no longer have a LT15, but we did have a power feed on ours, the problem most guys have with the one on the LT15 is they don’t get the tope tight enough... once you get the rope tight enough it wont slip, and it needs to be really tight, if it’s loose it will slip

[@jerrylittle8922]

@@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx Thank you Sir.

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

No problem! Any more questions feel free to ask, I’m always happt to help! And as for if the power feed is worth the money? We’ll I don’t have a mill without it 😁 so that’s a yes for me, but we are everyday users 👍🏼

[@ronaldplecker8776]

How much do you all charge by the hour

[@franklt35sawyer49]

How much beer do ya gotta drink to clean off those big slabs?

[@charliejonesrebandt4160]

I have a lot of eucalyptus on my property here in Southern California. Many of them are about 2 feet in diameter. I am interested in milling a few of them into beams that I would like to use for a foot bridge across my canyon. I need to make two beams about 6"x16" or 8"x16" and about 24 feet long. Not sure where you are in California but is that something you could do? What would be the process to do such a project? Like how long between cutting them down to milling them, and then how long to dry before using them? Would they need to be kiln dried? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'm also interested in using some of the smaller stuff to make floor boards to go across the beams to walk on. I have equipment for cutting the trees down, hauling the logs, and setting the beams for the bridge, but no sawmill. With the current cost of wood I am trying to figure out if this is feasible. It would also be a pretty fun project.

[@davidwyby]

Chainsaw mill. I know a guy in Ramona with a bandsaw mill.

[@cathybenson5119]

I was wondering if your log is the same type as the eucalyptus trees in Australia. We also call them gum trees here. 👍👍👍🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

Yes, there are many different types of gum trees that were brought here years ago and planted as wind breaks along the coast, and they have been incorperated into many areas here in California! I’m not 100% sure what type of gum tree this was because we didn’t taje it down, we just milled the log 👍🏼

[@martingrobler1892]

Nice job. love your presentation. Two questions do you need to water the slabs after cutting and do you still need it to dry more since it is an old log or is it ready for use??

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

Thank you! No, there is no reason to put water on the slabs other than we do it to clean them off so you can see the grain of the wood and get pictures of them how they actually look. It does help to kind of give people an idea what the slabs will look like with finish on it. As far as if it is ready to use, no, most of the time they need to dry before use, the moisture content needs to come down to 6 to 8% before a slab can be used to build furniture with

[@graysquirreltreeservice7299]

How thick are the slabs?

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

I think we cut these ones mostly 4" thick, there might have been a couple that were only 3.5"

[@franklt35sawyer49]

Sorry I didn't see the water hose.

[@stanleyashby5405]

Man i make furniture out of eucalyptus and do it all the hard way. I have no mill.

[@KnottHeadCustomSawingFabWorx]

It is beautiful stuff for sure! Sounds like you gotta find a friend with a mill and a kiln to dry it!

[@DonLuc23]

Thought this was gonna b a real sawyer video, then the music started.....

[@georgeshotrodbarn2113]

What in the L are you gona do with that Bubba

[@blairbreland1443]

Yawn zzzzzzzz frrrp scratch scratch 😴