what realy is the best rip chain

[slabberman]

G'day don,

We have a huge amount of timber here. Massive amounts of planted Monterey Pine (Pinus Radiata). That export market is one of our biggest.
There are very tight controls on the milling of native trees. Kauri (Agathis australis),is the most controlled, and very hard to come by these days for milling. Therefore, any for sale is extremely expensive. Rimu (Dacrydium Cypressinum) is headed the same way. Almost all logging of Rimu has now been halted.
Other natives that I have milled - mainly wind-blown, subsidence etc - are the Totara (Podocarpus totara), Kaihikatea (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides) and Puriri (Vitex lucens). Puriri is a very grey coloured wood, and is extremely hard. Once dry, its almost impossible to cut! Back in the pioneer days, they used Puriri for fence posts, straight in the ground, and many are still there today.
Exotic trees include the Macrocarpa (Lawson Cypress), many varities of the Australian Eucalyptus, Douglas Fir, Alders and Wattles. This is a small selection of what we have here.
This web site has some photos of a lot of wood found here, to give you an idea of colours and grains.

http://generation-4.co.nz/timber.html

Cheers
Charlie

 

[Flyrod]

Slabberman, NZ has always looked like a paradise to me, especially with your trout fishing. I've always wondered what kind of biting insects, if any, that you have down there. Just curious.

 

[slabberman]

G'day Flyrod,

You would be in heaven if your into trout! We have amazing rainbow trout fishing here, especially around Lake Taupo, the big lake in the centre of the North Island. It is overseen by the Dept of Conservation, and restocking programmes are ongoing. People do come from all over the world to fish here. The South Island has reputedly the best brown trout fishing anywhere.
As for bity things, there are basically none. The is one area of the North Island west coast beaches where you can find the Katipo spider, which is poisonous, but I have never heard of anyone getting bitten by one. No snakes etc here. The Ministry of Agricuture and Forestry, run massive bio-security programmes here to try and stop any nasties getting in throught the airports (eg some people traditionally take gifts of fruit to their hosts!!, a big no no here, with the bugs it can carry), and container imports etc.
Agricuture is our biggest export, so they want to protect that. Starting GE foods and crops are in the news here right now, at the moment we are GE crop free.
Bit off topic!! Woops.
Cheers
Charlie.

 

[don]

No snakes ?

Whats the deal with you guys having no snakes and Australia having more snakes than humans?

 

[slabberman]

G'day don,

Not really sure. It seems that in Aussie, if you look at a bug sideways, it will bite and kill you! Our climate is more temperate than 'over the ditch'. Maybe thats a factor.
The scariest bug to me, we have here is the bush weta. Likes living in old trees. Great for someone who works with wood!! They tend to leap if disturbed. Hopefully away from me, although Ive had a few land on me. I will try and find a pic to post.
Cheers
Charlie.

 

[slabberman]

G'day don,
Found a photo of the weta. Its full name is Wetapunga, which translates roughly to "God of ugly things".
Cheers
Charlie.

 

[Flyrod]

Slabberman, That Weta looks like a Cricket, which I have millions of in my yard this time of year. I wasn't so much asking about poisonous creatures, but annoying blood sucking bugs like Black Flies, Mosquitos and Ticks. If you live in a land that doesn't have any, you truly live in a paradise. Do you have any Whitetail Deer? Thanks for the info.

 

[slabberman]

G'dat Flyrod,

You do realise that weta in the picture is up to 7" long (one variety)!!??
We have mosquitos, sandflies and the occasional horse-fly. As with anywhere, some areas are worse than others. I dont know about Whitetail deer, but we do have red and sika deer, mountain thar and wild pigs for hunting. Tourists come to shoot/hunt here a lot. Garaunteed (?) a trophy head at some places.
A favourite pastime here is to take your pig-dogs into the bush, they find and bale up the wild pig, and the hunter usually uses a knife to kill the pig. Somebody normally carries a rifle just in case.
Cheers
Charlie.

 

[slabberman]

G'dat Flyrod,

You do realise that weta in the picture is up to 7" long (one variety)!!??
We have mosquitos, sandflies and the occasional horse-fly. As with anywhere, some areas are worse than others. I dont know about Whitetail deer, but we do have red and sika deer, mountain thar and wild pigs for hunting. Tourists come to shoot/hunt here a lot. Garaunteed (?) a trophy head at some places.
A favourite pastime here is to take your pig-dogs into the bush, they find and bale up the wild pig, and the hunter usually uses a knife to kill the pig. Somebody normally carries a rifle just in case.
Cheers
Charlie.

 

[Oregon_Rob]

Back to ripping chain.

I was looking around a little and couldn’t find anyone who carried the 3/8’s, skip type ripping chain from Oregon, so I e-mailed Oregon and got this reply.


Rob:

You are correct. No skip-tooth 3/8" ripping.

Best Regards,

George Ruggles
Technical Services Manager
Oregon(r) Cutting Systems

 

[Kevin]

Oregon reps I have spoken with won`t even admit they have it.

Rob you better stop talking about RA, I`m sure that Oregons special agents are en route to your house as we speak.
You can run but they`ll find you eventually.

 

[Oregon_Rob]

Yea, I heard they can be ruthless. I don’t think they can afford to loose me as a customer though, I buy at least 5’ of chain a year. Heck, I think I should be demanding a high volume discount price!

 

[timberwolf]

Well I tried my hand at making a rip chain.

Took a 20 inch 33RS chain that had bit a bit of barb wire but was only a bit scuffed. Removed every second top plate with a dremil, worked well. Then filed remaining top plates to 0deg, the sides of the scoring teeth to 35deg and the rakers to 30 thou on cutters and 40 on scoring teeth.

Tried the chain on three 12-15 inch poplar logs, and it seemed to rip quite well, smoother and somewhat faster than a sharp non ripping chain.

My question is would there be any advantage to putting an edge on the sides of the teeth filed to 0deg on the top plate (with a smaller diamiter file or down angle to avoid touching the top plate)? However I don't think that the sides of these teeth even contact any of the log because the teeth that are filed to 0deg are shortened back. Just seems draging a 0deg side of the tooth through the cut to be a waste, even if putting an edge on the sides just improves removal of chips it would be worth while. Should the scoring teeth be filed back to match the length of the 0deg cutters, wouldn't this narrow the kerf slightly and again make the sides of the 0deg cutter teeth viable for an edge making for a smother cut?

I think I will try to set up a chain with all top plates to 10deg for compairison.

Thanks
Timberwolf

 

[046]

anyone use a ripping chain for a chainsaw mill?

 

[Lakeside53]

yep.... You might want to check out the milling forum...

 

[OilHead]

I turned some 36" full comp stihl chain into ripping chain. Using Grandberg"s angles 10 & zero on the chip clearers. As I recall the rakers on the chip cleaners were set .005 lower than the cutters. Wanted to have something in the arsenel for those knarly situations but my overall take on it so far is skip chain with the rakers set at .025 seems to stay sharp longer for the type of work it sees. Of course that was right off the grinder & am inclinded to think that next time out it will be better after being hand filed. Takes over 3 hours to make 1.

 

[Lakeside53]

I also make mine in the "granberg style", and use RM as the base (RS sucks as it dulls very quickly)


3 hours? You can do it in 30 minutes after the first one. A borazon wheel sure helps to strip off the side plates. We charge $30 to make up a 36 rippings chain, plus the chain...

 

[stevethekiwi]

I also make mine in the "granberg style", and use RM as the base (RS sucks as it dulls very quickly)


3 hours? You can do it in 30 minutes after the first one. A borazon wheel sure helps to strip off the side plates. We charge $30 to make up a 36 rippings chain, plus the chain...

geez lake, bet you dont even own a chainsaw mill!!! lol... i can see you fabricating one right now just to prove me wrong

i have tried many chain combinations. all work, some work better. you would be surprised how well 75LG works ripping in soft wood, even though you are not supposed too....

I have found that there is no one right answer. the scoring / clearing cutter principle works really well for me, but then i get into bigger harder logs and find that std full skip ripping skip works slightly better. but then ill try the same log with 2 x 3120's instead of 2 x 395's and swap back to the scorer / clearer chain cos the motor can work that much harder.

try your own combinations and go with what works. also 75CJX runs awesome, but doesnt leave the finish of the other chains. faster cut, but a PITA to sharpen!!!

 

[Mad Professor]

anyone use a ripping chain for a chainsaw mill?

PMX chain on my 066/logosol M5

 

[Zodiac45]

I've been using the Bailey's Woodsman Pro (Carlton) ripping chain on my Alaskan set up. It's 3/8th .050 and 10 degree top plate angle at a 60 degree angle. It works pretty well for me. I'd like to try some of the Oregon RA/RD though too compare. Just not able too find any around here.