Granberg Mini-Mill Owners (question)

[AaronB]

I am getting ready to use my Mini-Mill (MM) for the first time next week and have a couple of questions. I will be cutting a log in half with the mill, I have 24" bar and 36" bar and the log might be somewhere in between. I am not sure that once the 24" is clamped in the MM it will be long enough so I thought about using the 36" but doing that I have a few options.

1. clamp the saw in the MM farther down the bar, this would put the head higher up and I wasn't sure if it would be harder to push or the weight of the head would want to make the bolts clamping the bar want to slip more.

2. I could angle the saw more? Not sure what this causes but I could angle it enough that the saw barely sticks out the bottom but this would not be the 8-10 degrees the instructions recommend.

3. I could just use the 36" bar and instead of sitting the guide board directly on the log I could screw in supports at each end of the log and then screw the guide board to those, thus lifting the mill to the correct height. Similar to what was shown in this thread: http://www.arboristsite.com/attachm...06d1332387902-tma-2004-spring-seminar-002-jpg

What would your first suggestion be.
Thanks,
Aaron

 

[psuiewalsh]

I am getting ready to use my Mini-Mill (MM) for the first time next week and have a couple of questions. I will be cutting a log in half with the mill, I have 24" bar and 36" bar and the log might be somewhere in between. I am not sure that once the 24" is clamped in the MM it will be long enough so I thought about using the 36" but doing that I have a few options.

1. clamp the saw in the MM farther down the bar, this would put the head higher up and I wasn't sure if it would be harder to push or the weight of the head would want to make the bolts clamping the bar want to slip more.

2. I could angle the saw more? Not sure what this causes but I could angle it enough that the saw barely sticks out the bottom but this would not be the 8-10 degrees the instructions recommend.

3. I could just use the 36" bar and instead of sitting the guide board directly on the log I could screw in supports at each end of the log and then screw the guide board to those, thus lifting the mill to the correct height. Similar to what was shown in this thread: http://www.arboristsite.com/attachm...06d1332387902-tma-2004-spring-seminar-002-jpg

What would your first suggestion be.
Thanks,
Aaron

What is the reason in using the mini mill instead of the Alaskan mill? It seems that it would be more supported with both ends of the bar clamped.

 

[BobL]

1. clamp the saw in the MM farther down the bar, this would put the head higher up and I wasn't sure if it would be harder to push or the weight of the head would want to make the bolts clamping the bar want to slip more.

2. I could angle the saw more? Not sure what this causes but I could angle it enough that the saw barely sticks out the bottom but this would not be the 8-10 degrees the instructions recommend.

3. I could just use the 36" bar and instead of sitting the guide board directly on the log I could screw in supports at each end of the log and then screw the guide board to those, thus lifting the mill to the correct height. Similar to what was shown in this thread: http://www.arboristsite.com/attachm...06d1332387902-tma-2004-spring-seminar-002-jpg

I would go for 2 over the others.

If you have a couple of helpers and cant hooks I would get the log off the ground - I like to see the bar underneath the log when I'm using my vertical mill

 

[AaronB]

What is the reason in using the mini mill instead of the Alaskan mill? It seems that it would be more supported with both ends of the bar clamped.

I need to mill in the vertical, I will use the Alaskan or Procut after I get the log cut up some, its just to big for us to handle, don't have the equipment. Basically I am quartering up a 42" diameter log. I have already cut one section of the log in half and got it drug into the field but that was a chore, going to quarter it in the field, and the Alaskan isn't deep enough to cut the half into a quarter.

I would go for 2 over the others.

If you have a couple of helpers and cant hooks I would get the log off the ground - I like to see the bar underneath the log when I'm using my vertical mill

Good, I was kinda of hoping 2 might work, seems like the least amount of extra work. We do have the halves on things so the bar wont be digging into the ground.

 

[mtngun]

3. I could just use the 36" bar and instead of sitting the guide board directly on the log I could screw in supports at each end of the log and then screw the guide board to those, thus lifting the mill to the correct height.

I always use the end boards for the first cut. Without them, you have no way to prevent the guide board from twisting and producing a twisted cut.

Though it sounds like the split log will be re-milled, anyway, so an accurate cut may not matter ?

 

[AaronB]

I always use the end boards for the first cut. Without them, you have no way to prevent the guide board from twisting and producing a twisted cut.

Though it sounds like the split log will be re-milled, anyway, so an accurate cut may not matter ?

yeah, I was thinking that as well, but other MM owners I talked to said they used wedges to level the board and then ran screws down either side of the wedge but that would seem to only work with a relatively round log, unless you have a lot of wedges or pieces of tree wedge to put under the guide board. I may just use the end boards depending on the log.

Yes, this tree will be re-milled, I am just quartering it up so we can get it over to the mill easier, I plan on quartersawing it at the mill.

btw mtngun, do yo just screw the guide board down into the end grain of the end boards? Guess it holds it well enough.