Thread: Chainsaw Mill !

Say what? No clamping system on the saw carriage.His fate is not a question of if but rather when that homemade death trap gets him,good grief.

Hes been using it for over 10 years now... He had one log get away on him and fly out of the 20 foot container his mill is in.. He has no fear of the blade not even since loosing his fingers. I think he is nuts id never have my hands that close to the blade.
He still uses a chainsaw too. He somehow manages to grip the back handle of the saw with half a thumb a ring finger and a pinky ! He isnt very safe (he had a chain saw chain snap a few years ago and cut his face open !). I was looking at purchasing a circle mill used a while back when I seen it I just walked away it used the same design as this guys (I like my fingers).... I may see if I can snap a few pics of his mill in the comming weeks ! This guy is sort of friends with my brother so I may be able to get out to his mill and snap a pic or two....

Scottr
He squares 3 sides of the log and then starts cutting the lumber off the log. What he does is he will rip 2 slabs off the log (no guide used to keep the log riding straight).
Then once he has that done (lets say hes gonna cut 2x4) he will adjust the guide over so there is 3 1/2 "s of clearance between the guide and the blade, he will then rip a third slab off.. Once that is done he will then adjust the guide over to 1 1/2 "s and start ripping 2x4s off the log. His guide is placed just before the blade and the guide is only about 34 "'s long and doesnt move with the carriage. I would think he would get better lumber if the guide moved with the carriage and was the length of the logs he was cutting. But then there is still the safety factor of the Mill !

Newfie 1986 , I can imagine where the operator is standing to perform the cuts you are discribing and it is a matter of time before his luck runs out . If you go back to this mill watch where you stand .

Well the mill is inside a 20 ft container. When I was there I always stayed outside and away from the line of fire just incase things got out of hand...

well, the description of his mill explains why your lumber isn't square. He has no way to insure a square cant. This guy is gonna kill himself one of these days. He's gonna have a log get loose and bind up the blade and tear the whole thing apart.

bman I think the small mill with a little smaller saw is exactly what you are looking for. Like thompson 1600 said, you have to be aware of bar flex on the alaskan, but it is not to hard to master. Much easier and probably MORE accurate than a large mill that must be balanced on a small cant. I buy and use GB mills now. The mill clamps onto the saw at the bar mounting studs, and the bar is not clamped.
You can't buy a "small mill" like the grandberg. I buy double ended mills and split them in half. I then use my own excrusions to make two small mills that are stronger and more stable than the grandberg. They also adjust much easier.

pyro..... the small mill would work fine but you lose some bar length with the mill. you will lose about 3" off of you 16". The widest you could mill in one pass would be about 13".

Originally Posted by clyde

pyro..... the small mill would work fine but you lose some bar length with the mill. you will lose about 3" off of you 16". The widest you could mill in one pass would be about 13".

thanks clyde. that's what i wanted to know. most of the trees that i want to clear and mill are in the 8" - 12" size anyway....

Thanks for this thread, convinced me to go ahead and order the small mill and accompanying stuff. Had two oaks fall down in the storms last week and will be taking down another next week. Hate to waste the wood as the 2 are Chesnut Oaks, had a similar one fall that was only 12" diameter but over 100 yrs. old! Wood feel bad burning that!
Also ran across this if someone is interested in building their own finger remover mill http://cgi.ebay.com/How-to-Build-a-C...QQcmdZViewItem