# Tackled a fairly big one today



## Brmorgan (Oct 4, 2010)

I ran out of 8X8 timbers for the retaining wall I'm working on, so I hauled the milling gear out to a big log that's been down out back for four or five years. It's over half a mile from the house by trail, but isn't nearly that far as the crow flies. First I had to cut to length, so I decided to give the ported 371XP a rip in some decent wood for once:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO-JgXVgBwY

Some folks might recognize that log from some other videos of mine. I decided to quit wasting it just cutting biscuits and mill something from it, since it was already starting to rot in from the sapwood fairly significantly.







I don't need any more long pieces for the retaining wall, so I decided to try to just use one of the 8' pieces of 2X4 aluminum tube and the vertical mill to do the initial cuts, rather than the Alaskan. I didn't feel like packing my long guide board all that way into the bush since the trail is rather narrow and twisting. In this photo, the 066 is on the vertical mill, but it only has the 24" bar on it and that just wasn't long enough, so I had to switch to the 395XP & 30" before making the cut.






Here's the first log after making the initial side cut, rolling the log 90° and taking off the squaring cut also with the vertical mill, and taking a 6" thick cant off of one side with the Alaskan. Next I took an 8" cant out of the center and a 4" cant off the bottom. For these wide cuts, I used the 084 with the 33" .404 setup on a 7-pin rim. It was hauling some pretty big chips and cut quite nicely, but was really not getting nearly enough oil. This is the bar that I originally used on the 090, and I never even thought to look to make sure the oiler holes in the bar lined up on the 084, so maybe that's it. I did have to take a couple drivers out of the chain to get it to tighten up on the 084. I hope something isn't buggered, because it seemed to be oiling the 25" 3/8 setup just fine a couple weeks ago, and I made sure it was cranked to the max for this longer bar and was even pumping on the aux. plunger a few times. It doesn't seem to have hardly any resistance to it though like I'm used to with the 2101XP and 090; is that normal?

On to log two:






This one was a tad bit longer than my guide piece, and not wanting to buck it down to put the support blocks on the end, I just notched a couple spots out to sit the blocks in. Most of that outer wood is punky and just going to junk slabs anyway, so nothing went to waste because of it. The bar on that 395 is actually a 30" .050 small Stihl mount that I'm using an adapter with, just so I can run low-pro chain on the 395. I salvaged it from the scrapyard; it had a couple fairly decent bends that I had to straighten out the old-fashioned way with a hammer and anvil (or in my case, piece of railroad track). I tried flipping it over and standing on it to bend it against the curve to straighten it, but that didn't seem to do very much and was hard to control. Not sure if hammering bars is recommended, but I got the bar straight to within less than 1/32" over its length, which I didn't think was too bad. I also tapped the rails with the flat side of the hammer to close them up a bit back to .050 since it was a tad bit sloppy. Also not sure if that's a good way to do it, but it got the job done.






Unfortunately, this log was stuck right in place due to a big spike branch jammed straight down into the ground. Since I couldn't roll it, and not having a guide suitable for using with the Alaskan, I kinda had to improvise. In reality, I've always wanted to try doing this anyway, since if it works well, I could block up logs into larger cants and timbers a LOT faster using the mini-mill jig and a smaller, more lightweight guide like this, and carry around quite a bit less gear to boot. I'm pleased to report that it worked quite well, and with some refining and maybe a rebuild of the mill jig, will probably become my preferred method of taking big logs apart. It was admittedly a bit more difficult to push down the log all from one side on such a wide cut, especially since this was right on the ground and I ended up on my knees a bit (sorry Bob, beggars can't be choosers!)






I got a four, six, and eight-inch cant out of each log, with some decent slabs for firewood. I also blocked up the shorter 5-6' leftover log freehand with the 084. Holy smokes, does that .404 ripping chain make some noodles in a hurry! But it shakes you to pieces doing it; that chain is not smooth at all when the nose is buried. I might try to get another short length out of the butt piece, but I'm not sure if I can -it's about 10' long but is quite rotten at the bottom (which is why it's on the ground). I took a couple rounds off the far end, and it's no good there, but I'll keep cutting back and see how it turns out. I got the four pieces in the foreground hauled home tonight before it got dark; they all fit on that little log trailer just great, and my quad took the load really well even down the fairly significant hill I have to navigate on the way home.

This is probably the largest log I've tackled so far at about 28" dia. (inside the bark) at the small end. I did a Spruce last year that was pretty close, but much softer wood and not nearly as much work on the saws. It took me about 3 hours from when I started brushing out around that log to make some room to work until I hauled the milling gear home to bring the log trailer back. Not super quick considering I still have to slab those cants down at the house, but I did some new things today, so I'm OK with that.

Also, I haven't had time to be around here a whole lot the last few days, so there are a ton of things that I haven't had a chance to comment on, but I have been keeping an eye on what's been going on here and there is a lot of good stuff right now; Dan's barn project comes to mind right away. Keep showing them pics, guys!


EDIT: I just pulled up Google Earth, and that log is 0.45 miles from my backyard as the crow flies, so it would be at least 3/4 mile by trail, if not close to 1.


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## willbarryrec (Oct 4, 2010)

Very nice post sir!

This is what get me fired to try milling...(someday soon)

Thanks for the pics!:yourock:


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## mtngun (Oct 4, 2010)

That's CSM'ing at its finest, utilizing a dead tree that would otherwise rot, and doing it with no significant environmental impact. 

Brad, the oiler button on the 084 doesn't actually pump oil. It merely puts the oil pump on maximum output. If the oil pump has already been set to max output, as yours probably has, then pushing that button should have no effect. If you ask me, it's a pointless feature, which is probably why Stihl dropped it.

BTW, your hatchet head looks exactly like one I have. I found mine in the charred wreckage of a burned down building back in the '60s, and fit a handle to it. It was my first hatchet, which is a big deal to a young boy, just like a boy's first knife. I believe it was stamped "Plumb," though that's no longer visible. The blade was beveled on one side and not the other. At the time, I didn't know what the funny blade was for, so I ground both sides like a conventional hatchet. It's still my go-to hatchet. One of these days I'll replace it with a Fiskars.


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## DaltonPaull (Oct 4, 2010)

Nice work Brad. I like your vertical mill. Is that your own creation? Seams like it would be really versatile but a little harder on the operator than a regular Alaskan.


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## sachsmo (Oct 4, 2010)

Nice,

How much you reckon those 30"x8"x8' weigh?


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## Brmorgan (Oct 4, 2010)

mtngun said:


> That's CSM'ing at its finest, utilizing a dead tree that would otherwise rot, and doing it with no significant environmental impact.



Yep, that's how I like to do it, though admittedly milling green wood is SO much nicer in general. Cleaner and easier on the air filter if nothing else. This Doug Fir with the bark on isn't doing any favors to that 084's flocked filter. Sure would love to find an HD conversion kit for it but so far I've come up empty unless I'm willing to spend an inordinate amount on one. As for environmental impact, that old giant falling down did far more damage to the forest than I could ever manage to. It snapped the tops out of half a dozen decent-sized trees and cleaned the limbs off of many more. Now, if not for some sawdust and a couple piles of limbs and bark, you'd hardly know I'd ever been there. Hauling out on that trailer has hardly any impact at all.



> Brad, the oiler button on the 084 doesn't actually pump oil. It merely puts the oil pump on maximum output. If the oil pump has already been set to max output, as yours probably has, then pushing that button should have no effect. If you ask me, it's a pointless feature, which is probably why Stihl dropped it.



So the 880 has no such plunger then? I've never looked at one up close to know. You're right, that design doesn't really make much sense at all. It wouldn't help out very much on a really long bar (maybe 5'+) because even at max flow it wouldn't deliver enough and there's no way to override that like a true aux plunger would. Now that I know that though, I'll have to give 'er a run while holding it down and with the bar off to see if that changes anything. Maybe I have the adjustment set wrong; I've always found the little icons near oiler adjusters to be really ambiguous. I opened it up all the way CCW, for what it's worth.



> BTW, your hatchet head looks exactly like one I have. I found mine in the charred wreckage of a burned down building back in the '60s, and fit a handle to it. It was my first hatchet, which is a big deal to a young boy, just like a boy's first knife. I believe it was stamped "Plumb," though that's no longer visible. The blade was beveled on one side and not the other. At the time, I didn't know what the funny blade was for, so I ground both sides like a conventional hatchet. It's still my go-to hatchet. One of these days I'll replace it with a Fiskars.



I found this axehead in the scrap steel dropoff bin by the side of the road down at the scrapyard. I posted some pics back in the spring over in the *tool forum thread* in case you hadn't seen those. I love that thing; I just have to be really careful with it, both for my own safety and to avoid damaging it, as it is a bit of an antique (at least the head, anyway). I've never gone to the trouble of giving it a really fine honed edge, but even sharpened with just a fine-cutting file, it cuts like a razorblade. It's awesome for debarking this dead Doug Fir with loose bark, too - the thin offset head sinks through the bark with hardly any effort, so I usually scribe a line in the bark down the length of the log with a series of blows, and then start in from one end burying the head just between the bark and the wood, at which point prying/pulling on the axe handle will generally break the bark off in big slabs, depending on the tree.


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## Brmorgan (Oct 4, 2010)

DaltonPaull said:


> Nice work Brad. I like your vertical mill. Is that your own creation? Seams like it would be really versatile but a little harder on the operator than a regular Alaskan.



Yep I cobbled that vertical mill together a couple years ago. I've been meaning to build another one to refine the design and improve it a bit, but this one gets the job done and I have plenty else to do, so I've been lazy about it. Maybe over the winter.

It is very versatile, as I'm discovering more and more, but yes, it is a little harder to use. It's a lot heavier than a proper Granberg Mini-Mill as it's all solid-steel construction, but that's what I have access to and what I can weld at home here easily, so be it. I need to add a proper handle to it; right now I either push on the outboard end of the mill or with two hands on the saw, one on the throttle and one on the top handle. Both work but just don't "feel right". 

When I used it for the horizontal cut (fourth pic) I had to fight the urge to push on the nose end of the bar to start the cut. That would have been bad! I've never used a Mini-Mill, but would it even be possible/practical to use one in a horizontal position like this? It definitely wouldn't support the weight of the saw and mill on the guide rail like mine can.

One thing I want to get is a longer section of that aluminum tube, I'm thinking at least 12' or so. It's surprisingly rigid and sturdy even at 2X4", and I'm thinking I might try to find 6" wide stuff just to beef it up a bit more. Even that would be a lot lighter to carry into the bush than my 2X10 guide board, and stronger to boot.




mobetter said:


> Nice,
> 
> How much you reckon those 30"x8"x8' weigh?



I'm not much good at judging such things really... All I know is that I can just manage to flip them over and manhandle them by lifting one side up at a time. Can't really lift them up from an end very well. I'd say maybe 250 lbs? The wood is fairly dry. I can throw the 4" cants around quite easily, and even stand the 6" ones up on end without too much trouble, but 8" is getting pretty heavy.


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## jimdad07 (Oct 4, 2010)

Nice work Brad, I like your set up. Looking good.


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## BobL (Oct 5, 2010)

Not much time to comment (I'm travellin again  ) but it all looks good brad.

Good to see that minimill getting a work out.


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## mtngun (Oct 5, 2010)

Brmorgan said:


> I've never used a Mini-Mill, but would it even be possible/practical to use one in a horizontal position like this?


I can't imagine using a mini-mill horizontally. Even in the normal vertical positon, you have to constantly push downward to keep the mini-mill snug against the single ^ track.


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## gemniii (Oct 5, 2010)

Brmorgan said:


> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO-JgXVgBwY
> .



Nice logs from the pics, but the link requires me to set up a Youtube account to just view the link, is this a new youtube "feature"?.


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## Brmorgan (Oct 5, 2010)

gemniii said:


> Nice logs from the pics, but the link requires me to set up a Youtube account to just view the link, is this a new youtube "feature"?.



Well, I do have it set to "private" right now, but I didn't think you needed an account to view it, just the direct link since it won't show up in the Youtube search or my playlist. I can make that one public though, I guess.


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## sachsmo (Oct 6, 2010)

Brmorgan said:


> I'm not much good at judging such things really... All I know is that I can just manage to flip them over and manhandle them by lifting one side up at a time. Can't really lift them up from an end very well. I'd say maybe 250 lbs? The wood is fairly dry. I can throw the 4" cants around quite easily, and even stand the 6" ones up on end without too much trouble, but 8" is getting pretty heavy.



Wow,

Wish I could toss a 30"x4"x8' piece of Oak around.



Those are some nice Pieces of Timber you have there.


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## Brmorgan (Oct 6, 2010)

mobetter said:


> Wow,
> 
> Wish I could toss a 30"x4"x8' piece of Oak around.
> 
> ...



Heh, and here I am wishing I had a piece of Oak like that _TO_ toss around...


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## Brmorgan (Oct 13, 2010)

mtngun said:


> Brad, the oiler button on the 084 doesn't actually pump oil. It merely puts the oil pump on maximum output. If the oil pump has already been set to max output, as yours probably has, then pushing that button should have no effect. If you ask me, it's a pointless feature, which is probably why Stihl dropped it.



Yesterday I took the bar off the 084 and fired it up to see if the oiler was working. It seemed to be fine. And even with the oiler turned up all the way, that aux. button definitely made it pump noticeably more oil; at least 50% more, I'm sure.


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## mtngun (Oct 13, 2010)

Brmorgan said:


> Yesterday I took the bar off the 084 and fired it up to see if the oiler was working. It seemed to be fine. And even with the oiler turned up all the way, that aux. button definitely made it pump noticeably more oil; at least 50% more, I'm sure.


Good to know, Brad, I'll try that when I get my 084 put together.

Don't anticipate holding the button while milling, though.


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## BobL (Oct 13, 2010)

Brmorgan said:


> Yesterday I took the bar off the 084 and fired it up to see if the oiler was working. It seemed to be fine. And even with the oiler turned up all the way, that aux. button definitely made it pump noticeably more oil; at least 50% more, I'm sure.



The specs on the 084 oiler are 10 - 30 ml/min and 50 ml/min in the boost position. Interestingly the 880 is 38 ml/min and no boost.

My experience with the boost oiler on the 3120 (54 ml/min) is that most of the extra oil just gets flung off at the nose. For milling the booster is best left alone and an aux oiler that places the oil onto the chain on the other side of the nose added to the mill.


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