windblown
ArboristSite Lurker
Here's my story so far when it comes to small time CSM. I hope it proves helpful to others just starting out and hope that others with experience that have tips and tricks they find work well will join in! I'll add posts with frustrations and Ah-Ha moments as they come. 
I mostly cut firewood though I also do a bit of wood working. Naturally the desire to make my own lumber for projects had to happen sooner or later...Since I have no plans to make it a business or end up with stacks of rough lumber piled up everywhere volume is very low. Hence the equipment used needs to be as economical as possible (keeping in mind that my free time is cheap) and not take up a lot of space.
My weapons of choice to date are the Granberg Alaskan Mill for slabs. It does a great job of making nice smooth repeatable slabs which all depends on the ever important first cut. I found setting up an Alaskan Mill for the first cut to be cumbersome plus I occasionally want to cut beams and cants rather than slabs so wanted an edger and I went in search of the cheapest solutions. Something that sets up quick and gives a good cut whether it's becuase I'm making beams or just want to create a first cut for the Alaskan Mill to run on. The two I've tried to date are the Timber-Tuff edging mill and the Granberg G555-B edging mill.
I started with the Timber-Tuff and I like the over-all concept and simplicity of the design. A compact attachment mounts on the saw blade and you need a straight 2x6 or 2x4 of the appropriate length, that's it! It doesn't get much simpler. But in truth it's a cheaply made POS that does not cut at a 90 degree angle with out a lot of work with shimming to try to compensate for a guide that's untrue right out of the box and has zero means to tune the cut angle. Good luck cutting beams or a decent can't with out a ton of futzing around. It's a shame there is not a nicer built unit of the same basic design.
The Grandberg Edging mill is made with much stouter materials and I find it cuts true as long as the guide board is true. It's a bit more fiddly to set up the guide board for it since you need to carefully attach aluminum rails to the board for it to track on. Here are they are side by side Granberg on the left, Timber-Tuff on the right.
Note on the Granberg: Before you attach the rails to your guide board do your self a huge favor and camphor the edges of the rails. Otherwise even the slightest misalignment will result in a hard stop when sliding the saw along the guide rail. Not something you want to have to jiggle around in the middle of a cut.
Here is the difference in the accuracy of the 90 degree cuts between the two measured with a square hung across the guide board. The TimberTuff is way out of wack (and both of the timber tuff units I got have the same issue).
Timber Tuff
Granberg G555-B:
With the Granberg and a little care setting up the guide board it's easy to cut a pretty decent beam or cant.
Speaking of guide boards. I'm running 12' guide boards and they will quickly warp twist and bow which causes extra set up time at best, and a bad cut at worst. I may have to spring for a stouter and longer lasting guide set-up. At the moment I'm preparing to experiment with the guide board on the left below. 12' long using 3 layers of 3/4" ply laminated together. It's not quite ready for use yet. Want to round the edges slighly and give it a coat of oil. The hope it that it will remain stable and usable for a considerable amount of time unlike the plain boards.
So that's it for now. Just harry home owner making sawdust now and then.
Oh, and I'm so cheap I don't even have a peavy. However I have found the tractor bucket makes a great log turner. Pick up the log, roll the bucket set the log back down, down.
I mostly cut firewood though I also do a bit of wood working. Naturally the desire to make my own lumber for projects had to happen sooner or later...Since I have no plans to make it a business or end up with stacks of rough lumber piled up everywhere volume is very low. Hence the equipment used needs to be as economical as possible (keeping in mind that my free time is cheap) and not take up a lot of space.
My weapons of choice to date are the Granberg Alaskan Mill for slabs. It does a great job of making nice smooth repeatable slabs which all depends on the ever important first cut. I found setting up an Alaskan Mill for the first cut to be cumbersome plus I occasionally want to cut beams and cants rather than slabs so wanted an edger and I went in search of the cheapest solutions. Something that sets up quick and gives a good cut whether it's becuase I'm making beams or just want to create a first cut for the Alaskan Mill to run on. The two I've tried to date are the Timber-Tuff edging mill and the Granberg G555-B edging mill.
I started with the Timber-Tuff and I like the over-all concept and simplicity of the design. A compact attachment mounts on the saw blade and you need a straight 2x6 or 2x4 of the appropriate length, that's it! It doesn't get much simpler. But in truth it's a cheaply made POS that does not cut at a 90 degree angle with out a lot of work with shimming to try to compensate for a guide that's untrue right out of the box and has zero means to tune the cut angle. Good luck cutting beams or a decent can't with out a ton of futzing around. It's a shame there is not a nicer built unit of the same basic design.
The Grandberg Edging mill is made with much stouter materials and I find it cuts true as long as the guide board is true. It's a bit more fiddly to set up the guide board for it since you need to carefully attach aluminum rails to the board for it to track on. Here are they are side by side Granberg on the left, Timber-Tuff on the right.
Note on the Granberg: Before you attach the rails to your guide board do your self a huge favor and camphor the edges of the rails. Otherwise even the slightest misalignment will result in a hard stop when sliding the saw along the guide rail. Not something you want to have to jiggle around in the middle of a cut.
Here is the difference in the accuracy of the 90 degree cuts between the two measured with a square hung across the guide board. The TimberTuff is way out of wack (and both of the timber tuff units I got have the same issue).
Timber Tuff
Granberg G555-B:
With the Granberg and a little care setting up the guide board it's easy to cut a pretty decent beam or cant.
Speaking of guide boards. I'm running 12' guide boards and they will quickly warp twist and bow which causes extra set up time at best, and a bad cut at worst. I may have to spring for a stouter and longer lasting guide set-up. At the moment I'm preparing to experiment with the guide board on the left below. 12' long using 3 layers of 3/4" ply laminated together. It's not quite ready for use yet. Want to round the edges slighly and give it a coat of oil. The hope it that it will remain stable and usable for a considerable amount of time unlike the plain boards.
So that's it for now. Just harry home owner making sawdust now and then.
Oh, and I'm so cheap I don't even have a peavy. However I have found the tractor bucket makes a great log turner. Pick up the log, roll the bucket set the log back down, down.
