Chain Saw Milling Speed?

[drivadesl]

Okay I picked up the sharpened chains and installed one. The stihl dealer says they sharpened them to 10D. These are 3/8X.050X114 Baileys ripping chains as installed.

I saddled up to a 20" chunk of oak, and let er rip, running square to the butt end which was angled upwards, allowing me to use the weight of the saw to apply downward pressure. I didn't time it, but I think it took maybe 10 seconds for the bar to bury itself 4" into the chunk. Wow what a difference. Applied only minimal force and it was better than expected. I didn't have to continue from there. This was a world of difference from my last milling experience so I have to believe it had to be a dull or nicked chain, or something with my setup however unlikely. I'll be going back to mill hopefully before New Years, so I'll check this out further, but this was a good sign for sure.

BTW Stoneykill, where in "upstate NY" are you? Orange county is about an hour north of NYC.

 

[stonykill]

Okay I picked up the sharpened chains and installed one. The stihl dealer says they sharpened them to 10D. These are 3/8X.050X114 Baileys ripping chains as installed.

I saddled up to a 20" chunk of oak, and let er rip, running square to the butt end which was angled upwards, allowing me to use the weight of the saw to apply downward pressure. I didn't time it, but I think it took maybe 10 seconds for the bar to bury itself 4" into the chunk. Wow what a difference. Applied only minimal force and it was better than expected. I didn't have to continue from there. This was a world of difference from my last milling experience so I have to believe it had to be a dull or nicked chain, or something with my setup however unlikely. I'll be going back to mill hopefully before New Years, so I'll check this out further, but this was a good sign for sure.

BTW Stoneykill, where in "upstate NY" are you? Orange county is about an hour north of NYC.

I'm 35 miles southeast of Albany, 5 miles from the mass border. 2 1/2 hours from NYC roughly. Take the sawmill to the taconic, Taconic to the end, I'm 5 miles from there.

Sounds like you got it right now. A dull chain will mill but PAINFULLY SLOW! Your milling experiences should be much better now. When milling oak, expect to touch up the chain a lot. Every few passes on the size you're milling. Oak dulls chain fast.

 

[woodshop]

Oh I just love happy endings...

 

[820wards]

I use Baileys chain exclusively. I haven't had any problems whatsoever with it, and I don't change the milling angles either. I've tried all the different mods to regular chain, and didn't see enough of an improvement over Baileys ripping chain to warrant the extra work. I would recomend Baileys chain. Good stuff.

Dustytools/Stonykill,

Thanks for the input. I like the idea of asking people who have used a product before I jump in with both feet and buy something I'll regret later. I think my local lawnmower shop has the Baileys brand ripper chain. I just looked at a 48" Black Oak at my buddys place yesterday that went down last year. The two main limbs are easily 34" in diameter. This tree is going to be a monster just get it cut into manageable pieces. It fell right across his rigging of his mine. Good thing he has a tractor/bulldoser...

jerry-

 

[820wards]

Bar Length?

I'm 35 miles southeast of Albany, 5 miles from the mass border. 2 1/2 hours from NYC roughly. Take the sawmill to the taconic, Taconic to the end, I'm 5 miles from there.

Sounds like you got it right now. A dull chain will mill but PAINFULLY SLOW! Your milling experiences should be much better now. When milling oak, expect to touch up the chain a lot. Every few passes on the size you're milling. Oak dulls chain fast.

What's the length of your bar?

jerry-

 

[zopi]

What's the length of your bar?

jerry-

isn't that a bit personal?:hmm3grin2orange:

sorry..my head would've exploded if i hadn't...:greenchainsaw:

 

[Matildasmate]

.050 bars

Can anyone tell me what the thickness is of a standard .050 bar

 

[820wards]

Can anyone tell me what the thickness is of a standard .050 bar

My .050" Cannon bar is .175" thick.

jerry-

 

[drivadesl]

What's the length of your bar?

jerry-

Figure's a question like that coming from someone outside of SFO!

 

[820wards]

Figure's a question like that coming from someone outside of SFO!

Real funny...

I live in a cowboy town way out side of SF dude so shelve that sort of talk!

jerry-
Retired @ 55
Married
Two kids
One Grandson

 

[Matildasmate]

My .050" Cannon bar is .175" thick.

jerry-

Thank's for your response mate .

 

[woodshop]

I'm jumping ship for round ground chisel skip

Spent the day milling slabs from the crotch of a huge sweetgum tree (395XP, 36 inch bar,.375/.063). I started with Bailey's milling chain but it dulled quickly and I threw on a brand new out of the box Oregon round ground chisel skip (75JGX). I gotta say, it milled through that gum much faster than brand new milling chain I been using (Baileys, think it's Carlton). Decided to use the csm instead of the Ripsaw for this one 12 inch wide crotch piece and I timed it out of curiosity. I was running down the cant between 2 and 3 seconds/inch, or about 27 seconds per foot. After milling eight 7ft boards (56 linear feet), it had slowed down to 34 seconds per foot (12" wide gum crotch). Yes the boards were not as smooth as with my milling chain, but not THAT much worse. Certainly not so bad that I'd need significantly more time on the planer, the surface was just a little rougher. I'd be willing to say though that it milled at least a third faster if not more, than milling chain.

I was so impressed that I'm not using milling chain anymore, I will stick to this round ground chisel skip (Oregon 75JGX) since it is so much faster. I have a 36 inch bar... if I were using a bar 20 inches or less 3/8LP might be faster, but I'd like to find out. This stuff rocked through 12 inch wide sweetgum like it was crosscutting.

...anybody wanna buy half a hundred ft roll of Baileys milling chain?????

 

[oldsaw]

I've got a loop of Stihl semi-chisel skip that I really like for milling. I've just got it somewhere between 7-10 degrees. It always has been a pretty fast chain.

Mark

 

[zopi]

Spent the day milling slabs from the crotch of a huge sweetgum tree

...anybody wanna buy half a hundred ft roll of Baileys milling chain?????

Didja get any pictures of the sweetgum crotch? got one out front that has been condemned by She Who Must Be Obeyed...

and no. :greenchainsaw: Been using off the shelf Stihl chain to mill with...no issues with it...gonna take one back to 10 deg or so eventually tho'

 

[woodshop]

Didja get any pictures of the sweetgum crotch? got one out front that has been condemned by She Who Must Be Obeyed...

Her is a pic of it... milled yesterday, I just ran it wet through the planer few times to check it out. Does have some interesting figure where the sapwood and heartwood intersect right through the crotch figure. I milled these 6/4 with the csm, and about 4 of the boards have as much figure as this, the rest have varying degrees of it and two have some bark inclusion. Milling crotch is always a crapshoot. Drying it without it splitting and cracking is yet another hurdle.

Actually, when it comes to milling crotch of logs, I like the figure right before you get to the actual crotch as it spreads out the rings in large arches, and makes beautiful cutting boards and such. Here is an example. Again, I just ran this through the planer a few times, it is still wet right off the saw from yesterday. Imagine how good this will look when it's cleaned off and oiled, without all the cutterhead marks from the planer spoiling the view.

 

[zopi]

Sweet! thanks! I have a big spalted (maple?) gotta look the tree up..crotch out back that I will saw soon..ought to be good...

sweetgum is almost a weed here..I can get it by the ton...heck, i've got
maybe 20 little ones that must be thinned for healthy growth in some of my bigger trees.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

My Dad and I have a "discussion" fairly often about sweetgum's value. With his background of logging in east Texas starting at the age of 9 (no kidding) he sees them as nothing more than weeds. However, just this last month, there was a dresser faced with sweetgum featured in the Readers Gallery section of Fine Woodworking magazine.

It's plentiful and easy to mill so I don't pass it up.

 

[zopi]

My Dad and I have a "discussion" fairly often about sweetgum's value. With his background of logging in east Texas starting at the age of 9 (no kidding) he sees them as nothing more than weeds. However, just this last month, there was a dresser faced with sweetgum featured in the Readers Gallery section of Fine Woodworking magazine.

It's plentiful and easy to mill so I don't pass it up.

kinda like cypress..it's a good softwood for alot of things...most of it winds up in fence panels and mulch piles...I'll take every scrap of it i can get.

>I< have barns to side. :greenchainsaw:

I love the depth of grain you get out of sweetgum...gonna do a little panelling with it soon, i hope.