The saw can cut boards up to 210mm x 210mm, which for furniture making is ideal as most wider planks are cut down to 150mm or less during processing. Cutting off the wane and forming square edge planks makes stacking the planks easier and means that we can make better use of our drying facilities.

Spruce Log.

This Spruce log is about 4 metres long and about 400mm in diameter.

The trunks are firmly dogged onto the level frame with purpose made dual height clamps.

Sawmilling

Small trunks can be milled very effectively, there is a lot of handling needed.

A small Ash trunk is being milled here. The horizontal cut is removing the top layer of bark. Following cuts will produce 40mm boards and 80mm squares.

The height of the horizontal cut is regulated by raising and lowering the deep rails which the sawmill runs on.

Large Trunks

This is the Burr Oak trunk which came from a hedgerow tree which had been dead for a number of years. It simply keeled over one morning without any help from the wind, man or any other device.

Trunks up to 1.5m in diameter can be milled. The planks are taken off as the sawmill head is progressed across the trunk.

Sawmilled Planks

These are planks recovered from a very old Oak tree which had been felled 15 years ago and left to rot in a field.
The tree was unwanted as a trunk. The milled planks were almost defect free and in a few years will make a handsome dining table and chairs.