New to Milling ????

[redoakneck]

I am new to milling. This is my situation.

I have a 7900 with hd air fiter. I can sharpen my own chains. Free trees all over, walnut, locust, sycamore, ash, oak, elm and maple. Mostly 16-28" diameter at the trunk at shoulder height. I do not have much help and work alone mostly.

I was going to get the 36" alaskan mill, a helper handle, brackets, woodland ripping chain for a 28" bar, and an auxiliary oiler. I will set up a pulley system to pull the saw thru the wood. I will mill most of the trees where they fall into as big of boards as I can carry/load.

1- Is ripping chain a lot better than cross-cut chain?? It is cheap, but a few
have said you don't need it.
2- Am I going to kill my saw?? I have 2 extra air filters to change out on site as
needed.
3-Do you spray or coat the ends of the boards/logs??
4- Any comments appreciated.
5-Where do I get a remote throttle for a ps-7900


pete

 

[outdoorsman0490]

Pete,

I have the 36" Alaskan mill as well. I am running a jonsered 2186 with a 36" bar, I have the external oilier as well; my widest cut can be about 30". Most of my milling is done where I felled the tree, sometimes I will move it with an ATV or my winch and trailer (customer's yard).

You want to get the ripping chain, it is designed for milling, normal crosscut chain is not the way to go. I do most of the milling by myself and I do not use a pulley system.

I use a cheap and efficient rail system made of a 2"/ 12"/ 10' reinforced with angle iron to make sure it is not warped. I wear antivibe gloves, goggles and a handkerchief around my face. My the time you had your pulley set up, I would be most of the way through the log, is my thoughts.

You need to be careful entering the wood and leaving the wood at the end of the cut, I use wedges placed in the cut along the length on both sides of the log so when you get to the end, the board doesn't sit on the bar and leave marks at the end of the board. The external oilier works well, but keep wood chips out or the hole will get plugged.

I have cut the full width capacity of my set up through pine and it has worked fine, just keep the chain sharp or you will be overworking yourself and the saw. I run my mix at 40:1 for milling, high test all the time. Any more questions and I will do my best answering.

 

[betterbuilt]

I am new to milling. This is my situation.

I have a 7900 with hd air fiter. I can sharpen my own chains. Free trees all over, walnut, locust, sycamore, ash, oak, elm and maple. Mostly 16-28" diameter at the trunk at shoulder height. I do not have much help and work alone mostly.

I was going to get the 36" alaskan mill, a helper handle, brackets, woodland ripping chain for a 28" bar, and an auxiliary oiler. I will set up a pulley system to pull the saw thru the wood. I will mill most of the trees where they fall into as big of boards as I can carry/load.

1- Is ripping chain a lot better than cross-cut chain?? It is cheap, but a few
have said you don't need it.
2- Am I going to kill my saw?? I have 2 extra air filters to change out on site as
needed.
3-Do you spray or coat the ends of the boards/logs??
4- Any comments appreciated.
5-Where do I get a remote throttle for a ps-7900


pete

You should start by reading BobL's sticky.

 

[outdoorsman0490]

I use a Jonsered 2186 with a 36" bar on my 36" Alaskan mill. I do most of my milling alone. I don't use the pulley system, I just push. You need to use ripping chain, and if it is sharp, you do not have to push hard at all. I wear gloves, goggles/glasses and a bandanna around my face for the dust and vibration. I run about 40:1 synthetic oil to high test gas. The external oilier works well, just keep the tank clear of sawdust/chips or it will plug the hole.

Keep in mind, if you are using a 28" bar, you are not going to have a 28" max cut on the logs, you need room to set up the mill on the bar.

Let me know if there is anything else I can try to help you with.

 

[outdoorsman0490]

O yeah, I also keep wedges on me and tap them into the cut at the beginning and towards the end to that the board can rest on them as the cut is finished. This keeps the end portion of the board free from getting scratched up from the non-cutting side of the chain.

 

[mtngun]

1- Is ripping chain a lot better than cross-cut chain?? It is cheap, but a few
have said you don't need it.

It's not faster, but it cuts smoother.

2- Am I going to kill my saw?? I have 2 extra air filters to change out on site as
needed.

Not unless the saw springs an air leak or something like that. The Dolmar filter design seems to be quite superior, I doubt if you'll need to change filters over the course of a day's milling. I wish my Efcos had a filter half as good as the Dolmar.

3-Do you spray or coat the ends of the boards/logs??

I'm currently using the sealer that Bailey's sells, but almost any paint or sealer is better than nothing.

4- Any comments appreciated.

As Outdoorsman noted, you won't be able to mill 28" logs with a 28" bar. More like 22".

5-Where do I get a remote throttle for a ps-7900

You have to make your own out of bicycle parts or something similar. I'm currently using a sliding zip tie to hold the trigger, but I'm not 100% comfortable with it for safety reasons.

 

[redoakneck]

Thanks!!!!

I read the sticky a bunch, checked out videos and called baileys to get info.

I have a 36" power match plus bar, sounds like I should get a rip chain for it. Is stihl rip chain better than oregon or woodland pro or GB???

So the 7900 should do ok if I take it easy?>!

 

[cowboyvet]

I have an alaskan 36" and it takes a 42" bar to run the full 36" You do not want the clamp on the sprocket so you loose a few inches there. Also keep in mind things like crotches and some areas of trees are more oval than round. What I'm saying is if you expect to mill trees at a max of 28" you will run into areas on those trees where you will wish you had just a few more inches...:msp_thumbsup: Remember to make yourself an axilliary oiler to go on the end of the mill for these longer bars.

As a side note about the Alaskan. You can always slide it to shorten it down to fit shorter bars but it is very costly to lengthen it out if you want to go bigger in the future so buy it as big as you think you'll ever use.

 

[redoakneck]

Thanks Cowboy!!!!

SOS Better go bigger and not regret it later!

Oiler is on the list!!

I don't know if the 7900 can run a 42" all day, I guess with an extra oiler and patience I can probably get by. Sure hate to miss out on the big ones!!

 

[mtngun]

I don't know if the 7900 can run a 42" all day,

Max bar length for the powerhead is about the same for milling as for crosscutting. If I had to pick a number for your 7900, it would be 32".

 

[cowboyvet]

Don't think of it as "running 42" as that setup will only alow 36" max cut in the wood and you won't be maxed out all day. The big thing is the way this adiction works, you'll end up looking for a bigger saw for the Alaskan and putting the 7900 on a mini mill before the years out.:chainsawguy: Just remember you can always cut less than your mills capacity but you can't cut more.

 

[BobL]

If you ditch the dogs and bar clamps, drill the bar nose and bolt the bar to the mill you should lose only 3" instead of 6", ie 33" of cut from a 36" bar.
But with a 78cc saw I wouldn't be taking that too often above 24" of cut.

 

[redoakneck]

So about 24" is what I should stay under so I do not kill my saw. That is ok b/c those boards will get heavy as they get wider.

I think a 660 would be nice, I do not want to get into 404 chain with an 880.

Are husky's better for milling b/c of the air filter set up???

 

[outdoorsman0490]

+1 on taking the dawgs off, I do that every time. This is also the case where you want to buy bigger so you don't have to buy another one when that big log comes your way. Bigger also allows you to make more unconventional boards. I mill mostly pine and spruce (non-firewood species) as a way to get rid of them and provide extra revenue. I have milled wood that was in the shape of a "C" due to the dominant shoot dying years prior and a subordinate shoot bending up to assume dominance for the tree. I can put my rail down the middle of the "C" and have enough room for the mill to move on the rail to "take the turn." The result is "C" shaped boards which are perfect as benches around a card table or campfire.

 

[mtngun]

So about 24" is what I should stay under so I do not kill my saw. That is ok b/c those boards will get heavy as they get wider.

I think a 660 would be nice, I do not want to get into 404 chain with an 880.

Are husky's better for milling b/c of the air filter set up???

If you do get a bigger saw someday, it will have a different bar mount anyway. I suggest no more than a 28" - 32" bar on the 7900.

No experience with the husky filters, but the Stihl 660/880 filter works fine after modifying to ensure a tight seal.

 

[redoakneck]

Thanks, time to place an order. I am going to check the classifieds first.

 

[BobL]

So about 24" is what I should stay under so I do not kill my saw. That is ok b/c those boards will get heavy as they get wider.

They sure do.

I think a 660 would be nice, I do not want to get into 404 chain with an 880.

It's not necessary to use 404 chain with an 880, there are a lot of millers, including myself, using 3/8 chain with

Are husky's better for milling b/c of the air filter set up???

I've used both and I couldn't tell the difference in dry hardwood.

 

[redoakneck]

Thanks Bob,
I guess an 880 would be the better choice for milling the big ones.

Another 7900 on a double ended bar is another option that may be a little cheaper, but then I would probably want two people and I am typically in a DIY situation.....

thanks again,

pete

 

[cgarman]

Thanks Cowboy!!!!

SOS Better go bigger and not regret it later!

Oiler is on the list!!

I don't know if the 7900 can run a 42" all day, I guess with an extra oiler and patience I can probably get by. Sure hate to miss out on the big ones!!

I did exactly this, and had no problem. We used my buddy's 7900 on my 56" bar for the 48" GB mill. We cut 42" crotches in red oak, all day, no problem.

I agree that you should go up in size to make sure you don't miss a slab that's 1" wider than your mill. Not much power is lost to moving chain that isn't in the cut. Put another way - running a 42" bar to cute 18" logs isn't much worse than running a 24" bar. In fact, it will help to keep everything cool with the larger mass.

I've tried lots of chain, and I'm settling on the GB ripping chain. It's a must to learn to sharpen this yourself. I took it to a local Stihl shop, and they ruined it nicely for me. They didn't follow my instructions (from GB) on angles - they just filed everything at 35 degrees - side cutters and clearing cutters both. They also wouldn't drop my rakers below 0.010" - the kickback danger was "too high." I tried to explain that I wasn't running a 56" bar on a 7900 or my 076 to cut firewood, but they didn't care. I digress....

Will it work? Yes. Will it be slow? Yes. Will you care? Probably not once you pull the first 36" slab off of there, knowing it would take a $30K bandmill to cut something that big.

If you're cutting mostly 24" and under, the 7900 is great. Even if you need to go to 36" once in a while, you'll be happy as long as you have a good chain on there.

Get the aux nose oiler, and keep an eye on the nozzle so it doesn't get clogged.

 

[redoakneck]

Thankyou cgrman!!! That is good news. GB chain-ok.

yes I will look at the angles and I almost sharpen square chain well!!

Thanks again,

Pete