coveredinsap
Addicted to ArboristSite
Part I of II
Considering the subject matter, this may be my first and last post here...so here goes nothing.
First let me start off by thanking everyone involved in this site for all the good information contained here. This site is a valuable resource for those looking to educate themselves on all things relating to trees and chainsaws. And while there is a fair amount of, er, 'bad' information, opinion and rhetoric here too... the good outweighs the bad, if only one takes the time to cull through it all. Again, there is much to be learned here.
This whole story started about a month ago when two things happened. The first being that my neighbor decided to tear down his old detached garage (which sits right on my property line), and build a new one in its place. The second thing was that someone decide to complain to the city about a tree that sits on my wooded lot and overhangs the aforementioned garage. The tree is a California incense cedar, about 100 feet tall. Over the past few years the top had started to die, probably due to construction done by another neighbor along the tree's drip edge, resulting in the removal of several of the tree's large roots. The end result of all this was that I received a letter from the city code enforcement requesting that I do something about the tree to mitigate the 'hazard'. We won't even get into the fact here that for being a purported 'tree friendly' city (did I mention that I'm located in Northern California?), I have never seen a more tree unfriendly group of neighbors (and city officials) in my life...and I've lived exclusively on wooded lots in a number of different states.
After discussing the entire situation with the wife, the city, and the neighbor, the decision was made to remove the tree (at a cost of $1125 to be paid by me of course), while it was easy to access now that the old garage had been removed and before the new one could be built. At the same time the decision was made that the fence along the property line shared with this very same neighbor needed to be replaced, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a 100' cedar tree contains more than enough useable wood to do the main section of fence that needed to be replaced. The problem was how to mill it.
Of course, trying to get someone with a portable mill to come and set up for one tree only in exchange for some of the wood was, to mildly put it, a joke. But there was another option. Have the tree service drop the trunk in 6 ft. sections, move them into my driveway (so that construction could start on the new garage) and mill them myself using a chainsaw mill.
By coincidence, the maker of the Alaskan log mill is located just south of us in Vallejo, CA...so I drove down and paid them a visit, acquiring in the process a Granberg International Alaskan Small Log Mill, and rip chain for my 3-year-old 45cc Homelite Timberman 18" chainsaw. (Very nice people at Granberg International by the way...and they make a fine product.)
http://www.granberg.com/chainsaw_mills.htm
After quartering the cedar logs (with a sledge and wedges) so that they could be more easily moved, I went to work with the Timberman 45cc and Alaskan mill, cutting the quarterd logs into 2" slabs so that they could be run thru a table saw and turned into 'grape stake' fencing material. After doing one quartered log with the saw, including a pass in which the entire 18" bar was completely buried in the log, I reluctantly came to the conclusion that I was likely going to smoke the saw before I got entirely done with the job. I have to say this, though...that little Homelite sure gave it a go, and more than pulled it's weight for the money I paid for it. Even after milling the log, the Homelite showed no signs of any negative effect for the experience, and continues to be a reliable, excellent running little saw.
I next poured over the chainsaw material available on the internet, hunted down some possible candidates and went to look at them, and finally decided that one of the midrange Stihl saws would be as good a choice as any. ( After all, we're only talking cedar here, it's not like I'm milling oak or walnut or other hardwoods.) So down to the local Stihl dealership I go. After talking with the salesman over what I intended to do with the saw, i.e. 'chainsaw milling', I decided on the Stihl MS390. Let me reiterate...I told the guy exactly what I intended to do with the saw, and he had no problem selling the saw to me for that purpose. One thing that disturbed me though about the entire 'dealership' experience was that the salesman then proceeded to take my brand new saw into the shop (I followed him) where he uncerimoniously tossed some gas and oil into it, put it down on the concrete floor, and started pulling. Once the saw fired up he held the tip of it a few inches above the concrete floor and red-lined it....flat out wide open, for about a minute. He then shut it off, handed it to me, and walked back into the showroom. And that was it. I later read in the manual that the saw was not to be run wide-open with no load until after break-in. Great...just great.
Looking back on it, there were a few clues as to what was in store for me later, the first being when I asked him whether the CalTrans yard next door bought saws from him. "No." "They use Husqvarna." And the second when I asked him why his prices seemed a little high. "You're paying extra for our service." Riiiiiight, I thought.
I must say that the Stihl MS390 seemed like a very nice saw, and appeared to cut well with the mill attachment, although it did seem to be a little weak on the low end, and required a little babying to get it up to speed whenever it started to bog down in a cut. This may have rectified itself after break-in, but I'll never know, as after only three passes thru the cedar (checking the saw and adjusting the chain each time between cuts), I noticed what appeared to be a crack in the Stihl's housing near the oil cap. Sure enough, upon closer examination, the housing was cracked. Needless to say, after paying $519 for the Stihl, and having it break after doing less work than the aforementioned Homelite Timberman 45cc, which was well under $200 and showed no ill effect from similar use...to say I was dissappointed would be an understatement. But it gets worse.
continued in Part II
Considering the subject matter, this may be my first and last post here...so here goes nothing.
First let me start off by thanking everyone involved in this site for all the good information contained here. This site is a valuable resource for those looking to educate themselves on all things relating to trees and chainsaws. And while there is a fair amount of, er, 'bad' information, opinion and rhetoric here too... the good outweighs the bad, if only one takes the time to cull through it all. Again, there is much to be learned here.
This whole story started about a month ago when two things happened. The first being that my neighbor decided to tear down his old detached garage (which sits right on my property line), and build a new one in its place. The second thing was that someone decide to complain to the city about a tree that sits on my wooded lot and overhangs the aforementioned garage. The tree is a California incense cedar, about 100 feet tall. Over the past few years the top had started to die, probably due to construction done by another neighbor along the tree's drip edge, resulting in the removal of several of the tree's large roots. The end result of all this was that I received a letter from the city code enforcement requesting that I do something about the tree to mitigate the 'hazard'. We won't even get into the fact here that for being a purported 'tree friendly' city (did I mention that I'm located in Northern California?), I have never seen a more tree unfriendly group of neighbors (and city officials) in my life...and I've lived exclusively on wooded lots in a number of different states.
After discussing the entire situation with the wife, the city, and the neighbor, the decision was made to remove the tree (at a cost of $1125 to be paid by me of course), while it was easy to access now that the old garage had been removed and before the new one could be built. At the same time the decision was made that the fence along the property line shared with this very same neighbor needed to be replaced, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a 100' cedar tree contains more than enough useable wood to do the main section of fence that needed to be replaced. The problem was how to mill it.
Of course, trying to get someone with a portable mill to come and set up for one tree only in exchange for some of the wood was, to mildly put it, a joke. But there was another option. Have the tree service drop the trunk in 6 ft. sections, move them into my driveway (so that construction could start on the new garage) and mill them myself using a chainsaw mill.
By coincidence, the maker of the Alaskan log mill is located just south of us in Vallejo, CA...so I drove down and paid them a visit, acquiring in the process a Granberg International Alaskan Small Log Mill, and rip chain for my 3-year-old 45cc Homelite Timberman 18" chainsaw. (Very nice people at Granberg International by the way...and they make a fine product.)
http://www.granberg.com/chainsaw_mills.htm
After quartering the cedar logs (with a sledge and wedges) so that they could be more easily moved, I went to work with the Timberman 45cc and Alaskan mill, cutting the quarterd logs into 2" slabs so that they could be run thru a table saw and turned into 'grape stake' fencing material. After doing one quartered log with the saw, including a pass in which the entire 18" bar was completely buried in the log, I reluctantly came to the conclusion that I was likely going to smoke the saw before I got entirely done with the job. I have to say this, though...that little Homelite sure gave it a go, and more than pulled it's weight for the money I paid for it. Even after milling the log, the Homelite showed no signs of any negative effect for the experience, and continues to be a reliable, excellent running little saw.
I next poured over the chainsaw material available on the internet, hunted down some possible candidates and went to look at them, and finally decided that one of the midrange Stihl saws would be as good a choice as any. ( After all, we're only talking cedar here, it's not like I'm milling oak or walnut or other hardwoods.) So down to the local Stihl dealership I go. After talking with the salesman over what I intended to do with the saw, i.e. 'chainsaw milling', I decided on the Stihl MS390. Let me reiterate...I told the guy exactly what I intended to do with the saw, and he had no problem selling the saw to me for that purpose. One thing that disturbed me though about the entire 'dealership' experience was that the salesman then proceeded to take my brand new saw into the shop (I followed him) where he uncerimoniously tossed some gas and oil into it, put it down on the concrete floor, and started pulling. Once the saw fired up he held the tip of it a few inches above the concrete floor and red-lined it....flat out wide open, for about a minute. He then shut it off, handed it to me, and walked back into the showroom. And that was it. I later read in the manual that the saw was not to be run wide-open with no load until after break-in. Great...just great.
Looking back on it, there were a few clues as to what was in store for me later, the first being when I asked him whether the CalTrans yard next door bought saws from him. "No." "They use Husqvarna." And the second when I asked him why his prices seemed a little high. "You're paying extra for our service." Riiiiiight, I thought.
I must say that the Stihl MS390 seemed like a very nice saw, and appeared to cut well with the mill attachment, although it did seem to be a little weak on the low end, and required a little babying to get it up to speed whenever it started to bog down in a cut. This may have rectified itself after break-in, but I'll never know, as after only three passes thru the cedar (checking the saw and adjusting the chain each time between cuts), I noticed what appeared to be a crack in the Stihl's housing near the oil cap. Sure enough, upon closer examination, the housing was cracked. Needless to say, after paying $519 for the Stihl, and having it break after doing less work than the aforementioned Homelite Timberman 45cc, which was well under $200 and showed no ill effect from similar use...to say I was dissappointed would be an understatement. But it gets worse.
continued in Part II
Most consumers would also just take off the mill and take it back so there was no question...
work cheap. You got the deal of the century, imho.
