What kind of chain?

[bkn49]

The other day I cut my first slab of mesquite with a Harbor Freight mill and small Poulan (14" bar), and while it did work, I found it woefully inadequate. So i started looking on Ebay for a bigger saw. Found a Stihl 066..won the auction and its on its way. I plan to make a mill for it but not sure what kind of chain to use. It has a 32" bar and I'm assuming a crosscutting type of chain. Should i start with that? Or go straight to a ripping chain? And if so, what would anyone recommend? Thanks in advance for any info you can give a noob.

 

[smokinj]

Here's what I use...Its cut at 10 degree.
http://www.baileysonline.com/category.asp?catID=11828

 

[BobL]

The other day I cut my first slab of mesquite with a Harbor Freight mill and small Poulan (14" bar), and while it did work, I found it woefully inadequate. So i started looking on Ebay for a bigger saw. Found a Stihl 066..won the auction and its on its way. I plan to make a mill for it but not sure what kind of chain to use. It has a 32" bar and I'm assuming a crosscutting type of chain. Should i start with that? Or go straight to a ripping chain? And if so, what would anyone recommend? Thanks in advance for any info you can give a noob.

Welcome to the AS milling funnyfarm

Any chain (even standard 25-30º top plate angle crosscut) will do to start with and unless you have a another saw you will need at least one of those anyway.
After that I suggest you experiment, start with standard ripping chain and then maybe ripping skip chain and see what you like best.

 

[Can8ianTimber]

I have alway run balieys ripping chain which has a 10deg angle. About 4 months ago I could not pass up a deal on 100' of carlton skip tooth and I figured I would just regrind it eventually to 10deg. This last weekend I cut up some cedar and I started with the standard skip tooth for the first half of the log and then used a ripping chain for the second half of the log. I found the standard chain to cut noticably faster. The finish was a little rougher but I plane all my material so that is not a big deal for me.

I would like to know if anyone has milled with a square chisel grind chain like this one. http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=ORF+75CL&catID=11764

Supposedly they are very difficult to sharpen and you need a special sharpening system like this http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=SC+R2&catID=9760

Sounds like nothing competes with the speed of a square grind for felling and bucking but I wonder about milling? Sounds like touching up in the field would be extreemly difficult b/c you have to use a 3 corner file. This is just what I have heard and read.

 

[mtngun]

I would like to know if anyone has milled with a square chisel grind chain.

I think you would spend more time sharpening than milling ?

Skip chain cuts well on my CS62 & mini-mill, though the finish is very rough. Skip allows the powerhead to rev faster and stay in the powerband instead of lugging.

I haven't tried Granberg-style chain yet but suspect it will have a similar effect.

 

[BobL]

I have alway run balieys ripping chain which has a 10deg angle. About 4 months ago I could not pass up a deal on 100' of carlton skip tooth and I figured I would just regrind it eventually to 10deg. This last weekend I cut up some cedar and I started with the standard skip tooth for the first half of the log and then used a ripping chain for the second half of the log. I found the standard chain to cut noticably faster. The finish was a little rougher but I plane all my material so that is not a big deal for me.

Are you using true progressive raker setting on the milling chain? It could also be that skip is making the difference rather that the top plate cutting angle.

One thing I notice about using regular chain for milling is it vibrates in the cut more than 10º chain, especially when starting a cut on a long bar in very hard wood the vibe can be so great it can pull the chain off the bar.

I would like to know if anyone has milled with a square chisel grind chain like this one. http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=ORF+75CL&catID=11764

Yep - I tried using it for about 30 logs of different types.

Supposedly they are very difficult to sharpen and you need a special sharpening system like this http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=SC+R2&catID=9760

They are, but I adapted a round chain jig to accept the special file needed for square ground chain like this.

Sounds like nothing competes with the speed of a square grind for felling and bucking but I wonder about milling? Sounds like touching up in the field would be extreemly difficult b/c you have to use a 3 corner file. This is just what I have heard and read.[/QUOTE]

There is a long thread about square ground filing in the CS forum here.

It works fine in softwoods but as soon as there is a smell of grit in the bark or the wood is hard I don't reckon its worth it. That, and the fact that it is slower to touch up and it needs more accurate raker settings doesn't make it pratical for me. In hard wood where I have to touch up every 32 sq ft, square ground chain will out cut round for about the first 10 or so sq ft, then then are about the same for the next few square feet of cut. By then the square ground will have lost it's pointy tip and the round ground will cut quicker. In some types of hardwood logs where the ends are bone dry, square ground chain will go blunt in just 2- 3- sq ft of cut.

 

[Brmorgan]

I don't think you need to resort to skip chain with an 066 in average-sized wood. I've run both skip and full-house chains on my 395XP on a 28" bar, and the skip is no faster and cuts a washboard compared to the full-house. I wouldn't use it with a big saw in softwoods at all again unless I was dealing with a very long bar which I don't currently own (60"+).

 

[Justsaws]

I have ...

I would like to know if anyone has milled with a square chisel grind chain like this one. http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=ORF+75CL&catID=11764

I have used hand filed square chisel. It is excellent in clear, clean wood, seems like it reduces vibrations, very smooth finish with a much faster feed rate.

Supposedly they are very difficult to sharpen and you need a special sharpening system like this http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=SC+R2&catID=9760

Hand file, the grinder might be nice but I do not have one. I tend to use different angles than the chain comes with anyway so it seemed logical to try it on the mill. Worked very well within the confines of the clean small Cherry and Ash that I milled. Was a pleasure to use.

Sounds like nothing competes with the speed of a square grind for felling and bucking but I wonder about milling? Sounds like touching up in the field would be extremely difficult b/c you have to use a 3 corner file. This is just what I have heard and read.

I use the file that you are talking about. I am not fast or anywhere near proficient at it but it still does not take much longer than using a round file unless the cutters suffer some sort of damage that requires a lot of filing to resharpen.


Get a loop and a file and try it on some clean and clear logs.