I think you have maxed out your slab potential. Not for nothing but a LOT of places now produce slabs. As a result you might find it useful to mill some of this into actual lumber for projects. You have some beautiful grain patterns to take advantage of SANS bark. Thanks for sharing your milling experience (And Dr. Hank is awesome)
Been watching your videos for sometime now. Just got a 5 inch thick 10 feet long slab to work on in my new house. After day one i have waaaay more respect for what you guys do. Not that i didnt before, but you know..more. Greetings from Malaysia! Youre world famous john!
There was a joke where he mentions Red Oak as every woodworker's least favourite wood. To explain the joke and clear Red Oak's name: Red oak is a nice wood, solid, strong, durable. For furniture making, it's pretty darn good and significantly better than plywood or those splinter woods from IKEA. The problems with Red Oak are that the beauty factor is a 6/10 while literally every other hardwood species is at least an 8/10, Oak is so freaking heavy, and it wears down the tools too quickly. It dulls blades, spends sandpaper faster, and requires more effort to work with and move around than other woods. As a result, Walnut, Cherry, Ash, Elm, and literally any other hardwood is easier to work with and produces a more beautiful result. That being said, Oak is still a good choice across the board and is too good to let go to waste.
@@papadave9061 It definitely is. I personally like Oak in general but collect local exotic woods such as wild apple, Hawthorne, Juniper, spalted Beech, Cherry Plum, London Plane, Olive, Walnut, and Rose rootball for my small projects. Quartersawn Oak with any sort of pattern, such as crotch, is definitely beautiful.
havent worked much with oak. but at my work we use larch alot, and every single one at work including me ABSOLUTELY HATE larch. it bedns and screws and goes banana super easy, it always cracks and are full of branches.
Awesome wood, but did you want to sticker those before flipping them on to the skid loader? I am just thinking about minimally having to handle heavy things.
Heck, when it comes down to it, i am interested in buying some of the live edge you cut for projects, for smaller one i would love to try. You inspired me to get into woodworking again. I will take the scrap pieces for a project. Even the small corners you cut off.
I actually like the smell of red oak as it dries. Love the color and grain too. It is one of the most common logs I get at my mill the past years due to all our oaks dying out here in Michigan. Live edge slabs are awesome. Thats where the money is for me.
Did you know that from saw dust you can make pellets for burning in stoves......and why not if you takes the fresh cut slabs of put woodenstrips between them for airdrying ??
Wowers those are huge. Can't wait to see more videos soon my friends. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friends. Keep making. Stay squirrely. God bless.
Love the video. Do you guys use the sawdust the Mill produces for anything? It’d be a good side venture selling it for spill cleanup or turning it into bricks for firewood
new favorite person to watch. idk if you came from my man made obsession with joey or just the communalities beftween the channels. but i absolutely love you. the dancing panda joke was hilarious😭 love pandas and whoever the panda was
I run a little gas mill and we run soapy water on the blade to help keep it cool and less friction... Not sure if that would work for your setup or not
How about a Mobile Gantry crane or something to help move the slabs. Or build a lift table with some rollers so you just have to slide it over and on to the table. Idk 😐
Nice to see you appreciate good barbecue! Personally I never wrap my ribs, at least not on an offset smoker. 5-6 hours at 275 F (for baby backs) yields a great result for me. Oh, the sawmill was pretty cool too. All I could think was how many years of cooking I could get out of all that oak once it was seasoned. 🤣
Thanks for another great lumber milling Vlog. Love to see the beauty you find in each log. Some of that wood you just cut will turn into some beautiful projects when it dries out.
I keep looking at that mill and wishing it was a Matt Cremona mill. I know you kind of needed it ASAP but you could always make plans to have a second mill working on your site for the really BIG logs, when they come. Also, those slabs you milled look so nice, they are going to make some awesome pieces of furniture 👍👍👍👍
John, was just out your way last weekend visiting family in Kittanning. More than once I heard the word "younz". No place else other than western PA says that. I really enjoy your videos, thank you for making them. Stay safe.
I sawed some 40 something inch white oak years ago. Skid steer wouldn’t pick it up but about an inch I just shoved it around and up on the mill. It sucked. Had a wm 40 so had to saw it like an octagon to get the head to go over it.
Suggestion after putting up a lean to to cover the mill: a gantry crane or other lighting air to lift the slabs. Doing them by hand, even with a pair of people is going to cause an injury. They are awkward and heavy. Those two in combo are just pian and disablity waiting to happen. So work smarter, not harder.
I was in Pitt today, I wanted to stop in and see your new place but I didn't have time. You might want to get some stickers and sticker while you flip those slabs !
Love all your videos John, but Cremona usually saws his stuff all by himself, just saying 😊 I know he has monster machines now but he didn’t at first. At any rate, I wish you and all your helpers stay safe and healthy.
In regards to your biggest tree in Pittsburg I believe I have the biggest one of the biggest oak trees in Illinois measures about 80 inches in diameter at base. Let me know if you want to see pictures.
What's your beef with red oak? It is one of my favorite woods to work with. I wouldn't try to slab it out though. Take your time and quarter saw it all out in 1 inch boards. By the way there are only 2 families of oak. White and black. Red oak is in the black oak family. Love your show though.
What are you cutting your slabs at, 4 quarter, 6 quarter? I do advise the use of wedges as you cut the slab. This keeps the weight off the blade which helps the blade last longer and reduces the chance of the blade binding and breaking. Smoking a hog. You should try the snake method when smoking with charcoal. This will eliminate the need to add more charcoal and can last up to 5hrs. Simply pour charcoal around the edge of the grill leaving a gap. Dump lit charcoal on one end of the coals. As the lit coals are dying the unlit ones are hot enough to take over. This goes on down the line. Butter: more fat more better. 'nough said
First and foremost, love love love this series. I think we are all living vicariously thru you! But quick question....how do you determine how far down the track to put the log before you cut it? I noticed these seem to be placed further down the track. Just curious.
You probably don't want to hear this, but I think you built/assembled the sawmill backwards. The exhaust port should be pointing AWAY from the building so that you aren't keeping waste and debris against it, but also to make cleanup easier as wind and rain would get rid of most of it for you. Also, if the exhaust port is facing away from the building then you can build a roof structure over the mill so you can work in the rain/snow and not have to worry about dust accumulating around the supports.
I dont understand why people put water on slabs where you can easily see the grain? are you planning in kiln drying the slabs after adding moisture to it?
The water brings out the grain like an oil or varnish finish would so you can see how it would look (or very close to it) when all said and done. The little amount of water evaporates off it no time. When buying a slab there will be buckets of water handy with rags so you can see the grain pop.
I have so many questions watching these videos... Why do you hose the slabs? How do they get dry if you leave them out in the open? Should you move them inside to let them set? When?
To answer the other questions, they’ll need to be covered to keep rain and direct sun off (thought still with good airflow), but left outside they’ll dry eventually. Being oak, and 2.5-3” thick they’ll take 2-3 years to dry to equilibrium, which is +-15% moisture. To get under 10% would require a kiln. I’m guessing that within a year or two we’ll see John installing a kiln. You could get them under 10% by bringing them inside a conditioned building, but that would take another several months at least, up to a year depending on the temperature and humidity in the building.
This is the first video I've seen of yours. When you mentioned that you bought the meat at Giant Eagle, I realized that you're from the Pittsburgh area. Awesome.
I dont think people realize how much money is in all those slabs. John got that tree for free basically (as far as we know) and my calculations are at about $66,500 if he sold those slabs as is and thats putting a low price on each slab of $1,900. He could easily double or even triple that by finishing them into furniture. I might even lean more into quadrupling that amount. For comparison if this was walnut they would be worth 5-6 times that amount. Nice john I’m very jealous right now.
I have a question? Why do you water the logs after each cut? Is it just to rinse it off! So I’m watching with my 1 year old mockingbird and at the rib part when he said “oh yeah” she tried to do it and it was adorable!
A few videos back when you were putting that saw in everyone was talking $$$$. Now they are seeing it in operation everyone is talking with how awesome and great investment it was.
So interns of whether it is red or black oak, red oak has these almost red “tiger marks” in the bark which tend to be very distinct when the tree is alive but still noticeable when it is dropped. Black oak on the other hand has very similar bark to white oak with the noticeable difference being right below the bark of black oak is a bright orange phloem before the sapwood and on top of that it tastes very bitter. Based on what I am seeing it looks like a black oak which looks pretty cool. Side note, yes parts of a tree are edible. Turns out bark is great fiber too if you need some regularity.
my assumption is to get rid of the dust and see the marbling clearer, maybe to cool it down?? maybe? but i could be entirely wrong i know nothing about woodworking
I think your sayings needs to be on a shirt. Both "cutting logs and smoking hogs" and "Cremona has a bucket Malecki has a hose" The shirts should also only come in blue
I was thinking about a few big executive desks. Maybe not live edge but super solid and straight. They could make some awesome coffee tables or even kitchen island tops (1 piece butcher block).
"We all hate Red Oak as woodworkers"...........uh, wut? Me, as a woodworker most of my adult life (and I'm 68 at the moment), yeah, not so much. I think the pork🐷smoke got ya a bit squirrelly there, John. 🤣
Looking at those existing cracks, just wondering if it would be better or even possible to cut the top of the log on an angle? You are kind of at the mercy for how it rolls on the platform and where you can slice it across, but if you cut the top of the log on an angle, could you not flip it and have it sitting flat and choose where you want your cross section? Talking out my ass here, but can the saw drop down on just one side? Or would that also cause undue stress on the blade?
![เจ็บที่ยังฮัก - ม่อน วรวิทย์ [ Official Mv ] จอนนี่มิวสิค](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KALIGSRSjFs/mqdefault.jpg)
Never thought watching slab cutting would be so satisfying and entertaining. It must be a thousand times more fun on site.
That should be your project next to the sawmill - an outdoor kitchen/barbeque area....with a built in bar.
I love how I found this channel to learn a bit about woodworking, and now I'm mesmerized by sawing logs
I'm not going to lie, I was disappointed you didn't say "Let us spray" when buttering those ribs. Squirrel license suspended.
I think you have maxed out your slab potential. Not for nothing but a LOT of places now produce slabs. As a result you might find it useful to mill some of this into actual lumber for projects. You have some beautiful grain patterns to take advantage of SANS bark. Thanks for sharing your milling experience (And Dr. Hank is awesome)
Been watching your videos for sometime now. Just got a 5 inch thick 10 feet long slab to work on in my new house. After day one i have waaaay more respect for what you guys do. Not that i didnt before, but you know..more. Greetings from Malaysia! Youre world famous john!
There was a joke where he mentions Red Oak as every woodworker's least favourite wood. To explain the joke and clear Red Oak's name:
Red oak is a nice wood, solid, strong, durable. For furniture making, it's pretty darn good and significantly better than plywood or those splinter woods from IKEA.
The problems with Red Oak are that the beauty factor is a 6/10 while literally every other hardwood species is at least an 8/10, Oak is so freaking heavy, and it wears down the tools too quickly. It dulls blades, spends sandpaper faster, and requires more effort to work with and move around than other woods.
As a result, Walnut, Cherry, Ash, Elm, and literally any other hardwood is easier to work with and produces a more beautiful result. That being said, Oak is still a good choice across the board and is too good to let go to waste.
Thanks for clearing that up. lol I started googling it haha
Hmmmm, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
@@papadave9061 It definitely is. I personally like Oak in general but collect local exotic woods such as wild apple, Hawthorne, Juniper, spalted Beech, Cherry Plum, London Plane, Olive, Walnut, and Rose rootball for my small projects. Quartersawn Oak with any sort of pattern, such as crotch, is definitely beautiful.
I find Red Oak to be rather split-prone too, compared to White Oak. But the right piece can be gorgeous.
havent worked much with oak. but at my work we use larch alot, and every single one at work including me ABSOLUTELY HATE larch. it bedns and screws and goes banana super easy, it always cracks and are full of branches.
Awesome wood, but did you want to sticker those before flipping them on to the skid loader? I am just thinking about minimally having to handle heavy things.
Heck, when it comes down to it, i am interested in buying some of the live edge you cut for projects, for smaller one i would love to try. You inspired me to get into woodworking again. I will take the scrap pieces for a project. Even the small corners you cut off.
Far too pretty to be ground up, or burned. Lots of great wood there, good save fellas.
I actually like the smell of red oak as it dries. Love the color and grain too. It is one of the most common logs I get at my mill the past years due to all our oaks dying out here in Michigan. Live edge slabs are awesome. Thats where the money is for me.
John you guys need to build an overhead crane and trolly, like teh shipping yards to move these logs. A great episode fo the channel as well
Did you know that from saw dust you can make pellets for burning in stoves......and why not if you takes the fresh cut slabs of put woodenstrips between them for airdrying ??
the patterns inside the wood are simply wonderful
Wowers those are huge. Can't wait to see more videos soon my friends. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friends. Keep making. Stay squirrely. God bless.
Did you ever think you would be maxing out that mill? Really enjoy your videos, and knowledge. 👍🏻👍🏻
Have to respect the confidence of you two trying to rip a slab out with your bare hands!
John Malecki the next investment you should make is a kiln to dry these slabs.
Love the video. Do you guys use the sawdust the Mill produces for anything? It’d be a good side venture selling it for spill cleanup or turning it into bricks for firewood
new favorite person to watch. idk if you came from my man made obsession with joey or just the communalities beftween the channels. but i absolutely love you. the dancing panda joke was hilarious😭 love pandas and whoever the panda was
Not sure if anyone's ever said this but you've got some big beautiful wood
I run a little gas mill and we run soapy water on the blade to help keep it cool and less friction... Not sure if that would work for your setup or not
In a pinch diesel helps to with the sap
Thats cute! we can take care of it no problem! can cut up to 96" x 20ft homemade bandsaw mill
How about a Mobile Gantry crane or something to help move the slabs. Or build a lift table with some rollers so you just have to slide it over and on to the table. Idk 😐
Nice to see you appreciate good barbecue! Personally I never wrap my ribs, at least not on an offset smoker. 5-6 hours at 275 F (for baby backs) yields a great result for me. Oh, the sawmill was pretty cool too. All I could think was how many years of cooking I could get out of all that oak once it was seasoned. 🤣
Thanks for another great lumber milling Vlog. Love to see the beauty you find in each log. Some of that wood you just cut will turn into some beautiful projects when it dries out.
I keep looking at that mill and wishing it was a Matt Cremona mill. I know you kind of needed it ASAP but you could always make plans to have a second mill working on your site for the really BIG logs, when they come. Also, those slabs you milled look so nice, they are going to make some awesome pieces of furniture 👍👍👍👍
I am not surprised whatsoever that little skid steer couldn't easily pickup that massive log in the beginning
You are so talented in so many fields. !!! Great wood 🪵 so interesting to see you run the mill. I can smell it being cut!!
I want to get a sawmill like that some day. I want to be like you when I grow up. Keep up the cool work bro.
Even John does not know what he will be like when he’s grown up
Don't grow up is the key 😉
John, was just out your way last weekend visiting family in Kittanning. More than once I heard the word "younz". No place else other than western PA says that. I really enjoy your videos, thank you for making them. Stay safe.
I love the fact that your blue Beast is called Dr. Hank McCoy. Love your videos too :D
Pretty fantastic looking wood there, John! 😃
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
That means there’s a 100% chance of it potentially raining.
-John malecki
I sawed some 40 something inch white oak years ago. Skid steer wouldn’t pick it up but about an inch I just shoved it around and up on the mill. It sucked. Had a wm 40 so had to saw it like an octagon to get the head to go over it.
It looks like there is there a VFD inside the electrical control panel/box. You can most likely program it to display the output amps on it's display.
Yeah but didnt want to fill cabinet with sawdust. It goes everywhere , lol
I know it's not EXACTLY what your channel does but give details on that wonderful grill set up
Suggestion after putting up a lean to to cover the mill: a gantry crane or other lighting air to lift the slabs. Doing them by hand, even with a pair of people is going to cause an injury. They are awkward and heavy. Those two in combo are just pian and disablity waiting to happen. So work smarter, not harder.
Sneaky...... love the angry beast reference on the saw!
I love oak, I have some beautiful pieces of furniture created with oak. Wood is art ♥️
I was in Pitt today, I wanted to stop in and see your new place but I didn't have time. You might want to
get some stickers and sticker while you flip those slabs
!
Why do woodworkers hate red oak? That's a really pretty tree.
Actually, not all of us do.
Love all your videos John, but Cremona usually saws his stuff all by himself, just saying 😊 I know he has monster machines now but he didn’t at first. At any rate, I wish you and all your helpers stay safe and healthy.
But who cares!! 🎉
That's crazy. You guys got Bill Hader sawin logs and smokin hogs. That was sufficiently squirrely. Great video!
You are right, I despise red oak, but that tree is beautiful
Cremona has the bucket, you have the hose, Triple L Rustic Designs has Zoe..... Beat that! 😝. You definitely need a Zoe to assist you chaps!
In regards to your biggest tree in Pittsburg I believe I have the biggest one of the biggest oak trees in Illinois measures about 80 inches in diameter at base. Let me know if you want to see pictures.
Best part of the video Sam "is there even a slab there?"
What's your beef with red oak? It is one of my favorite woods to work with. I wouldn't try to slab it out though. Take your time and quarter saw it all out in 1 inch boards. By the way there are only 2 families of oak. White and black. Red oak is in the black oak family. Love your show though.
Awesome guys! I think I can sit there and watch these type of videos all day. How long will it take them to dry out?
I love the look of that red oak. I wish I still lived in Pittsburgh, cuz I would be all over a couple of those slabs.
my grandparents had a live edge oak coffee table with the bark left on it was the most beautiful table
Did John seriously just cook only one rack of ribs for all those guys??
What are you cutting your slabs at, 4 quarter, 6 quarter? I do advise the use of wedges as you cut the slab. This keeps the weight off the blade which helps the blade last longer and reduces the chance of the blade binding and breaking.
Smoking a hog. You should try the snake method when smoking with charcoal. This will eliminate the need to add more charcoal and can last up to 5hrs. Simply pour charcoal around the edge of the grill leaving a gap. Dump lit charcoal on one end of the coals. As the lit coals are dying the unlit ones are hot enough to take over. This goes on down the line.
Butter: more fat more better. 'nough said
Why do you wet the slabs? Wouldn't you want to keep them dry?
First and foremost, love love love this series. I think we are all living vicariously thru you! But quick question....how do you determine how far down the track to put the log before you cut it? I noticed these seem to be placed further down the track. Just curious.
You probably don't want to hear this, but I think you built/assembled the sawmill backwards. The exhaust port should be pointing AWAY from the building so that you aren't keeping waste and debris against it, but also to make cleanup easier as wind and rain would get rid of most of it for you. Also, if the exhaust port is facing away from the building then you can build a roof structure over the mill so you can work in the rain/snow and not have to worry about dust accumulating around the supports.
We cant blow dust out into the lot, its against our local EPA
I dont understand why people put water on slabs where you can easily see the grain? are you planning in kiln drying the slabs after adding moisture to it?
The water brings out the grain like an oil or varnish finish would so you can see how it would look (or very close to it) when all said and done. The little amount of water evaporates off it no time. When buying a slab there will be buckets of water handy with rags so you can see the grain pop.
There's more water IN an Oak log than he's putting ON it.
ok thanks
If it smells like poop, it's red oak. Had a few cut down and the stump was soon covered in a layer of flys for a weel
Get a dump trailer and duct your sawdust into it and sell to farms also get a log grapple for your skid steer
I have so many questions watching these videos... Why do you hose the slabs? How do they get dry if you leave them out in the open? Should you move them inside to let them set? When?
Hose them for 2 reasons. 1. To clean off the dirt and dust. 2. (This is the important one) To check the grain pattern.
To answer the other questions, they’ll need to be covered to keep rain and direct sun off (thought still with good airflow), but left outside they’ll dry eventually. Being oak, and 2.5-3” thick they’ll take 2-3 years to dry to equilibrium, which is +-15% moisture. To get under 10% would require a kiln. I’m guessing that within a year or two we’ll see John installing a kiln. You could get them under 10% by bringing them inside a conditioned building, but that would take another several months at least, up to a year depending on the temperature and humidity in the building.
You have a bunch of scrap wood. Have you considered making your own coal to smoke your hogs? Would be a fun video to watch you making a retort.
This is the first video I've seen of yours. When you mentioned that you bought the meat at Giant Eagle, I realized that you're from the Pittsburgh area. Awesome.
I dont think people realize how much money is in all those slabs. John got that tree for free basically (as far as we know) and my calculations are at about $66,500 if he sold those slabs as is and thats putting a low price on each slab of $1,900. He could easily double or even triple that by finishing them into furniture. I might even lean more into quadrupling that amount. For comparison if this was walnut they would be worth 5-6 times that amount. Nice john I’m very jealous right now.
I wish there was a way I could get a couple of those oak slabs sent to Wis.
Nice work on the logs, but come on !!! Who makes 1 rack of ribs for 5 guys ??? Lol
Now you just need a badass kiln! Better call the fellas up at Idry!
I have a question? Why do you water the logs after each cut? Is it just to rinse it off! So I’m watching with my 1 year old mockingbird and at the rib part when he said “oh yeah” she tried to do it and it was adorable!
A few videos back when you were putting that saw in everyone was talking $$$$. Now they are seeing it in operation everyone is talking with how awesome and great investment it was.
So interns of whether it is red or black oak, red oak has these almost red “tiger marks” in the bark which tend to be very distinct when the tree is alive but still noticeable when it is dropped. Black oak on the other hand has very similar bark to white oak with the noticeable difference being right below the bark of black oak is a bright orange phloem before the sapwood and on top of that it tastes very bitter. Based on what I am seeing it looks like a black oak which looks pretty cool.
Side note, yes parts of a tree are edible. Turns out bark is great fiber too if you need some regularity.
What is the reason for the Red Oak hating comments? I thought it was used a lot for flooring, cabinets, etc.
Silly question : why do you wet the slabs after the cut ?
my assumption is to get rid of the dust and see the marbling clearer, maybe to cool it down?? maybe? but i could be entirely wrong i know nothing about woodworking
To see if it is a good slab and remove the dust
It's so you can see what the wood would look like after a finish was applied. Makes it shiny.
Why don’t you sticker the slabs immediately when taking them off the mill onto the fork lift? You’re moving the slabs twice, doing twice the work.
I've got a bigger red oak in pa. Hopefully later this summer I'll get it to the mill.
But i am not hauling all the way to Pitt!
I could literally watch this all day. my wife asks what I'm doing and I tell her and she just rolls her eyes at me. 😂😂
John the kind of guy to be the only one not wearing decent ear pro at the mill. I do implore your to wear better hearing pro John
I think your sayings needs to be on a shirt. Both "cutting logs and smoking hogs" and "Cremona has a bucket Malecki has a hose"
The shirts should also only come in blue
that was a beautiful red oak log. nice boards
With the new shop up and running now, what are the chances of see Jordan's Wheel of Challenge and the 1 Board 1 Sheet Challenge again?!?
Those boards will make beautiful dinner tables.
any reason you're doing all slabs as opposed to some slabs and some regular lumber?
The mill is built more for slabs and we use more slabs in our work than dimensional lumebr
I don't think iv related to anything more then the quote "We know its coming" when he mentions everything going smoothly
I absolutely love the smell of fresh cut red oak. Mixed with some 2-stoke exhaust smoke from a chainsaw, even better.
I love Oak! - What's wrong with Oak?
I see a couple of sweet desktops!
Overall great looking slabs!
I was thinking about a few big executive desks. Maybe not live edge but super solid and straight. They could make some awesome coffee tables or even kitchen island tops (1 piece butcher block).
What was the reason you didn't get a wood mizer, With the lifting and shimming facilities.
You should have built one like Matthew Cremona did. It's huge! I saw a video of one a guy built that was 8 feet across.
Would love to get some of that sawdust for mushroom cultivation
I would love a piece of wood like that. It would make such a nice desk.
Hilarious video man! Entertaining! Nice job!
I just made a hall tree out of red oak! They loved it!
These saw mill videos are great!
"We all hate Red Oak as woodworkers"...........uh, wut?
Me, as a woodworker most of my adult life (and I'm 68 at the moment), yeah, not so much.
I think the pork🐷smoke got ya a bit squirrelly there, John. 🤣
The name on the mill convinced me to subscribe to your channel. Nice one!
Do you find leaving the wood stacked on top of the log while cutting helps control the blade and make less wavey cut?
Almost spit my drink out at the porky pig section. These are my favorite episodes
john is definitely the coolest boss
Great video! New shirt idea: John's Gym - Movin' Slabs Since 2021.
Keep it up! You are living the dream.
Looking at those existing cracks, just wondering if it would be better or even possible to cut the top of the log on an angle? You are kind of at the mercy for how it rolls on the platform and where you can slice it across, but if you cut the top of the log on an angle, could you not flip it and have it sitting flat and choose where you want your cross section? Talking out my ass here, but can the saw drop down on just one side? Or would that also cause undue stress on the blade?
if your dealing with pinching the blade due to the weight, why not just pull the slab off each cut rather than go 3- 4 cuts in before u unload?
I love the wood