Milled With The Revised Mini-Mill Today Post 1

Finally was able to mill with my revised mini mill today and the results were satisfying. I had found a neighbor who had cut all the limbs off a tree in his front yard, but couldn't cut the trunk of the tree with his small saw. I also got a tree stump from the same neighbor who has the Doug Fir slabs. It came from some small Pacific Rim Island ten years ago. Here is the scientific name of the tree, don't know the street name. Tournefortia/Messersmittia (sp)

jerry-

Here are pictures of the tree from my neighborhood, don't have a clue as to what it is. I got tree to test the mini-mill with and it has some pretty cool colors.

Here is my friend Simon making the first side cap cut.



BobL, the chip deflector worked great! It was so nice not having chips flying in our faces.



Here I am capping the opposite side and you can see that no chip/dust is flying up into my face.



Here the mill is cutting a 1" board. Check out this figuring in the wood.



This remote throttle worked like a champ. It made it very comfortable to operate the saw.

Post 2

Here are pictures of the quarter sawing attachment I made for the mini-mill. It's easy to adjust to the thickness of board to be milled.

View of quarter sawing attachment.



Here I am running the mill with the quarter saw attachment. Making the aluminum piece 16" long made it easier to keep it aligned with the edge of the cant.



When the cant was small enough, we suspended the rail board across my metal saw horses. Sure made it easy to mill and no problem with the bar touching the driveway.



This picture show how nice it's cutting a 1" thick board.

Tournefortia/Messersmittia (sp) Log Post 3

Here is the second log we milled that is from one of the Pacific Rim Islands. My neighbor said it is called Tournefortia/Messersmittia (sp). The wood has the color of Black Oak and is a hard wood. Here are some pictures.

jerry-

Here is the log after the first side cap was removed.



Closer view of the wood.



Milling the log. The saw dust was very fine and dark brown.



1" board I cut. No water on the board in this picture, but when I did put water on it, it almost repelled the water. This log is minimum 10 years old. I will let it dry in the shop for a few weeks and then cut and finish a piece to see what it looks like.

Nice!

Looks great!

I am amazed the saw does not climb up out of the cut when you cut with the top of the bar although I guess you are pushing down a little with the handlebars.

With the hardwood wood I cut I run quite a bit of cutter hook so when I use the top of the bar the chain grabs the wood and the saw climbs up out of the cut. This is why I had to set up my mini as a rail mill.

Beautiful wood and nice job on pics, mill and milling. Nice to remember we dont need 20' of log to make nice wood!

nice work.

Great Job!

BobL said:

Looks great!

I am amazed the saw does not climb up out of the cut when you cut with the top of the bar although I guess you are pushing down a little with the handlebars.

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BobL, what I found when milling the harder wood it did want to climb a bit if I really pushed the mill. If I just let the saw and chain work at their pace it didn't want to push the saw up. If I find that it want's do push up mor I can turn the saw around and fabricate another dust shield to keep the chips/dust from flying over the top of the saw.

BobL said:

With the hardwood wood I cut I run quite a bit of cutter hook so when I use the top of the bar the chain grabs the wood and the saw climbs up out of the cut. This is why I had to set up my mini as a rail mill.

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I don't think I will ever get into milling wood as hard as you have there.

I'm working on a deal right now on some 20-24" Coastal Live Oak pieces that are 8' long. I have a local winery friend who will let me store as much wood as I want in his barrel building for a slab of wood. Can't pass that deal up.

jerry-

820wards said:

BobL, what I found when milling the harder wood it did want to climb a bit if I really pushed the mill. If I just let the saw and chain work at their pace it didn't want to push the saw up. If I find that it want's do push up mor I can turn the saw around and fabricate another dust shield to keep the chips/dust from flying over the top of the saw.

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Hey if it works that's great. I still have to work on my chip shield. I have a new big project, a new home shop starting that is going to keep me tied up for a while.

I'm working on a deal right now on some 20-24" Coastal Live Oak pieces that are 8' long. I have a local winery friend who will let me store as much wood as I want in his barrel building for a slab of wood. Can't pass that deal up.

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That sure does sound like a good deal!

Fine looking mill.
Thanks for sharing this with us.

What did you use to build a mini mill...... Ive got a 10 ft and 8ft 5 1/2 ft diameter red oak Im thinking about cutting into boards.... Perfect wood... sawmills not interested because of diameter is more than 42 inches...... Ive got a solo with 36 in bar....

DHIBBS75 said:

What did you use to build a mini mill...... Ive got a 10 ft and 8ft 5 1/2 ft diameter red oak Im thinking about cutting into boards.... Perfect wood... sawmills not interested because of diameter is more than 42 inches...... Ive got a solo with 36 in bar....

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Here is the link that shows the build of the mill. Just remember that the rails are 16" long. Let me know if you need any other info.

jerry-

http://www.arboristsite.com/milling-saw-mills/158004.htm

I LOVE IT:sword:

BobL said:

Hey if it works that's great. I still have to work on my chip shield. I have a new big project, a new home shop starting that is going to keep me tied up for a while.

That sure does sound like a good deal!

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BobL,
I forgot to tell you that I had no vibration issues at all with the dust shield bracket. With the saw running smooth through the wood I noticed no vibration in the chip/dust frame.

Hope you have fun building your new shop. I really didn't use my shop for much wood working until I retired. Now my wife can't get me out of there.
jerry-

820wards said:

BobL,
I forgot to tell you that I had no vibration issues at all with the dust shield bracket. With the saw running smooth through the wood I noticed no vibration in the chip/dust frame.

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Excellent!

Hope you have fun building your new shop. I really didn't use my shop for much wood working until I retired. Now my wife can't get me out of there.
jerry-

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I try to spend a hour a day in my current small shop on most work days, and every spare second I can on most weekends.

That looks excellent - great work :glasses-cool:

Rob D said:

That looks excellent - great work :glasses-cool:

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Thanks, I'll be milling again with it and my big mill this week. I have some oak logs I'll be milling.

jerry-

I'm interested in building a mill like yours and I've read your thread on how to build it. I've also read a lot of threads to find out how to start cutting.
How do you get the first straight flat cut? Do you measure up from the center at each end?
Do you have to unscrew the rails from the log with each cut?
Is the piece of wood for the rails a 2x6 or something you made just for this?
I've never seen a CSM and to me it seems that first cut would need to be perfectly flat as it determines the rest of the cuts.
Thanks
Rick

Hillbilly Rick said:

I'm interested in building a mill like yours and I've read your thread on how to build it. I've also read a lot of threads to find out how to start cutting.
How do you get the first straight flat cut? Do you measure up from the center at each end?

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** Yes, I find the center pith and use a level at each to draw horizontal/vertical lines on the log. Once you have those lines marked you are ready to mount the rail board.

If I'm only going to use the mini mill on a log I will trim the log with a chainsaw on the top of one end to get it flat as possible. If the log has a taper on one end that makes it easier to make a flat cut. What I will then do is place my rail-guide board on the flat surface and then drive screw it to the log. (pre-drilling the holes in the rail board makes it easier) I then will use wedges on both sides of the guide rail board to get it level.

Do you have to unscrew the rails from the log with each cut?

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** Yes, I know that my guide rail board only needs to be 1/2" from the desired cut line and that is where the saw will be cutting. It's really quick. Once the log gets to a size I can handle on my table saw or band saw I will cut it up there. With the quarter saw attachment I made I can saw the log down to a 2" thick piece of wood.

Is the piece of wood for the rails a 2x6 or something you made just for this?

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** It's a piece of 2x6 redwood with to 3/4"x3/4" angle iron screwed down to it.

I've never seen a CSM and to me it seems that first cut would need to be perfectly flat as it determines the rest of the cuts.

Click to expand...

Rick, I will be milling this week with the mini mill and my Alaskan type mill. I will take detailed pictures of how I setup the mini-mill for each cut I make and post the process.

I first make each side cap cuts and then rotate the log to make the final cap cuts. Then it's just a matter of adjusting the quarter saw attachment to the desired board thickness I want. Believe me, once you get going, it's easy.

jerry-