Thanks booma!!!!!

i've finally got my first mill!!! didn't like the prices of the ones i see everywhere, so i checked craigslist about a month, and living in texas, the closest one yet that was 36" or greater was in arkansas. after contacting the gentlemen, who was very easy to work with, i found out he is a memeber here, so i just wanted to hi and thanks bunches to Booma for his help. and here's some pictures of setup thus far. all that's missing is a handle and longer set of tubing for my 50" cannon bar. me and a friend are going to go try it out this week and just see how it cuts..

before i post pic, quick question: for drying out oak that was cut down about 7-8 months ago and has been sitting out in the sun ever since, and we dont have place to store it,, what's a decent way to dry it, just restack it with spacers inbetween as shown in the manual???(im a newby to this, i've been focusing more on finding a mill before actually studying up on methods.)

and thanks to everyone here for the addiction.

more pics....

Hmmm...I'm guesin' ya ain't married because you have your saw inside on the carpet. Hee hee!!

Nice mill BD.

With the oak as with any wood I would try to keep the direct sunlight off it.

What's the story with this cut -

it looks like you cut it freehand, were you using a guide board?

It will be interesting to see how long that JB weld on the oiler tap will hold up - I know it's pretty amazing stuff but I will be more than amazed if it lasts for more than a half dozen logs. The main problem is the light weightness of the metal strip holding the tap - it will transfer oscillations like a spring. An immediate reduction in the vibe (and improving the oil delivery point) would be to shorten that bracket by about half.

Anyway, if it does break, a more lasting one solution could be something like this. The black blob is a strip of metal held by two (white) bolts.


Also the aux oiler oiler will be a little more effective if the delivery point is shifted a little further around to the point marked X. I have mine at the same point as yours but that is because my clamp sits on the sprocket rivets nd I can't push mine any further forward.

Anyway - this is all minutiae and I'm sure you will have a reall hoot with the mill.:rockn:
:rockn:

Welcome to the milling club, Brownpot !

Sticker the boards and cover with a good tarp. Eventually you'll want some sort of shed for storing your treasure.

Booma said:

Hmmm...I'm guesin' ya ain't married because you have your saw inside on the carpet. Hee hee!!

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Amen to that!

My wife would rip me a new one if I had one of my saws in the house..

jerry-

thanks all!
actually im in college and that's my dorm room....lol..

that one cut was just a test on my recently ported 372 big bore and figured id like to see what the center is like...and i completely free handed it, so thats why it looks so bad...

as for the advice on the jb weld, much appreciated, didn't think of that and honestly was hoping someone would give me a better idea, but havent tried it out yet, and will let you know tonight or tomorrow. doesn't show it but there's a slot on the big bolt end that allows me to postion it virtually anywhere. and origonally it was exactly where the x in your picture was at but the braces/brackets were hitting my valve and limiting me to little over 3" depth for cutting, so figured this was best solution given 36 hours to find one. will make something better in future but gonna leave as is for now.

well just got back from first outing....was awesome!!! unfirtunately got there and relized i forgot camera...sorry, will get some pictures later of the wood.

they werent very wide, maybe maxed around 30" or so, but was red oak and something else we werent sure what it was. real pretty, been sitting outside for 8 months and was pretty dry.oiler worked great! better than i thought it was...really didn't feel to much vibration on that side, jb weld is still there after about 7-8 cuts....but nothing too big either. saw was husqvarna 2100 with ported muffler and no rev limiter, must say i love having the gas tank and oiler right there in front of me facing up already so it was easy to refill and check. i usually run it around 12000 wot, but richened it to about 10,500 and pulled like a charm, tached at 9000 while cutting the bigger log so it literally just pushed right throught them.there were no clogging issues either with wood chips wich i thought would happen with the outboard clutch. only dillema was didn't have a pushing handle on top and exhuast would heat up some of the metal near your hand.

anykways just an update. will hopefully think up more tomorrow.

Brownpot Deaton said:

well just got back from first outing....was awesome!!!

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Excellent! - another one sucked further into the word of milling!

. . . .
only dillema was didn't have a pushing handle on top and exhuast would heat up some of the metal near your hand.

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Yep, those modern saws that pump the exhaust out front are not good for you either. I found the exhaust on the 3120 and 880 bounces off the mill and log and up into your face (I hate breathing that stuff in), and as you say it heats the mill up as well. The muffler mod I made to the 880 (see muffler mod sticky in the CS forum) makes a huge difference, and it blows the sawdust clean away from your feet as well!

I reckon having handles in different places on the mill also helps reduce fatigue because you can change positions every now and then (like rolling over when sleeping).

Brownpot Deaton said:

they werent very wide, maybe maxed around 30" or so, but was red oak and something else we werent sure what it was. real pretty, been sitting outside for 8 months and was pretty dry.oiler worked great! better than i thought it was...really didn't feel to much vibration on that side, jb weld is still there after about 7-8 cuts....but nothing too big either. saw was husqvarna 2100 with ported muffler and no rev limiter, must say i love having the gas tank and oiler right there in front of me facing up already so it was easy to refill and check. i usually run it around 12000 wot, but richened it to about 10,500 and pulled like a charm, tached at 9000 while cutting the bigger log so it literally just pushed right throught them.there were no clogging issues either with wood chips wich i thought would happen with the outboard clutch. only dillema was didn't have a pushing handle on top and exhuast would heat up some of the metal near your hand.

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Sounds great - it's making my trigger finger reeeaaallllllly itchy!

thanks alot BobL, got lot of respect for you.

fortunately, this muffler had an option for a "jungle muffler" i believe, which is essentally a big hole at the bottom with a deflector pointed downwards and most of the gases just pushed away from me along with some sawdust. so i just bought the deflector drill hole and added it to it.

also the port at the top presently point forward can swivel around in any direction, only problem is little bit rusty so had trouble unscrewing the nut and adjusting the deflector..

probably gonna buy stuff to lengthen mill for my 50" cannon in few weeks after school lets out. i will deffinantly be running skip tooth on that setup...

anyways, got question. how long does ripping chain last/ when do you know you need to sharpen it (i know with regular chain if sap/brown crud starts showing up on chain its definantly time)???seemed after first 2 cuts the surface smoothed way out....(technique or edge on chain?)

after this, thinking i may take saw apart and do some clean up porting....i like the saw's power band(inspired me when i ported my 372...which now has similiar power band) but wouldn't mind little extra ummph...

anyways, im gonna go look at previous posts and see if i can find good idea for wheels to go on mill.

Having tried full skip chain on a 36" bar, I would suggest that you just use full comp milling chain or semi-chisel. Skip chain makes the saw grab and the surface rough.

Wheels on the inboard side of the mill would help if the surface is pretty irregular. Another solution would be to make the first or 2nd cut a vertical cut with a Mini Mill and then the Alaskan will ride on a flat surface. The only downside to this would be the loss of a "live edge" if desired.

You should be able to tell if the chain is sharp by running your thumb over it, or looking at the edge. If it looks or feels other than sharp, it needs sharpened. A few strokes with a file will have it back in shape.

excess650 said:

Having tried full skip chain on a 36" bar, I would suggest that you just use full comp milling chain or semi-chisel. Skip chain makes the saw grab and the surface rough.

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I am also a fan of full comp chain and I even use it on my 60" bars. I also find skip goes blunter a bit quicker (at least in Aussie hardwoods) probably because there are fewer cutters. I don't know about softwoods.

Wheels on the inboard side of the mill would help if the surface is pretty irregular. Another solution would be to make the first or 2nd cut a vertical cut with a Mini Mill and then the Alaskan will ride on a flat surface. The only downside to this would be the loss of a "live edge" if desired.

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Wheels help on any surface. Reducing every little bit of friction helps reduce the load on the operator. That's why I lined the underneath of my mill rails with poly ethylene skids

You should be able to tell if the chain is sharp by running your thumb over it, or looking at the edge. If it looks or feels other than sharp, it needs sharpened. A few strokes with a file will have it back in shape.

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I've never found feel to be an effective way of assessing sharpness. While a finger can feel if there is an edge it cannot tell where the edge is. With CS chain it is essential the edge be on the very outside of the cutter as shown in the LHS diagram below. Using a CS rounds the chain's cutting edges. When filing it is important to fully reform the cutting edge back to the flat top of the cutter. If this is not done an edge can still be felt but there is still a partially rounded cutter top (diagram of RHS) and it will not cut anywhere near as well as a fully formed edge. About the only way is to check if the edge is formed back to the flat is to look for glints of light coming of any remaining rounded edge. I check mine with a head magnifier as my close up vision is not good - a fully formed edge has no glints and looks is "black". This remaining rounded edge on cutters on so called sharpened chain is probably the number one reason why users find that their sharpened chain is not as good as a new chain and it usually comes from not filing quite enough.

Brownpot Deaton said:

thanks alot BobL, got lot of respect for you.

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Cheers BD, I got respect for any young person interested in wood.

fortunately, this muffler had an option for a "jungle muffler" i believe, which is essentally a big hole at the bottom with a deflector pointed downwards and most of the gases just pushed away from me along with some sawdust. so i just bought the deflector drill hole and added it to it.

also the port at the top presently point forward can swivel around in any direction, only problem is little bit rusty so had trouble unscrewing the nut and adjusting the deflector..

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Looks Good. That's the direction I was going to deflect the exhaust on the 880 but a significant piece of my mill gets in the way in that direction which would bounce the exhaust back up into the operator so I had to go for a pipe.

http://www.arboristsite.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=97624&d=1241534810probably gonna buy stuff to lengthen mill for my 50" cannon in few weeks after school lets out. i will deffinantly be running skip tooth on that setup...

anyways, got question. how long does ripping chain last/ when do you know you need to sharpen it (i know with regular chain if sap/brown crud starts showing up on chain its definantly time)???seemed after first 2 cuts the surface smoothed way out....(technique or edge on chain?)

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Sap or resin on a chain doesn't mean much. Some trees really gum up the chain well before its blunt and others don't gum up the chain at all. A change in cutting speed or finding you have to push are good indicators that the chain needs sharpening but I rarely let it get to that point. In extra hard Aussie hard wood I touch up after about every 25 sq ft of cut (that's every 3 x 8 ft slab) in average hardwood I touch up about every 50 - 75 sq ft of cutting. Like it's better for you to drink before you get the thirsty it's better to sharpen before it gets really blunt. The area of wood cut between the point where it's just blunt and where its really blunt is basically a waste of chain. If the chain is used until it is really blunt you will find that you have to remove more metal to resharpen the chain for a proportionately smaller number of boards or slabs. This also places an unnecessary load on the engine

after this, thinking i may take saw apart and do some clean up porting....i like the saw's power band(inspired me when i ported my 372...which now has similiar power band) but wouldn't mind little extra ummph...

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For milling I wouldn't take it past a so called "woods port". Milling is the hardest work a CS can do and you will compromise the longevity of the saw.

anyways, im gonna go look at previous posts and see if i can find good idea for wheels to go on mill.

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This is a post about my mill and its 4 wheels. This post gives some details of the top wheels.

here is a pic of my small mill with a single wheel under the inboard clamp. I reckon 2 wheels are better than 1 and 4 are better than 2.

BobL said:

In extra hard Aussie hard wood I touch up after about every 25 sq ft of cut (that's every 3 x 8 ft slab) in average hardwood I touch up about every 50 - 75 sq ft of cutting.

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I'm thinking this rule of thumb varies according to the size of the bar. A 40 inch bar has roughly twice the chain and twice the cutters of a 20 inch, no? So wouldn't the square feet before sharpening be less for a smaller bar?

wavefreak said:

I'm thinking this rule of thumb varies according to the size of the bar. A 40 inch bar has roughly twice the chain and twice the cutters of a 20 inch, no? So wouldn't the square feet before sharpening be less for a smaller bar?

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That's a pretty reasonable assumption but "Bluntening" (if there is such a word) is a very complicated thing and it does not scale quite like you might think. You have to start by assuming everything is the same (engine, chain type, same sharpening profile, same wood etc) and all you change is the bar (and chain) length.
Longer bar or more cutters in the wood means
- more load on the saw,
- saw cannot be pushed as hard or it will bog down
- reducing load on saw means cutters cannot take as big a nibble of the wood which in turn means
- more turns of the chain to cut the same area of wood
- more cutting means more bluntening.
- but there are more cutters, so it sort of evens out provided the engine is not too small.

A user can feel this effect milling a long hardwood slab. Chain starts going blunt before slab is finished and cutting speed starts to fall to a slow craw.That's when I start to sideways see-saw the mill down the log. This reduces the number of cutters in the wood and enables the engine to provide all its power to fewer cutters so each cutter can take a bigger nibble - it doesn't gain much overall cutting speed (fewer cutters in the wood) but it places less load on the engine so the revs can be kept.

This is also an argument for using skip chain on long bars (less engine load thus bigger nibbles) but I'm finding it still goes blunter faster probably because there are fewer cutters. Skip chain also can hold more sawdust between the cutters so it clears the sawdust better - this is a benefit in fast cutting softwoods but that's not what I'm cutting. I'm told skip is also better on really really hard logs but I have milled some pretty hard stuff and can't see the benefit.