54" and full comp?

[woodworkingboy]

That makes sense, Stig. Removing the top cutters had me confused. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[Al Smith]

By reshapening as stated it's in essence turning the chain from a cross cutter to something that mimics a rip blade on a hand saw or circular saw .

The two which have top plate ground off do the cutting and the third in line filed off at 90 clears the dust .Dust is all they'll cut ,they won't pull chips .

 

[HolmenTree]

Sorry, Willard. I really do admire your skill and wisdom. But full skip is not fast dulling in all conditions. Making blanket statements like that (which I am learning to avoid as I grow older) is thin ice to skate upon.

Burnham I have to pick a bone further on this with you.
What I'm saying all along is the more cutters you have on a loop of sawchain the better and longer it can hold an edge.
Back in the 1980s I saw a loop of Windsor sawchain called a "Full House Chain" 3/8 semi chisel 50AF for soft metal cutting.[also available 58AF & 63AF] No carbide is used, just regular type cutters.
Now the unique design of this full house sawchain is it has a cutter on every alternate side link ,no gaps between left & right cutters.
Proof that it takes more cutters to hold an edge to be used to cut soft metal.
So now do you realize what I'm trying to say about edge holding capabilities of a full skip chain versus full comp and now "full house"?

 

[dastevoe]

Read my post again, Jay.

What I was saying ( or trying to, anyway) was that you remove the top plates of every other set of cutters, then file those cutters at 35 degrees.

The problem about filing ripping chain at 0-5 degrees is that it practically makes the side of the cutter have a 90 degree angle. That translates as blunt.By using the method I talk about, you get a pair of top cutters that are 0 or 5 degrees, plenty of room for chip removal, since only every other pair of cutters are making chips and sharp sides on those "topless" cutters.

Would it be possible to post a pic. of this Stig ? A picture speaks a thousand words (so I've heard ) .

Thanks,
Steve

 

[stig]

This is one I bought from Bailey's some years ago.
It is badly made, since the whole of the top cutter hasn't been removed. Apparently the machine wasn't adjusted right.
It'll still give you an idea of how it is done.

I had to cut this picture from the danish woodturner's forum, I gave away my mill and all my ripping chains 2 years ago.

 

[HolmenTree]

This is one I bought from Bailey's some years ago.
It is badly made, since the whole of the top cutter hasn't been removed. Apparently the machine wasn't adjusted right.
It'll still give you an idea of how it is done.

Stig I had one of those chains too. Actually mine had the partial removed top plate also.To make it work a little bit of the top plate has to meet with the side plate to make a proper working corner, or the side plate would snake off in every direction making a rough cut.
The 2 left and right hand cutters with the full top plate and filed at 0 degrees were the rakers.
Anyone can modify a regular chain to these specs with a bench grinder. But I quit using this type of chain and found a .404 or 3/8 chisel chain filed at 10 degrees worked just as good with my Stihl 090 36" Alaskan mill

 

[stig]

A little bit of the top should remain, yes.
But IMO not as much as on this chain.
I've had good results with those chains on my 36" alaskan mill, but then I don't have a big 090, only a little 880.

But I've never been able to achieve the same smooth cuts with full chisel chains as with semi. Didn't much matter for the wood I used on the lathe, but I've made an awful lot of tabletops for kitchens over the years and when you run wood through the planer, those smooth cuts make life a bit easier.

 

[gf beranek]

Boy if we could go back in time I could introduce you to a fellow named Hank Braun. He lived in Hale's Grove and ripped table and bar top slabs for over twenty years that I knew him. Much longer than I didn't. Very few of Hanks slabs were rough and gouged out. His chains cut impeccably smooth and true. some of his bar top slabs were 20 plus feet long.

In the yard Hank stacked his slabs in rows according to size and grade and priced them accordingly. In the late 70's I could fill a U haul trai;pr and the back of my pick up for about $400 bucks worth of Hanks slabs. I would be hard pressed to put a price on the worth of that wood today because there's just so little of it around anymore.

Well, actually the easy stuff has been got. There's still plenty out there but getting it out is the problem.

 

[flushcut]

Well, actually the easy stuff has been got. There's still plenty out there but getting it out is the problem.

"Ain't nothin been got that ain't been gone after"

 

[Al Smith]

Not to skew the subject too much but on those slabs a big chainsaw would be just about the only way you could cut them .That is short of a giant west coast bandsaw head rig .

I saw on the net a slabbing mill commercially made that used a big 4 cycle engine with an 8 foot bar just specifically made for such things .They also listed an electric drive using a 3 phase motor as an option .Rather pricey to say the least .

 

[Jed]

Full-skip in 2nd growth Doug Fir. Always, always, always.

 

[Burnham]

It's a sad fact (or maybe not...it really depends on your perspective) that the vast majority of the mills here in big timber PNW cannot handle the large diameter old growth logs that were the bread and butter of the industry just a few decades back. Almost all have been re-tooled to mill 36" logs and under. The "gold standard" log of today is an 18" inside bark diameter second growth from a managed stand.

 

[cory]

So what becomes of the occasional pumpkin?

 

[Burnham]

There are still a few mills that cater to that market. Those logs tend to yield such valuable lumber that longer hauls to get to them still are viable.

 

[HolmenTree]

Good example is some of those old growth red cedar that were and maybe still are ocassionily hygraded by the heli-loggers. The mill has to get good return on these saw logs to pay for that $15,000 per hour chopper. Or maybe the logs are being shipped straight to China or Japan.

 

[stig]

I believe there is a law against shipping whole uncut logs out of the US.
I think it was made sometime during the reign of George Bush senior, in order to keep jobs in mills on American soil.
Correct me if I'm wrong ( as if you guys didn't always do that!).

 

[Al Smith]

Not so because T and J Ellis ,a local log buyer ships a majority of his logs to Japan . This is all high quality midwestern oak,cherry ,hard maple . http://www.tjellisveneerlogs.com/index.php

 

[dastevoe]

I thought I read somewhere that the Japanese &/or Chinese had large factory ships parked just out into international waters & were set up to process the timber & send it right back to our shores ? Any truth to that ??

Steve

 

[Al Smith]

I worked with a millwright years ago who claimed he set up a plywood mill on a ship to do just that .Then again he was quite a story teller so who knows if it was the truth .

 

[Al Smith]

On that though it doesn't make any sense to say send prime oak logs from the midwest to China so they can make plywood and send it back .There has to be more to that than meets the eye .

 

[Burnham]

Stig, you're thinking about a ban on export of whole logs harvested from Federal lands, like USFS or BLM lands. This is still the case.

State, county, or private entities are not so restricted.

And a huge amount of the output here in the PNW from those sources does go export, while mills here continue to close.

 

[stig]

Thanks, Burnham.
I remember reading about that ban when I lived in California.jJust couldn't remember the exact detail this long after.

And doesn't exporting logs and jobs like that just suck?

 

[Burnham]

It sure does.

 

[sotc]

Especially when we are importing Canadian lumber

 

[Al Smith]

Oh it's probabley went both ways over that border for years just like automobiles .At least we don't have to worry about Mexican lumber .All they have is cactus .Kind of a sticky situation so to speak .