Some small milling

[BobL]

Finally got the small CSM out and milled up some stuff in my back yard. Were on 1/8th acre inner city so this can only be done midday midweek when most of the neighbours are working.

The first item was a hardwood block for a friend who wants to use it as a sort of cutting board/light butchers block.





Next one was a lump of Western Australian Sheoak, bone dry so I expected it to be hard.
This job was for a local community "Men's" Shed/Shop. They want me to extract a 4" x 4" by 4 ft piece of lumber from it. The lumber was going to be turned into a "plinth" of some kind for a chapel.


Not only was it hard but it had termite tracks containing sand plus the wood itself had silica in it. Even though I docked 4 inches off each end the last few of inches of every cut were slow as and I had to touch up the chain after every cut.

Had to prune a bit off the side to enable my small mill with the 25" bar to make the cut on the widest part.


After a fair bit of huffing and puffing - boy am I unfit, here it is.
I'm leaving it up the Mens Shed blokes to extract/cut a 4" x 4" out of that slab with their table saw.


Grain close up.

 

[nighthunter]

Nice bob

 

[Brian72]

Nice work Bob! I feel your pain on being unfit. I often ask myself why all my hobbies include more work! Guess I'm just not too bright. I haven't milled for quite some time now. Just been too busy with other things.

Sent from my Moto E (4) using Tapatalk

 

[BobL]

Nice work Bob! I feel your pain on being unfit. I often ask myself why all my hobbies include more work! Guess I'm just not too bright. I haven't milled for quite some time now. Just been too busy with other things.

Thanks Brian. My health/weight/sleep have been up-down-up over the last few years which is the main cause of my lack of fitness. Over the last few months I have seen some small improvements after losing 25lbs - I thought I would have seen more of an improvement but the doc reckons I need to lose another 25 at least, and 50 lbs would be better.

 

[BobL]

While cleaning up my small mill and 441 milling saw today I decided to check the raker angles with a digital angle finder (DAF) on the loop of LoPro chain I was using yesterday on the 441.

Usually I swipe the cutters after every tank and the rakers get a swipe after every 3-4 tanks but its been a while since I actually checked the raker angles with a DAF.

WHOA - they were nearly all something between 3 and 4º - so no wonder I was having trouble yesterday.

When I filed them back to ~7+º this is what they look like.


Anyway "stuff all" raker left but now it cuts well - well . . . .not quite as good as a new chain but still acceptable.
With so little raker left I found the saw dust doesn't seem to clear as well as usual but it doesn't matter in dry hard wood as sawdust generation is always less than softer or greener wood.
It also doesn't help that this loop is a safety chain, I've never found to to cut quite as well - probably again something to do with sawdust clearance.

Anyway this loop will probably be retired after this sharpen. I am surprised I have not lost any cutters given how hard the wood was. Usually I lose a couple of cutters and that's when I chuck the chain.

 

[Bmac]

Now that is what i call getting your money's worth out of a chain!

 

[Marine5068]

I want to mill my Red Oak logs and I may use my regular chain to try out on one of the smaller and less premier log.
I have to get them milled and moved to their drying spot by Winter snow time.
Not sure what thickness yet, maybe 2" or 3".