When is an oiler needed?

[Dallas]

My wonderful wife will be getting me the Alaskan M111 36" for Christmas. I have a Stihl MS650 with a 25" & 36" bar and plan on milling some red oak, poplar, white oak mostly hardwoods in the 20" to 25" diameter range. Do you recommend getting the optional oiler for the mill or just open my chain oiler all the way?

 

[carvinmark]

At the very least, run the oiler wide open.

 

[woodshop]

My wonderful wife will be getting me the Alaskan M111 36" for Christmas. I have a Stihl MS650 with a 25" & 36" bar and plan on milling some red oak, poplar, white oak mostly hardwoods in the 20" to 25" diameter range. Do you recommend getting the optional oiler for the mill or just open my chain oiler all the way?

Lot of guys on here use oilers... guess it depends at least somewhat on your saw. I've just never had a need to with my Husky 395 with 36 inch bar. I crank the oiler wide open and even in big wood have no trouble keeping my bar and chain full of oil.

 

[BobL]

The 076 I'm using has oil maximum oil delivery of 19 mL/min. This is OK for aussie hardwoods up to about 18" - bigger than that my bar and chain start to get pretty hot and at one stage on a 32" log it started to scorch the bar. An Aux oiler with about the same rate ie 20 mL/min seems to be effective in keeping it cooler. As I now use water cooling on the chain, heat is less of an issue but I still run the aux oiler but at a rate of about 10 ml/Min.

The 065 runs at a max rate of 21 mL/min. That might be enough for what you are planning.

The 084 and 088 have a rate of 25 and 36 mL/min respectively.

What's the 395 flow rate WS?

 

[oldsaw]

I run it all the time and pretty generously. On a 36 and 42" bar, running for those lengths of time sideways, my oilers don't keep up on either the 3120 or the 066.

Mark

 

[woodshop]

...The 084 and 088 have a rate of 25 and 36 mL/min respectively. What's the 395 flow rate WS?

Don't know what the flow rate is on my 395, guess that spec is somewhere in a manual or something if I dug around. It just always seems to keep up when I open it up max flow. In fact, that aluminum guard that covers the tip of the bar at the end of the csm gets covered in thick coating of oil/fine sawdust and I have to scrape it off from time to time. So there is enough that it throws lots of it off the end. I've never scorched my bar even on big wood, or at least doesn't look like it was. I cut mostly hardwoods like oak, cherry and walnut. One thing maybe in my favor is that since I use the Ripsaw to make the boards, and only use the csm to slab and get the log down to smaller cants, I am usually not milling with it non-stop as those who are making lumber board after board would. So maybe I'm never milling long enough for it to get really hot enough to scorch a bar that might not be getting enough oil. Usually I'm running it through the log, then set it down while I reposition the log, then make another run through, then position log again etc etc. So I rarely run it more than 10 minutes at a time.

 

[Dallas]

I plan on slabbing and not ripping continuous but wasn't sure if on a long slab of hardwood my bar would be getting too hot. The oiler option is around $45 and that's seems a small price to pay compared to a new 36" bar. It appears some are not using it and getting plenty of oil on the chain and bar on a slab. Does the oiler get in the way while your working and add addtional weight?

 

[drivadesl]

Well I've got all of one afternoon of milling experience, but its amazing how much you learn even after just a few hours. I've got the same mill, with an MS-660 and I installed the aux. oiler. The reason I did, was I wasn't to sure how well the oiler on the saw was working, as I only just bought it (used) so I wanted to be safe with the 36" bar I was using. A couple of things I can mention about the oiler, is you have to be pretty carefull about installing it as when drilling the hole to mount the injector, the instrutions say that it should protrude roughly .040" into the chain groove. If you locate it to far into the groove , you may interfere with the chain, and also tightening the nut might crimp the groove and pinch the chain. You just have to take a little care in locating the center of the hole is all, otherwise its not hard to drill the hole really. I used a center punch and calipers to assist with this. Also, if you are not using (not sure of the corret name ) the handle assist which mounts over the tip of the bar, Granberg says to locate the injector fitting 6" from the tip, that way you are not to far in towards the center of the bar, which leaves more usable cutting area. I didn't find the oiler to get in the way at all, though I was only milling 22" diameter logs. On larger logs Granberg says to just remove the oiler and rely on the saw to oil the chain. In closing I like the idea of using the aux. oiler, worse case, its a backup to the saws oiler, in case it gets clogged, and could save your bar and chain from overheating. Good luck with your Christmas present, you're gonna love milling, I think I'm addicted after one session.

 

[BobL]

Does the oiler get in the way while your working and add addtional weight?

No it doesn't get in the way.

Yes it adds weight,
BIL Mill's ~2 pint Ally tank and brass plumbing weighs about 2.5 pounds when full. It actually helps to balance the weight of the power head when milling.
As my mill all up weighs ~30 lbs the full oiler represents <10% of the weight of the mill.

On my small mill, the 1.5 pint PVC tank and poly plumbing fittings weigh just under 2 lbs.

 

[Dallas]

Thanks for the feedback on the oiler, I will be adding one to my mill set up. If there's any other advise on what else I may need please advise, this is my first mill and will be finding out as I go.

 

[oldsaw]

Well I've got all of one afternoon of milling experience, but its amazing how much you learn even after just a few hours. I've got the same mill, with an MS-660 and I installed the aux. oiler. The reason I did, was I wasn't to sure how well the oiler on the saw was working, as I only just bought it (used) so I wanted to be safe with the 36" bar I was using. A couple of things I can mention about the oiler, is you have to be pretty carefull about installing it as when drilling the hole to mount the injector, the instrutions say that it should protrude roughly .040" into the chain groove. If you locate it to far into the groove , you may interfere with the chain, and also tightening the nut might crimp the groove and pinch the chain. You just have to take a little care in locating the center of the hole is all, otherwise its not hard to drill the hole really. I used a center punch and calipers to assist with this. Also, if you are not using (not sure of the corret name ) the handle assist which mounts over the tip of the bar, Granberg says to locate the injector fitting 6" from the tip, that way you are not to far in towards the center of the bar, which leaves more usable cutting area. I didn't find the oiler to get in the way at all, though I was only milling 22" diameter logs. On larger logs Granberg says to just remove the oiler and rely on the saw to oil the chain. In closing I like the idea of using the aux. oiler, worse case, its a backup to the saws oiler, in case it gets clogged, and could save your bar and chain from overheating. Good luck with your Christmas present, you're gonna love milling, I think I'm addicted after one session.

Pretty steep learning curve, isn't it. It keeps going, but it's amazing what your first afternoon can teach you.

Mark

 

[carvinmark]

Yes, amazing how much you learn on the first day, and for many after that too.

 

[BobL]

A couple of things I can mention about the oiler, is you have to be pretty carefull about installing it as when drilling the hole to mount the injector, the instrutions say that it should protrude roughly .040" into the chain groove.

The way I have done 2 of mine is to drill the edge of the hole 1/16" back from the bottom of the groove hole and then uses a 1/16" drill to punch through the bottom of the grove into the injector hole. I was expecting the bars to be quite hard, The GB bar was softer than tHe two Oregon bars I tried this out on. I think this hole is the oil rate limiter in the plumbing but it still can deliver 40 mL/min so I have to bring it back to about 20 using a needle valve.

 

[CaseyForrest]

My wonderful wife will be getting me the Alaskan M111 36" for Christmas. I have a Stihl MS650 with a 25" & 36" bar and plan on milling some red oak, poplar, white oak mostly hardwoods in the 20" to 25" diameter range. Do you recommend getting the optional oiler for the mill or just open my chain oiler all the way?

I put the HO oiler on my 660 and it wasnt enough using a 28" bar in white oak.

Poplar is not that hard, you wont need the extra oil there. Red is a little softer but youll probaly find youll need the extra oil. White...the saw will not put out enough oil.