Chinese v Alaskan or Grandburg mill

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Brendo

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Hi, ive got a smaller Chinese mill and about to go to an 880 and much larger bar size. wondering if its worth spending the extra money on a genuine mill ?
 
I'm in the process of doing the same upgrade... I have enough bits & pieces lying around that I'll probably build my next one.
My experience with the Chinese mills has been that most the bolts etc needed replacing & several parts needed tweaking to make it serviceable.
A few hours of work & a few dollars on parts to pay half the price... But all said & done, in the end the Grandberg will overall be better quality
 
I started out with a 30" mill of theirs and when i needed to go bigger, i didn't want to spend the money on buying their 60" mill so i built one using 80/20 like they use, then i bought a few of the granberg parts, so i could have a 30" and a 60" mill. But that was before i got a Logosol F2+ now that i use my Logosol F2+ 95% of the time. but i keep smaller granberg just incase.
 
I'm in the process of doing the same upgrade... I have enough bits & pieces lying around that I'll probably build my next one.
My experience with the Chinese mills has been that most the bolts etc needed replacing & several parts needed tweaking to make it serviceable.
A few hours of work & a few dollars on parts to pay half the price... But all said & done, in the end the Grandberg will overall be better quality

Logosol F2+
the logosol does look great. loading the logs would me my issue. I need to cut on the ground
 
So the difference between the Chinese copycat and the OEM Alaskan is that the main fixture brackets are cnc milled aluminum - not pressure molded. It means your bar is forced straight when clamped - or in to an "S" shape because of the "way off" angles on the pressure molded fixtures.
Both does the job, I'd prefer the cnc'ed fixtures with the correct 90 degree angles.
Pressure molded looks like this:
RIMG0353.JPG
CNC'ed looks like this:
RIMG0354.JPG

Another perhaps equally important difference is the bar clamp.
The bar clamp on the knockoff is simply two pieces of metal - clamping on to each side of the bar.
The Alaskan have a single ball bearing ball at the end of the clamp bolts that actually forces a grove in to the bar when tightened to make a firm grip.
My Alaskan is a single fixture mini mill - only attached to the bar root with one single attachment. You just try to imagine what happens if that single root clamp gives way when my 82,5cc 460 runs at 9000rpm when I'm on my knees behind the saw with the bar at stomach height.
 
I just had a look at the Granberg website and I think it might only be the "one clamp" minimill that have the super clamp with penetrating clamp bolts.

Anyway I took a couple of pictures of the knockoff that I think is worth mentioning:
If you look closely at this picture you will see the standard square steel profiles at the clamp is bent because of the bolt pressure. Using some thick and large washers here as a reinforcement might be a good idea.
RIMG0365.JPG vs the Granberg: RIMG0374.JPG

At this joint between the molded cross section stations and the aluminum profile beams that makes up the length of the mill attachment, you can see that I have used some epoxy to mold a better seat angle so that the vertical parts are at 90 degrees. Obviously its not necessary to do anything about it but your bar will technically be forced in to an "S" shape lengthwise as the vertical parts are not 90 degrees. It might not be much or even visible, but its there.
RIMG0377.JPG RIMG0378.JPG
 
I think if you just wants to try milling some trunk and the cost is important, then the knockoff will do basically the same job. However, if this is a hobby you enjoy and will continue to enjoy then the Granberg will make it a little more enjoyable.

You can also expand it later with addons such as quick clamps for the thickness (height) adjustment, and roller brackets that will make life easier:
https://www.granberg.com/product-category/alaskan-mill/add-ons/quick-release-clamp/https://www.granberg.com/product-category/alaskan-mill/add-ons/roller-brackets/Quick-Release-Clamp-copy-300x300.jpg Roller-bracket-3-300x300.jpg
 
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