Mill suggestions

[SeMoTony]

I could tell when doing these 9' long slabs 3/4 of the way through a cut things would start to get pretty warm. Don't know if it was a lack of oil on the chain or just form running the saw hard. Bring me to antithetical question, when the saw would grab and go on it's own it would bog and go. If I worked the saw I could get it to run at max rpm. Is it safer to run it bogging at a lower Rpm or let it rev up? I'm read in a few other threads about what mix to run and I've always ran 50:1 mix with Stihl ultra but I think Ima mix a richer batch up just for milling.

50:1 is RICHER than 40:1! Higher % of oil lessens the gas in the mix. Thus the reason to open the screws for more mix when using more oil in the mix. More oil will not be enough to protect the engine from higher heat range of running lean ( low gas to air %) Most important correct tune for mix, sharpest chain you can have with right height of depth guages to cut chips w/o bogging, and well oiled B&C. Let your saw sing not grumble

 

[mdavlee]

I never run less oil than 32:1. Especially wouldn't on an 880. Seen several with blown big ends and the owners said they were running 50:1. Got an 088 sitting at home with the big end gone.

Tune it richer after changing fuel ratio and maybe do a muffler mod to get the exhaust away from you faster and let more heat out of the saw.

 

[DTrap]

50:1 is RICHER than 40:1! Higher % of oil lessens the gas in the mix. Thus the reason to open the screws for more mix when using more oil in the mix. More oil will not be enough to protect the engine from higher heat range of running lean ( low gas to air %) Most important correct tune for mix, sharpest chain you can have with right height of depth guages to cut chips w/o bogging, and well oiled B&C. Let your saw sing not grumble

Most people agree that 50:1 is not ideal for these hard use saws. Most on the site here including BobL run 40:1 and a lot run even 32:1. You simply tune the saw richer to compensate for the additional oil in the fuel. As long as the saw is tuned correctly for the mix it is absolutely a benefit to the saw in my opinion. Let the saw idle for a 3-5 minutes after cutting is also a great benefit to the powerhead as well.

 

[SeMoTony]

Most people agree that 50:1 is not ideal for these hard use saws. Most on the site here including BobL run 40:1 and a lot run even 32:1. You simply tune the saw richer to compensate for the additional oil in the fuel. As long as the saw is tuned correctly for the mix it is absolutely a benefit to the saw in my opinion. Let the saw idle for a 3-5 minutes after cutting is also a great benefit to the powerhead as well.

BobL is switching to 50:1 once the 40:1 mix in stock is used up, most recent mention by him I've seen. He runs everything on one mix. He had been at 40:1 since an older saw was in use. Even with the earlier saws in use by Bob he thinks the newer mix oils stand up well enough for 090 or 07*.My point that you have re-iterated was the dif between "rich" and more oil. A misunderstanding by newbeez can cost a topend replacement. Maybe discourage their path into the joy that can be found milling. BobL has temp gauges on his milling PH's, his experience indicates shutting the saw off imediate causes a temp peak much higher than actual temp prior to shut down. Idle saw, as you said, a few minutes to keep fan blowing air to cool. Saw safe

 

[steve easy]

Fuel blends here vary week to week, 50:1 might be ok one week but not the next. Extra oil is insurance, spark plugs are cheap. Put abit of thought in how you set up and you won't be sucking lungfuls of exhaust gas mixed with sawdust.

 

[DTrap]

Fuel blends here vary week to week, 50:1 might be ok one week but not the next. Extra oil is insurance, spark plugs are cheap. Put abit of thought in how you set up and you won't be sucking lungfuls of exhaust gas mixed with sawdust.

I agree completely. To many variables, the gas station, how old the gas is, even the quality of the gas these days, for me to run 50:1. Probably be just fine most of the time but I prefer the little extra insurance of the additional oil in my mix.

 

[ACPequipmentservices]

Thanks for the input guys! Instead of the 1 gallon Stihl ultra mix I bought some 2.5 gallon mix and plan to us it to make 2 gallons. Should put it in the 42:1 range. Y'all suggest retuning it running this mix?

 

[BobL]

Thanks for the input guys! Instead of the 1 gallon Stihl ultra mix I bought some 2.5 gallon mix and plan to us it to make 2 gallons. Should put it in the 42:1 range. Y'all suggest retuning it running this mix?

Should be OK but it depends what ratio you are initially coming from.

Remember normal atmospheric pressure can change over a few days by 3% and a saw has to cope with that sort of a change in air intake which in turn changes the gas/air ratio.

Although it's not directly comparable the saw should be able to cope with similar changes in the amount of gas that changing the lube/gas ratio produces.

Going from 50:1 down to 40:1 only represents a 0.5% change in gas i.e. (49/50 - 39/40)*100 so a saw should be able to cope with thatching.
However - if your saw is borderline turned lean at 50:1 then dropping to 40:1 may be enough to tip it over the lean limit.

The mix ratio has to drop from 50:1 down to 20:1 to equate to a change is gas of 3% but that's not a risk worth taking in my book

 

[ACPequipmentservices]

Thanks again for all the info fellas! Hopefully will be doing some more milling this saturday, get to try out the ripping chain along with the 40:1 mix and the oiler turned up on the 880!

My next big hurdle is the drying process. From what I understand its 1 year per inch, obviously I would like to speed up this process since most of my slabs are 2" thick and I already have a few guys needing some slabs. So, I contacted a local with a kiln and they claimed the oak needs to air dry a year before putting in there kiln. Is this true? Also charging $2 BF is that a high or average rate? Guess my next purchase needs to be a kiln or build one!

 

[ACPequipmentservices]

Some pics of the pecan I milled 2 weekends ago. And got everything stacked.