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Journal by fliptop

Last night I typed a long response to (I think) Phoenix666 about his inquiry into the "gotchas" of milling your own lumber using a chainsaw mill. Unfortunately, when the SN DB shit the bed my post was lost, so I figured putting what I typed into a journal entry would be a good idea. I think I can recall most of what I typed even though I was pretty tired last night.

I have three Stihl saws, an MS310, MS441C and an MS462. The 310 has a 20" bar and is my go-to saw for cutting everything it can handle. I've had it about 15 years and it's been rock solid. The 441 has a 32" bar and is strictly used for cutting down and bucking up big trees the 310 can't handle. The 462 is what I use in my mill.

One big "gotcha" is the price of saws. Before Covid the saw I wanted ran about $900. After Covid the price shot up to $1300 and I had to wait 5 month to get one. The price of Granberg mills went up too but not as much.

I bought Granberg's medium-sized mill. It's supposed to be used w/ a 30" bar max but I use it w/ a 32" bar in my 462 and it works fine. I've tried milling saw chains from several different manufacturers and the ones Granberg sells work the best for me. Since milling more planes the wood (instead of cutting it) you need to use specialized chains. I have both a 28" bar and a 32" bar and several chains for both that are used only for milling.

Another thing you'll want to invest in is a grinder for sharpening your chains. I think mine was made by Oregon and it was around $300 when I bought it years ago. Depending on what kind of tree I'm milling I can usually get 3-5 passes before a chain needs sharpened. If you rely on someplace local to sharpen your saw chains you'll be spending a lot of money plus there's the downtime waiting to get them back. I sharpen my regular chains at 31 degrees and the milling chains at 10 degrees. After sharpening, always check your cleanouts b/c if they're too high the chain will never cut correctly.

I use a 20' ladder to make the first pass then run the mill on the flat surface for the rest of the cuts. I made the brackets to hold the ladder out of a 2x8. Granberg's medium-sized mill has a clamp that holds the bar on the end and this helps avoid the problem where the bar wants to dip and make an uneven cut.

There's a bit of a learning curve to using a chainsaw mill so be sure to practice on a rotten log or something you don't care about. Screwing up a nice walnut log while learning how to use a mill is definitely not desirable.

I made two stout horses out of ash to hold the log I'm milling up off the ground so I can stand while running the mill. It can be done while kneeling but to me this is not desirable. If you use horses you'll need something to lift the logs. I use the front loader on my tractor, but there's ways to do this w/ a "log lifter" device too.

Of course, it's recommended you dry your lumber before using it. I have several stacks in my barn and a few in my basement. You'll need a lot of stickers to stack the lumber and I make mine on my band saw out of the cutoffs from using my circular saw to dimension the lumber. I use ratchet straps around the ends of a stack to keep the lumber from bowing up while drying.

Two good YT channels I recommend are Guilty of Treeson for learning the different notches to use on the hinge cut (I assume you'll be felling your own trees), and I like watching Surviving Ringworm b/c that guy is a master when it comes to making stuff using just a chainsaw. He also has a video about the log lifting device he came up w/ for moving heavy logs up onto the horses. Have fun!

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 07 2023, @04:40AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 07 2023, @04:40AM (#1285613)

    Makes sense, thanks for checking back. Yes, I realize that cutting a log lengthwise is a _lot_ of cutting.

    Dirt is one of the worst things for abrasive wear, full of very hard minerals. If you have water nearby, it might be worth rinsing (powerwashing) the mud out of the bark first?

  • (Score: 2) by fliptop on Saturday January 07 2023, @11:01AM (1 child)

    by fliptop (1666) on Saturday January 07 2023, @11:01AM (#1285657) Journal

    If you have water nearby

    I do have water in my barn, however messing around w/ logs and firewood is something I do in the winter. Stripping off the bark w/ a draw knife is just as effective.

    --
    Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 07 2023, @01:25PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 07 2023, @01:25PM (#1285670)

      Yep, a draw knife is a neat tool.