Pitch On Milling Chain

[Boon]

+1
May be its a softwood thing?

+2 I've milled out big old radiata with sap pockets leaching out of the slabs and no need for cleaning, think so long as there is oil on the chain before starting it is less likely to stick

 

[BobL]

Guys you don't have to use lye to clean your chains. A seasoned wood worker showed me Simple Green cleaned table saw blades so I've used it for years. I used it on a terribly gummed up mill chain the other day and was amazed how quickly and cleanly the chain came out. . . . ..

I used Simple Green as a chain cleaner for a number of years and I agree it works well on resin, except Tuart resin.
The problem with Tuart resin is that it is a very hard wood and the resin rapidly builds up and bakes hard on a chain while it is cutting.
The amount of resin can seriously choke a chain and that increases friction so it bakes on even harder.

I've since found out a trick from an old Tuart tree feller, that is useful for all milling and that is a squirt bottle with diesel in it - a few squirts on a running chain at the end of a cut and by the time the next cut is started the baked on resin comes off in the cut. An even better alternative tthathis reduces the build up while cutting is a mix of diesel and bar oil in the auxiliary oil tank. I've since found out that bandsaw millers use this and deliver the mix using a windscreen cleaner pump they can manually trigger every now and then, or cleverer still, use the intermittent wiper mode electronics from a car..