Yea I've not yet been able to afford a mill and also am not sure what mill to buy exactly so if you have experience which it seems as if you do I'm all ears man I appreciate the advice. I originally built the 660 just for fun I do cut alot of firewood and some felling and so on but I do want to get a mill for the saw and be able t0 mill some lumber. I'm sure not on a huge scale but idk just another hobbie that yields material for other hobbies
Id say the difference between this one:
And the others, is that the cross beam piece is machined aluminum instead of molded aluminum. And it makes it very accurate.
Basically that means that with molded cross beams you may force the guide bar in to an "s" shape if it has both root and tip attachments - they dont really align at the clamp surface. Just imagine each clamp surface (root and tip) has a +5 degree clamp angle instead of a 0 degree angle. At 0 degrees they would match.
Also the one in the picture have steel balls (bearing balls) attached at the end of the clamp bolts on the bottom, and a clamp surface at the top.
This actually makes the clamp bolts to groove in to your guide bar and secure it in place - not just clamp it. No matter how hard, it will do so on a Cannon bar as well.
I would not want it any other way on a "one attachment" mill (root attachment only), Id like my body not to be cut in two if something would slip.
The "other ones" just have a clamp surface both at top and bottom of the bar, both kinds will guide your chainsaw to mill your timber however.
The 660/661 is the preferred machine for the Logosol mill (pro farmer stuff) over at my side of the pond (or up north), overpowered for the timber we have it is perfect.
Use a solid machined bar - like the Cannon, it dont need to be Cannon though. Those are really thick, really heavy and really stiff bars.
The Stihl mill chain is full chiesel at .050, it lasts many (not one or two - many) 13 feet lenghts of timber (5-6 cuts each lenght of timber).
The chain I have used now needs sharpening every 13 feet (5-6 cuts), so its worth it - yes it is.