More milling Questions

[Brush Stomper]

I read the thread about chainsaw milling but since the last post was Nov.6 , I thought I'd start another one. All the info was great.
We have some large mesquite logs that came from some mesquites we took out to build a shop and equip. shed. My wife decided she would like to have these milled (11to14 inch diameters and 10 to 15 feet long) She read what yall posted too and wants the Alaskan Mill from Baileys.
We gonna need a bigger chain saw! What yall think about a 670 Echo-4.07cid and 66.7cc with a 24inch bar and ripping chain?
The Echo powerhead wt. is 13.2 pounds.
The up side is I get a new saw with wife approval !
Course I'll be the one using it though. The Echo should be a nice firewood saw as well. Price of the Echo at a dealer with good service shop is $.449.99
What do yall think? Appreciate your opinions on this.
Thanks-

 

[fun_chopper]

I have never had good luck with echos I have owned two a CS-670, and a CS-340 and I find that they are seriously under powered, and die easily. The 670 died a horrible death (after about 3 weeks of everyday work) when I was attempting to drop a large ponderosa pine, the enigine bogged, and stopped. The shop told me I cracked the piston. Shop around you may pay a little extra for a comperable saw but its worth it. Remember you get what you pay for. I recomend a Stihl 036 Pro (comperable size, more power) its about $510 with a 20" bar. or the Husqvarna 372Xp (awesome saw. superior power, and speed) that one is $569 (on-line @ alamia.com ) with a 20-24" bar. I own both, and they are more reliable, and powerful than I could have ever imagined after owning that echo. Hope this helps-Matt

 

[don]

Would you consider a used Stihl or Hisky

Look at a used rebuilt 066 for $400 to 500
or look at a 394 XP $250 to $400
A used 3120 for $500

You can talk to people on here who know of mail order who will give a warranty (at least parts) .

Up north those guys are having a slow time selling saws and there are allot of "emailed" deals.

Ask around here and you may find some interesting deals.

Personnally I bought a rebuilt 066 for $550 delivered with couple bars, 1/2 dozen chains, oil, tools , files , 30 day money back warranty and even more stuff. Just make sure you ask around about the persons reputation.

I just missed a deal for a new 066 for around $700 delivered. Was too late checking email.

You can pick up a used 24" mill for under a hundred.

 

[Ryan Willock]

i wouldn't even consider echo, i would go with stihl or husky but preferably stihl. for large saws i have a stihl 036, ms460 and an 066G (Dennis built it i highly recommend him) and plan on an 088G eventually if you are going to do alot of milling i would look at the least a ms460 ($650w/20'') but preferably an 066 or 088:angel:

 

[timberturner]

yeah, man, don't take that decision lightly

stihl or husky is the way to go

after having my used stihl 066 rebuilt twice (i had a lean seizure problem cuz i had the wrong carb jets in there ((hi altitude)), the 066 works really good... i paid 455 for it

i'd bet that you'd regret buying an echo, just from what i've heard

i'm still convinced that i'm not running the most efficient chain set up... i've used rip chain and semi (there are about 12 diff ways to do rip chain, i've found) and i haven't found the best set up yet, but it takes trial and error., fortunately the 066 has enough power to rip with a chain that's not all that good

anyone want to recommend a good rip chain set up ?

 

[oakman]

hello, i'd like to point out something i think may be interesting regarding milling logs with a chainsaw. i have been to all the websites that sell milling equipment, and have found that most, if not all are incorrectly describing the milling process. a couple of the bigger websites are describing the long curly shavings you get from milling a log with a chainsaw. this is not the case. what you are doing is cutting directly across the end grain of the log, 90 degrees to the wood fibres. this produces very fine dust, not long stringy shavings. the only way to get those would be to cut into the log parallel to the length, which would require a very long bar to produce boards! remember wood shop in school, when the teacher wanted you to square up the end of a board with a hand plane? same thing when chainsaw milling. so they really shouldn't be calling it ripping, as in ripping with a handsaw or table saw, where the blade is at a decided angle and cutting parallel ''with'' the wood fibres, but something more like ''end grain milling'', or ''cross grain milling''. i'm sure all you seasoned chainsaw millers already know this, but i thought i would bring it up for those wanting to mill. i have milled more than 50,000 board feet, and have used every type of chain there is for milling, including some of my own modifications. i have found improved performance with a ripping style chain in softwoods, but for hardwoods, a good sharp full comp square chisel, with the rakers set at .035 will give the best performance. it is a slow process in hardwood, at best. i do all mine in the winter. its a lot easier on the saw heatwise, plus if your sawing maple, you don't wanna cut it when the sap is flowing. i have milled some softwood in the summer, but it is hot nasty business, much prefer late fall, or late winter. hope this helps.

 

[Brush Stomper]

Thanks for all the opinions. Valuable information to me for sure because I have no experience with any of the big saws. I know the Echo is priced pretty cheap for a saw that size (66.7cc). This dealer is a good one and has a very good mechanic, but fell out with Husqvarna because they were having to carry a full line and Lowes and Sears could carry a few sizes. So now we don't have a Husky dealer anymore. Still work on them Just won't sell them.Now Echo and Shindiawa. We do have a pretty good Stihl dealer though. I don't know how much milling we'll do but I can see it will be grueling work for a chain saw. Problem is I want to use same saw to cut firewood with and cut trees out of fencelines and I don't want to get too heavy a saw.(Back's not as good as it once was) I visited a guy yesterday who mills with a Timber King portable mill. Good job but lots of money. He's in the business of taking mesquites down,milling and building furniture. Mesquite furniture is getting real popular here in central Texas.
We just want to mill a few logs and see what we can do with it.
Is a Husky 359 big and tough enough for this work?
Thanks mucho for your comments. Kenny

 

[Ryan Willock]

the 359 is a consumer saw so i wouldn't even consider it for what you're talking about. i would look at the 357xp if you have to have something that small. i would give more consideration to the 372xp or an 044 over the smaller saw as they only weigh a pound more and have an extra 1 horse power:angel:

 

[Flyrod]

Here is a site for Solo 690 factory refurbs for $449 if your interested. Should make a good milling saw.
http://www.allwebdiscounts.com/lg_solo_04.php3#690

 

[Newfie]

Milling with a saw without enough displacement is a sure way to cook it. Milling is hard on the saw and the operator. If there are only a few logs maybe you can hire the guy with the bandmill to saw them for you?

You could probably get away with a 372 for milling but any smaller would be tedious back braking work and suicide for the saw.

 

[Brush Stomper]

I really appreciate the opinions. Hard to believe that nobody on here has anything good to say about Echo saws though. Oh well if they're inferior, I don't want one. I'll narrow down my search to Stihls cause like I said - No Husky dealer here No more.
Flyrod, Solo parts are very hard to get here and the dealers here don't especially like to work on them. Could probably order parts off Internet if I wanted to.
I'll look more at the MS360 and MS460 today.
Thanks--Kenny