Quick chain question...

[Gunther274]

Will normal chisel chain set at normal cross cutting angles work for milling? I have gathered that the reason it is not used is because it leaves a fairly rough pattern in the boards afterward, but wont a trip through the planer fix that?

I have a nice ash tree coming down in my yard that has a real nice section about 15 inch diameter and 8 foot long that I really dont want to turn into fire wood. But at this time I really dont have the time to jump into milling head on, I just want to make a few boards. Also wont regular chain zip through much faster?

One more question... Anyone ever make boards out of cottonwood? Is the wood worth saving for use?

 

[huskyhank]

Standard chain works fine. The surface finish is a little bit rougher but if its going to get planed it just does not matter. And its not that rough anyhow.

 

[Sledcrazzy]

Regular chain will work but it be rough and slow. The fastest cutting riping chain i have used is a cuter /raker combo made by cutting the tops off every second pair of teeth and filing the other pairs, the rakers at 10 and 10 to get the top just about straight across. If you do a chain like this it is important to have the cutters taller by about 15 thou or so.

 

[TraditionalTool]

Standard chain works fine. The surface finish is a little bit rougher but if its going to get planed it just does not matter. And its not that rough anyhow.

:agree2:

I have ripped with regular chain and it works fine. The finish is not that much rougher than rip chain, IMO. Not as much as some folks make it out to be.

Log craftsmen use regular crosscutting chain to rip the top of rafters and/or top plates, or even the bottom sills on homes with no problems. It's not rocket science...

Rip chain would work better, but it's not the end of the world if you don't have any, IMO.

 

[BobL]

Finish depends on a whole bunch of stuff apart from just the cutter profiles. If you want a smoother finish just start by going slowly.

Here's the range of finish I see with my milling chain (10º top plate) and the 880 on fairly hard wood.

Same log in both cases, LHS slab is 25% narrower than the RHS.
Discussion of this is here.

Here's what regular 3/8 on a 441 also on relatively hardwood does.

Note the gash at A, That was after I stopped to whack in a couple of wedges and then fanged it on a tad too quickly on restart.

 

[Rob D]

As above really you're fine ripping with ordinary cross cut chain but if the chain is poorly sharpened i.e. differnet cutter lengths/poor depth guage setting, then it's going to be pretty gruelling...

It will give a more groved finish but not that much different really. In some woods cross cut chain will be more 'graby' and will bog the saw down more often.

Correct chain sharpening is really the all important thing IMO i.e. a perfectly sharpened cross cut chain/consistant depth guages setting will mill far better than a poorly sharpened ripping chain.....