cutting 5 ft wide cherry log

[homstedinmyhead]

I have a 5 ft wide 15 ft long cherry log id like to cut in to rounds for tabletops. Are there mills that can do that? I looked in to using a two man saw but I think I would need it to be 10 ft long? Do they make those anymore?
Any other ideas on how to get that done?

[Jolly]

Widest I've seen were two footers and they were cut on an old circular blade...

[tinknal]

I think you can still get 2 man saws. They use them in Lumberjack competitions.

[homstedinmyhead]

I've seen them for sale up to 6 ft but from what I understand it needs to be twice as wide as the log so the wood chips will come out with the blade?

[oth47]

They're gonna crack..at least halfway across.

[homstedinmyhead]

Oh don't say that. Why? There's no way to do it without it cracking?

[oth47]

I've read that you can soak log slices in denatured alcohol until it replaces the moisture,then let it evaporate slowly and usually it won't crack.But,in what do you soak a 5' slice of log and how much denatured alcohol would it take?There's a way to repair a top like that if you have the adjacent slice of log.

[TnAndy]

Use PEG ( Polyethyleneglycol ). You'll have to build some kind of "dish" to hold the rounds in. Probably take 3-5 gallons per slice.

[fishhead]

My forestry professor told us how he made a table top out of a huge log.

He cut 2 slices and then cut a wedge out of one to fill the wedge hole he cut in the first one. It had to be slightly larger due to shrinkage.

[tinknal]

This outfit makes chainsaw bars up to 87" long.

http://www.gbbar.com.au/extra_long_bars.htm

[TNHermit]

If it was mine (and I reall really wish it was). I would cut in 4in slabs long ways. unless its rotten.
If its got splits you can inlay dovetails to hold.
Cutting it long way could give you ten or more long tables. And if youfind the right boardroom you could make some big money.

If its 5ft diameter you can cut it with a 30 in saw Done it before. Almost 100% chance it will split but again you can inlay dovetails. Why not just cut a few off each end then go long ways for a 10-12ft table.

Baileys.com can get you what you need. If you want to pay the price.

PM Sawmill Jim and the other sawmill guy (brain freeze) on here. They will help you

[foxfiredidit]

Why couldn't you fashion a sort of jig from a metal band to go around the circumferance of the slice you want to cut, tighten it down with a lug nut so it doesn't crack while sawing it off. Once you have the slice off and intact, use the denatured alcohol like oth47 suggested and just apply coat after coat to each side until it quits soaking it up, let it dry as it will in a place out of the direct sunlight. Then take the metal band off the circumferance and see what you got.

Cherry is a tight grained wood and won't require some of the steps in finishing that other woods might. Go to page 4 and 5 of this link and check the part on cherry wood. The "Danish Oil" spoken of there might keep it from cracking as well.

http://www.woodcentral.com/bparticles/oil_finishes.pdf

[Ken Scharabok]

Oh man, don't do anything until you talk to your local state Forestry Agent. You may be looking at a veneer log worth several thousand bucks.

Far as I know, the top price paid for a standing large veneer tree was $25,000.

There was a quite large blown down oak in the area where I shade the cows. Had been laying on the ground for over 20 years. It sold to a local logger for $500. I still don't know how he got it out of there.

When I lived in the Dayton, OH area a friend told me of a neighbor calling a tree service about taking down a quite large Red Oak with no limbs for at least 20' from the ground. Tree service charged him $500 and likely sold it as a veneer log.

[DJ in WA]

A 5 foot cherry sounded phenomenal, so I did some googling and saw the following. Looks like you have a gold mine there, so as Ken said, you’d better act carefully.

http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extm.../FNR-276-W.pdf

Black cherry is a medium-sized tree ranging from 60 to 80 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet in diameter. Larger trees were once common but are now rare. The largest tree reported is about 5½ feet in diameter at 4½ feet above the ground.


Cherry is our most valuable species. Even low grade No. 2 Common lumber is worth about as much or more than the very best grades of species, such as beech, basswood, and even ash, hickory, and yellow-poplar.

Here's a story of a cherry tree that is the largest in Alabama at 148 inches circumference, which works out to 47 inches diameter, or about 4 feet.
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/05/...ck_cherry.html

[just_sawing]

I sawed a 4 foot on my mill that was 8 foot long. It produced 600 board feet of lumber. Cherry here in lumber sells for $1.00 per foot.
If you want a slice off find a tree service. It only take a 36 inch bar to do this and most services will have a large saw that they use for big logs.

[TNHermit]

Originally Posted by just_sawing

I sawed a 4 foot on my mill that was 8 foot long. It produced 600 board feet of lumber. Cherry here in lumber sells for $1.00 per foot.
If you want a slice off find a tree service. It only take a 36 inch bar to do this and most services will have a large saw that they use for big logs.

Dang if I could remember your handle last night. OLD!!

Anyway a well done conference table done from one slice of that log would be worth several thousand depending I've seen them up to 10 grand. And there would be several slices in that one

[cab]

I had a 4' diameter walnut that I just had cut into slabs. Took a few years to find someone nearby with a logersol slabbing mill. Rounds are nearly worthless but people pay into the 5 figures for large figured slabs. Cherry that big is almost unheard of- no doubt slabs would fetch a handsome price. You really ought to search for someone with a slab mill as it would be a shame to waste that log cutting it into disks. And yes, they will most certainly warp, split, etc., and otherwise turn into potato chip like pieces with little use and lessor value.....

[homstedinmyhead]

wow that's a lot to think about. I think i might just pass the log on to someone who knows what they're doing and split the profits.

[oth47]

As a woodcarver,I wonder how many bears or cigar store Indians you could make out of a log like that..you could carve a whole bear family.

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

I have a 12 foot long Escarpment Black Cherry log on the ground in my yard. Its about 18-20 inches in diameter and I thought I had a prize - 5' wowee. In many places they wouldn't have allowed you to cut down a tree of that size. In Kerrville, I know of a pecan tree so large in diameter that 3 men linking hands cannot touch all the way around the tree.