Cleaning up the forest

[mtngun]

Another doug fir blow down. Small, 'cuz I'm getting down to the bottom of the barrel at this location.

It seems like I always forget to bring something important. Today I forgot to bring the auxiliary oiler. Not a big deal on this small log.

The cookie keeps the rail from sagging in the middle.

Using the camera's timed shutter to get an action shot. This is kinda sorta how I like to sit on the log as I mill, except the camera didn't allow me much time to make myself comfortable.

Then mini-mill was used to make an 8x8. The mini-mill is easy to set up and usually produces a pretty square beam. Only problem was, I set it up with the top of the bar a little too close to the mill, and the chain nicked the mill. No spare chain, either.

So I got to try out my new Save-Edge file. The Save-Edge worked awesome -- for about 45 seconds. After that, it was dull and would hardly cut. I was not impressed, considering the premium price.

Anyway, the chain was mangled pretty good. I filed it well enough to finish the 8x8, but the cutting was slow, and the CS62 was working hard, so I retired the mini-mill for rest of the day.

Then on to a standing dead doug. Only about 14" diameter, and knotty, but I can put the wood to good use.

Once the log has been whittled down enough that I can lift it off the ground, I set it on some logs, so it's a little more comfortable to work on. I hope BobL approves.

 

[mtngun]

Total haul was 8 boards and two 8x8 posts, plus firewood and slabs.

The thinned 3/8" nose sprocket continues to work well and spin freely.

Once again, the injecta-sharp lo-pro ran for an hour before it slowed enough to warrant changing. A total of 1.1 hours run time and 9 passes on the injecta-sharp.

Then I finished the day with regular lo-pro.

All together, 1.5 hours run time on the 066.

Today the saw was tuned to 12,700 WOT with the 36" B&C. Typical RPM in the cut was 8500.

As usual, it seemed to cut fastest around 8500 - 9500 RPM, but human nature wants to push the saw as fast as it will let you push it, so I often found myself lugging it down to 7000 RPM. At least this top end is not fussy about RPMs.

Mini speed tests, minus the forgotten auxiliary oiler:

injecta-sharp pass #2, 13" wide, 0.44 inch/sec. Seems too slow, perhaps I wrote down the wrong number, but I have to go with what I got.

injecta-sharp pass #3, 15" wide, 0.36 inch/sec.

injecta-sharp pass #8, 13" wide, 0.46 inch/sec. By this time the chain was getting dull, yet the cut speed was faster than pass #2, which is why pass #2 doesn't seem right.

lo-pro pass #1, 13" wide, 0.62 inch/sec.

 

[Metals406]

I always enjoy your milling in the woods posts! Looks like a good haul back home.

 

[BobL]

Good work mtngun - thanks for posting.

 

[Teddy.Scout]

nice pics!
Pics are awesome, and have helped me out!

 

[ChainsawmanXX]

Total haul was 8 boards and two 8x8 posts, plus firewood and slabs.

The thinned 3/8" nose sprocket continues to work well and spin freely.

Once again, the injecta-sharp lo-pro ran for an hour before it slowed enough to warrant changing. A total of 1.1 hours run time and 9 passes on the injecta-sharp.

Then I finished the day with regular lo-pro.

All together, 1.5 hours run time on the 066.

Today the saw was tuned to 12,700 WOT with the 36" B&C. Typical RPM in the cut was 8500.

As usual, it seemed to cut fastest around 8500 - 9500 RPM, but human nature wants to push the saw as fast as it will let you push it, so I often found myself lugging it down to 7000 RPM. At least this top end is not fussy about RPMs.

Mini speed tests, minus the forgotten auxiliary oiler:

injecta-sharp pass #2, 13" wide, 0.44 inch/sec. Seems too slow, perhaps I wrote down the wrong number, but I have to go with what I got.

injecta-sharp pass #3, 15" wide, 0.36 inch/sec.

injecta-sharp pass #8, 13" wide, 0.46 inch/sec. By this time the chain was getting dull, yet the cut speed was faster than pass #2, which is why pass #2 doesn't seem right.

lo-pro pass #1, 13" wide, 0.62 inch/sec.

Im curious, how do you check the RPM's and what not on your saw? iv tried marking one end of the chain with a yellow marker and counting how many times it goes around.. alittle to FAST! haha

 

[BobL]

Im curious, how do you check the RPM's and what not on your saw? iv tried marking one end of the chain with a yellow marker and counting how many times it goes around.. alittle to FAST! haha

never heard of a tachometer?
A few of us do it like this.

 

[gemniii]

Im curious, how do you check the RPM's and what not on your saw? iv tried marking one end of the chain with a yellow marker and counting how many times it goes around.. alittle to FAST! haha

A chain slides across the surface of the sawbar rail at around 5000 feet per minute.

[URL="here]http://www.sawmillchainsaws.com/sawfacts.htm[/URL]

So if your milling with a 5' chain (about a 20" bar?? SWAG) you'd have to count at about 1,000 yellow marks a minute. I can't count that fast!

 

[computeruser]

Nice work. Kinda gives me the itch to get a milling setup again!

 

[betterbuilt]

Nice work.

I admire how you always end up with a load of wood. keep up the good work.

I enjoy reading about your adventures. I'm hoping to get out tomorrow.

 

[mtngun]

Born in 1928

Another doug fir blowdown creating a fire hazard. I guess I better clean it up. An ecologger's work is never done.

The CS62 bucks the tree.

Stump sits back up -- you gotta be careful when you are cutting a blowdown, make sure you won't be in harm's way if the stump decides to flip up.

28" at the butt. Normally, local dougs of this size are about 150 years old. I was surprised that this specimen was only 82 years old -- born around 1928. Note the growth rings suddenly get very large for a spell, but more recently the growth rings are tiny. The tree must have received more sunlight and/or more water back in the old days.

Three logs were slabbed, all at once. That way, I only have to set up the Alaskan for slabbing one single time.

 

[john taliaferro]

shure wish i had a mill we gotta do a 4' red oak in the morning . we cant haul 8 ' sections hole thinking about splitting it down the middle then when i get mill we can saw lumber. Dam noisey here youed think it was war with all the fire works . happy fourth.johnt

 

[mtngun]

Bark 1 1/2" thick. Sometimes it peels off easily, but this wasn't one of those times.

Fast forward to the end of the day. 18 boards, with a few slabs on top. Not a record number of boards, but probably the biggest volume of wood that I've ever milled in a single day.

Do you think my pickup is overloaded ?

Speed tests and other notes, in chronological order:

-- injecta-sharp pass #6, 19.5" wide, 0.22 inch/sec. Slooow. It had about 1 hour run time by then, and the chain was dull.

-- I hand-filed the chain after that pass. Also knocked the sawdust off the air filter about that time, because the engine was starting to blubber in the cut.

-- injecta-sharp pass #8, 20" wide, 0.16 inch/sec. Terrible. My hand-filing didn't help. I should have swapped the chain after one hour's run time, like I normally do.

-- fresh WP lo-pro ripping chain installed after 1.9 hours.

-- lo-pro pass #3, 16" wide, 0.41 inch/sec.

-- lo-pro pass #4, 18.5" wide, 0.31 inch/sec.

-- engine was blubbering again, tached 12,400 WOT. I retuned to 12,500 WOT, doesn't sound like a big change, but no more blubber and it picked up 500 rpm in the cut.

-- lo-pro pass #5, 18.5" wide, 0.33 inch/sec.

-- knocked the dust out of air filter (I didn't bring a spare filter).

-- lo-pro pass #6, 17.5" wide, 0.36 inch/sec.

-- fresh lo-pro chain installed after 1.3 hours.

-- lo-pro pass #1, 12.5" wide, 0.6 inch/sec.

-- lo-pro pass #2, 15" wide, 0.48 inch/sec.

-- lo-pro pass #3, 15.5" wide, 0.5 inch/sec.

-- lo-pro pass #4, 15" wide, 0.6 inch/sec.

-- one more pass to finish for day, 0.7 hours on chain, still cutting fine.

-- total 3.9 hours on the 066 (twice what I usually do).

-- 2 1/2 gallons of fuel, 1 3/4 gallons of bar oil.

Lessons learned, observations, etc. :

-- injecta-sharp and regular lo-pro and regular 3/8" all stay usefully sharp for about one hour run time in softwood. The hour meter has proven to be a reliable indicator for when to swap chains.

-- injecta-sharp does not seem to stay sharp any longer than regular lo-pro.

-- regular lo-pro seems to stay sharp just as long as regular 3/8.

-- the thinned 3/8" nose sprocket continues to work satisfactorily.

-- the air filter needs to be cleaned after 2 hours, if not sooner. Normally, I only log 2 hours in a full day of milling, so the air filter can be ignored. But, I should keep a spare air filter in my field kit for days like today.

-- bog speed for this 066BB seems to be around 6000 RPM. This is a huge improvement compared to the older BB that fell off a cliff below 8400 RPM.

-- If I milled big logs on a regular basis, I'd want one of those cranks like BillSteuwe and SPM use. Pushing a CSM through a 28" log is tiring.

-- Another "big wood" problem that arose -- if I placed the guide rails in the middle of the board, which seemed the intuitive thing to do, the CSM was not balanced on the guide rails. The powerhead wanted to droop and the nose wanted to rise. I was constantly fighting to hold the CSM flat against the guide rails, and it was tiring.

The solution was to place the guide rails on the powerhead side of the log, instead of on the center of the log. The CSM balanced better that way.

 

[makindue]

I think the saw that you used was very sharp! :greenchainsaw: The trees are very thick but you manage to cut them down. But did you plant trees to replace the one you cut so that the future generation will have a clean forest?

 

[mtngun]

But did you plant trees to replace the one you cut so that the future generation will have a clean forest?

I have planted over a thousand tree seedllngs on my property. Hopefully, when I die, my property will be healthier and prettier than when I found it.

The site where I was milling today was "thinned" by loggers several years ago. They harvest about 3/4 of the trees, but leave the other 1/4, the straightest and healthiest trees, to drop cones that will repopulate the area. Rather than piling the slash, the slash is left spread out, and then burned in the fall. If the slash fire goes well, it is a low-level fire that gets rid of the fuel and stimulates the germination of douglas fir (slash fires don't always go well, though -- sometimes they burn too hot and do a lot of damage.) This particular thinned area seems to be recovering nicely.

However, after a forest is thinned, there is more wind whistling through, because there is no longer a thick forest to block the wind. Some of the remaining "seed" trees get blown down in winter storms. The blowdowns are a gift to woodcutters like myself.

Ponderosa pine and doug fir forests are often logged by "thinning" as I have described.

White/grand fir forests are more likely to be clearcut and burned, since white fir is a "weed" tree and the slash fire helps to stimulate the growth of new douglas fir.

In the old days, they would often replant, but lately the foresters seem to prefer leaving a few "seed" trees to repopulate naturally. I imagine it is cheaper to do it that way, plus it looks better having a few seed trees around, instead of a clearcut.

 

[BobL]

Great description and great data logging mtngun!

Lessons learned, observations, etc. :
-- injecta-sharp and regular lo-pro and regular 3/8" all stay usefully sharp for about one hour run time in softwood. The hour meter has proven to be a reliable indicator for when to swap chains.

If you are cutting more or less making the same width cuts in the same types of wood that will make sense. I find a reliable general indicator is total sq ft of wood cut, which for for me is about 60 sqft in softer Aussie hardwood and about 30 sqft of hard aussie hardwood but often the saw is telling me - "I need a touch up"!

the air filter needs to be cleaned after 2 hours, if not sooner. Normally, I only log 2 hours in a full day of milling, so the air filter can be ignored. But, I should keep a spare air filter in my field kit for days like today.

Good idea - I keep at least one filter for each saw on hand. In terms of cleaning, it depends on the type of wood I'm cutting and where I am. Filter cleaning can vary from a quick knock on the side of the log, to a gentle blow out with a compressor (if I am at the yard) to a replacement. In some wood I do it every second tank of mix - in really green wood I can sometimes go all day without doing anything

I milled big logs on a regular basis, I'd want one of those cranks like BillSteuwe and SPM use. Pushing a CSM through a 28" log is tiring.

I notice you are still sitting while milling, this is an indicator that your logs and/or arms are too low. When sitting, only the top half of an operators body weight can be used to lean on the mill and saw compared to when standing where their whole body weight can be employed. I know I sound like a broken record but a major ergonomic improvement to all standard CSMs is to place new handles (and a remote throttle) higher up on the mill. This allows the operator to stand upright close to the mill and provide forward pressure on the wrap handle with a knee or thigh. If necessary the arms can also be locked straight and the operator can step back and lean their whole body weight on the mill. All this is much easier than using arm and core muscles to push the mill. The only time I find I have to do this is towards then end of a hard cut when the chain is getting blunt and mostly I use my arms steer the mill or lock the tkrottle and that frees my arms completley so I can insert wedges etc.
These photos show how close I stand and all I am doing here is providing forward pressure with my thigh - there is no pressure from my arms.

This more upright stance makes it easier to use a CSM for much longer periods than would otherwise be possible for an unfit lazy person like myself.

Another "big wood" problem that arose -- if I placed the guide rails in the middle of the board, which seemed the intuitive thing to do, the CSM was not balanced on the guide rails. The powerhead wanted to droop and the nose wanted to rise. I was constantly fighting to hold the CSM flat against the guide rails, and it was tiring.

The solution was to place the guide rails on the powerhead side of the log, instead of on the center of the log. The CSM balanced better that way.

This is where adjustable width log rails are useful, I just wish I could find a way of adjusting the width more quickly that didn't cost and arm and a leg.

 

[mtngun]

To be able to mill while standing upright would be great, but it's not going to happen in the woods.

For me to stand up straight, the log you were milling would have to be a foot higher.

 

[7oaks]

mtngun - great photo documentation along with detailed data logging. I really enjoy these posts.

 

[forestryworks]

Very nice, thanks for sharing

Does that doug-fir smell good when milling?

 

[mtngun]

Does that doug-fir smell good when milling?

It smells good to me. You probably feel the same way.

But, Ponderosa smells much better. There's gobs of dead ponderosa here. Too bad it's not the greatest for building material.