Log Milling

Log Milling in Wanaka

Too good for firewood? We can slab your valuable timber and help stack it for drying on your property.

A long slab of freshly milled timber lying on the ground, a chainsaw and a bag of sawdust beside it

Timber worth keeping

A felled tree does not have to become firewood

Some trees that come down are worth far more as timber than as a winter's heat. A big old walnut, elm, oak, macrocarpa, cedar or gum, cut into live-edge slabs, becomes a dining table, a bench, a bar top or a mantelpiece with the tree's own history in it. Milling it where it fell saves the cost and the heartache of trucking a log that is too heavy to lift.

We slab logs on site with a chainsaw mill, cut to the thicknesses you want, and help you stack the slabs properly so they dry straight. What was going to be a problem to get rid of becomes something you keep.

Milled timber slabs laid out to dry beside a new house, a wheelbarrow and a round of trunk alongside

What milling involves

Choosing the log

Not every log is worth milling. Straight, sound sections of a good species with few branches give the best slabs; rot, ring shake and a trunk full of knots do not. We tell you honestly which parts are worth it.

Slabbing on site

The log is set level and cut along its length with a chainsaw mill, one slab at a time, to the thickness you choose. Live edges are kept; the bark can stay or go.

Stacking to dry

Slabs are stacked flat with spacers between them, off the ground, with weight on top and the sun and rain kept off. Air drying takes time, and a badly stacked slab twists.

A home for the timber

Dried slabs can go to a furniture maker or be finished by you. We can also cut dimensional timber for posts, beams and sleepers if that suits the job better.

What affects the price and timing

Milling is priced on the size of the log, the number of cuts and how long the chainsaw mill runs. Hard, dense timbers take longer per cut than softwoods. A log that is already on the ground in an accessible spot is quicker to set up than one that has to be moved. If the tree still has to come down, the removal and the milling are usually quoted together.

The slabs themselves are the slow part. Thick timber dries at roughly a year for every two to three centimetres of thickness when air dried, and most furniture makers want it drier still, so plan on the stack sitting for a while. We will leave it stacked correctly so that time is not wasted.

If the rest of the tree is going through the chipper, our wood chipping service turns the branches into mulch on the same day.

Log milling questions

Which trees are worth milling?

Hardwoods and the better softwoods: walnut, elm, oak, ash, macrocarpa, cedar, redwood, eucalyptus and sequoia all mill well. Poplar and willow are light and soft but can still make shelving. Pine mills well but is rarely worth it in small quantities. The soundness and straightness of the log matter as much as the species.

How thick should the slabs be?

For table tops, 50 to 75 millimetres allows for shrinkage and flattening. Benches and shelves can be thinner. Thicker slabs take longer to dry. We will cut to what you have in mind.

How long does the timber take to dry?

Air drying is slow: months to a year or more, depending on species, thickness and the weather. Central Otago's dry air helps. Timber for fine furniture often goes to a kiln at the end to finish it off.

Can you mill a log that is already down?

Yes. If the log is on the ground and we can get the mill to it, that is the easiest job of all. Logs that have been lying in wet grass for years may have started to rot, so we check first.

Can you cut fence posts and beams?

Yes. Dimensional timber for posts, rails, beams and sleepers can be cut from the same log; macrocarpa is the favourite for that work.

Drying the timber

Stacking slabs so they dry straight

How the slabs are stacked decides whether they dry flat or twist. Oregon State University's guide to air drying timber sets out the rules we follow: dry, evenly sized spacers lined up through the stack, the stack raised well off the ground for airflow, weight on top, and a cover that keeps the rain and direct sun off while the air moves through. It also notes that air drying takes from several months to almost a year, depending on the wood and the weather.

We stack the slabs that way before we leave, so the drying starts properly on day one.