EagleFordEarl's thread the other day got me thinking of something. I have been considering doing this for years. Our land has some pretty good sized mesquite trees on it that were in a fire about 15 years ago, i.e. bad looking trees with a little green at the top (meaning they are still alive). I was curious how viable it would be to find some straight trunks and cut blocks out of them to make things like domino boxes and stuff out of.

What would be the process, if any, to make sure these are dry enough to work with? Am I wasting my time?

If you have any large, straight trunks (10+ inch diameter, 3+feet long) try and find someone who specializes in Mesquite flooring, they may want to come out and harvest the wood and pay you for the privilege.

See repsonse "C" on this link:

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Mesquite_Lore.html

It appears milling soon after cutting is recommended. It doesn't really address aging or drying, but rather says that you can work with it sooner or later. Maybe aging isn't necessary?


[This message has been edited by Tree Hugger (edited 2/2/2012 9:19a).]

I'll try. If you have a log. Coat the ends with a wax substance for air drying wood. Cut the wood in the thickness you want to work with. Let's say you wind up with 6' long pieces of 8/4.
Lay the wood on stickers that are a maximum of 2' apart....less if it's not a hard wood like mesquite.
It will take 8/4 approximately 1 year per inch to dry or in this case...two years [8/4= 2"]

As the reference article mentioned borers can be a problem. You will normally see their impact in the sapwood. The sawmill that I get my wood from stacks the wood in a closed container and then they pressure it up with a bug killing gas for about 24 hours or so....not sure how long.

These bench tops were left with the bark edge on....you can see the epoxy filled burrows made by the borers.



This lamp was made from an old mesquite log that had been attacked internally by borers as well as some rot. You must kill them in this situation or they will show up in your finished product. Please note a free Texags plug.



[This message has been edited by sunchaser (edited 2/2/2012 9:42a).]

That is very nicely done sunchaser! The holes in that lampshade gave me a great idea- I'll be sure to post pictures once it's finished.

Thanks....if you are doing it for the lighting effect on the walls you need to use a clear bulb. White ones won't work....

I cheat on this. My old man takes LARGE(>12"around and >=8'long) trunks to a guy and he splits the logs on halves.(they split the yield in half and they shake hands and go on about their business). I have no clue who my dad's guy is though, He keeps it hush-hush so that his sweet heart deal doesn't get messed up.

Most of my stuff is the stuff my old man forgets about or doesn't want any more. It's usually really dry and brittle and covered in a nice coating of bovine based sealant.

I generally plane everything down after i get it cleaned up and then coat it with a mineral oil based butcher block conditioner before I start working with it to help with any splitting issues I have.

yeah, a bit more ambitious than what I initially hoped for.

my thoughts....find a straight trunk, cut a section, squared it up with a chain saw, cut/mill pieces small enough to work with.

all good advice, though

Sunchaser I haven't seen that big of a monitor in years.

Mr07....It's been gone quite awhile but it had a nice 10 year plus run. I bought it for our place in Port A for people to use prior to the rampant use of laptops, iPads, cell phones etc. Internet service was dial up.....long distance....expensive. Someone left it hooked up when they left. Three weeks before anyone else showed up to hang up.

We now have a much better internet provider as well as WIFI and laptops on the deck are common place.

Gonna bump this thread for the following.

We have a few very good size mesquites on my land here in Seguin, we would like to cut them and have them milled for flooring for the house we are going to build next year. We have also cut a few last year that we are going to have milled into a mantel and some big pieces to potentially make a farm table for the house. Has anyone on here had mesquite milled into planks for flooring I've seen a lot of pictures online and the floors looks really awesome.

Calling agrams