Just found my first milling saw

[rangergord]

Been a while since I have visited the forum but this morning I happened to go to a yardsale just down the road and found this. It was used in an Alaska chainsaw mill and someone bought the mill for a saw they already owned! So missed a deal on mill but paid $200 CAN for this saw. I can't find anything wrong with it yet. I started it right up. The bar seems to still have life left in it. The chain needs some serious sharpening. The PO has a set of dogs for it that he will get back to me with, along with some ripping chain. Its got a 24" oregon bar and was in a 24" mill. I am planning on getting a new 24" mill for it and exploring chainsaw milling.
I have had my eye on the DCS 6421 with the 79cc big bore kit at Bailey's for a few years now but I did not really NEED one and the price of them just keeps climbing! Now I can have my cake and eat it too.

http://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/yard-sale-saw-dolmar-dcs-7901.256192/

 

[rangergord]

I am lurking a lot and reading all I can here before I ask any questions. I have quite a bit of milling experience on other mills. I worked on our family mill growing up on the homestead. It was a rebuilt headrig bush mill from the 1940's. Then I worked at two other milling operations as a sawyer running VW powered Mobile Dimension Saws to cut Cedar, spruce, pine, aspen, and birch. Put in a total of 7 years of full time work. Figure I must of cut at least a million board feet but I was not counting too close.

Haven't cut anything for about 15 years now. Looking seriously at the Alaska 24" mill. I have only poplar and aspen on my homestead but have access to lots of trees that are otherwise wasted in the bush. Lots of beetle killed pine, spruce, aspen, birch. It is boreal forest with smaller timber most of the time. I am pretty sure a 20" maximum cut will allow me to cut most of what I find.
I like going out to the bush with my saw and cleaning up a small area. I keep at it until I leave it better than I found it. I think it will be somewhat satisfying to haul in my saw and pack out a few boards to my pickup.

I expect that I will find the chainsaw mill to be noisier, smellier, and much slower than what I am used to. I am also sure that maintenance and sharpening will be more time consuming. I mostly want to cut some lumber for homestead projects. Finishing my shop, wood shed, greenhouse, garden shed etc.