Processing maple tree

[John_Mc]

Back in April of 2017 I took a maple tree from a friend. It fell on his house, and I helped him remove it. We tried to cut it in 16-18" thick rounds. Some of the rounds were well over 36" diameter, as I couldn't cut through them with my 18" saw and I had to quarter them.

This piece was 31" in diameter. I rolled it up onto the splitter by hand and halved it. Then quartered it. Then split the quarters, etc...

I ended up with 58 pieces of firewood from that 1 round.

View attachment 676266 View attachment 676264 View attachment 676265

About 10 years before that, I took a couple maples that fell in another friend's house. I think they were around 42" diameter and I got something like 102 pieces from that one round.

Anyhow, they were soft maples. They burned really fast and only lasted about 4 hours in my wood stove VS 10-11 hours when I use locust. But they were nice on days where I just wanted to take the chill off the house.

I used to enjoy tackling stuff like that. These days, if it's over 24" diameter, and it's not good enough for a saw log, it likely stays in the woods to rot. Just more trouble than it's worth to split up, even with the hydraulic lift on my splitter.

 

[MossRoad]

I'm much happier with 12" and under locust. I have plenty of those.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Must be extremely satisfying to turn a log into boards.



This is the best I can do, and as far as making chips, just for chips sake, it's not worth the incrediblly hard work! Maybe I could make some particle board!

 

[dfkrug]

Must be extremely satisfying to turn a log into boards.

....or into chips. I don't do a lot of chipping here, but I have asked one or 2 of the tree services around here to dump chippings for me to spread around. Last two 5 cy loads were western red cedar. The best of the best.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I reserve any cedar (to be chipped) for special occassions.

Kills me to know that some people get chips for free.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I reserve any cedar (to be chipped) for special occassions.

Kills me to know that some people get chips for free.

Cedar has other uses also; I thought some of you might be impressed with the talent of this young man and his Cedar Creations; I know I certainly am. I have see his cabinets and caskets and they are beautiful.

HOME

 

[dfkrug]

Kills me to know that some people get chips for free.

As I always say: "free" is a dangerous word.

When it comes to chippings, if you see a tree service in the area, and offer them a place to dump chippings, then stopping them after the first load can be hard. You also need to be selective: no weeds, grasses, palms, etc.

Since I live in the coastal rainforest, there are always tree services in the area.