# Home made 72" chainsaw mill



## aggiewoodbutchr

I finished sawing this log Monday. It was the last of some logs I lucked into from a highway project. This log is actually 2 individual trees that grew together.


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## aggiewoodbutchr

*more pics*

There's some rot and bark inclusions in the heart. Nothing that can't be fixed with epoxy.


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## SmokinDodge

Beautiful wood. Very nice job on the mill.


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## stihlatit

Hey nice wood I have taken the liberty to lighten a couple of the pics up.


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## stihlatit




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## BIG JAKE

*Need to find a bigger tree!*

Shame to waste all that unused bar on such a small tree. 3 trees growing together would be preferable. Nice slab, pics, and keep up the good work! :jawdrop:


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## SmokinDodge

how did you go about making that mill?


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## Full Skip

What did you use to make the auxilliary oiler?


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## coveredinsap

Jeezow....I don't mind someone attempting to make photos 'better', but in this instance the original poster had been kind enough to size the photos at an excellent size for dialup users....all at around 20k each, and then they get 'improved' ....back up to 250k? WTF is up with that? LOL! It's like people around here are allergic to dialup-friendly sized photos.

Anyways....nice (original) photos, nice chainsaw mill. I also would like to see/hear more details of the chainsaw mill.


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## casey v

Would it also be possible to get a close up of the aux. oiler? Looks interesting.

Mike


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## aggiewoodbutchr

Y'all probably laugh when you see just how rigged this setup is. But, hey, it works. I'll take closeups of everything when I get home tonight.

The frame is made of left over unistrut I picked up off the job and miscellaneous steel I had laying around. The oiler is thinwall PVC pipe and fittings, a ball valve and some vinyl hose.

The only modifications I made to the bar was drill two holes near the power head. Actually, I had to grind them. I'm amazed how hard this GB bar is. I smoked a dozen drill bits of various hardnesses before I gave up and got the Dremel.

One problem I had with it was the guide would vibrate up and the cut would get thicker as you along. To solve this I drilled a hole through the post and stuck screw in it. To change thicknesses I just drill another hole. I don't intend to keep this rig as is for long. I have plans to scrap this one and build one similar to the GB mill. I wish I had seen that one first. Oh well...


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## aggiewoodbutchr

Here's a large format pic for you high speed users.

Sorry coveredinsap-


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## CaseyForrest

aggiewoodbutchr said:


> Y'all probably laugh when you see just how rigged this setup is. But, hey, it works. I'll take closeups of everything when I get home tonight.
> 
> The frame is made of left over unistrut I picked up off the job and miscellaneous steel I had laying around. The oiler is thinwall PVC pipe and fittings, a ball valve and some vinyl hose.
> 
> The only modifications I made to the bar was drill two holes near the power head. Actually, I had to grind them. I'm amazed how hard this GB bar is. I smoked a dozen drill bits of various hardnesses before I gave up and got the Dremel.
> 
> One problem I had with it was the guide would vibrate up and the cut would get thicker as you along. To solve this I drilled a hole through the post and stuck screw in it. To change thicknesses I just drill another hole. I don't intend to keep this rig as is for long. I have plans to scrap this one and build one similar to the GB mill. I wish I had seen that one first. Oh well...



That Superstrut is what I made my guides out of:


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## aggiewoodbutchr

Pretty useful stuff-


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## Full Skip

aggiewoodbutchr said:


> Y'all probably laugh when you see just how rigged this setup is. But, hey, it works. I'll take closeups of everything when I get home tonight.
> 
> I'm amazed how hard this GB bar is. I smoked a dozen drill bits of various hardnesses before I gave up and got the Dremel.



The trick is drilling at super slow speeds or the things heat up and actually become harder. I learned that one years back after going through a bunch of bits. Doh!


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## aggiewoodbutchr

Full Skip said:


> The trick is drilling at super slow speeds or the things heat up and actually become harder. I learned that one years back after going through a bunch of bits. Doh!



This was done on a drill press with it set at 300 rpm (lowest speed) and liberal amounts of cutting oil. Not to be impolite but I'm familiar with work hardening.

The alloy GB uses to make their "titanium" bars apparently is as hard or harder than HSS, cobalt and titanium alloy bits available at the borg. I could have ordered a carbide bit but I'm not that patient.


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## oldsaw

Real men use chainsaw mills. Looks good. Got my "fix" yesterday, need to sticker my little pile.

Mark


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## aggiewoodbutchr

*mill pics*

Here's the requested photos of the mill. Again, this was rigged together from 99% free materials so it ain't pretty. When I get around to building v2.0 I'll be sure to post it up here.

Meanwhile, I need another 48+er to tear into. Any leads? :greenchainsaw:


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## SmokinDodge

What improvements do you intend to make on the next mill over the current setup?


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## stihlatit

aggiewoodbutchr said:


> Here's a large format pic for you high speed users.
> 
> Sorry coveredinsap-



He will get over it or spend some money. Some of us high speed users like to see the grain in the wood>>>>thx for the post Aggie.


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## stihlatit

aggiewoodbutchr said:


> Here's the requested photos of the mill. Again, this was rigged together from 99% free materials so it ain't pretty. When I get around to building v2.0 I'll be sure to post it up here.
> 
> Meanwhile, I need another 48+er to tear into. Any leads? :greenchainsaw:



Thx for sharing Aggie great job.


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## SmokinDodge

Yes, very nice work on all of it.


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## aggiewoodbutchr

Smokindodgew101 said:


> What improvements do you intend to make on the next mill over the current setup?




The current setup mounts directly to the bar similar to an Alaskan. With a bar this long there is a considerable amount of force applied to the bar and mounts. I'm a bit concerned about potential damage to the bar from the weight of the 084 powerhead hanging from it. Also, there is a noticable amount of sag in the bar beween the supports. The next one will mount directly to the powerhead similar to GB's mill but in a manner that will require only a chainsaw wrench to adjust the chain tension. This should allow me to beef up the way the entire rig supports itself with the goal of reducing vibration and improving quality and performance.

One minor change to the oiler will be to swap the ball valve with a gate valve. The ball valve tends to vibrate to full open when in opperation.

The powerhead will be sent to a hotsaw builder when I can afford it but I haven't decided to whom yet. I really don't wish to open that can of worms here. 

Meanwhile, help! I'm out of logs!


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## casey v

Hey aggiewoodbutchr,

How did you connect the hose of the aux. oil to the bar? Can you post a photo of that? I would like to make one myself and I am curious how you did that. 

Thanks Mike


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## Big Woody

> the things heat up and actually become harder





> Not to be impolite but I'm familiar with work hardening



Generally when things heat up they get softer and the flow stress reduces. Work hardening is due to deformation which makes the yield (flow) stress increase. If you repeatedly bend a paperclip back and forth it work hardens and it also heats up due to the internal frictional energy dissipation from the repeated deformation. However the heating does not cause the hardening.


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## Full Skip

aggiewoodbutchr said:


> This was done on a drill press with it set at 300 rpm (lowest speed) and liberal amounts of cutting oil. Not to be impolite but I'm familiar with work hardening.
> 
> The alloy GB uses to make their "titanium" bars apparently is as hard or harder than HSS, cobalt and titanium alloy bits available at the borg. I could have ordered a carbide bit but I'm not that patient.



No offense taken.

I thought that I was familiar with it too when I drilled at 250 which was the lowest speed I could go. It was way too fast. You need to drill at 70 or you just fry bits.


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## aggiewoodbutchr

casey v said:


> Hey aggiewoodbutchr,
> 
> How did you connect the hose of the aux. oil to the bar? Can you post a photo of that? I would like to make one myself and I am curious how you did that.
> 
> Thanks Mike



I'll get you one when I get home. Basically I have a hole in the top of the nose guard to force fit the oil hose into. The oil floods the end of the bar and flow rate is set to where it stays wet but not pouring over. Most of it is probably slung off but enough makes it into the chain at the edge of the bar and through the factory lube port that the chain stays wet all the way through. I've experimented with several oils and I have found that cheap 5w-20 works best. It flows easily and I put enough on it to not have to worry about how well it sticks. With this and the primary oiler (with regular bar oil) combined I have not had a problem with over heating (except when I'm a bonehead and forget to turn it on).

Expect to use a lot of oil and fuel when making cuts like this. When milling these slabs this rig used a full tank of gas, primary oil and about 1qt of secondary oil per cut. However, it's a small price to pay considering what you're getting.

PS- If anyone has any suggestion how any of this can be improved, please share.


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## aggiewoodbutchr

Big Woody said:


> Generally when things heat up they get softer and the flow stress reduces. Work hardening is due to deformation which makes the yield (flow) stress increase. If you repeatedly bend a paperclip back and forth it work hardens and it also heats up due to the internal frictional energy dissipation from the repeated deformation. However the heating does not cause the hardening.



You are correct. Improper use of terminology on my part.


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## aggiewoodbutchr

Full Skip said:


> No offense taken.
> 
> I thought that I was familiar with it too when I drilled at 250 which was the lowest speed I could go. It was way too fast. You need to drill at 70 or you just fry bits.



The problem I was having was the cutting edges of the bits were breaking off almost immediately. I'm don't doubt bit speed is a big factor in this but I'm curious how hard this bar is compared to a HSS bit. Maybe if a machinist is reading this they can enlighten me.


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## coveredinsap

It depends on the alloy. I've got a small forge, and I've encountered some alloys, specifically on a .50 cal musket barrel blank (brand new) that would immediately 'work harden' to an incredible degree just from the heat of trying to cut it by hand with a hack saw. The stuff would cut fine initially, then turn harder than superman's kneecap as the metal heated up from the cutting action of the hacksaw.

It makes sense though that they would maybe use a similar alloy for chainsaw bars...as they both (gun barrel and chainsaw bar) need their maximum hardness when subjected to heat.

I haven't tried to drill a chainsaw bar yet.


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## sawinredneck

I am not sure what the hardness is of a chainsaw bar, I am sure it's hard. I would give up on the HSS bits and try cobalt, if you can find them TIN cobalt even. If it work hardened go o the hardware store and by the cheap concrete drill bits. The ones for a rotary drill, not a hammer drill, they have carbide tips and will usually cut through anything if you can provide enough pressure. The next step is a solid carbide drill bit, very expensive and way too brittle to be used in a hand drill. Also try step drilling, star with a 1/16 then a 1/8 then a 3/16... so on, just take a little at a time, less heat to work harden the material.
Hope that helps a little,
Andy


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## flht01

*Drill Speed*



Full Skip said:


> ... You need to drill at 70 or you just fry bits.



I just bought the aux oiler for my alaskan mill. The instructions stated 80 rpm max for the drill speed, a lot slower than my press will run. I drilled 2 holes 5/16" dia using an air powered hand held drill and a standard hss bit. (Only took one bit and cutting fluid). I ran the drill just fast enough to turn the bit, results were slow going but better than I expected. The recommended 2 holes to allow flipping the bar  Seems they like to see the oil fed in the rail right ahead of the sprocket to make sure the roller nose stays lubed.


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## coveredinsap

> Seems they like to see the oil fed in the rail right ahead of the sprocket to make sure the roller nose stays lubed



Makes sense. I just saw recently where Husky also recommends greasing the bar nose sprocket (with special grease) before every use. I just stick the tube up to the pinhole in the bar, getting a flat seal...and squeeze while rotating the nose sprocket with my finger.
I wonder how many people grease the nose sprocket every time they use the saw?

You can usually reuse those HSS drill bits after they're trashed too. Just sharpen/reshape the tip on a belt sander and quench it in water to harden it back up.


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## aggiewoodbutchr

sawinredneck said:


> ... I would give up on the HSS bits and try cobalt, if you can find them TIN cobalt even.



I tried all three of various sized with the same results. At this point I don't intend to drill any more large (3/8") holes in the bar but this is good for reference. I may open up the factory holes at the sprocket eventually but, for now, the factory 1/8" holes are working fine.

I seems my definition of slow is still way to fast. I'll hand drill them or find a pulley to slow down my drill press even more next time.


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## aggiewoodbutchr

coveredinsap said:


> You can usually reuse those HSS drill bits after they're trashed too. Just sharpen/reshape the tip on a belt sander and quench it in water to harden it back up.



I have a Bit Doctor that works pretty good. It doesn't get them back to factory standards but they work.


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## aggiewoodbutchr

*Update*

I was asked in an email if I do anything special to keep these slabs flat. I finally got around to taking a picture.

I used hardwood dunnage and 1/2" threaded rod to make clamps big enough to press the entire stack together. So far, it's working.


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## stihlatit

aggiewoodbutchr said:


> I was asked in an email if I do anything special to keep these slabs flat. I finally got around to taking a picture.
> 
> I used hardwood dunnage and 1/2" threaded rod to make clamps big enough to press the entire stack together. So far, it's working.



looks good Aggie.


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## ShoerFast

aggiewoodbutchr said:


> The problem I was having was the cutting edges of the bits were breaking off almost immediately. I'm don't doubt bit speed is a big factor in this but I'm curious how hard this bar is compared to a HSS bit. Maybe if a machinist is reading this they can enlighten me.



AggieWoodButcher

As you should be having a problim drilling the bar, your drilling a finshed proudect, I'm no machinest, but it's very possable the bar is a 5160 or an L-6 steel ( like a truck coil spring or a band saw blade) .60 carbon. To HSS or M-2 steel at .75 carbon , but there is a chance that the heat-treat of the bar has a case-hardened surface thats very hard and irreguler grained,,,,, bit killer.

If your ever at a trade show were they have magic HSS drill-bits, that pop holes in a file just as fast as they pull the handle,,,,, take a close look at the color of the file, it's a dull gray-blue Annealed file!

If you feel lucky, you could wet rags to keep the surounding area cool, and dounut so to speek the area you want to drill, and heat it with a tourch till red and back the tourch slowly away, I would need to feel real lucky that day. 

Not doubting that there arnt drills that would cut just about anything, half the fun is the task it self! 

Kevin


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## carvinmark

aggiewoodbutchr said:


> I was asked in an email if I do anything special to keep these slabs flat. I finally got around to taking a picture.
> 
> I used hardwood dunnage and 1/2" threaded rod to make clamps big enough to press the entire stack together. So far, it's working.
> 
> Now that's some serious stacking there....wish I had that much patients,looks real nice!


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## flht01

aggiewoodbutchr said:


> I was asked in an email if I do anything special to keep these slabs flat. I finally got around to taking a picture.
> 
> I used hardwood dunnage and 1/2" threaded rod to make clamps big enough to press the entire stack together. So far, it's working.



Thanks for the pictures, let us know how the drying process goes. Oh, and pict's of the projects you'll use these on.

Kevin


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## Full Skip

ShoerFast said:


> AggieWoodButcher
> 
> As you should be having a problim drilling the bar, your drilling a finshed proudect, I'm no machinest, but it's very possable the bar is a 5160 or an L-6 steel ( like a truck coil spring or a band saw blade) .60 carbon. To HSS or M-2 steel at .75 carbon , but there is a chance that the heat-treat of the bar has a case-hardened surface thats very hard and irreguler grained,,,,, bit killer.
> 
> If your ever at a trade show were they have magic HSS drill-bits, that pop holes in a file just as fast as they pull the handle,,,,, take a close look at the color of the file, it's a dull gray-blue Annealed file!
> 
> If you feel lucky, you could wet rags to keep the surounding area cool, and dounut so to speek the area you want to drill, and heat it with a tourch till red and back the tourch slowly away, I would need to feel real lucky that day.
> 
> Not doubting that there arnt drills that would cut just about anything, half the fun is the task it self!
> 
> Kevin



I drilled an Oregon bar last week using a hammer drill and a 5/16 cobalt bit. I turned the drill down all the way and just eased on the trigger to give me about 50rpm. The coolant was occasional spit. Each hole took about 15 minutes. Other than taking a long time I had no problems.

That's how I'm going to do it from now on.


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## oldsaw

aggiewoodbutchr said:


> The problem I was having was the cutting edges of the bits were breaking off almost immediately. I'm don't doubt bit speed is a big factor in this but I'm curious how hard this bar is compared to a HSS bit. Maybe if a machinist is reading this they can enlighten me.



I got lazy when I was modding my 42" Oregon bar to fit my 3120. I was impatient and used the drill press. First hole went fine. Second hole started okay, then suddenly shredded the bit. Had to finish with the Dremel, and even that was hard work. When I did the Aux oiler hole I used my HD 3/8 drill with a cobalt bit and kept it just above stall speed. Took forever, but didn't harden.

D


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## woodshop

Aggie, thanks for the pics of your tree and rig... I toyed with the idea of making my own also, still might for stuff I can't get with my 36" GB. I love these milling threads. Milling definately gets addicting, and I wish I had more time for it than I do now. Lady across the street just told me she is going to take down a huge sweetgum tree in her back yard and "so do ya want any of it?" I have seen sweetgum with a large heartwood area, beautiful reddish brown streaked with blacks. Tree is variable though, so its a roll of the dice, will know next Tues when it's dropped.


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## aggiewoodbutchr

woodshop said:


> Aggie, thanks for the pics of your tree and rig... I toyed with the idea of making my own also, still might for stuff I can't get with my 36" GB. I love these milling threads. Milling definately gets addicting, and I wish I had more time for it than I do now. Lady across the street just told me she is going to take down a huge sweetgum tree in her back yard and "so do ya want any of it?" I have seen sweetgum with a large heartwood area, beautiful reddish brown streaked with blacks. Tree is variable though, so its a roll of the dice, will know next Tues when it's dropped.



My pleasure.

Sweetgum heart is beautiful as I recall. It's a booger to dry straight though.

I planned to mill a 30" x 12' post oak today and post pictures of it. It turned out to be punky all the way through. Grrrrr It's mostly firewood now.


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## woodshop

aggiewoodbutchr said:


> I planned to mill a 30" x 12' post oak today and post pictures of it. It turned out to be punky all the way through. Grrrrr It's mostly firewood now.


...one of the few downsides of milling on the small scale that we do, is the anticipation of some fantastic stuff that you might take lots of time to prep for, put aside a Sat for, maybe maneuver this beast of a log to where you can mill it, only to open it up and find firewood. Bugs, huge checks that run the length of the log, rot not easily seen on surface. Hey... again I say nature of the beast. Milled up an 8 ft oak a month ago. Beautiful 14 inch wide knot free boards coming off the cant. Thought I had me a stack of premium stuff. But after I stickered it to dry, found that it had lots of ring shake, and as it dried over a period of only a few weeks the places where the rings separated got worse. So... 200 bd ft of MAYBE 3-4 inch wide boards when its all said and done. Sure, usable in my shop, but a lot more work handling them and fussing with storing that size. Often you can see that defect on the end of the log, but this one hid it well till it started to dry. 

Never milled sweetgum before, so thanks for the heads up on being hard to dry. Now that you said that, I will mill it thicker, maybe even some 12/4 planks. An 8 ft long 12/4 green plank 14 inch wide is pushing 140lbs so much harder to handle, way longer to dry, but I'm in no hurry for it, and I can always resaw later with the Ripsaw or bandsaw. Alternative is wood I can't use because with a really twisted 4/4 or 5/4 I'm lucky if I get half inch out of it after the jointer/planer.


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## aggiewoodbutchr

Some of my guys at work (where the post oak was taken down) wanted to see my CSM in action so I figured what the heck. I freehand ripped the remaining 4' of the log in half and made a few 16/4 slabs. I'll cut some 4" leg stock from them but that's about it. The guys had a good time and I had plenty of help so it was mutually beneficial.


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## aggiewoodbutchr

Few more pics.

If you are wondering, the rails on the mill are for my 72" bar. I'm just too cheap to buy another set of rails for the 41" bar.


BTW- This was done after hours (CYA).


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## woodshop

Nice sharp looking rig, I envy your 72" ability. Too bad the tree turned out to be so rotten. Happens. See what a crowd a mill can bring when you're doing your thing? Tell people that you can cut your own lumber from a log and they look at you funny. Show them the thing in action and they smile and tell you how cool it is to be able to do that. Soon the questions pour out... where do you get one of those, how much does it cost, can I use any chain saw on it... before ya know it you're an expert


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## sawn_penn

Nice haircut!


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## aggiewoodbutchr

Thanks. Low maintenance.


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