will sweet gum l come out straight with this setup

wondering if my sweet gum will be safe like this. this is my first pile of wood milled with small alaskan mill. also i use a 2x10 to make my first cut and seems like the further i get into a log the slabs come out more and more crookedView attachment 170554

Hey that looks pretty good. Looks great actually.

The one this I'd change the next time, Is I'd try to put the stickers right on top of each other. That helps put the load evenly down and there is support right above and below each board so you wont have to much warping.

thanks! most of them are 1'' thick so drying time is about a year correct? one other question is my cuts are coming out crooked sometimes as bad as about 3/8ths and i notice my mill will get to riding on one side more than the other but the front beam will be flat on the log? is it due to me using a 2x10 and not leveling it ?i just nail it in the center of the log and start cutting. if the board is straight (not warped bad) my fist cut should be straight right?

A year is the approximate time for an inch thick.


I find you get what you put into the initial setup. You can do a search on rails and I'm sure you'll find a hundred different ones.

I was using a ladder and it would flex where it wasn't supported and I'd get slightly warped slabs.

I then started using two levels and sighting down the slab to make sure they were parallel and that worked pretty good as long as I then made sure to support the ladder.

I now use unistrut and I use a digital angle finder. The angle finder has sped up the process a lot.
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The lifting thing has been a struggle for me. I was thinking I had bar troubles but it tuns out I had a chain that was worn so bad it would tilt in the cut and lift the bar. On some occasions it would actually pull the bar down. I junked that chain and haven't had that problem again.

I'd say your problem could be the 2x10 moving in the cut.

One thing I did notice in your last post was the roughness of your cut. It could be your chain is sharper on one side than the other. Post a pic of a few cutters and BobL or Mtngun will give you some pointers on how to improve the quality of the cut.

These are what I'm referring to.

I keep looking for a picture to show you how my chain was cutting but can't quite find one.

here was before it got really bad.

best i could do with the focus.been out there 30mins trying to get a good pic i always free hand when sharpening so their probly all off and i dont file the depth gaugeView attachment 170578View attachment 170579View attachment 170580

maybe these are betterView attachment 170581View attachment 170582

[/attach]View attachment 170584View attachment 170585

Here's the first five

Here's the last three

lupus71 said:

i use a 2x10 to make my first cut and seems like the further i get into a log the slabs come out more and more crookedView attachment 170554

Click to expand...

It sounds like you could have a number of problems. The base problem is if your first cut is not a close to flat as possible, any defects will be magnified in subsequent cuts. Just nailing a 2 x 10 to the log and hoping for the best is asking for problems.

If the bar is diving or lifting during the cut then that could be that the cutters are not filed with the same top plate filing angle. It could also be that your bar is not coplanar with the mill rails, - this happens if the mill is bent, shims under the bar clamps can fix this.

I found I got more consistent straight cuts when I use a solid set of log rails which much better than a single guide board. I use the log rails for every cut and while (like BB) means I can use a Digital angle finder to correct for twist on every cut.

Roughness of cut is the extent to which the cutters dive unevenly into the wood and can be improved by
- making sure the cutters are as even as possible and the chain is not too sloppy in the bar groove - if this is not attended to then the following will magnify any problem
- not see-sawing the CS/mill during the cut, hold the mill at the same angle position all the way thru the wood. When I see lots of see-sawing action I think, blunt chain.
- not pushing too hard, let the saw do as much of cutting as possible.
- pushing evenly, unless you use a winch, few operators can apply a constant forward force. I general use my knees/thighs on the wrap handle, and when I need to take a step forward I pick up the forward pressure using my arms.
- using semi-chisel instead of full chisel.

The images of the cutters are not clear enough to make any judgement. They photos need to be taken as flat to side on as possible. See if you can get one like these.

Some 1 1/2" angle iron on each side of the guide board will fix a lot of the sag problem. My guide board sits on top of end boards lag screwed to the ends of the log and is generally unsupported in the middle.

Your chain looks to me like it could use a bit more hook to the tooth and I wouldn't worry with filing it straight across. I use regular chain and if its sharp and everything is adjusted right it cuts smooth enough. What ever chain you use, just keep it sharp as you work.

Here are pictures of my set up.

I agree with the above posts but let me also stress that for me sharpness is key.
I have extra chains and a chain grinder I sharpen very frequently, often as much as two cuts per sharpening. but of course after two cuts its just a light touch up to get back to razor sharp. YMMV

huskyhank said:

Some 1 1/2" angle iron on each side of the guide board will fix a lot of the sag problem. My guide board sits on top of end boards lag screwed to the ends of the log and is generally unsupported in the middle.

Your chain looks to me like it could use a bit more hook to the tooth and I wouldn't worry with filing it straight across. I use regular chain and if its sharp and everything is adjusted right it cuts smooth enough. What ever chain you use, just keep it sharp as you work.

Here are pictures of my set up.

Click to expand...

Hey that looks like my set up:good:

Works for me. I have a 16 foot long board with angle iron. Sometimes it needs support in the middle.

betterbuilt said:

Here's the last three

Click to expand...

Even though the pics aren't the best I can see a number of problems with the cutters. it looks like you have tried to reduce the cutting angle from 30 degrees to what ever they are now, some of them even appear to be reversed. If you look at some of the cutters they are sharpened so that the top plate has a straight cutting edge and others the top plate angle appears to be curved or have multiple angles. It looks that in doing this you have reduced the cutters by about 20 percent and also have NOT even touched your rakers and that the cutters vary in length from one side of the cut to the other. Start by getting all of your cutters to the same angle and length (for ripping 10 degree top angle is a good starting point) and get your raker height correct and even. When you file do not allow your hand /file to seesaw left and right keep it working in a straight plane so that your top plate angle is straight not curved or multi angled. if you are using 3/8 chain use a 7/32 file and keep 60 percent of the file below the top plate this should give the right angle, and if using stihl semichisel keep the file at 90 degrees to the chain, for full chisel the file should angle up to the side plate side at 10 degrees.

I reckon you would be getting a lot of fine dust (evident in one of the pics) with those chains.

BobL is the man for raker heights and relative angles to the cutters.

I am going to have to agree with the above post.. Any chain will work, and it is obvious that that one needs some attention even with blurry pics.

I haven't heard of term 'glint' (search feature) before here, but that is what you need to look for to have a sharp chain. You also need to have some remote consistancy in the top plate.

heathkiks said:

] I haven't heard of term 'glint' (search feature) before here, but that is what you need to look for to have a sharp chain. You also need to have some remote consistancy in the top plate.

Click to expand...

Here's a post about "glint". One poster was claiming her could feel sharpness - I was saying fingers are easily fooled because they don't really know where that sharp edge is on the ctter