milling thread

I was testing my new bandsaw, jointer, and planer on a chunk of 1-2 year old unsplit firewood in my firewood stack, and found I really like the look of this half rotten oak. So, I pulled the other pieces from the same tree to let dry inside and stop rotting. I figured this wood would look best in 1" wide strips perpendicular to the grain, or 1x2" blocks containing both heart and sap wood for making patterns.

I might think twice about letting rotten logs go to the dump. I might even season more oak like this on purpose. I do have some boards made of only the rot wood too.

Anyway, I figured I might try one of the mini 20" chainsaw mills for now, then build a 40" based on what I do and don't like about the small mill.

DSC08835 (1024x768).jpg DSC08836 (1024x558).jpg
 
Nice spalting in that oak.


"Rotten' wood is sometimes best, if not punky. Punky stuff can be stabilized with cyanoacrylate (superglue) sometimes, and epoxy is commonly used, which will provide a hard finish to soft wood.
 
Personally anything slightly rotten for me goes to firewood. I'm travelling over an hour to mill rotten logs for people and they love it.
 
Tho whole reason I was about to get a mill was because I saved a load of straightash logs, but a week later and they are developing very significant quartering splits. At this rate I could finish the splits and carry the quarters to my band saw.
 
You need to seal the end-grain asap after cutting. Anchor Seal (Bailey's) or latex paint (mistints are about $12/ gallon at HDepot).

Madrone will split and shrink into a Pac-man, about 1/5 wide open). Really hard to get straight madrone without splits.
 
What's the preferred chain setup you guys use? I ask because the manufacturers don't always give us quite exactly what we want. Standard ripping chain, or skip? 10 degree, 5, 15? Any gauge or pitch preferences to improve performance?, Do the depth gauges need any tweaking on a new chain?

I'm about to get my first ripping chain.
 
I used the oregon full comp 3/8 .050 10deg with every other tooth a half thick scoring tooth 30 deg on my 066 setup 36" bar.

On my 088 full comp 404 63 10 deg with every other a half thick scoring cutter 30deg on 36" and 47" bars. I like the cut. A little rough sometimes.
 
Every other tooth pair? So the half width teeth make that desirable of a difference? I think I read something about that somewhere.
 
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Raj,

Have you seen the extension for the winch line? You can easily make one.



A tip I saw was to set-up downhill for gravity to help.


Cool router sled. She runs lengthwise. My miller friend told me that most videos show running crosswise, instead. He tried it lengthwise, and reported much better results. Maybe people have switched over to lengthwise.


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IW4MEi9BNJo" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Cool log-arch trailer, and interesting way to offload.

This guy has some skills.
 
Interesting initial-cut stand.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aXyZxnKyiyM" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>





I've been wanting to build something to be able to mill chunks and odd pieces. Starting the cuts and finishing the cuts are the easiest places to have troubles, IME.

Clean/ flat entry and exit results in less finishing work.




For pieces that I can move, I can set-up/ level stationary stands once, and swap logs/ chunks as I go.



For pieces that I can't move, but are too irregular to support a ladder for an initial cut, I can set-up the stands around the chunk, and adjust them as needed.




The mill has a 14" depth. An adjustable vertical component to the stands would add versatility for milling a big chunk.


The stand could also be the anchor point for the winch, keeping the winch pulling parallel to the kerf, instead of downward at the end (rougher cut??, less effective??)







Anyone build a chainsaw milling stand for their initial cuts/ subsequent cuts?







When cutting with a ladder or box for the initial cut...
I'm trying to figure out how to cut something flat that is longer than the ladder length? Maybe batter boards with mason's line to make a reference, cutting the first section, then moving the ladder to the new position and wedging/shimming in place, along the mason line?
I haven't run into this, yet.




<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QonU80aJgxY" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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