Bad Milling Day.

[dustytools]

Well I had hoped to have some pics to show on here tonight but things didnt turn out as planned. My friend from work had a 26" Oak that we started milling today but we ran into a lot of rot and bug-caves. The lower end of the log showed some signs of cracking with a lot of moisture present. It wasnt a total loss though as we still ended up having a nice day to cut it and some cherry up for firewood and I got to try out the mini-mill on the Oak log. Oh well, you win some and lose some I guess. BTW, I really like the mini-mill.

 

[oldsaw]

A bad day milling is still better than a good day at work. Kind of like fishing.

I had a bad day last time I was milling. Bunch of rot in the logs.

Mark

 

[dustytools]

I agree Mark. It wasnt a total loss though as my buddy still ended up with a few 1 1/4"X 21"X8' slabs that he will get a little usable wood from. Best part was that I had the pleasure of playing with chainsaws all day.

 

[Ianab]

I hate that.. get lined up to mill a nice looking log, open it up and find it's just bugs holding hands thats keeping it together

Still beats going to work at the office though

Cheers

Ian

 

[Wismer]

To all you CSMers:

I have a LM2000, but at the cottage there is tons of maple to salvage from a windstorm last summer. (up to 30'' diameter) How practical is it to use a CSM to half or quater (if necessary) these logs so I can transport them with an ATV. If anyone could provide some basic CSM knowledge like how often do i have to sharpen a chain? How slow does a CSM move? etc etc.



Thanks alot


Craig

 

[woodshop]

To all you CSMers:

I have a LM2000, but at the cottage there is tons of maple to salvage from a windstorm last summer. (up to 30'' diameter) How practical is it to use a CSM to half or quater (if necessary) these logs so I can transport them with an ATV. If anyone could provide some basic CSM knowledge like how often do i have to sharpen a chain? How slow does a CSM move? etc etc.
Craig

Not to derail Dusty's thread... as I too share his pain of packing the van and heading out to a log somewhere, and after a frustrating day, going home with exactly everything I came with minus some mix and bar oil, and nothing more. As was said though... I enjoy just firing up my saws and milling. Lumber is just the icing on the cake.

To answer your question... there was a recent thread all about how fast a csm will slice through various wood with various combos of chain etc. As to whether it is practical??? Sure is if that's the only way to get the log to your mill. In my case recently, I scored 6 osage orange logs, the pic below (not the two large poplars in middle)...

...but couldn't mill them there so sliced them up into manageable chunks and cants with a csm as you are contemplating, and hauled them a ton at a time in my van to my driveway where I can mill them on my time. To give you an idea... that pile of logs above, about 8000 lbs worth, about 1200 bd ft, took approx 10 hours (not counting transportation time) to get to the pile in the pic below. I bucked about half of it into 5 and 6ft lengths with a few left at 7ft but sliced in half with csm so easier to get them into van. Even then, some of the 7ft halves were over 1000 lbs. each.

 

[wdchuck]

impossible.

There is no such thing as a bad day milling,
dull chains,
broken bands,
lack of fuel,

nope,

still ain't a bad day milling.

 

[wdchuck]

Woodshop, that osage looks the same as the mulberry on my place, the yellow hue that is.

 

[Trigger-Time]

]

...but couldn't mill them there so sliced them up into manageable chunks and cants with a csm as you are contemplating, and hauled them a ton at a time in my van to my driveway where I can mill them on my time. To give you an idea... that pile of logs above, about 8000 lbs worth, about 1200 bd ft, took approx 10 hours (not counting transportation time) to get to the pile in the pic below. I bucked about half of it into 5 and 6ft lengths with a few left at 7ft but sliced in half with csm so easier to get them into van. Even then, some of the 7ft halves were over 1000 lbs. each.

Woodshop, Osage is the hardest and heaviest wood in our parts, that
I know of. Is their a harder or heaver wood in your area?

 

[dustytools]

There is no such thing as a bad day milling,
dull chains,
broken bands,
lack of fuel,

nope,

still ain't a bad day milling.

Yup, you're exactly right. Just wasnt as good as I was expecting. I still had fun and it was a gorgeous day!:chainsawguy:

 

[woodshop]

Yup, you're exactly right. Just wasnt as good as I was expecting. I still had fun and it was a gorgeous day!:chainsawguy:

Not much you can do about windshake, rot or critters in the log, but over the years I've at least tried to keep the equipment side of the equation from ruining the milling day. I always carry 2 spare milling chains, various select spare nuts and bolts for the csm... various spare parts for my saw and of course extra files. Hit some serous metal and your chain will take more than a light going over to sharpen. On a 36 inch bar it doesn't take long to toast a brand new file, so I take several because I'm lazy and hate sharpening by hand with less than a real sharp file. This is still a last resort though, because first line of defense is throw on one of the spare chains.