Ripping chain vs cross cut chain efficiency

[Noodle]

We rip wood to chip or deal with big ugly sections. I’m interested to know about ripping chain cutting efficiency.
I’ve only seen it stated that ripping chain improves smoothness of cut. There doesn’t seem to be any references about cutting efficiency.
We have one 36inch bar set aside for this task with Stihl RS round filed full chisel, sharpened at the standard 30 degrees. Would it be worthwhile converting it to somewhere in the range of 5-15 degrees? And if so how would the chain perform on the occasional cross cut?
I’d appreciate people’s thoughts on this, I have no milling experience.

 

[Noodle]

Should probably specify mix of hard and softwoods. Radiata, Macrocarpa and a variety of species of Eucalypts are the most common to have to rip.

 

[Treeaddict]

I’ve found the 10* angle makes a slightly smoother faced cut and may be about 5% slower. I’m sure I’ve used a ripping chain in a crosscut scenario before. If you’re making a few cross-cuts with it, it’s not a big deal. Bucking for production is a different story. I’ve milled about 100 slabs or so. After a while I just used 30* crosscut chain. It all gets planed / leveled anyway for finer stuff. Rough cut is rough cut. All my slabs are American hardwoods. Hardest being about 1300 on the Janka scale (may seem like soft butter compared to some of your super dry and ultra hard woods)

 

[lxskllr]

I haven't timed anything, but I don't see a drastic difference in cut speed. My milling chains start as crosscut, and I decrease the angle through normal sharpening over time. A milling chain used to crosscut will work, and will probably be slower, but perhaps a bit more robust at retaining sharpness. I've used my milling chains like that, but only in a very limited sense out of expeditiousness to get a quick cut done.

 

[Nutball]

I would use 15 degrees for both ripping and cross cutting. A shallow angle should stay sharper longer, cut more efficiently, and clear sawdust better when ripping. Think of it like a flat hand chisel cutting the grain those different ways. Ripping will never be easy, but the right angle can help. A steep angle like 30 degrees can work cross cutting because it just has to split and peel up the grain, which is easy to do, and a sharp side plate angle will easily cut the chip that the top plate peels up.

 

[flushcut]

I wouldn’t bother switching chains. Ripping is harder on the saw overall and is slower. You want to noodle the logs with your regular chain. Your chain should be pulling long strips of wood as the saw chips, hence the noodle reference.

 

[Noodle]

Thanks for the replies! It looks like as suspected it’s not going to be more efficient to change to a ripping angle.

 

[Noodle]

I try to do this as much possible, rip with the grain. It seems to be a lot quicker when it’s pulling noodles instead of across.

 

[Nutball]

Just don't cut straight along the grain or the noodles get too long and start clogging things up. As long as you stay like 5-10 degrees out of parallel with the grain, noodling works well. Just to be clear, I'm talking about the angle the saw takes as you lean through the cut without repositioning the spikes.

 

[Bermy]

Cutting directly down the grain with a normal 30* chain will give a lot of dust.
Ditto what was said just above, if you don't want to change chains then 'half noodle' along the grain. Not flat enough to clog the works cutting along the grain, and not directly down the grain...find a sweet spot in between.

 

[flushcut]

Another tip is to not dog up tight to the chunk give yourself a few inches. It will help keep the noodles form packing around the sprocket.

 

[Tree09]

Yup. And try to split it, that cuts down on the cutting a bit. The whole time dreaming of having iron big enough so you don't have to do this anymore

 

[flushcut]

The chunks just get bigger as your iron gets bigger. I have had trees to big for the atom splitter on the mini. Noodle, sledge/wedges, and some times a bottle jack. But Sancho’s donkey, Domingo, has helped cut down the need to break down chunks.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Burn pile.

 

[flushcut]

Yep.

 

[Noodle]

Yup. And try to split it, that cuts down on the cutting a bit. The whole time dreaming of having iron big enough so you don't have to do this anymore

Unless you have private land available to dump all the big ugly stuff it seems big iron doesn’t really solve the issue for us. Waste sites that have no limit on the size of the wood you dump into their green waste want about $110 a tonne. Sites cheaper than that want it cut up very small otherwise they won’t accept it.

 

[Tree09]

I'm spoiled, but it's not hard to get rid of stuff here. Get to know some heavy equipment guys, there's usually someone somewhere looking to fill a big hole.

 

[Burnham]

Filling a big hole with wood is laying oneself in for substantial grief later on, as it rots and collapses.

 

[Tree09]

Yup, I'm talking about pretty rural spots tho, often bought for the purpose to dump insane amounts of fill. Construction requires earth materials, and spots to get rid of stuff (including trees by the truckload). So farming kinda goes hand in hand with construction and trees around here, and can make excellent dumping grounds for tree debris. It's private land, so you need an in, so that's who to talk to.

 

[Burnham]

Be all that as it may, Kyle...it's still kicking a can down the road that will likely bite some poor soul in the ass a few decades from now.