Milling weekend with mystery tree

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Had a homeowner invite me to mill what I assumed was an Arizona ash in his backyard from a video he sent me, only to arrive to find it was something else but couldn't figure out right away what it was. It was also way way bigger than I'd thought. No grain to speak of, no real character beyond faintly elm-ish look, but guessed it was a hardwood as most large yard trees around here are. Came out to mill onsite more prepared than I'd ever been in the past - home built log jack, dolly, rollers, the 880 w 42" bar in my 36" mill and fresh .404 skip ripping chain, 056 Super (still only running for short periods of time) w 36" lo pro bar for trimming, Husky 455 w 18" bar for trimming, and Makita w small log mill and 20" lo pro bar for up to 17" logs. Have always hated trying to mill leftovers from a tree service job in a rush to get out of the homeowner's hair, with bad communication between tree service and homeowner about what my role was. I've learned the tree service guys charge a fair bit extra for disposal of large trees, so some homeowners opt to save a buck and have them leave it behind and see if they can give it away. Now my tree service contact gives them my card, they call me, I come out to mill with understanding I'm saving them money in return for disposing of the big parts of their tree, and everything works better and not rushed as much. But still like to get done as quickly as I can.

Had to trim the trunk a lot at crown and base to match waist width and get down to the 34" cutting width of my mill. Lot of prep work between that and jacking it up to a downhill angle, and jacking and moving other logs out of the way. Was steady slow cutting what I would expect for a hardwood, not helped by a small nail on the second slab but the .404 ate that up without even noticing it. My backup chain I had somehow sharpened so unevenly that it was veering off badly to one side and not cutting. Didn't dare try to field sharpen the other chain for fear of screwing up my only good chain so ended up doing the whole log with the same chain and never got that much duller that it was a problem. (Shoulda been a giveaway that it wasn't really hard wood.) About 8' long 9/4 slabs, extremely heavy. Real nice single piece dining table pieces, fairly uniform width. Too hot to get it all done first day, came back to 15 degree cooler Sunday and finished it, then lo pro milled a couple of the other logs.

Was only on way home at end of Sunday looking at one set of leaves that I identified it. Heart kinda sunk. One of the big eastern cottonwoods a lot of people call junk. Surprised it didn't mill faster, soft as they are, but I need to go over my 880, it's been a bit gutless lately. I ended up putting the 36" lo pro bar on my 64cc Makita for the larger of the other logs I did, consistent 20-21", and both that and the small log mill setup just flew through the logs I did with them. Didn't stress the Makita at all, like 3-4 minute cuts at most. Makes me wonder why I mill with anything but lo pro, but don't have anything for bigger than 27" cuts right now in lo pro, nor do I have my 045/056 Super rebuilds working right yet. Plus I can virtually guarantee metal in big yard trunks and would rather hit it with .404 chains than my expensive lo pro ripping chains which would get torn up a lot worse.

After reading up more on cottonwood though, don't feel as bad about all the effort, it's one of those trees that aren't nearly as worthless as everyone makes out. Just hard to dry because of how dimensionally unstable it is, but no worse than red oak and people don't gripe about it nearly as much. Weird that it's technically called a hardwood when it's as soft as redwood, but guess it's stronger than most wood its weight. Big slab dining tables still sell for top dollar so it can be finished out fairly well. Seems like it would be good for mantels too because not as impossibly heavy as my usual oak/pecan/mesquite is in 4-6" thickness.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Getting to my limits of what I can handle without help. These slabs were some beasts to move around solo - mill onsite, stack onsite, load to truck, bring home, unload, restack on back patio. Don't have all the straps on yet and going to switch up how I have other pieces stacked on top of the main trunk for the moment, but have them well stickered.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Think I know why the new .404 chain didn't mill faster. I was trimming some of the slabs with my Big Foot saw which was bogging down some and I realized it's because there's so much water in this cottonwood. The sawdust is really clumpy and doesn't clear well. I figured there wouldn't be any downside to milling particularly wet trees - I mean how hard is it to cut water lol - but hadn't thought about the effect it would have on the sawdust/chips. That's where the clearing ability of .404 (and skip) is offset by the sheer volume of wet sawdust .404 creates. And why lo pro worked so well, because it creates so much less.

 

[Aviacs]

Never saw that as lumber.
From this distance, it's interesting to me that the grain looks a lot like mahogany.
Not as dark or red, but that's good.
I'd certainly not complain about using it for some sort of furniture.
Something that shows off the full wide boards.

smt

 

[buzz sawyer]

Had a homeowner invite me to mill what I assumed was an Arizona ash in his backyard from a video he sent me, only to arrive to find it was something else but couldn't figure out right away what it was. It was also way way bigger than I'd thought. No grain to speak of, no real character beyond faintly elm-ish look, but guessed it was a hardwood as most large yard trees around here are. Came out to mill onsite more prepared than I'd ever been in the past - home built log jack, dolly, rollers, the 880 w 42" bar in my 36" mill and fresh .404 skip ripping chain, 056 Super (still only running for short periods of time) w 36" lo pro bar for trimming, Husky 455 w 18" bar for trimming, and Makita w small log mill and 20" lo pro bar for up to 17" logs. Have always hated trying to mill leftovers from a tree service job in a rush to get out of the homeowner's hair, with bad communication between tree service and homeowner about what my role was. I've learned the tree service guys charge a fair bit extra for disposal of large trees, so some homeowners opt to save a buck and have them leave it behind and see if they can give it away. Now my tree service contact gives them my card, they call me, I come out to mill with understanding I'm saving them money in return for disposing of the big parts of their tree, and everything works better and not rushed as much. But still like to get done as quickly as I can.

Had to trim the trunk a lot at crown and base to match waist width and get down to the 34" cutting width of my mill. Lot of prep work between that and jacking it up to a downhill angle, and jacking and moving other logs out of the way. Was steady slow cutting what I would expect for a hardwood, not helped by a small nail on the second slab but the .404 ate that up without even noticing it. My backup chain I had somehow sharpened so unevenly that it was veering off badly to one side and not cutting. Didn't dare try to field sharpen the other chain for fear of screwing up my only good chain so ended up doing the whole log with the same chain and never got that much duller that it was a problem. (Shoulda been a giveaway that it wasn't really hard wood.) About 8' long 9/4 slabs, extremely heavy. Real nice single piece dining table pieces, fairly uniform width. Too hot to get it all done first day, came back to 15 degree cooler Sunday and finished it, then lo pro milled a couple of the other logs.

Was only on way home at end of Sunday looking at one set of leaves that I identified it. Heart kinda sunk. One of the big eastern cottonwoods a lot of people call junk. Surprised it didn't mill faster, soft as they are, but I need to go over my 880, it's been a bit gutless lately. I ended up putting the 36" lo pro bar on my 64cc Makita for the larger of the other logs I did, consistent 20-21", and both that and the small log mill setup just flew through the logs I did with them. Didn't stress the Makita at all, like 3-4 minute cuts at most. Makes me wonder why I mill with anything but lo pro, but don't have anything for bigger than 27" cuts right now in lo pro, nor do I have my 045/056 Super rebuilds working right yet. Plus I can virtually guarantee metal in big yard trunks and would rather hit it with .404 chains than my expensive lo pro ripping chains which would get torn up a lot worse.

After reading up more on cottonwood though, don't feel as bad about all the effort, it's one of those trees that aren't nearly as worthless as everyone makes out. Just hard to dry because of how dimensionally unstable it is, but no worse than red oak and people don't gripe about it nearly as much. Weird that it's technically called a hardwood when it's as soft as redwood, but guess it's stronger than most wood its weight. Big slab dining tables still sell for top dollar so it can be finished out fairly well. Seems like it would be good for mantels too because not as impossibly heavy as my usual oak/pecan/mesquite is in 4-6" thickness.

A local axe/hatchet throwing business uses cottonwood for the targets because it is so soft.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Never saw that as lumber.
From this distance, it's interesting to me that the grain looks a lot like mahogany.
Not as dark or red, but that's good.
I'd certainly not complain about using it for some sort of furniture.
Something that shows off the full wide boards.

smt

It's interesting how much the bad reputation about warping/cracking has kept it from being used much, but everyone I see who ignored that and dried it properly had pretty good luck with creating nice furniture from it. Just like anything, people stick with what they know which often isn't much and never try to learn much about alternatives. There's a very hard southern "rock elm" called cedar elm we have a lot of in Texas, which is one of my favorite hardwoods, and no commercial market for it at all so very few woodworkers know much about it. It's kind of up to the guys who are both millers and woodworkers to show what can be done with all kinds of different woods. Always found the same deal with fishing, seafood chefs who aren't fishermen don't know how to prepare a whole lot but standard offerings. And fishermen who can't cook aren't going to change anyone's minds about what's good lol.

 

[buzz sawyer]

It's interesting how much the bad reputation about warping/cracking has kept it from being used much, but everyone I see who ignored that and dried it properly had pretty good luck with creating nice furniture from it. Just like anything, people stick with what they know which often isn't much and never try to learn much about alternatives. There's a very hard southern "rock elm" called cedar elm we have a lot of in Texas, which is one of my favorite hardwoods, and no commercial market for it at all so very few woodworkers know much about it. It's kind of up to the guys who are both millers and woodworkers to show what can be done with all kinds of different woods. Always found the same deal with fishing, seafood chefs who aren't fishermen don't know how to prepare a whole lot but standard offerings. And fishermen who can't cook aren't going to change anyone's minds about what's good lol.

Not to hijack this thread but - Same can be said of Ailanthus/Tree of Heaven. It was brough here around 200 years ago and actually makes a good secondary furniture wood. I've turned some items with it and they look great. Also seems to be pretty stable.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Not to hijack this thread but - Same can be said of Ailanthus/Tree of Heaven. It was brough here around 200 years ago and actually makes a good secondary furniture wood. I've turned some items with it and they look great. Also seems to be pretty stable.

More thoughts on overlooked woods the merrier. Didn't know any of that about ailanthus, but seems it actually dries as hard as white oak. Dimensional stability ratio is the same too, though shrinks more overall. Unlike the even density of white oak though it's regarded as difficult to dry because it grows so fast there's a lot of difference between inner and outer wood. Sounds like same deal as cottonwood in that regard, just need to sticker stack it well and strap the hell out of it. Grows insanely fast too and considered an invasive so a good species to harvest as much of as possible. Something like that growing on my dad's back four acres of pine scrub in Florida, an Australian invasive called earleaf acacia that reproduces like wildfire. A grove of large trees has grown in less than 20 years, I've been killing the new trees fast as I can across the property to keep it isolated and preserve the native habitat, and am planning on taking all the big ones down soon and milling them. Not much woodworking info on it but seems very hard like most acacias, just dimensionally unstable like most really fast growing hardwoods. Sprawling tree too so hard to get straight logs of any length. Better suited for turning in that regard, which is mostly what it's used for apparently when worked.

 

[cluelessmontana]

i love this thread, wish i could figure out how to make the switch to lo pro on my huskies. Actually thinking about picking up an 056 super/mag2 locally just so i can do exactly what you are doing. where in texas are u at? im in montana now but i go back to san antonio often and might move back full time

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

i love this thread, wish i could figure out how to make the switch to lo pro on my huskies. Actually thinking about picking up an 056 super/mag2 locally just so i can do exactly what you are doing. where in texas are u at? im in montana now but i go back to san antonio often and might move back full time

I'm in San Antonio by the airport right off 281. What Huskies are you running? My rebuilt Stihl Supers are still refusing my best attempts to keep them working. The 045 Super with the original ignition and Foggysail capacitor fix from this site, that I was trying to use on the cottonwood job, still seems to have a failing ignition that overheats and quits til it cools. The 056 Super I thought I had tuned up and running well the other day crosscutting, put it in the mill a day later and it wouldn't start. The aftermarket ignition from Germany has some bad wire connections on it that keep partially breaking again just when I think I have it sorted, and the spark goes too weak for it to start. People with solid working 056 Super/Mags love them to death, but mine have been never ending headaches due to trouble maintaining working ignitions in them.

Run any questions by me you want about lo pro setups - I've kinda made myself the unofficial ambassador for milling w it in the US. I've got a couple of extra new 36" GB bars I'm willing to sell too I ordered from the UK. I know where to get lo pro sprockets of nearly any type, and you can get inexpensive lo pro ripping chain from Baileys. The only thing I've had trouble with to date is getting a K095 mount lo pro bar for my 455 Ranchers. Otherwise any Husky over 60cc - which is the same D009 mount of my Makita 64cc I use a lot - will take the 12mm Stihl mount bars I have with an adapter to 9mm Husky mount. I just ran my 64cc Makita with the 36" bar through some ash stumps to make some 4" x 27-29" x 24" blocks and with new chain the Makita didn't struggle in the least with 28-29" wide hardwood cuts, maxing out the milling capacity of my 36" bar, until I hit a nail and dulled it instantly. No chain damage though.

Lo pro just takes SO much less power to run than regular chain. And such bandsaw-like smooth cuts. Still trying to find the cons of using it, but haven't really yet. The arguments against it have always been that theoretically it stretches, breaks, or is damaged more easily. None of them have proved true to me yet. If you really overtorque it w too powerful a saw you can manage to break it, I'm sure, as some people not used to working with it do. (So far mostly heard about that when people have tried to run some of the largest lo pro bars available on an 880, but that's kind of a ridiculous usage of it.) Stretch hasn't been a problem. And when you hit nails or metal while milling, you tend to do so in such a gradual way that it just dulls the teeth instantly, it doesn't break teeth and shred the chain. What I've found counters what people always thought were the weaknesses of lo pro is that it encounters such little resistance and mills so easily that there's a fraction of the stresses on it there are on larger chains, so it doesn't stretch any more than regular chain does and doesn't need to be nearly as strong.

 

[cluelessmontana]

I lived in King William district downtown right by Blue Star. I'm 38 and had never touched a chainsaw till i moved to Montana in August of last year and now I can't stop. I've lived in texas most of my life, houston, fredericksburg, san antonio, but i've never seen those huge mesquite trees that people get slabs out of. Only small ones with annoying needles on them that tear you up. What hardwoods do you come across that might be big money slabs? just live oak? If i ever go back I'd love to help you out just to learn a thing or two. I'm certain there is a way to turn chainsaw milling into a profitable business model down there because i've never seen anyone doing it and there is plenty of big oak. I have a husqvarna 555 (detuned 562xp w/ the small bar mount) and a 460 rancher. I bought the rancher when I didn't know anything about saws and just needed a saw bigger than the MS180 that i first bought. The ms180 actually runs lo pro and mills ~7 inch logs just as well as the 460 rancher running normal 3/8. All my trees up here are softwood coniferous pines and firs, so I don't really have a need for a bigger saw other than for milling. Most of my trees are under 2 feet thick. I watch a youtube channel of a guy that mills with a 261 which uses .325 narrow kerf and his 261 definitely mills faster than my 555, so i know the gains from the thinner chain are significant

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

Wood here in SA is a bit of a struggle to obtain. Mesquite is mostly a scrubby nightmare and quality big mesquites are a bit of a unicorn. I lucked into a small time developer down by Calaveras Lake clearing a ton of mesquite off some farmland he had, he was selling it to firewood crews but liked what I was doing with milling and let me take whatever I wanted for free. Otherwise I've gotten a few big mesquite yard trees in the past year. I look at the boards the local bandsaw mill guys sell out in places like Comfort, Boerne, Luling, etc and so much of what they offer are the scrappiest looking uneven flawed planks, I'm like, who would buy that to make anything with? But it's the whole "Texas rustic" market, slap legs on it and call it a table. Really nice slabs to make high end furniture with which I'm trying to do are a lot less common. I had to pay upward of $20 a board foot in Floresville a couple years ago for really nicely planed de-barked quality 10' long 5/4 mesquite boards to do an exotic mesquite waterfall desk from for a client in California, cause I couldn't find any mesquite remotely straight for that length to mill myself.

The native habitat doesn't produce a lot of great milling trees here compared to E/NE Texas. I'm mainly in the urban salvage "treecycling" game, so that opens up the field a bit more to yard trees like Arizona ash, varieties of oaks, occasional huge cedar elms, pecans, and cottonwoods, etc. A lot of those are native, but you don't find good ones available much outside of yards. Massive big money slabs are extremely rare here, live oak is about the only truly huge trunk you'll find to slab, and you pretty much need a crane to deal with big live oak slabs. A small live oak coffee table weighs 80 pounds. The cottonwood was the largest consistent width trunk I've milled yet, 32-34". A white oak from last year I'm starting to work the slabs from now was next best, 30-32". For single slab formally trimmed high dollar dining tables, you kinda need 37-40" slabs to create a dining table 34-36" wide. That's what massive straight northern trees are way better at providing. What I do is a lot of creative woodworking with entry/side/coffee tables and cutting/charcuterie/knife racks/etc, and don't make many full size dining tables. Starting to develop my joining abilities more though, so will start doing more full size tables out of two 18-24" wide slabs. The bandsaw guys outside of town are a bit difficult to compete with if you just want to sell slabs, because most trees around here can fit the average bandsaw mill, and everyone's jumped on bandsaw milling in the past few years as much as chainsaw milling has exploded. There's a guy in Bulverde I've bought some cedar elm slabs from who sells fresh cut green slabs of all kinds of woods dirt cheap and seems to be able to cut any width w his bandsaw. But there does seem maybe a niche to be filled in town, because just about no one inside of 1604 is milling wood for sale. I do only very occasional salvage milling around town, but there's great interest in what I do every time I do it because people haven't seen it before. The guy who had the cottonwood told me he'd heard about me from other people aside from my tree service contact, I have no idea how, cause I thought aside from my two tree service contacts no one knows I exist lol.

So yeah, you have a pair of K095 mounts. GB actually does make their lo pro bars in 28" and 36" K095 lo pro mounts, which would get you 22" and 30" milling cuts. The 28" would be a great bar for those saws, particularly in pine, you could fly through it. You can get a whole lo pro setup from chainsawbars in the UK for those saws with free shipping, $270 for a lo pro rim sprocket, 28" GB bar, and two 3/8" lo pro ripping chains to match. More expensive than conventional 3/8" to be sure, but lets you mill easily with your existing saws which most people will tell you are too small to seriously mill with without burning them out. Milling w lo pro won't strain them at all. https://www.chainsawbars.co.uk/prod...g-bar-kit-3-8-lo-pro-050-92-drive-links-copy/

 

[cluelessmontana]

i forgot all about pecan, thats everywhere in the hill country area and san antonio. never really seen any big pecan slab furniture but i'm sure it exists. seems like you could cheat your way to a full width dining room table w/ epoxy pour pretty easily, but thats another skillset to learn. I dunno that i;ve ever encountered a high end furniture maker that is also doing the sawyer part o the work. how the heck do u have any free time??

I'm not sure my 555 could pull a 28 or 36 inch bar through even these softwoods. Maybe with a lo pro skip it could do the 28, its only 4.4 hp if i recall correctly. if I stay here i will be getting a more powerful saw for sure just for time saving reasons, but aside from milling there is no reason for me to do so as I can do all tree work with my current saws so I will likely get something under the 100cc limit of lo pro. lots of 066 and 660 for sale locally in the 700 dollar range so I will probably do that. By locally i mean... within a 3 hour drive or so. There is nothing truly locally to me out here. I'm done with husqvarna because there is no local mechanics that work one them in a timely manner. The dealership sends them off several hours south and the quickest i've gotten a saw back was 4 weeks. The one local "husqvarna mechanic" has had my 555 for over a month now to replace the igition coil, so I'm just done. The hardware store has 2 certified stihl mechanics on staff that do all the work in store as well as have replacement parts on hand.

King William district down town is full of huge old growth trees, I'm sure alamo heights, beacon hill, and the areas around woodlawn lake are fairly similar. Just gotta find the yards with big dead ones and figure something out.

 

[Seachaser]

The problem with pecan is most have a short trunk. You could mill limbs, but they are pretty twisted.

 

[cluelessmontana]

the biggest log i milled was 16 inches wide with the 555 and it took about 20 minutes to do a 12 foot plank, 20 minutes each pass through, so 40 minutes for that first plank. I even switched to a freshly sharpened chain and it made no difference. https://postimg.cc/gallery/V1Ry98Z milled all the boards for those stairs and that enclosed room except for the 2 reclaimed middle support posts on the stairs. Also in the pictures is about 1/10th of the logs i have on the ground around the property. Probably makes sense to get a bandsaw mill but I dont have a way to move the logs to it, I dragged all of those with my own 2 legs and only because it was a downhill trip. Chainsaw milling lets me go to the logs relatively easily and can just load the planks into the subaru forester.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

You could do a 12' long 16" wide pine plank with the 555 and lo pro in 10 minutes easy, probably less. I'm nearly pulling a foot per minute with my 64cc Makita w fresh chain in 28" wide ash which is seriously hard. (Not something I'd advise, but for the short blocks/slabs I'm doing, it's working fine and no stress on the saw.) The 555 could pull a 28" lo pro bar no problem, as you're only getting max cut of 22" in a mill. The main reason for moving up to a larger Stihl is greater bar compatibility, never any lack of power for all kinds of bigger jobs, and the bigger the saw the better the oiler for running 28-42" bars without needing an aux oiler. A 660 for $700 would be well worth the investment. And I do have a 36" lo pro bar I can sell you for it should you get one, and hope to start making relatively inexpensive chain loops from Archer lo pro ripping chain rolls soon. The Woodland Pro LP ripping chain from Bailey's is unfortunately seriously flawed chain, the length of the teeth is wildly inconsistent. Thought I just got one bad order I returned, but someone else I was just talking to found the same problem in the chain they got from them. I also have the Granberg G777 open ended mill which allows a max bar of 20" but since it's open ended you get about a max 17" cut from it. It's great for planking softwoods like pine, and you can run much smaller bar and chain and still get a decent width cut. Still have to order the GB bar setup from the UK though because no one here sells a 20" solid body lo pro bar to match that mill. I didn't realize how little power lo pro needed, so got the Stihl mount adapted for my Makita 64cc rather than a K095 mount for my Husky 455's. I may yet get another 20" bar in a K095 mount so I can dedicate that little mill to one of my Husky's. Super light and easy to use setup and great for doing softwood planks in the field.

Everything down here is cursed by being short trunks before the crown/crotch. Sycamore is one of the few big straight trees you'll find. Occasionally you'll get some massive straight pecans, but they crown pretty early for the most part. Live oak is short trunk too, and so is Arizona ash. All about shorter sprawling trees in south Texas, big tall straight ones aside from cypress - another unicorn of ever getting a shot at one - are nearly nonexistent. I usually tell my tree guys I only want the trunk, nothing else. Limbs are rarely of use to me for milling.

I got a massive cedar elm from a backyard in Terrell Heights a few years back downed in a storm. Rich lady homeowner who lived in a bathrobe and seemed like the type zoned out on Valium most of the day. Was a headache of a job because didn't have my gear dialed in, was pre-lo pro days, hitting nails and dulling chain with my big saw and .404, and took way too long. She was getting irritated how long I was there lol and my tree service guy who had dropped it didn't communicate real well what my role was in things, that I didn't work for him. The cottonwood job was actually the first time I went with a mess of saws, chains, and options, and though it was fairly efficient, even still it didn't work out as well as it should have cause the Stihl 045 Super didn't work well enough to use more than brief few minutes at a time, and the big 780 with .404 was way slower than it should have been on the main trunk. So after the main trunk it fell mostly all to the 64cc Makita and lo pro to do the rest.

 

[cluelessmontana]

thanks for the https://www.chainsawbars.co.uk/chainsawbars-selector/ link you posted. they have the sprocket i need but they are sold out of the 20" bar which is what i would want for all my milling here. they do have a 24" though so i might go that route.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

thanks for the https://www.chainsawbars.co.uk/chainsawbars-selector/ link you posted. they have the sprocket i need but they are sold out of the 20" bar which is what i would want for all my milling here. they do have a 24" though so i might go that route.

Feel free to email Rob the owner any questions or any single things he might have unlisted - he's super knowledgeable and helped me from screwing up by second guessing correctly what I wanted when I tried to order a 20" demo bar setup in a Stihl or Husky large mount for my Husky 455 that I was going to use an adapter for. You can't adapt anything to a Husky K095 small mount. The tail of the K095 is too narrow and nothing matches up with oil holes or anything. He told me I needed the K095 mount bar they sold, which I hadn't realized to that point that they carried.

 

[cluelessmontana]

I'm nearly pulling a foot per minute with my 64cc Makita w fresh chain in 28" wide ash which is seriously hard.

thats is really impressive. I wouldnt have even tried with that saw. there are plenty of videos of bigger saws struggling with ash tho I'm sure they are using 404

i also use the G777 though mine was never truly square/plumb from the factory. when i make boards over 10 inches or so, one side is always thicker than the other by at least an 1/8th of an inch. I'll upgrade to a mill that holds both ends of the bar when I upgrade to a better saw. I would love to find a way to turn chainsaw milling into a viable business. I've been doing it almost everyday for half a year and love it. Looking for any reason to get back to texas because the -40F winters here are brutal and its just too much work for 1 person to be doing everything like I am. I destroyed my husqvarna 460 rancher oiler gear in 4 months from purchasing brand new with milling, I'm not sure I would recommend milling with the rancher series but u know more than I do. they said it was because I was using canola oil instead of bar oil out in the sub zero temperatures.

i will get a more powerful saw, just not sure when or what. been waiting for a really good deal to pop up.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

thats is really impressive. I wouldnt have even tried with that saw. there are plenty of videos of bigger saws struggling with ash tho I'm sure they are using 404

i will get a more powerful saw, just not sure when or what. been waiting for a really good deal to pop up.

I get the too much work for one person part. I've got the better part of 20 years on you, am still in great shape and a big guy, but man this gets to be a chore sometimes the stuff I deal with solo. Learned a lot of bits of creative engineering to save my body, but still no getting around using brute force a lot of the time. And yeah, slabbing and woodworking can be too much for one person, but the slabbing is pretty infrequent actually. Most of the time I'm processing slabs in some form - planing, trimming, etc - or building projects. Doesn't take many slabbing jobs to build up a huge wood arsenal.

I have had that issue with the G777, uneven boards. At first I found I'd put the inside post too close to the powerhead and it causes the mill to sit a little cockeyed to the chainsaw bar. But in bigger boards if there's any resistance at all in cutting (really hard wood or not that sharp a chain) the bar will always want to wander a little out of level. 1/8" isn't that bad off, but you'd rather it not be. I have to admit I've gotten away from the G777 more because of not trusting its results. See it more as a dimensional board cutter, best for wood between 6-10" wide. Kinda why I've always questioned how well the Logosol mills can work that don't have outer end support, but I guess they all do now.

Definitely wouldn't recommend milling a lot with the Ranchers, they're a consumer not a pro saw. Decent for a stopgap til you get something better, but I imagine the kind of use you're putting them through (without lo pro) is way too taxing on them. I don't want to sound like a snake oil salesman, I've not done enough side by side comparison to say anything with authority (plus I've seen a lot of folks make the most ridiculous claims about the speed they mill at with 3/8" and .404) but every time I mill, I'm just amazed at how fast lo pro chain mills and how easily (and the finish puts thicker chain to shame). I can put new .404 chain on my 121cc Stihl and not go as fast through 28" ash as I can with the 64cc Makita and lo pro. I couldn't believe how slow my big Stihl w new .404 went thru that soft cottonwood because of how wet it was. I quit an FB forum I got so tired of the blowhards claiming no one should mill anything with less than a 90cc saw, and that bigger everything was always better. No comprehension or interest in the possibilities of LP chain at all. As most Texas trees tend toward being the most extreme of American hardwoods, I got some valuable advice on here years ago about narrower kerf chain being almost always preferable in serious hardwoods - just like thin kerf circular saw blades cutting easier, etc. While you can make do as I am with 64cc in the short term, I do think 79-92cc saws are the ideal for lo pro because of better oiling and running all day without any stress at all on them. Above 92cc and you risk the saw being too torque-y and breaking chains. I would move to at least an 8 tooth LP sprocket in larger saws, if not even a 9 or 10 tooth. Increases chain speed, lowers torque. You have way more torque than you need/want for lo pro in 90cc saws, so better just to spin chain faster and diminish torque.