milling thread

IMG_20190709_113416339.jpg



Nothing fancy.
Local miller and I split three deodora cedars 50/50.

Came with a Woodland Mills 126.

Two slabs went to the homeowner, for a bench.

Two went to D's summer camp for a bench, to be made by one of the camp teachers.
Bringing in slabs, and having a bunch in the trailer already got interest from from a camper's mom, who it turns out I worked for 8 years ago or so.
They have a rental and want more live-edge stuff.

I stacked those two quickly, with what I had for stickers. If I had a mill...

I'll move and re-sticker later, with more that are in the trailer.
 
I do very little milling these days, but I needed some more shelving for tools so I dragged the Alaskan & the 084 out to play.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0396.jpg
    IMG_0396.jpg
    269.2 KB · Views: 41
End to end, that saw's about as tall as my boss :^D

I got a mill recently, but I've been slacking getting it setup. Been too hot to get motivated fooling with it. I'm just about ready. I got a gnarly old ladder setup on an ash log today. Just need to take my gear to work to finish getting it setup. The ladder needs to be trued up, but it'll work sufficiently well as a proof of concept, and get an idea of how it all works. My goal is drop a big oak this fall when the weather's decent, and make some trailer boards for the boss.
 
Beautiful long bar. Now be extra careful not to allow droop in the bar, held on the horizontal, when you squeeze the trigger. Thrown chain follows in short order, if not.

I wouldn't think it a likely problem with milling rigs, of course...but otherwise, getting things started on a felling cut, it takes some technique and finesse.
 
Last edited:
Or a 'short-bar' pilot kerf...so, B, what's the technique without cheating? Spin the chain, then lay the bar horizontal and start cutting?
 
To Sean's question...unless you are fortunate enough to have a second sawyer carrying a smaller saw (in these parts, a smaller saw might be a Stihl 046/460 with a three foot bar or so...not smaller in most parts of the world, but be that as it may :)...

If the smaller saw is at hand, then just set the kerf where appropriate, a couple of inches deep, then shut that little girl down and put the big saw in that kerf and go to town (assuming similar bar/chain gauge). Simple...both horizontal and angled face cuts (conventional or humboldt, same same).

If you have nothing but the loooong bar beast at hand, what you do is hang the bar tip in the bark, about a foot aft of the sprocket. Eyeball down the bar from there to the powerhead to see a clean straight presentation of the bar...no wows or bows. Anything otherwise is going to result in a thrown chain.

When you have it there (some muscle generally required to hold that bastard 125+ cc powerhead in the right place :)), squirt some revs and get a bit of kerf in the proper alignment. If you did it right, got your initial cut in the right place, move the bar forward a foot or two in that kerf and deepen that kerf a few more inches...all the while keeping wows or bows out of the bar presentation, then proceed per normal with the felling cuts, both horizontal and angled, using the same technique. Again, conventional or humboldt, same same.

Once you have that done, you are golden, generally...though it's still easy enough to get that long and flexible bar out of straight alignment and toss your chain even at this point.

Assuming nothing goes badly on that score, just fell the darn tree like any other :D.
 
Last edited:
You looked into carbide chain for butt log milling? I'm thinking that might save money in the long run. Almost guaranteed to hit metal in an old yard tree.
 
Back
Top