# Getting Started with CSM Soon



## AndrewMoizer (Jun 20, 2011)

Hello,
I've been reading stuff here for a long time but now have something to share (and ask about). I was about to weld up a mill then saw this one on kijiji and figured it was an easier way to go. I haven't taken an overall pic of it since I got it home so these next two are from the seller.






and here's one showing the rolling head and the Husqvarna 1100 saw:






The saw has a 36" bar with .063 .404 chain. The seller said it was a ripping chain but I'm not so sure:











I don't have a grinder (as of yet) but I'm thinking I'm going to take this chain to a local shop with a good reputation (Clark Code) and have him grind it into a ripping chain. The previous owner had (dramatically) filed down the rakers to try to get it to cut better so I'm hoping that that hasn't totally ruined the chain. For starters I'm going to be milling Eastern White Cedar and then some spruce, so all pretty soft stuff.

Any thoughts on whether I should take the plunge and change the bar/chain now? The bar needs a new tip and I have bought a .404 one but haven't put it on yet so I could swap it.

Well, I think that's enough for now. Need to get the rest of my hay baled today.

cheers,
Andrew


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## 820wards (Jun 20, 2011)

Andrew,

If you plan on doing a fair amount of milling, this would be a great setup to purchase especially if the price is within your budget. As for the bar and chain.... The owner obviously did do milling with the rakers cut way down, but not a good practice. Purchasing a new bar with proper ripping chain would be wise on your part. Many of the people here are using the 3/8" low profile chain and since you will need to buy both chain/bar, I would suggest that combo and it would work just fine on your Husky. Mtgun has done extensive testing with that combination of chain/bar. Do a search on Mtgun and you should find his test results, very informative. 

Looks like a great find on a rail mill setup. Hope you buy it and good luck.

jerry-


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## mtngun (Jun 20, 2011)

One raker in your picture has been filed beyond redemption. If that's the only one, it'll probably be OK, but if there are numerous rakers like that, it's trash.

Lo-pro cuts faster but requires a 0.050" bar and special sprockets at both ends. I'm a big fan of lo-pro, but there is more cost and hassle to get set up for it.

I'd suggest a 3/8 tip and 3/8 x 0.063 ripping chain. Carlton, Oregon, and Laser all make ripping chain, though last I heard, there was a shortage of 3/8 x 063 Carlton.


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## AndrewMoizer (Jun 20, 2011)

Thanks everyone. In case I wasn't clear, I did buy the mill and am hoping to get going with it real soon. I need to mill up some base timbers for our greenhouse and a portable chicken pen.



mtngun said:


> One raker in your picture has been filed beyond redemption. If that's the only one, it'll probably be OK, but if there are numerous rakers like that, it's trash.


I'll give the chain a good look over and see what comes up.



mtngun said:


> Lo-pro cuts faster but requires a 0.050" bar and special sprockets at both ends. I'm a big fan of lo-pro, but there is more cost and hassle to get set up for it.


I've been working through your lo-pro topic. I'm a big fan of having things "right" so I'm all for setting up to go that way if needed. I could keep the current bar (and chain maybe) as a cross cut one for the odd time I need to cut up something big (which there are a few waiting for me to get to in fact).

I'll have to price out an appropriate bar. I tried to do some looking on the Bailey's site to find a bar that would take 3/8 lo pro. I'd welcome any suggestions. The mill is adjustable, but it's kinda built around a 36" bar so baring any real reason to change I'd likely stay around that size. I'm also a little grey on the drive side of things too. On the tips, it seems as though you need to thin one down, am I right? I have access to a mill and have a lathe so that should be possible.



mtngun said:


> I'd suggest a 3/8 tip and 3/8 x 0.063 ripping chain. Carlton, Oregon, and Laser all make ripping chain, though last I heard, there was a shortage of 3/8 x 063 Carlton.


 So if I went this way I'd just swap the tip I just bought, but would still need to change the drive sprocket on the saw then? Right?

Thanks again everyone.

cheers,
Andrew

PS. Not sure if the pics all came through right. First time I viewed the post only the first picture showed up. After I opened the attachments they all showed? Is this how it worked for everyone?


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## hamish (Jun 20, 2011)

Merrickville...........geez have been drunk there before........hello from the Valley.

You are going to have a very hard time finding .404 chain in eastern Ontario let alone any chain in the 0.063 gauge in any pitch. So your going to have to go 3/8 or .325 in .050 or .058.
Having a dealer grind a regular chain into cutting chain is just going to kill the chain in most cases, you will loose a third of the cutter and loose the temper in the chain........they just burn er up to make it to the angles you want in one pass vs......8-10 trips around with alot of dressing.

Welcome to AS, have some Rep.


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## mtngun (Jun 21, 2011)

AndrewMoizer said:


> I'll have to price out an appropriate bar. I tried to do some looking on the Bailey's site to find a bar that would take 3/8 lo pro. I'd welcome any suggestions.


The only source of lo-pro milling bars is Logosol, and only for a very few models.

Otherwise, any 0.050" x 3/8 bar can be utilized *if* you thin the tips of the nose sprocket. Some people claim that a standard 3/8 tip works satisfactorily, just depending on the brand/model.

Only way I know to thin the tips is with a raker file, which has a safe edge so you don't damage the bar. Kind of a pain, because the teeth are hardened steel, and it's not a precise process doing it by hand. Seems to work, though. The thinned tip can still be used with regular 3/8 chain.

Lo-pro drive sprockets are not readily available and are expensive if you can find them. Danzco was making a small run of lo-pro rim-sprockets. Otherwise, the only source is Logosol, and only for a few models, and only spur sprockets.

Some people run lo-pro with 3/8 drive sprockets, but I tried it, and it didn't work for me.

Which is why I suggested you slap on a 3/8 tip and run 3/8 x 0.063, if you can find it. It's simply cheaper and easier, even though it cuts slower.



> First time I viewed the post only the first picture showed up. After I opened the attachments they all showed? Is this how it worked for everyone?


I see 3 pics in your first post.


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## AndrewMoizer (Jun 21, 2011)

Thanks again for all the help.

Well I spent a bit of "quality time" checking out what I have and think I understand things a lot better now. Understand the drive side of the saw clearly and will order a new drive when I do my order as the current one seems pretty wobbly.

I was able to do a good comparison between the .404 chain I have, 3/8 regular chain and the .365 low profile as my Poulan Pro saw runs the low pro. It's pretty clear how the kerf gets smaller with each step along the way.

Apparently .063 3/8" ripping chain from Baileys is about 2 weeks away. 

Finding a .050 36" bar to fit the 1100 is hard to do. It would be special order and about $150.

I also took a better look at the .404 chain I have. I don't have a Digital Angle Finder (DAF) but used my dial one (Thanks to mtngun for the topic explaining all that). Right now on the most filed down raker the Cutting Angle (CA) is in the 12° range. However, if the chain was ground back to about half the current cutter length as part of going to a more standard 10° top plate angle (think I've got the right term there) then the CA would be back in the 6° range (which seems to be the accepted norm).

So the upshot of all this is that I think I'll have this chain ground to this spec (while I ponder about buying a grinder for myself ... I figure buying the right tools is always a good idea) and try it all out. Given my first jobs are mainly making some cedar timbers the kerf width isn't a factor as far as wasted wood is concerned.

I'll keep the low pro thing in the back of my head but it seems that until I know that I need it it's likely easier just to choose the simpler route.

On the 3/8" chain front, if I remember right there isn't any difference in the kerf width between the various gauge chains is there? So I may as well stick with the .063 and just use my current bar.

I was also wondering about the possibility of attaching the new bar tip with a bolt rather than the rivet. Given that it's in the mill it doesn't really matter and then I could even use it for the mounting bolt rather than the current method that just pinches the bar end. That way I could switch over to the .375 tip real easily.

cheers,
Andrew

PS. Seems that I perhaps didn't do the first overall mill pic right, so here it is again (hopefully).




View attachment 187955


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## AndrewMoizer (Jun 21, 2011)

Thanks again for all the help.

Well I spent a bit of "quality time" checking out what I have and think I understand things a lot better now. Understand the drive side of the saw clearly and will order a new drive when I do my order as the current one seems pretty wobbly.

I was able to do a good comparison between the .404 chain I have, 3/8 regular chain and the .365 low profile as my Poulan Pro saw runs the low pro. It's pretty clear how the kerf gets smaller with each step along the way.

Apparently .063 3/8" ripping chain from Baileys is about 2 weeks away. 

Finding a .050 36" bar to fit the 1100 is hard to do. It would be special order and about $150.

I also took a better look at the .404 chain I have. I don't have a Digital Angle Finder (DAF) but used my dial one (Thanks to mtngun for the topic explaining all that). Right now on the most filed down raker the Cutting Angle (CA) is in the 12° range. However, if the chain was ground back to about half the current cutter length as part of going to a more standard 10° top plate angle (think I've got the right term there) then the CA would be back in the 6° range (which seems to be the accepted norm).

So the upshot of all this is that I think I'll have this chain ground to this spec (while I ponder about buying a grinder for myself ... I figure buying the right tools is always a good idea) and try it all out. Given my first jobs are mainly making some cedar timbers the kerf width isn't a factor as far as wasted wood is concerned.

I'll keep the low pro thing in the back of my head but it seems that until I know that I need it it's likely easier just to choose the simpler route.

On the 3/8" chain front, if I remember right there isn't any difference in the kerf width between the various gauge chains is there? So I may as well stick with the .063 and just use my current bar.

I was also wondering about the possibility of attaching the new bar tip with a bolt rather than the rivet. Given that it's in the mill it doesn't really matter and then I could even use it for the mounting bolt rather than the current method that just pinches the bar end. That way I could switch over to the .375 tip real easily.

cheers,
Andrew

PS. Seems that I perhaps didn't do the first overall mill pic right, so here it is again (hopefully).
View attachment 187955


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## AndrewMoizer (Jun 21, 2011)

*One more pic*

Hello again,
seems the pic didn't display in-line and my attempt to edit the post and fix it caused the post to get deleted. Luckily I got it back (I think) so I'm not going to mess with it any further.

I did find a pic of the current tip setup with the bar pinched between the tip mount. Looking at it I think that running a bolt through the tip mounting stud hole shows a lot of promise, unless I'm missing something fundamental.




View attachment 187957

cheers,
Andrew

PS. Well I don't seem to be able to get this to display properly ... it's almost as if it's a "first picture" thing???


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## AndrewMoizer (Jun 21, 2011)

*One more pic*

Hello again,
seems the pic didn't display in-line and my attempt to edit the post and fix it caused the post to get deleted. Luckily I got it back (I think) so I'm not going to mess with it any further.

I did find a pic of the current tip setup with the bar pinched between the tip mount. Looking at it I think that running a bolt through the tip mounting stud hole shows a lot of promise, unless I'm missing something fundamental.
View attachment 187957

cheers,
Andrew

PS. I think trying to edit this post and the one above has borked the images. I don't have time to mess with it further right now, but will see if it's working later or just do things another way. Who knows whether this will work either.


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## mtngun (Jun 21, 2011)

AndrewMoizer said:


> On the 3/8" chain front, if I remember right there isn't any difference in the kerf width between the various gauge chains is there?


That's mostly correct.




> I was also wondering about the possibility of attaching the new bar tip with a bolt rather than the rivet.


 That'll work. You can also run the tip without any fastener at all. The chain tension will keep it from falling out.

I'm getting an "invalid attachment" error message on your last two attachments.


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## AndrewMoizer (Jun 21, 2011)

Thanks again. Cheers. A.

Guess something I'm doing is causing the attachments to disappear. So I'm going to do this once and not mess with it.

View attachment 187958


View attachment 187959


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## mtngun (Jun 21, 2011)

The latest forum update changed the way we insert pictures, and I haven't figured it out yet, but I was able to insert you pics using

```
{img} pic {/img} except use the square brackets, which it won't let me display.
```
.


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## AndrewMoizer (Jun 21, 2011)

mtngun said:


> The latest forum update changed the way we insert pictures, and I haven't figured it out yet, but I was able to insert you pics using
> 
> ```
> {img} pic {/img} except use the square brackets, which it won't let me display.
> ...



Yup it seems once the attachments are "live" and you can get the right URL to reference them the IMG tags work every time. It's the attachment part that has me slightly baffled, it seems to work sometimes while you're previewing the post, and other times I can't get it to show me the final static URL to the pic. Then if I try to edit things the attachments (and sometimes the post) disappear into space. I'm sure it'll work itself out for me.

Anyway, thanks again for the help and I hope to get the chain re-ground in the next day or two and give things a try. I like the idea of the non riveted (or bolted) tip, it'll make trying out different options much easier.

Well, now I need to go fix the hay rake so I can get the hay I have off the ground before it rains later (I hope) tomorrow. We have a few rainy days forecast so that should give me time to get to some other things like this mill.

cheers,
Andrew


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## AndrewMoizer (Jun 23, 2011)

*Bought a grinder*

Bought a grinder yesterday from TSC. I think it'll do ripping chain angles ... if not it's going back. So I need to do a bit more searching on here on grinding threads and then give it a go reshaping the .404 chain I already have.

Hopefully I can have a few test cuts done today or tomorrow (more likely).

cheers,
Andrew


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## mtngun (Jun 23, 2011)

I like grinders.


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## AndrewMoizer (Jun 23, 2011)

*Suggestions on angles, etc.*

I've been trying to find good topics and grinding ripping chain with a grinder but have not been too successful. Would appreciate any suggestions or pointers. 

I think I'm going with the 10° top plate filing angle, but am not quite sure on the best to use on the others for use in White Cedar.

I'll keep you posted with my progress.

cheers,
Andrew


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## mtngun (Jun 23, 2011)

AndrewMoizer said:


> I've been trying to find good topics and grinding ripping chain with a grinder but have not been too successful. Would appreciate any suggestions or pointers.


Most CSM-ers use a 10 degree top plate. Will Malloff preferred 0 degree. 

Factory ripping chain has a 60 degree hook angle, give or take. Will Malloff preferred 40, which cuts faster but rougher.

The tilt angle, if your grinder has a tilt, doesn't seem to matter much whether it is 0 or 10.


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## AndrewMoizer (Jun 23, 2011)

mtngun said:


> Most CSM-ers use a 10 degree top plate. Will Malloff preferred 0 degree.
> 
> Factory ripping chain has a 60 degree hook angle, give or take. Will Malloff preferred 40, which cuts faster but rougher.
> 
> The tilt angle, if your grinder has a tilt, doesn't seem to matter much whether it is 0 or 10.


 
Makes sense. The instructions on the grinder are pretty shaky. Judging by a pic I just saw I think this grinder is an offshore knock-off of the Oregon one. It will do the tilt angle by moving the chain vice and the table in it recommends 10 degrees FWIW. I'm assuming that you have to change the tilt angle for sharpening one side of the cutters and then the other? Maybe for starters I'll go with 0 then and then not have to worry about it. And then give this thing a whirl to see what happens.

I think the main thing is to grind enough of the tooth away to get the cutting angle back under control with the pared down rakers.

I need to get down to see my Dad as he has a copy of the Maloff book he bought a long time ago. And to do that I need to fix the car brakes which I'm about to do now. There seems to be a never ending parade of things to get to these days.

cheers,
Andrew


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## mtngun (Jun 23, 2011)

AndrewMoizer said:


> I need to get down to see my Dad as he has a copy of the Maloff book he bought a long time ago.


At one time there was a bootleg copy of Malloff's book floating around on the web. I haven't searched lately to see if it's still out there.


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## BobL (Jun 23, 2011)

mtngun said:


> I like grinders.


I like em to fix rocked chains otherwise I'm a fan of files.

Andrew, you rakers appear to be all over the place on that chain and will contribute to excess vibe as well and roughening the cut more than necessary. 
Here's my assessment of the rakers I can see.


The way I would get that chain back into shape is as follows.

1) Measure the cutter length of all the cutters.

2) Pick the cutter with the shortest length and file it to 10º top plate - remeasure the length of that cutter and then fill ALL the cutters to that length using a 10º top plate angle

3) Now measure the raker angles. 

4) If more than 3 or 4 rakers have raker angles greater than 7º then you need to keep shortening the cutters until you achieve this. Ideally ALL the rakers should be under ~7º but as mtngun pointed out one of the rakers is well and truly shot so that is impossible on that chain. I've found that a 42" chain can handle a few rakers that are shorter than the others provided they scattered around the chain (ie not all consecutive). If those few cutters end up not having a 10º top plate filing a don't worry about it.

5) I would then leave the rakers and sharpen only by filing the cutters until the raker angle is around 6º (you really have to work out what rake angle suits your setup) 



Oh yeah, and round the rakers, unrounded rakers just adds to vibe which eventually shakes saws, mills and operators to bits


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## mtngun (Jun 23, 2011)

BobL said:


> Pick the cutter with the shortest length and* file* it to 10º top plate - remeasure the length of that cutter and then* file* ALL the cutters to that length


 I'd _*grind*_ them to length.


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## AndrewMoizer (Jun 23, 2011)

*Thanks, grinding tomorrow*

I got the grinder bolted down and did a few quick passes on a junk 3/8" chain to get acquainted (then had to get cleaned up to head out of the "out-laws" for dinner). The grinder seems to run very smoothly and I'm optimistic.

The other day I did some measuring and I'm pretty optimistic that even with the worst of the rakers I can get to the 6-7° cutting angle once I've ground back about half the tooth length. I figure I'll just take it slow and sneak back a bit at a time to make sure I don't kill the temper in the teeth.

I am going to grind them, not file them (sorry Bob ;-), although I did buy some new files yesterday too. Prior to this I've done all my sharpening for the past few years with my dremel freehand and diamond cutters that Lee Valley Tools sell. It's fast and effective. I always found the files vibrated, but I'm inspired to give them a go again after watching a few You-Tube videos in the past few days. Things also got a lot better once it dawned on me I had to file down the rakers now and then too. Doing that really brought my Husky 50 back to life on a chain that was 3/4's filed away on the teeth. Given that I was using a depth gauge I now realize I probably need to grind them down more. 

Back to the grinder, it seems to be a pretty good copy of the Oregon 511 so I'm reading the manual for it right now. It seems to be explaining the vice tilt better so I'll try that in the morning. I'll post some pics of the 3/8" test chain before having at the .404 one.

Also


> ... I've found that a 42" chain ...


 is the norm that this is a chain 42" long, or one for a 42" bar?

Thanks again for all the help, advice, and experience.

cheers,
Andrew


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## BobL (Jun 24, 2011)

mtngun said:


> I'd _*grind*_ them to length.


 
When we went camping with a group of other families a couple of years ago we arrived at the campsite mid-afternoon and even though it was cool and showery the guys were dead keen to go fishing on a nearby windy estuary. I declined, and set up my 60" bar on my portable worktable under the canvas porch of our campervan. I built an open fire and cracked a couple of cold ones while hand filing the cutters on a couple of new 60" loops back to a 10º top plate angle. Call me weird but hand filing and having a few beers is my idea of a good time. BTW the fresh fish the guys caught for dinner was excellent!


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## AndrewMoizer (Jun 24, 2011)

BobL said:


> When we went camping with a group of other families a couple of years ago we arrived at the campsite mid-afternoon and even though it was cool and showery the guys were dead keen to go fishing on a nearby windy estuary. I declined, and set up my 60" bar on my portable worktable under the canvas porch of our campervan. I built an open fire and cracked a couple of cold ones while hand filing the cutters on a couple of new 60" loops back to a 10º top plate angle. Call me weird but hand filing and having a few beers is my idea of a good time. BTW the fresh fish the guys caught for dinner was excellent!


 
OK, OK, you're convincing me to try hand filing again for sure :msp_smile:. Maybe I was always using junk files before, they just never seemed to be cutting like a "proper" file should. There certainly is something satisfying about sharpening and making something "right". I enjoy sharpening our kitchen knives using a water stone for instance. Nothing like a good edge on a (good) carbon steel blade.

However for today, the new grinder is going to be the first tool I reach for:msp_biggrin:!

cheers,
Andrew


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## BobL (Jun 24, 2011)

AndrewMoizer said:


> However for today, the new grinder is going to be the first tool I reach for:msp_biggrin:!


 
You know that song " . . . in these shoes? . . . . I don't think so"

Well on your chain, even I wouldn't use a file :msp_smile:


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## hamish (Jun 24, 2011)

AndrewMoizer said:


> Prior to this I've done all my sharpening for the past few years with my dremel freehand and diamond cutters that Lee Valley Tools sell. It's fast and effective. I always found the files vibrated,
> 
> 
> > The files vibrated or the chain did??? You using files rigged up to a drill or dremel to sharpen? Or did you just have an massive raker and overall sharpening issue to resolve?


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## AndrewMoizer (Jun 24, 2011)

hamish said:


> AndrewMoizer said:
> 
> 
> > Prior to this I've done all my sharpening for the past few years with my dremel freehand and diamond cutters that Lee Valley Tools sell. It's fast and effective. I always found the files vibrated,
> ...



Sorry Hamish, I guess that was pretty confusing. :blush: Using the dremel to sharpen I think I've always used the LVT burrs. Before that I used a file and found that the chain tooth seemed to vibrate in the bar and wouldn't cut "smoothly" a lot of the time. I guess if I'd had something to clamp the chain into life might have been better. Now and then I think it went fine (my memories pretty shakey:msp_unsure. I've been using the burrs since LVT first starting stocking them maybe a decade ago or so (probably longer). Prior to that I didn't use the chainsaw all that much as it was before we had the farm so I didn't have to (or want to) sharpen that much. At that time my only saws were a Mini Mac and an a Black & Decker electric one.



BobL said:


> You know that song " . . . in these shoes? . . . . I don't think so"
> 
> Well on your chain, even I wouldn't use a file :msp_smile:



Bob, we're on the same page here:smile2:!

Spent best part of two hours grinding the chain tonight (before coming in for a late supper that I've just finished), well that and getting the grinder set up and a few wrinkles ironed out. I've ground back over half the tooth and the cutting angle is coming into range. The cutters are now just under a 1/4" long, so one way or another I'll be done with this chain before too long regardless :LOL:. At this length there are still a few rogue cutters with a CA of 8-10, but most are 6 +/- 1, and a few are down to 4. Below is a lousy picture of the chain taken with my phone because our camera is MIA right now. Basically all you can see is that the cutters are a *LOT* shorter than they were!






The left and right cutters aren't the same length as I went with the 10° offset filing so I have to switch the vice around for left and right teeth. Once I get them close then I'll make sure they're that both sets of teeth are the same length and then touch up the rakers and then give it a shot.

Overall I like the grinder, although I'm having a bit of a problem with a wire edge on top of some of the teeth. I suspect that I'm just taking a bit too much off. I'll try dressing them up with a diamond hone before the next round of grinding. If all goes well, and if Mr. Murphy isn't in too bad a mood there's even a chance that I might make some sawdust tomorrow. :smile:

cheers,
Andrew
View attachment 188357


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## BobL (Jun 25, 2011)

You'll also need to clean out the gullets on some of those cutters. Not quite so easy to do with a grinder - you might have get out a file


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## AndrewMoizer (Jun 25, 2011)

BobL said:


> You'll also need to clean out the gullets on some of those cutters. Not quite so easy to do with a grinder - you might have get out a file


 
I'll start psyching myself up for that now ... then I might be able to bear it in the morning !

Not much to report for today except that I turned up a spacer to replace the tip rivet. Can through bolt the tip to the saw frame too and will be able to swap tips easily.

cheers,
Andrew


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## AndrewMoizer (Jul 18, 2011)

*Progress again (at last)!*

Scary to realize my last update was over 3 weeks ago :blush:.

Finally finished grinding the chain yesterday. The cutting angle now seems to range between 4 and 7 (or so) degrees. I was setting up to grind the rakers, but the wheel shattered as soon as I tried to dress it :msp_sad::msp_angry:. So I decided to just leave them as they are for the first test. I'll touch them up later on.

Tonight I got the saw tip on, drilled another hole in the tip (went OK with cobalt drills) so I can just bolt the bar end to the mount rather than clamping it, using this new hole and the rivet bolt adapter I made (see above). The saw end is still going to be clamped for now so I'm not gaining much convenience. Just seems like a better way to go. Plus it will allow me to change tips if I decide to go 3/8 pitch.

Got the bar back on the saw but the chain didn't seem to run free once it was tensioned. So took things apart, took off the clutch and examined the rim sprocket. Turned out there was a piece of metal jammed into the bottom of one drive slot. I suspect this might have been from the previous tip which was largely non-existent. Anyway, with that cleaned out and back together everything was much better.

Tried to start the saw, but the fast idle didn't seem to be grabbing so I took the handle apart to see what was up there. A frustrating hour or so later I had it back together and it seems to work now. The trick was to use rare earth magnets to hold the pivot pins in place for the trigger and lockout (or whatever it's called). 

Tried again, and with some new gas it fired right up:smile2:. So tomorrow I'm going to get it mounted back on the track and see if I can actually cut some wood. I need a few bits of cedar to build a new portable chicken coop, so that's the first objective.

cheers,
Andrew

PS. Sorry, still no pics. Our digital camera is still MIA:msp_sad:


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## AndrewMoizer (Jul 23, 2011)

*First Cuts*

Some (limited) success to report. Got the saw mounted and have made a few cuts. The log I used for the test cuts turned out to have more sweep (curve) in it that I thought so it was hard to get square. I was really just playing, although I was/am hoping to end up with some smaller dimensional lumber to use for the next portable chicken coop.

Here's a few pics.




















I need to do something better for log dogs. The current ones I guess worked well enough for the previous owner who was cutting larger pine trees.

The saw runs OK, although I could bog it down on only a 6-8" cut in white cedar. I suspect it needs a good tune up/overhaul.

The starter spring I think now needs replacing, or I need to re-bend the outside edge. I'm hoping the IPL will shed some light on how things are supposed to be. So off to find it on the other computer.

cheers,
Andrew


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## hamish (Jul 23, 2011)

Andrew,

Your 1100 needs a good evaluation if its bogging in 6-8" cedar, last made in 1975 ish most parts for a 1100 are no longer available from the dealer (spark plug and a few other little things are), and NOS aftermarket are hard to come by and very costly.

What size of logs do you plan on milling? Looking at your pics the carridge head would easily adapt to mounting a smaller powerhead/bar configuration with a single mounting point.

Is the bar tip mounting point already adjustable? It kind of looks to be from your pics.

Jeremy


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## AndrewMoizer (Jul 24, 2011)

hamish said:


> Andrew,
> 
> Your 1100 needs a good evaluation if its bogging in 6-8" cedar, last made in 1975 ish most parts for a 1100 are no longer available from the dealer (spark plug and a few other little things are), and NOS aftermarket are hard to come by and very costly.
> 
> ...



Hey Jeremy,
that's what I was thinking. I got it back together late this afternoon, heated the end of the spring and bent it the way it should have been (as best as I could tell from the IPL's I have). 

Today the saw seemed to run OK, but I think not with the "ferocity" that I suspect it's supposed to. I've seen lots of talk of needing D handles and the like because of compression, but there's not a real sense of any need with this saw right now. I'll check the compression if the gauge I have from my Austin Mini days will fit and work.

The immediate target for logs to mill are cedars. I need a bunch of 4x6, 6x6, or something like that for a greenhouse base, plus some smaller stuff for a few other projects (like another portable chicken coop). I would guess that all the trees are in the 12" diameter or so range, probably a few bigger ones. There are also some larger spruce trees, perhaps up to about 2 feet (I haven't really had to measure any of this stuff before so I don't really know for sure) that are candidates for turning into lumber too.
I also need to put a flat on a bunch of poles to use for rafters. I'll need to do something about extending the bed for some as they'll need to be 18', maybe 20' long. I'm good for just under 16' right now.

Adapting the frame to other saws wouldn't be too hard. The tip end is adjustable. I turned it around for a quick try with the bolted tip rather than the using the clamp setup. Making a whole new mount could be as simple as just winding the one threaded rod joiner (drawing a blank on the "official" name of them right this second) and putting on another with a different mount.

My next "biggest" saw is a Husky 50, which is certainly at the low end of what would be needed. I have a 20" bar I could put on it. My original plan was to make something up to use this saw, and see how it went. Then I saw this one for sale and figured it was easier just to buy it. Remains to be seen whether that's the case.

I do need to do something with all the log hold downs (set works?). I suspect what's there worked fine for larger stuff, but it leaves a lot to be desired, at least in my rookie experience so far. I need to get the mill off the trailer, it's just there from picking it up. With it up on some concrete blocks (at least) the two posts could go down easier. I think I'm just going to build a wooden platform to sit on top of the steel and raise the logs up into range. Get it close and then just run the saw down to make it all flat. 

Anyway, I made my first couple of 2x3's today before I had to get to a few other things. Kinda got stymied trying to figure out how best to use the bit of the log I had left (kinda "surrounded by insurmountable opportunities" as Pogo said).

I'm cautiously optimistic.

cheers,
Andrew


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## hamish (Jul 24, 2011)

Andrew,

Your 1100 should be ripping thru 12" cedar like no tomorrow......I'm thinking your Husky 50 has as much unmph as your 1100 right now. I love old saws, dont get me wrong, but do you have any that aren't 20+ years old?(I have had some old Homelites and macs that i would mill with anyday.......but wouldn't spend my time looking for major parts for them).

Get the mill off the trailer and on some bunks, rig up a remote throttle and get a good running saw on it, the "cautiously optimistic" will become the official Merrickville custom Sawyer!

Jeremy


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