My chainsaw mill

[handmade]

Help needed.......

My mill, which is made with a Husky 3120, works very well. That is until just lately. I was slabbing some dead oak trees near my California home and the chain started to lock up on the bar. When I say "lock up", that's just what I mean. The resin in the bark loads up on the chain( sticky stuff! ) but that isn't the worst. the distal end of the bar is getting hot. Real hot. Enough that it sizzles when water is squirted on it.

Loosening the chain works for a while but not long. The auxillary oiler isn't sufficient to keep the chain rolling. I didn't experience this problem on 40" juniper or 3' pine, so I guess this is specific to oak. I have six more 42" logs to slab. At 12' long, I need to adress this issue. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated indeed.

 

[t_andersen]

I have milled large oak logs and haven't seen that problem. I used an aux oiler too. Did your chain saw oiler work all right?

 

[LarryTheCableGuy]

Welcome neighbor. Whereabouts in the valley are you?

.

 

[00juice]

Auxillary Oiler

Hi,
Is your oil tank empty when your gas tank goes empty? Maybe not getting enough oil? I may suggest an auxillary oiler. I got my idea from some others here in the group. I have a 12" long piece of 2" abs plastic pipe. A cap on one end, and a cleanout on the other. In the end of the cleanout cap, I drilled a hole, and fitted a tire stem valve. In the cap end, I have a 3/8" bolt that has been drilled out hollow. I attach a piece of clearn rubber hose to the the bolt, then fit a ball valve on the end, and another piece of clear hose. The second hose is fitted to another bolt hollowed to the head, but not all the way through. At the point where the hollow ends, another hole is drilled through perpendicular, to allow the oil to flow out. The bolt goes through the bar just below the bar,groove. This way the oil flows down the bolt center to the cross drilled hole and out into the bar. Some others have some drawings on here explaining further. The tire stem valve allows the oil tank to be pressurized, and the valve controls the rate of flow. Adjust as necessary. Hope this helps.

 

[woodshop]

I think if your bar is getting so hot that water on it sizzles, then you have some serious oil transport problems not discovered yet. Even in 32 inches of oak, my 395XP oiler turned up to max keeps up with my mill. I don't even use an aux oiler. Clean out every crevis, clean out the rail in the bar, something is not right for it to get that hot.

 

[59Billy]

Clean out every crevis, clean out the rail in the bar, something is not right for it to get that hot.

I'll second that. I've found that when I mill dead oaks (and I've got a ton of them!) that a fine dust builds up that eventually clogs the oil passages in the bar. After smoking one bar, I got in the habit of just pulling the bar and cleaning it now and then, and haven't had any more problems.

 

[Railomatic]

bar choked

To prevent this from hapening and slowing down progress, remove the side cover which tends to capture this fine dust and replace it with an aluminum plate, which is the same size as the side cover when its fitted.

Take a piece of 1/2" thick aluminum plate, smear it with engineers blue and offer it up to the side cover where the two bar holes are, cut the pate to suit the shape marked by the blue, now drill the hole for the bar bolts, then drill 1/8" hole/s throught the side of that plate, so it lines up with the oil hole in the bar.

Now thread the pilot hole to fit a nipple for a clear plastic tube to be pushed onto it, fasten a squeezy bolltle full of parafin/oil mix or similar to the other end of the clear plastic tube, so you can flush out the bar from time to time.

Saves heaps of time and works really well, and not having the side cover fitted also helps to prevent the build up of fine dust, which normally sits inside the cover like a reservior, allowing the chain to pull it all into the bar groove.

Do the flushing whilst not cutting, then allow the oil to re-coat the chain before continuing cuting, you can also use the flushing route to fit an extra oil tank if needed.

Hope this helps.

 

[59Billy]

Take a piece of 1/2" thick aluminum plate, smear it with engineers blue and offer it up to the side cover where the two bar holes are, cut the pate to suit the shape marked by the blue, now drill the hole for the bar bolts, then drill 1/8" hole/s throught the side of that plate, so it lines up with the oil hole in the bar.

If someone was building a CSM from scratch, that plate could be the asis of a mounting system, solving several problems at once.

 

[Railomatic]

If someone was building a CSM from scratch, that plate could be the asis of a mounting system, solving several problems at once.

By having the plate fitted lets all the fine dust escape, instead of being held in by the side cover, it also lets the oils run down and around the top end of the bar, thus keeping the slot moistened and cooled the whole circumfrence of the bar.

I mount the bar and saw onto my Rail-O-Matic this way also, as you say, the mount there, acts as both an extra oiler point and a mounting bracket.

 

[2506]

AL Side Plate Mod

Could you please post pictures of the aluminum side plate mod? Sounds like a change I would like to incorporate in the future.