Total Noob to CSM first mill attempt

[Tazman1602]

Hey all,

I've had an alaskan mill for a year now and finally got up the gumption to use it. I have a new Husky 395XP with a Walker muffler tuned properly. I waited a year because I wanted 10-15 hours on the new 395 before I abused the heck out of it.

Yesterday wife and I setup the mill, 32" bar and Carlton ripping chain (I have half a dozen Carlton and Woodland pro ripping chains 10 degree brand new along with some semi-skip chains for the 32" bar). She was my auxiluary oiler and wedge person and she did a great job.

We had the trunk of a 100 year old white pine we had to have taken down from my moms house, 24-26" diameter. I cut them to 8' length.

First cut went well with the Granberg brackets and straight 2x4's I had purchased. Second cut we screwed up and didn't get the mill adjustments tight so by the time we were through cutting one side was 2" and the other side was 3".....oh well it will make for a good shooting bench.

The next two 1" boards I cut went well with no issues. I *thought* the chain might be getting dull but didn't change it for cut number 4. This went well until the last one foot of the cut when it was like the chain quit cutting --- maybe it did but we got through it ok.

Question is do I need to change or sharpen the chain while milling more often than this? My thought is that chain was in 22-24" of wood 8' long for 4 cuts. That is a LOT of cutting compared to just cutting firewood. Again this is a first attempt at using a CSM.

I've been through CSM101 thread and didn't find the answer I needed so thought I'd ask here. Here's a couple of pictures of what we got done, I actually felt pretty good since it was a first attempt. One more question -- the sawdust produced by the mill was extremely fine, not like the chips that happen when crosscutting.

Thanks for any advice, here's the beef:

 

[Stihl-in-Ky]

The time between sharpening will vary when I milled eastern red cedar I would have to sharpen about every 4th tank of gas with the red oak I milled saturday it was more like every 2nd or 3rd tank you can tell by the speed of the cut will slow down when dull.
And yes the saw dust is finer when the chain is very sharpe you will get some small chips but it is much finer than cross cutting this also varies with the type of wood you mill.Softwood larger chips harder wood tend to be smaller.
Glad you had a good time and that your wife helped.
If you are going to mill much wood you might look into getting a mini mill to trim the side of the log after the first top cut and then each cut there after will make a trimmed board I found it takes a lot of time to square the endges with a circular saw later.
Take care and have a good time.:msp_thumbsup:

 

[mad murdock]

I hav emilled a few thousand bd/ft with my CSM, (Alaskan III). I usually will run a few swipes with the file after 3 or 4 tanks of gas. If the wood is really dirty, maybe every other tank of gas. A couple swipes of the file doesn't take much time, gives the sawyer and saw motor a break, and makes for a lot smoother, easier cutting. I usually lead the cut with the tip of the bar at about a 10=20 deg angle, this helps the chain to "self feed" a little requiring less pushing effort. If there are real wide cuts, they take time no matter what. If I am cutting dimensional lumber, I try to get to a canted chunk asap, as it makes slicing the boards off, that much faster. Live slicing a large log lik you have in your pics takes time. The only think that would speed things up would be to look into lopro B/C setup, that way you are cutting less waste each cut (kerf).

 

[Tazman1602]

Thanks for the feedback so far guys. Yes, it is a big log and it does take some time to cut each board. I think wife had more fun than I did though................she's looking at those boards saying "gee now you can make me this and this and that............."

I don't mind, we've been married a long time (31 years) and still actually like one another. Besides when we were done? She told me my arms HAD to be tired and to sit in my chair while she made me a great dinner.

That old pine is pretty hard, we've got a stand of poplar out back and now that we have an *idea* of what we're doing I think that will mill much, much easier and the logs will be smaller. I only wanted to make boards out of this trunk as I have loved that tree since I was a child but it's time was simply up.

We have some HUGE hemlocks (I think.....) over three feet in diameter back in the swamp, don't know what they might be worth but now I'm looking at every tree as if it was a board.........

Many Thanks,

Art

 

[BobL]

Congrats on your first cuts

Question is do I need to change or sharpen the chain while milling more often than this? My thought is that chain was in 22-24" of wood 8' long for 4 cuts. That is a LOT of cutting compared to just cutting firewood. Again this is a first attempt at using a CSM.

I touch up about every 32 sq ft of cut in Ozzie hardwood and 64 sq ft in softwoods
24" x 8' long by 4 cuts = 64 sq ft which is about right

One more question -- the sawdust produced by the mill was extremely fine, not like the chips that happen when crosscutting.

Endgrain cutting always produces finer dust that crosscutting but when I see fine milling dust the first thing I look at are the rakers.
How are you setting those?
The other thing could be some of your filing angles.
If you post a close up side on pic of a cutter we can diagnose this for you.

 

[Tazman1602]

I can and will do that tomorrow BobL. In answer to your question I did NOTHING to the stock out of the box ripping chain on the saw. If I need to take the rakers down, have Roloc and can do it....<grin>.

Even my city-fied daughter thought the boards we cut were "very cool"

Thanks again for all the advice.

Art

 

[sbhooper]

That is a good job. I won't even post pics of my first milling attempt! It did work for the rails on my trailer, though. What are you going to do with the slabs, now?

 

[Tazman1602]

Boy that was dumb...

STUPID STUPID STUPID!

OK Been a while guys. Had to make a trip to NC to take care of aging father. Got back to milling yesterday and decided I needed to square up log. That way we could just rip boards and be done.

Got to the end of the log and same problem! Blasted thing just quit cutting! AAARRGGGHH! I hate milling! I'm giving this up and selling everything!!!!!

.....but, you see, when the damned log is bigger than the width of the CSM uprights we have a phenomenon known as "sonofagun is bound up tight and won't go any more..."

Once we adjusted mill to fit that huge log we were having at and got a cant made we were zipping right through boards....

The most embarrassing thing is I didn't figure it out. When my lovely bride of 31 years looked at me and said "honey, is this supposed to be hitting here..." I almost told her this was mans work don't tell ME how to run a chainsaw etc.......right before I turned red and kissed her for figuring out the problem.

I bought that girl steak for dinner........MAN DID WE MAKE SOME NICE BOARDS!!!

I'm thinking now of making a set of EZ rails from steel wall studs....MILL ON!

Art

PS - once we got the cant done we got it up on a set of sawhorses which made milling much, much easier...