Milling with a dolmar ps7900

[Fozmiller]

I'm about to buy a milling guide for my ps7900 and was wondering what is the largest bar this saw will mill with? Does any of you have any expirence milling with that saw? I could do with knowing so get the right saw mill for max planking size.
Thank you

 

[mdavlee]

With an aux oiler maybe a 32" bar with a 30" mill and don't go over 24" wide. I don't like using a 385/390 for anything over 20" wide and they oil a good bit more than a 7900. The power is there if you don't go crazy on the rakers. The oiler is the limitation.

 

[blades]

Skip chain, 32-36" bar and aux oiler should be ok. add the heavy duty air filter kit if not already installed. I regularly run a full comp chain on a 32" bar on one of my 7900's ( pre EPA) that's about as far as the oiler will go stock but that is not milling just big chunks being cross cut. I have ripped some 8-10 ft x 25" oak with it, Free hand, but that full comp chain was a bit much.

 

[Fozmiller]

Thank you both that helpful to know, think I might aim for a 30" mill adjustable and most run my 20" to 25" on it. And look into aux oilers

 

[mdavlee]

The 7900 oiler has been a little low on output for the whole time.

 

[blades]

Actually it puts out enough but finding an oil with enough tacifier in it to stay on the chain is the problem- affects all of the new 12k rpm units to some degree. Oil gets flung off the bottom of the nose of the blade as well as the the drive sprocket in the top quardrant.

 

[andydodgegeek]

I milled a 20" white oak log with my ported 7900 Makita running a 28" bar. Worked well. Every other 9' board I made I cleaned the air filter and touched up the chain.I will also add that each 9' cut took a full tank of fuel. The boards turned out very nice though, can't tell they were done by a hack, (me).

 

[mdavlee]

I milled a 20" white oak log with my ported 7900 Makita running a 28" bar. Worked well. Every other 9' board I made I cleaned the air filter and touched up the chain.I will also add that each 9' cut took a full tank of fuel. The boards turned out very nice though, can't tell they were done by a hack, (me).

I haven't used a 7900 milling but a ported 390 was going through almost 2 tanks in a 9' cherry log running a 36" bar with the widest part at 27" of cut.