milling thread

[HolmenTree]

I file my cutters at 10 degrees on the top plate angle. Have tried 0 and found left a smooth surface but was too slow . 10 is a good compromise .

 

[woodworkingboy]

0 degrees or 5 degrees I think is all I have ever used..

 

[rumination]

Thanks Jay and Willard. I've always used 10 degrees, never tried anything else. It does go slowly with a chainsaw, but when I was in Hawaii I had the opportunity to work with the chainsaw slabbing attachment on a Lucas Mill. Twenty something horsepower sure speeds things up! Filing that looong chain sucked, though.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Two chainsaw power heads does speed things up. A buddy to mill with you is pretty essential, though I have rigged up to be a one man operation with two heads. I would say it pretty much violates safe work practices from almost every conceivable angle, one person wielding over 220 some ccs in an ungainly contraption..

The Stihl 075 and 076 fly under the radar as much less collector's saws than the famous 090, but also have large displacement and are extremely durable. Those are definitely also good milling saws to keep an eye out for and much worth rebuilding if required.

 

[HolmenTree]

0 degrees or 5 degrees I think is all I have ever used..

I was thinking about your furniture making Jay, that's where a chainsaw mill really shines. A person doesn't need a lot of production like someone would do milling softwood 8 hrs a day.
Back in the day when a logger friend and I were looking for something to do we were getting permits to remove and Alaskan mill up some rogue oversize white spruce. One guy slabbing cants with the 090AV and the other ripping off lumber with the 066. Man we had a good system going, very rewarding work.

Even today when we run into each other we still talk about those good times over a beer.

Speaking of milling spruce I gotta get 3 -16ft spruce logs milled up into 10"X14" cants for my competition next week. I'm going to run .404 square filed chain this time.

 

[woodworkingboy]

That is quite true, Willard, a few good logs can supply the needed material for a long period of work. There were no saw mills in my vicinity in California, probably two or three hours away up towards Jerry's habitat. Milling was the only way to get lumber from logs, and not yet spoiled by a sawmill a few minutes away. I think the ability to take the mill to the log as opposed to vice versa, is also where an Alaskan mill shines. Think of how many great trees and valuable material must have been left where they were fallen or fell by nature's course, because of seemingly no worthwhile means to get them out.

 

[woodworkingboy]

That is quite true, Willard, a few good logs can supply the needed material for a long period of work. There were no saw mills in my vicinity in California, probably two or three hours away probably up towards Jerry's habitat. Milling was the only way to get lumber from logs, and not yet spoiled by a sawmill a few minutes away. I think the ability to take the mill to the log as opposed to vice versa, is also where an Alaskan mill shines. Think of how many great trees must have been left where they were fallen, because of no means to get them out. Individual slabs not so tough.

 

[squisher]

I've done it on one residential job. A bunch of pines on a steep bank. The homeowner looked surprised when I explained the wood would be leaving as lumber. Lol. A real handy tool.

Like these pro millers Leon I file really flat with proper ripping chain.

 

[HolmenTree]

Looks like I won't be milling today, strong winds today with a chill of -35. I got other things to do in my warm shop, will get er done tomorrow .

 

[canadiantreeman]

We recently finished a contract to remove some beetle killed ponderosa pine trees at a resort in the South Okanagan. I subbed out a local with a wood mizer (55 bucks an hour!!) to process the logs we cut, as the client was interested in some 1x6"x6' fence boards. After the sawyer was done with that, I hired him personally to mill up some dimensional lumber for a project of my own. I will (if all goes well) be building a pergola on top of the deck I built a few years back, and am looking forward to seeing how the blue stained wood will look after being sanded and stained. Luckily, I got the sawyer to mill true 2" for the 2x6s because they came out a little 'wobbly.' So, I'll be able to plane them into fine form so I don't get dizzy looking at the wood on my deck. Well, I'll likely get dizzy on the deck but that's another story.

As for chainsaw milling, my fil and I cut all the 2x10 joists for the deck out of a nice doug fir. And, I think it taught me that chainsaw milling is a heck of a lot of work! Hats of to those who do it often!



The young lad in the black is my middle, or devil's child. 3 year old Ryker!

 

[MasterBlaster]

 

[Dave Shepard]

No milling here today. A fresh foot of snow and highs in the teens.



I'll have to go logging instead.

 

[MasterBlaster]

That's badass.

 

[Dave Shepard]

It's a noisy SOB, 3-53 Detroit.

 

[Porkbrick]

the milling chain i used to run on my alaskan was full comp with 2 teeth filed at 0 followed by 2 teeth filed at 15 with the "chisel" half of the tooth cut off. that meant those teeth only sliced the grain on either side of the kerf, then the next pair of teeth hogs out the chip. it made a very nice surface.

 

[stig]

Yep.
I file the ones with the top cut off at 30, though.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Jamie, is that a Granberg made chain.

Nice blue stain, I'll bet.

If I can easily buy square, cut to length wood at the lumber yard that suits my purposes, I'm not going to chainsaw mill, or wood mizer it. The other stuff, its different.

Dylan, if there is a wood mizer around, and you can cut wood to movable size, have you considered taking that to the miser? That's a lot of work for joists. Cool, and a good FIL project, I'll bet, though.

 

[Porkbrick]

Jamie, is that a Granberg made chain.

?

it was custom ground for me by a saw shop up in Fortuna. i dont recall what brand it was.

 

[bowleggedgoat]

what is 'full comp?'

 

[Porkbrick]

"full comp" means full compliment. every second link in the chain has a tooth, as opposed to full skip where every third link has a tooth.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

it was custom ground for me by a saw shop up in Fortuna. i dont recall what brand it was.

Sound like the Granberg recipe or close to it.

 

[HolmenTree]

I remember my Grandberg mill came with a pamphlet about the modified chain, but I believe it was semi chisel. I modified a loop of chisel round filed chain and it cut pretty darn good but didn't hold a good edge long. So I just went and stayed with the regular factory design.

I always use .404 chisel for slabbing and canting due to it not stretching like 3/8 does, plus it's larger drive links keeps the cutters more stable in the kerf.
But after all these years in the last couple of days I have concluded that square ground chisel bit chain is the best chain to use for milling. I'm going to try some square ground skip tooth .404 too in this new learning curve. I have used .404 round filed skip.

 

[Dave Shepard]

Spent the morning shovelling around the mill. Put a log on this afternoon. Made two slabs then the band broke on the first board. Tomorrow is a new day.

 

[rumination]

This is an interesting contraption.

<iframe width="640" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/zGaM03vcHyk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[MasterBlaster]

Ha! That's new to me.