milling thread

Just caught up to this thread. We all love wood! I agree with Holmen on the chain. I have a slabbing attachment on my Lucas mill. It came with a Granberg "ripping chain". It was a joke. I knew from the experience of ripping big Redwood logs that you didn't need a ripping chain, so I just put a square ground .404 chisel for slabbing and it worked like a charm. I have an old Simington grinder that makes it easy though. I have made a lot of money with my Lucas mill. I have had two bandsaw mills and got rid of both. The Lucas paid for itself in one year. If you go to my website you can see some of the products I cut. For you chainsaw millers I have a Solo 103cc. with low hours that I ran in Old Growh towards the end of that era. I might consider selling it to a Treehouse member, but not anyone else. It has a 50'' Cannon bar on it. centennialwoodproducts.com I am so dumb don't even know how to highlight, or forgot, sorry.
 
When milling, I'd really be interested in seeing direct comparisons between ripping chain and chain primarily designed for cross cutting, looking at the speed and surface of the cut. Any effect regarding kerf thickness? I don't know to what degree that table saw blades allow parallels with chains, but crosscutting and ripping certainly call for differently designed blades for the best results. I have milled a hell of a lot of wood with jokes for chains.
 
Ripping chains were developed for a reason and have advantages. For me the round style and file was just too slow. The only chainsaw milling that I have done was for slabs with a 60" bar, so my experience is much more limited than yours woodworkingboy. Making lumber would be a totally different thing. Also I mostly slabbed old red and really hard old fir.
Steve the saw was developed in the '80's to compete with the 2100 husky. It had more cc's and good power, was smoother, but heavier. It would be an excellent milling saw. At 103cc's I think it was the largest saw built at that time. I don't think many were sold and they were discontinued, but Solo is still in business apparently. The 090 would have been the closest relative I believe.
 
One thing when chain milling, is that the bar rails are mucho important. Having a worn groove or the edge out of square can much affect the cut and even make the whole apparatus not work if the chain wants to dive or cut upwards. Learned that from head scratching experience.
 
Pricey, unless you have high grade lumber and no access, perhaps. Like all of our tools, if you have a niche to make them work, they go from pricey to priceless. Of course, cutting and drying wood only costs money. Selling it makes the money. I have a lot of boards that are still in the costs money catagory, though A did make a bunch of furniture from it, and Erik has done some of his Airstream remodeling with it.
 
SouthSoundTree said:
Pricey, unless you have high grade lumber and no access, perhaps. Like all of our tools, if you have a niche to make them work, they go from pricey to priceless. Of course, cutting and drying wood only costs money. Selling it makes the money. I have a lot of boards that are still in the costs money catagory
Click to expand...

:D:D Truer words were never spoken for the person hoping to make money with a chainsaw mill. I am in the same boat.

I would seriously consider that chainsaw ripsaw if the demand for milled specialty slabs or boards or rustic furniture was higher than it is and the money you get would make it worthwhile.It LOOKS and I use that word loosely that this gizmo might be a better alternative and less expensive, less waste than than trying to chainsaw mill every every piece of wood that you think you might use or sell. Being on the outside of band saw milling looking in this looks to be handy for the finer, finishing type cuts. If milling wood wasn't so much of an expensive hobby so to speak I would use the chainsaw mill for the rough big cuts to make cants or really thick slabs and then use this ripsaw thing for doing resaw type work. If your really serious about making good precise boards the chainsaw milling will only get you so far. You have to compliment that equipment with a jointer and planing equipment of some type because chainsaw milling gets the lumber close to being square and level but not quite. The lumber you buy in the lumber yard isn't perfect either.

I have never milled wood with band saw of any type. I have seen it done but never checked the milled wood for accuracy. I have added to my shop two band saws, one for wood and one for metal. They both take quite a bit of fussing around to get them cut square material. Mostly it is getting the blades to track true and straight with proper tensioning on the feed wheels and setting the cam on one wheel. After you get that done you have to set the roller guides so they keep the blade running true. After you do all that there is no guarantee you will have worry free cutting . It doesn't take much to damage a blade then you have to start all over. I would imagine that wood milling band saw isn't all that different from a small shop type band saw and a definate learning curve is involved to be able to mill wood smoothly as is shown in some of these videos.
 
I started to reread this thread from the beginning. I made some comments earlier in thread before having any real experience with my chainsaw mill, drying and finishing wood. After a couple of years and pretty much coming full circle I can just about look at a log and tell which is the best way to cut it and if it will make a good piece of wood or just cut it up for firewood. This is pretty much general knowledge for most of you guys but the best wood after some drying time is wood that is pretty much straight grained, knot and crotch free with no visible cracks in the slab or board. Another area to avoid in a log is the pith if possible.Big knots and crotches make pretty wood but doesn't dry good. These are the first areas to split and it doesn't take long either. Boards with pith will check and seperate along the pith line. Some tree species cut for slab wood wider than 12 inches that is for the most part is good clear wood will warp and check on the ends. Not all though. Checking or splitting on the ends is going to happen I just haven't taken the time to seal the ends of any logs or wood I have cut. If I have a log singled out for milling I like to let it lay off the ground and see what happens on the ends . A good log will pretty much stay stable after it is cut with very little checking on the ends. This is still no guarantee it will make good lumber as you really don't know what is inside till you cut it.

Here are some pics of what I am talking about. I milled this log last year with my 076. It was a dead Red Oak we salvaged from a road clearing job. Lots of moisture in that dead old snag. I got a few good pieces but for the most part it was pretty much junk after some drying time. That ladder set-up I made is nice but it has to be shimmed in the middle because the weight of the saw makes the ladder bow in the middle.I didn't think that would happen till I put a straight edge over one of those slabs. It isn't that far out but it is there when you go to planing a cut piece. It would have been nice to do some milling this winter but didn't happen because of all the darn snow and freezing weather.
 

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Nice slabs. If I remember correctly the 076 wasn't that powerful, but I only had one and it was stock. Seems like it was a mid '70's saw. Wonder if that is where Stihl came up with the 76 number.
 
I've started milling up some of the logs that I have been bringing home. I'm getting some nice timbers, and a ton of nice clear, wide pine boards. I'm going to have about 15,000 feet of side lumber, if I mill up everything I bring home.

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I have forks for the Kubota, and the Lull is going to be making an appearance here pretty soon. I've got logs to move that the Kubota doesn't want to even budge.
 
Dragged out my mill after quite a few years of non use,. I don't imagine that most if you guys see much Chestnut. Quite a purposeful material for woodwork with a lot of uses. One of the easier hardwoods to work, seems to dry well without a lot of warp and stable after, and ages to a real nice warm honey color over time. It looks real good with just a clear oil rubbed finish.

Some problems with my chain, some older used stuff that I had around that wasn't working so well, pretty slow cutting and not the cleanest surface. Willard, did you ever come to any conclusions over the skip or full comp with the .404 chisel? I found a loop of some Grandberg chain that I also had, the type with the 10 degree scoring cutters alternating with the zero degree clean out cutters. Not so great either. It's been so long since i milled, I have pretty much forgotten any conclusions that I might of had about ripping chain. I think I'll get a loop of ten degree angled cutters. Having a big powerhead on the mill with that width of hardwood helps.
 

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Man that's beautiful wood Jay!!
If I had access to that Chestnut I would shut down my tree service and go full time into milling.:D

Yeah I found those ripping chains with the modified cutters didn't help all that much, was a great marketing strategy for Grandberg though. I had good success with round filed .404 and .375 chisel full skip chain over the years filed at 10 degrees top plate. But since last winter trying .404 full comp square ground chisel bit chain I found it's the best milling chain and the cutters are at the factory set 20 degrees. Smoother faster and holds a edge longer then round filed.
I have yet to try it in full skip which will mill even better.
Trouble is square filing is a PITA when you don't do enough of it. I will have to get a square chisel bit bench grinder to reshape the angle to proper spec after doing every 3 or 4 free hand filing touchups.
I know of only a very few hand filers who can square file a chain from start to the end of the chain at the stump.....if any of them are still alive yet. There are a few jigs available today though.
 
Thanks, Willard. I read people saying that full skip works better on narrower logs milling, full comp on wider. I have never used skip when milling, but my gut feeling is that it could well be the best choice all around, as you are suggesting.

Maybe some loss of smoothness in the cut with skip? I'm willing to give up some smoothness for speed myself. Wide hardwood logs take some time to cut through, anything that makes for faster, I think is worth the compromise, unless maybe if you are using the wood green right off the mill without additional processing. I usually cut a fair amount thicker than i figure I will need when i get to using the wood, with the variable of warping as well in mind. I should follow your advice and go to .404, what you say makes a lot of sense. I haven't used it for milling.
 
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