Mini Mill vs mkIII

[Sawdustmaker]

I am looking forward to getting into milling, and had a few questions about Alaskan mills. I will be milling a wide variety of log sizes mostly smaller than 36" and plan to buy a large mill and a small mill. I would either buy the small log mill now and later buy a 36" mill. Or I will buy a 56" version and cut the rails so that i have a 36" and a 20". I would then make a splice so that i could have a 56 inch to. What are the differences in ease of use and precision between the small and standard mills. How long would it take to swap rails? Would this work?

 

[rick_saws]

Alaskan Small Log Mill

I am looking forward to getting into milling, and had a few questions about Alaskan mills. I will be milling a wide variety of log sizes mostly smaller than 36" and plan to buy a large mill and a small mill. I would either buy the small log mill now and later buy a 36" mill. Or I will buy a 56" version and cut the rails so that i have a 36" and a 20". I would then make a splice so that i could have a 56 inch to. What are the differences in ease of use and precision between the small and standard mills. How long would it take to swap rails? Would this work?

I own the Small Log Mill, and it looks like it would be easy to splice it to the 36" mill. I've never tried it though, and I would think the splice might flex a little.

- Rick

 

[BobL]

I have two mills - one with 53" rails running a 42" bar - I use it to mill logs down to about 18". Below that I use a mill with 24" rails running a 20" bar.

The reason I do this is not related to size of the mill but the size of the chain running on the CS. I have milled logs as small as 12" in diameter with the bigger mill - no problems, apart from turning more of the log than necessary into saw dust. The small mill runs a 53 cc saw with 0.050" bar and 3/8 low profile chain. The bigger mill has a custom saw mount so the smaller saw cannot fit onto the bigger mill.

In your case I would just buy a set of 56" and 24" rails. The extra $$ will soon be covered by the cost of building a splice and the time and effort required to splice and unsplice the rails.

 

[stonykill]

I have two mills - one with 53" rails running a 42" bar - I use it to mill logs down to about 18". Below that I use a mill with 24" rails running a 20" bar.

The reason I do this is not related to size of the mill but the size of the chain running on the CS. I have milled logs as small as 12" in diameter with the bigger mill - no problems, apart from turning more of the log than necessary into saw dust. The small mill runs a 53 cc saw with 0.050" bar and 3/8 low profile chain. The bigger mill has a custom saw mount so the smaller saw cannot fit onto the mill.

In your case I would just buy a set of 56" and 24" rails.

what Bob said. It only takes minutes to swap the rails.

 

[Sawdustmaker]

where can i buy just rails?? Does anyone sell them??

 

[stonykill]

where can i buy just rails?? Does anyone sell them??

there recently was an entire thread dedicated to just this topic.