Low profile chain on the biggest saws

[BobL]

Bob, do you remember the guy, I think he was Mid West, West, US, that built the beautiful pole barn. He milled all the beams and board and batten?

mtngun, although I think he was from Idaho (Snake river) - does that count as Mid-west? He did heaps of speed tests showing that Lopro was about 20% faster in the cut. This was pretty similar to what I saw. He also used raker angles up around 9º.

 

[Piotr Pakuła]

faster because it bites less trees in one cut. I am curious, however, how it would work in a commercial application, or if it would not be extended too quickly

 

[Rooshooter]

Good to see you back on these forum Laurie. Still cutting up big stuff?

Hi Bob, Yes still cutting but not quite so big these days, I'm not getting any younger and the big saws get a bit heavy on a hot day, just finished cutting up a 38" dia stringybark for firewood and have a medium sized yellowbox to start on, at least the weather has been favorable nothing over 30° mostly mid 20's.
I see you haven't stopped either, you will be able to build a house with all the slabs !

 

[BobL]

Hi Bob, Yes still cutting but not quite so big these days, I'm not getting any younger and the big saws get a bit heavy on a hot day, just finished cutting up a 38" dia stringybark for firewood and have a medium sized yellowbox to start on, at least the weather has been favorable nothing over 30° mostly mid 20's.
I see you haven't stopped either, you will be able to build a house with all the slabs !

Good to hear.
I haven't cut many slabs for quite a few years. Most of what I have been cutting up has been for nature playgrounds.
Ive been selling some of the older CS milled slabs, giving some away, and lost quite a few due to white ants and poor storage.
I've been taking many offcuts and band saw mill trial cuts to the local mens shed where they gobble them up into small stuff like boxes and toys.

 

[Mad Professor]

Can you find an 0.050" gage bar to fit the big Stihls? Most bars are going to be 0.063". You *might* be able to re-machine a 12mm mount to 14mm.

If by some chance you get your hands on an 0.050" bar, then you still have to find a lo-pro nose sprocket that fits that particular bar. Bailey's is the only source I am aware of.

I've never had a problem with lo-pro stretching so much that it jumped the drive sprocket. Of course you must use a lo-pro drive sprocket, not a regular 3/8 drive sprocket.

I have broken one lo-pro chain, near the end of its life, on an 84cc saw. That chain did not owe me anything, so I don't hold it against lo-pro, but breakage might indeed be a problem on the bigger saws.

MtnGun, good to see a post from you.

Are you still doing much milling and if so what is your choice of lo pro/picco chain these days?

The Stihl 63PMX has got damm expensive if you can find it. Left Coast Supplies had great deals on that and GB bars with 3003 mounts. I got a GB 25" 3003 mount picco bar for $23 and 25" 63PMX chains were $21, wish I had bought a whole bunch before they went out of business.

I've not seen any Stihl picco bars for the big saws (3002 mount?)