Chainsawmill Cutting speed's

[aquan8tor]

I'll take this to mean you do belive those planks are lighter if they are cut with a Ripsaw. And you can't change that bar on a chainsaw head if it's going to be used on a Logosol. Right?

Rodney

Well, a 14.5" wide board--max on a ripsaw, is going to be a HELL of a lot lighter than a 34" wide board.


BTW, logosol does sell bigger bars, with different, wider kerfed stihl ripping chain.


IMHO, anything over about 24-28" is going to start sagging if its not supported on the other end. I seem to remember a pic of another member's big 72" bar bowing under its own weight in the middle? I can't remember how, but there's something that keeps it straight for the starting cut. Imagine if it weren't supported at all on the other side.....




The M7 is a great mill. I looked at one before buying the ripsaw. Its just different, and can't do the same things, but can do things the railomatic can't do; The rail mill wouldn't work well if you had a log deck ready to go with lots of smaller logs. When I looked at the m7, I thought it was one of the most well-engineered things I'd seen the way they thought out different aspects of milling. I just thought I couldn't handle bigger logs the way I wanted to.

Besides; How many other manufacturers are willing to give you a how-to step by step on how to exactly copy their own product?? Let the miller decide their own needs and criteria.

 

[woodshop]

The next two parts are the only pieces which I have made for me, which we will deal with next posting.

Rail... have you ever looked into making these out of wood? There are some very dense tough tropical hardwoods that would probably work as well if not better than plastic. Of course, cost may be more. Just thinking out loud, as that would be something that could be made in a woodshop with a few well designed jigs on a metal lathe. (I use my metal mill/drill and metal lathe mostly for wood, not metal... lots of advantages).

 

[Railomatic]

Hi Woody

Yes I have tried to use wood for those side plates before, the only thing that is preventing them from working is the axles that fit through the wheels tend to press into the boards when the side pressure of the saw and trolley weight hangs down with a sideways pressure, the trolley needs to be clamped solid to run smoothly.

The cut away in the middle of those plates reduces their weight by 50 % a wooden set actually weighs about the same as a metal set, the side plates are made from high grade steel at 5.00 thick X 300 X 225, the axle centers are 10.00mm and 35.00mm in from both edges.

The wheels are 70.00mm in dia, with a 45.00mm dia step cut into the middle, with a 50.00mm gap,so they fit nicely over the 100 X 50mm box section, the axle has s 20.00mm middle, the axle is 70.50mm wide with a 10.00mm hole through the middle of it.

 

[poleframer]

Just thinking out loud, as that would be something that could be made in a woodshop with a few well designed jigs on a metal lathe. (I use my metal mill/drill and metal lathe mostly for wood, not metal... lots of advantages).[/QUOTE]

GREAT Thread! I'll talk a little sawmill stuff next, but would like to ask woodshop about lathes here. I was given an old Sebastian lathe (14"x60"), And I'd like to use it for both wood and metal work.
When I get to mounting a motor on it, what motor HP, and lathe rpm's should I aim for?
Hav'nt done any turning, but with this in the shop, I'm itching to try.

 

[Al Smith]

On that lathe,most likely a 3 HP motor.If you are going to machine metal,most likely 600 rpm would be fast enough. Depending on the size piece ,often slower than 600..Wood would be much faster.

To get an idea on speeds for metal,once again google is your friend,as there is a lot of on-line help on the subject.

Now,the subject.As I've stated in the past,milling is not my favorite use of a chainsaw,no offense to those who enjoy it.Having said that,I can usually cut about a foot or faster a minute on 18 "oak with either a 2100 Homelite or a 125 Mac using standard round ground chisel chain.It may not be as smooth as a ripping chain but still a lot smoother than a circle mill.

 

[Railomatic]

Here are another couple of shots of the trolley made up, the two flat bars running along the top and bottom is where the cradle that holds the saw in place sits.

 

[poleframer]

There are of course other good reasons to use a winch, like physically moving away from the powerhead. Something to fiddle with in the future.

Cheers

Thats what I like best about my setup. I set the speed with a reostat, and stand (sit) back, staying just close enough to deal with it if the saw bogs. It's also where the govenor in the 090 is nice.
It would probably mill faster by pushing tho, as I set the speed for knots in the wood, otherwise the saw hardly grunts when cutting.
I've been using an 30" ES bar with 404/063 chain,7-pin sprocket. I mostly mill cedar, some fir up to 24". I guess the chain streach issue worries me some, but I'd like to try another combination to speed up the cuts, and reduce kerf.
What bar/chain/sprocket combination would you all suggest, and from what source?
Here's a pic of the winch setup, pardon the hillbilly appearance- its a "prototype". I wish now that I had made the carridge 30"-36" instead of 24", I have to trim logs to fit fairly often, might change that before I get a new bar setup.

 

[Railomatic]

Ah ha - I get it now! Thanks
I have some pieces of 100 x 50 are 3 m long so 2 of those would be good but I can fully understand the need to get these exactly lined up.

Thanks Heaps for sharing.

Sorry I missed this posting, to get the two ends accurate to each other I have them cut whilst in a sigle length of tube and where the cut is made is where I bolt them back together afterwards.

To get two rails that have already been cut, you must find a god outfit that ha a true saw to get the ends square, most of the modern metal bandsaws are pretty accurate nowadays, get hem to check the ends with an engineers square, if the ends are not exact, you can always file them yourself until you get them true, it takes a litle while but its worth it.

 

[woodshop]

GREAT Thread! I'll talk a little sawmill stuff next, but would like to ask woodshop about lathes here. I was given an old Sebastian lathe (14"x60"), And I'd like to use it for both wood and metal work.
When I get to mounting a motor on it, what motor HP, and lathe rpm's should I aim for?
Hav'nt done any turning, but with this in the shop, I'm itching to try.

Not wanting to derail this great thread, but will answer your question by yielding to Al Smith and his response, who I know for a fact knows a whole lot more about this stuff than I. Actually, I use my metal lathe on wood mostly for its ability to be indexed. I mount a 3HP router to it that I slowly crank down the bed so I can precisely "mill" square blanks into exact dia dowel among other things. Large dia cherry, walnut and oak hardwood dowel rod is expensive, so I make my own. So I don't use the metal lathe as you would a traditional wood lathe. If I want to turn spindles or bowls, I do have a wood lathe for that.

OK back to milling speeds... I'm enjoying hearing what others can do with their particular saw/chain setups.

 

[Matildasmate]

Timed my speed today

I got energetic after work this arvo , slabbed up a quarter of a Monterey pine log(radiata pine) average width of the slab I ripped was , 14 1/2" - 15" x 9'2" , time was 2 3/4 minute's , 3.27 Ft a minute . Chain used was Bailey's woodsmanPro ripping chain 3/8 x .063 sharpened at 15deg's x 45deg's , Stihl Ms660 91.5cc , 20" bar . Im gunna have to try the 3/8 x .050 Lo pro chain that you guy's use soon , I would also like to try the 325 chain at some stage . Cheers MM

 

[wdchuck]

That pic looks familiar MM...

 

[BobL]

That pic looks familiar MM...

Posted in May here as "POL_0010.JPG"??

 

[Al Smith]

Here's a pic of the winch setup, pardon the hillbilly appearance- its a "prototype". I wish now that I had made the carridge 30"-36" instead of 24", I have to trim logs to fit fairly often, might change that before I get a new bar setup.

Pshaw,that's not
"hill billy" ,that's creativity at it's finest.Appearance account for very little,end results are what's important.

Actually I'm somewhat of a junkyard dawg/dumpster diver myself.Not to derail but I used a Milwaukee right angle drill to power a seam roller I built to roll standing seam roofing.

 

[aquan8tor]

Thats what I like best about my setup. I set the speed with a reostat, and stand (sit) back, staying just close enough to deal with it if the saw bogs. It's also where the govenor in the 090 is nice.
It would probably mill faster by pushing tho, as I set the speed for knots in the wood, otherwise the saw hardly grunts when cutting.
I've been using an 30" ES bar with 404/063 chain,7-pin sprocket. I mostly mill cedar, some fir up to 24". I guess the chain streach issue worries me some, but I'd like to try another combination to speed up the cuts, and reduce kerf.
What bar/chain/sprocket combination would you all suggest, and from what source?
Here's a pic of the winch setup, pardon the hillbilly appearance- its a "prototype". I wish now that I had made the carridge 30"-36" instead of 24", I have to trim logs to fit fairly often, might change that before I get a new bar setup.

I think I've seen your pic before, but I didn't understand the mechanics. The drill is for the winch! Nice. Ingenious use of old bicycle parts!!!! Not hillbilly at all. Seems more like MacGyver to me!

 

[woodshop]

csm speed... was milling 20 inch wide osage orange after work today, and timed it. 395XP/36 inch bar with standard 3/8 round ground chisle skip tooth chain just sharpened in 20 inch wide osage orange... I was moving about an inch in 7 seconds, or almost minute and half per foot. That osage is some seriously hard dense stuff though, about as tough as milling gets.

I scored over 1000 bd ft of osage in 6 chunks of the same tree from a tree service bone yard... this stuff is hard and heavy but beautiful golden yellow and machines well in the woodshop. Milling pics when I start to slice it into lumber. Right now I'm just getting it into manageable cants.

 

[BobL]

csm speed... was milling 20 inch wide osage orange after work today, and timed it. 395XP/36 inch bar with standard 3/8 round ground chisle skip tooth chain just sharpened in 20 inch wide osage orange... I was moving about an inch in 7 seconds, or almost minute and half per foot. That osage is some seriously hard dense stuff though, about as tough as milling gets.

That's a pretty similar speed to what I get in similar width Tuart which has a Janka green hardness of 9.3 kN compared to osage of 9.1 kN. I was getting around 3 mm a second of milling which is ~13/16" in 7 seconds. That was also with a clean chain. Eventually enough resin comes out of the wood and smothers the chain with a black crust that really slows you down by as much as a factor of 2! I haven't tried milling this timber with the water cleaning system yet but I'm hoping this will help.

 

[BlueRider]

20" osage?

... was milling 20 inch wide osage orange after work today[/QUOTE

nice drive by gloat. I've heard that osage can get that big but have never seen anything even close. now your going to really rub it is an tell us that you were geting 8' long clear straight grained boards.

I milled up a red mullberry a couple of months ago. It reminded me a lot of osage in color and hardness. those were some heave slabs.

 

[Matildasmate]

Yep that's how old the wood is

That pic looks familiar MM...

Yep that's how old the wood is Wdchuck , the bit's I cut up had bit's of rot , on the what would have been , the outter side of the the log quarter's . I have got too many log's to cut up , I will have to start storeing them in one of me shed's . Cheers MM

 

[Matildasmate]

Yep sound's about right Bob

Posted in May here as "POL_0010.JPG"??

Sound's about right Bob and the photo was about 12 month's old at the time , roughly . Cheers MM

 

[Matildasmate]

Look's like it work's mate , that's all that count's

Thats what I like best about my setup. I set the speed with a reostat, and stand (sit) back, staying just close enough to deal with it if the saw bogs. It's also where the govenor in the 090 is nice.
It would probably mill faster by pushing tho, as I set the speed for knots in the wood, otherwise the saw hardly grunts when cutting.
I've been using an 30" ES bar with 404/063 chain,7-pin sprocket. I mostly mill cedar, some fir up to 24". I guess the chain stretch issue worries me some, but I'd like to try another combination to speed up the cuts, and reduce kerf.
What bar/chain/sprocket combination would you all suggest, and from what source?
Here's a pic of the winch setup, pardon the hillbilly appearance- its a "prototype". I wish now that I had made the carriage 30"-36" instead of 24", I have to trim logs to fit fairly often, might change that before I get a new bar setup.

Look's like it work's mate , that's all that count's . Mine look's a bit rough , but you get that , I originally built another rail for mine , which is still on it , underneath the other one , another short cut I took . Cheer's MM