Saw Choice?

[teacherman]

Good morning!

Well, it looks as though I'll be doing some milling. I plan to build a second story airplane bunglow addition next year, and I have come upon the opportunity to take down a number of mature trees, which gave rise to the idea of some timber framing. I figure the Granberg Alaskan mill is the way to go, but not sure of the differences in Mk 2 or 3 and so forth. ALso, what saw is best (toughest) overall? Is a bandsaw setup at all practical, or should I stick with chainsaws? I'm a pretty diehard Stihl loyalist, and was wondering if it's worthwhile to get an 076 with all the part availability issues.

Thanks for being willing to advise me!

 

[Mad Professor]

Do some homework on timber framing. You usually only get one timber/log as you want to box the heartwood, saw the remaining for grade or framing. Also consider the type of trees you will be milling. Before you buck the logs think about size/length/number of timbers needed. Might want to do a sketchup of your addition first? Check out Timber Framers Guild and Forestry Forums Timberframing threads. Unless you hire out there will also be a bunch of tools involved in making cants into timbers.

A 076 will be great milling saw but you may have parts issues and will it be dedicated to milling? A 066/660/661 might be more useful in the future as parts are less of an issue and it's more suited to also felling and bucking.

As to type of mill, will this a once or twice or maybe turn into a hobby?

 

[BobL]

For a building project like the one you describe I would get a bandsaw mill

 

[Justsaws]

24" of cut or less is good with a 660, over 24" spend the money and get an 880.

If you have the equipment to move the logs than look at bandsaw mills.

 

[mdavlee]

Get the biggest saw you can afford. If you're going to do a ton of dimensional a Logosol may be better than a Granberg if you have a loader.

 

[earlthegoat2]

I was cutting 30+" southern pine and my 660 was doing well enough but it was definitely slow and burned a full tank of fuel every 14' or so. Loblolly pine is a heavy, dense, and wet softwood. I think it cuts similar to most other common domestic hardwoods. I kept the chain good and sharp. I only had 4 12'-15' logs so I managed. If I had 4 more I would have bought an 088 that came up for sale here around that time.

 

[scheffa]

I mill up to 42" Aussie hardwoods no worrries with an ms660.
A chainsaw mill is really only any good for cutting slab timber, dimensioned timber will be far more hassle than it is worth with a csm, I bought a Lucas mill for cutting framing timbers

 

[teacherman]

The ebay 088 started up and seems fine, and I have a couple of other monster saws ready to go.