Vintage Granberg Alaskan Jr Lumber making attachment tips for the noob

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Jon Heron

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Big Chute Ontario Canada
I was given this old mill which appears to of had very little use. I have zero milling experience but have been doing some reading on here and watching some youtube.
I have an MS460 and am thinking a 25" bar should be good for this? I will be milling mostly white pine and Northern Ontario red oak.
Any suggestions for a budget 25" bar and chain? I see Farmertec has cheap bars but I dont see any ripping chain options.
I was unsuccessful at finding a manual for this thing, can somebody point me to some information on how to use one these, such as mounting the saw in it?
Cheers,
Jon
 

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I have no ideas about that one. Looks like you might have to drill holes in the bar. Someone will probably be along shortly that knows something.

You could also try calling Granberg, or send them an email.
 
That mill is similar in design to the Sperber mill of the 1970's.
Yes the bar has to have holes drilled into it to which the mill is attached.
Like all early mills they were not very ergonomic as the have very few places to hang onto above the log.
The one handle high up on the inboard upright is too high and likely to want to tip the mill forward.
Adding a lengthwise handle between the two uprights no more than half way up would improve things considerably.
 
Yup it is from the 70's. Putting a handle between the 2 pipes should be easy enough.
Any tips on mounting the bar? It has some adjustment so I was thinking I should put the back hole as close to the saw as the dogs allow and putting the front hole through the sprocket?
I am unsure if I need a special bar for this or if one of these will work? https://www.farmertec.com/Holzfform...41-MS460-MS461-MS660-MS661-MS650-p725274.html
Does drilling the center of the sprocket not toast the bearing?
Thanks for the tips!
Jon
 
I just went through the process of getting a bigger (42 inch) one of these set up on a 395. Based off of my experience, I believe you'll need a 3/8? CARBIDE bit for drilling the bar. I had an old Oregon bar laying around that I drilled up and it was frickin HARD. I'd recommend you spend the extra $ and get an Oregon bar, I think I heard those farmertec bars tend to fall in half. You can drill out the center of the tip to mount the bar, then use that as a template to mark out the other hole from. As for the chain, modify the standard chain that you can find anywhere. Somewhere on here (In the tips and tricks thread I think) you'll be able to find the correct angles to grind/file the chain to. In the pic below, the guide wheels are backwards, they should be flipped around. If you have any specific questions, lemme know and I'll answer them to the best of my abilities.
UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_14de4.jpgUNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_14deb.jpg
 
Thanks!
It appears I am missing the handle and guard at the bar tip. I will have to fab something up. is the handle on the guard useful?
It looks like the bolt hole is back from the tip on your rig?
Cheers,
Jon
 
Thanks!
It appears I am missing the handle and guard at the bar tip. I will have to fab something up. is the handle on the guard useful?
It looks like the bolt hole is back from the tip on your rig?
Cheers,
Jon
The handle/guard at the tip is a helper handle that is useful when running longer bars, your setup does not need it. When you are trying to push an 18lb saw with a 15lb mill bolted to one end of it through a log and hold it level, it is nice to have an extra person to help counterbalance the saw. Plus it sucks to try and pull a 35lb weight, with the resistance spread out across 36 inches, and you don't have any real good pivot or even grip points. On a smaller saw, or on a mill that doesn't have the height maxed out the the point of removing the handle near the saw, that extra leverage isn't necessary. The bolt hole is back from the tip on my rig, but that is due to clearance issues involving the helper handle. If I'd put the hole through the tip I would have been cutting a slot in my helper handle.
 
If you clear the top of the log and use log rails the the chance of climbing debris is reduce.
thanks BobL good tip. i saw the way you rigged some of your cuts with 2 square tube on the cut suffice of the cut log = better debris clearance and glide.
 
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