Woodsman Pro Ripping chain?? Help.

[fordtruckf100]

I bought the Woodsman pro ripping chain for my saw. Did some milling
the other day (Maple) I felt like I had to force the saw through the wood??
And it was slow. The saw had plenty of power. It didn't bog any until I really forced it into the wood. Do you have any suggestions on anything I can do to the chain to get it to pull through the wood better instead of forcing it. I would have thought it would have cut a little better with a ripping chain.
Thanks for any help. Duane in VA.

 

[oldsaw]

Dress the chain with a file often, and check the rakers. That is my primary chain, and the only time I had a problem with it was when I tore up a couple of teeth on a nail, got interrupted while I was sharpening it and didn't redo the rakers to match the new cutter profile.

It's good chain, start with the obvious and work from there.

Mark

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Couple of questions for you...

Have you milled with other chain before?

What saw, bar length, chain pitch, gauge, etc, are you using?

Woodsman Pro is good chain. As oldsaw said, when milling you have to touch-up the cutter edge often. Chainsaw milling is slow relative to cross-cutting regardless of the brand of chain. Just let it cut and don't force it.

What year/ style f100 do you have? I have a '66 short bed, step side myself.

 

[fordtruckf100]

I am running a 61cc saw with a 24" bar. The chain is new. Woodsman Pro
Ripping chain. I haven't touched it except for taking down the rakers a little to try and get it to pull a little. I slabbed the log down to 10" boards. This is what I was cutting before I quit for the day. I didn't think 10" would be that much for this saw?? Of course it was a Maple which is hard anyhow. I just felled the tree before I started cutting so, it wasn't dry or anything? My guess is that I need to get the rakers down about 30 -35 thous. and touch up the teeth a little. I think the angle on this chain is 10 degrees. I did get some nice boards off of the log before I called it quits.

As for the truck. I have a 76 ford 4x4 F100 with 390. It's a tough ole
truck. I used it and abused it and it's still here with me. A little rusty.
But oh well, it's a farm truck. I've had it for about 15 yrs. second owner.
Have a good day. Duane in VA.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Ripping chain comes with the depth gauges lower than standard chain already. You may have taken too much. I usually set mine to 25-30 thous.

I am running a 61cc saw with a 24" bar. The chain is new. Woodsman Pro
Ripping chain. I haven't touched it except for taking down the rakers a little to try and get it to pull a little. I slabbed the log down to 10" boards. This is what I was cutting before I quit for the day. I didn't think 10" would be that much for this saw?? Of course it was a Maple which is hard anyhow. I just felled the tree before I started cutting so, it wasn't dry or anything? My guess is that I need to get the rakers down about 30 -35 thous. and touch up the teeth a little. I think the angle on this chain is 10 degrees. I did get some nice boards off of the log before I called it quits.

As for the truck. I have a 76 ford 4x4 F100 with 390. It's a tough ole
truck. I used it and abused it and it's still here with me. A little rusty.
But oh well, it's a farm truck. I've had it for about 15 yrs. second owner.
Have a good day. Duane in VA.

 

[woodshop]

I suppose you could have gotten some bumm chain... I use Woodsman Pro ripping chain and have no problems at all. Yes my standard skip tooth chain will but a little faster maybe, but not nearly as smooth and steady as the ripping chain.

 

[Woodsurfer]

I use that chain, .404 .063 and the rakers are already at .035" (see the data on the box). Limited experience so far, I got at least 10 happy passes through pretty wide birch before I really noticed a slowdown. I've got two loops, both performed well.

How slow is slow with your setup? I think anything like 1/2" per second is pretty good.

 

[fordtruckf100]

I'll check the cutters first. I do remember dragging the log a ways so I could
pick it up with the front end loader. I may have ran the saw through some
dirt on the under side of the log. Like Oldsaw said, check the obvious things
first. I'll do that this weekend. It's probably the operator. This is the third time milling. First time with this saw. The other wood I milled was with a small limbing saw in poplar. It went fairly well. I guess I was expecting more than
I should. Let me ask this question.

How many feet should I be able to cut per minute in hard maple making a 10" width cut? What would you expect from your own saw??

Thanks. Duane in VA.

 

[oldsaw]

I'll check the cutters first. I do remember dragging the log a ways so I could
pick it up with the front end loader. I may have ran the saw through some
dirt on the under side of the log. Like Oldsaw said, check the obvious things
first. I'll do that this weekend. It's probably the operator. This is the third time milling. First time with this saw. The other wood I milled was with a small limbing saw in poplar. It went fairly well. I guess I was expecting more than
I should. Let me ask this question.

How many feet should I be able to cut per minute in hard maple making a 10" width cut? What would you expect from your own saw??

Thanks. Duane in VA.

My "regular milling saw" is double your displacement, and even my "backup" is 1/2 again the size of yours. I've only done a couple of smaller walnut logs of that sort of dimension. Most of the stuff I do is 16-36". I was "screaming" through some 16" cherry...in CSM terms, with the 3120. 7 foot sections were probably taking 4-5 minutes. I got 1/2 way through the last log, and the chain had dulled noticably. I should have replaced it, but I was short on time and there was only a couple of cuts left. I was down to 7-8 minutes, but the saw was working much harder to do that, and I was too.

Chainsaw milling will always be slow since you are doing things the worst possible way. You don't get to cut part of the wood away and have a big chunk come along with it. You are literally shaving the end of the wood fibers off and get no "break" when the chip comes free since there is no "chip" to break free. Time and brute force, tied to a sharp chain is the only weapon you have.

Mark

 

[Railomatic]

ripping chain

As woodshops says, you could have got some bad chain, one thing I will ask you is, what shape are the bottom of the chisels.
Are they rounded or square, if they are square this will make the work slightly tougher, because the chiisel is taking more of a bite, than a rounded corner chisel.
I always use Oregon chipmaster 10 degree ripping chain, it has rounded corners and give a superb finish to the boards and its cheap, nothing fancy and does exactly what it says on the tin, rips through like butter.

I have mentioned this process before, Have you even thought of changing your bar roller nose to a smaller pitched chain, I use a Cannon Superbar 404 50 and 60 inchers, I have changed the 404 for a 325 nose and chain, what a diference in cutting speed and smoother progress, a 325 chain has more cutters so you get a better finish.

Some have mentioned that the chain might stretch because it is smaller linked but this only happens on the up-take, if you throttle up more gently things will last as long as the bigger chain, try it you won't be dissapointed.

One thing I forgot to say, for softer and harder timbers you need to use a different cutter angle, there is lots of information on this around, but I won't go into it now, maybe other forum members could start another thread on this one.

 

[fordtruckf100]

Update on Woodsman Pro Ripping Chain.

Hi,

Update on Woodsman Pro Ripping Chain.

I ask for help with some problems I was having with the Woodsman Pro
Ripping chain.Thanks for all of your help. Well, as I suspected it was the operator not the chain. I had time this weekend to inspect the chain and noticed the cutters were tore up pretty bad. I sharpened chain and filed all
rakers to .035. Let me tell you my experience after. I have only used a
beaming jig. This is what I was using when I tore up the cutters. I was
cutting into the ground at the end of the log. That's what happened to
the chain. Like I said, the operator. After sharpening the chain I went
out and it cut good. I slabbed off another slab in about 5 minutes. Which
I think is decent. Afterward, I used my homemade alaskan style mill. I installed it and started my first very cut with this type of mill. I was very impressed with the alaskan style mill. A few things I immediately noticed was that I could feed it into the wood a lot easier than I could with the beaming jig, therefore making the cut a lot faster. I slabbed off 3 more slabs in about 4 minutes or less in a 8-10 inch cut. I tired less with the alaskan because it rested on the wood. When I was using the beaming jig I felt like I had to put a whole lot of pressure on the saw to get it to cut. Not so with the alaskan mill. Another thing I noticed is I would really like to get a bigger saw. 90cc +. 60cc is OK but still too small IMO. It's OK in small stuff. I wouldn't want to get into anything much larger than a 16 inch log with my 60cc saw. Just as a side note, I got some really nice slabs of beatiful maple. One other thing I noticed is: I love to hear a chainsaw run anyhow, it's a beautiful noise. Milling is a very addictive disease. I can't wait to get that saw into some more wood and hear it scream. Thanks! Hope I didn't bore you too much.

Duane in VA.

 

[oldsaw]

Hi,

Update on Woodsman Pro Ripping Chain.

I ask for help with some problems I was having with the Woodsman Pro
Ripping chain.Thanks for all of your help. Well, as I suspected it was the operator not the chain. I had time this weekend to inspect the chain and noticed the cutters were tore up pretty bad. I sharpened chain and filed all
rakers to .035. Let me tell you my experience after. I have only used a
beaming jig. This is what I was using when I tore up the cutters. I was
cutting into the ground at the end of the log. That's what happened to
the chain. Like I said, the operator. After sharpening the chain I went
out and it cut good. I slabbed off another slab in about 5 minutes. Which
I think is decent. Afterward, I used my homemade alaskan style mill. I installed it and started my first very cut with this type of mill. I was very impressed with the alaskan style mill. A few things I immediately noticed was that I could feed it into the wood a lot easier than I could with the beaming jig, therefore making the cut a lot faster. I slabbed off 3 more slabs in about 4 minutes or less in a 8-10 inch cut. I tired less with the alaskan because it rested on the wood. When I was using the beaming jig I felt like I had to put a whole lot of pressure on the saw to get it to cut. Not so with the alaskan mill. Another thing I noticed is I would really like to get a bigger saw. 90cc +. 60cc is OK but still too small IMO. It's OK in small stuff. I wouldn't want to get into anything much larger than a 16 inch log with my 60cc saw. Just as a side note, I got some really nice slabs of beatiful maple. One other thing I noticed is: I love to hear a chainsaw run anyhow, it's a beautiful noise. Milling is a very addictive disease. I can't wait to get that saw into some more wood and hear it scream. Thanks! Hope I didn't bore you too much.

Duane in VA.

Yep, you are going to do okay. You're even starting to sound like a real chainsaw miller...congrats.

Mark

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

When a chain isn't feeding, newbies always think the solution is to take the depth gages down. What really controls the feed is the outside side plate angle.
If the chain has more than .020 raker clearance, and it isn't feeding, it's dull or that side plate angle needs to be increased. Lowering the raker can cause more grab, but if it's to much you can't put it back on. If you get too much side plate angle, a simple re-sharpen will get it back to where it should be.
When milling you can really see what small changes on the chain do to cut times.

 

[smitty12]

woodspro VS. granberg

I recently bought a couple wood..pro chains. I haven't tried them out yet but judging from the feedback on this site they work very well. Granberg chains cost twice as much....anyone know why???

smitty

 

[aquan8tor]

good question. I'm going to post a theory, but I have NO idea how chains are actually made. I'm guessing that they are qutomated machines, where you put loops in a hopper or something, and a machine makes a large number of links at a time. I'll bet putting two different types of cutting links in two different arrangements (L & R) makes for a pretty complicated machine. Anyone got a picture of a chain-making machine????


Does anyone know if they actually cut the top of the cutters off, or are they put on with just the side remaining??

 

[CaseyForrest]

I recently bought a couple wood..pro chains. I haven't tried them out yet but judging from the feedback on this site they work very well. Granberg chains cost twice as much....anyone know why???

smitty

There is a little more time and effort put into a Granberg chain, wether it be automated or done by hand. The clearing rakers and scoring rakers are set at different heights..so on and so forth.

Also, a properly set up Granberg style chain will outcut a regular ripping chain.

 

[Railomatic]

I recently bought a couple wood..pro chains. I haven't tried them out yet but judging from the feedback on this site they work very well. Granberg chains cost twice as much....anyone know why???

smitty

Granberg make most of their profits from their acsessories rather than their mills, but judging what the mills are made from they will make a good return on those too.

 

[dustytools]

Hi,

Update on Woodsman Pro Ripping Chain.

I ask for help with some problems I was having with the Woodsman Pro
Ripping chain.Thanks for all of your help. Well, as I suspected it was the operator not the chain. I had time this weekend to inspect the chain and noticed the cutters were tore up pretty bad. I sharpened chain and filed all
rakers to .035. Let me tell you my experience after. I have only used a
beaming jig. This is what I was using when I tore up the cutters. I was
cutting into the ground at the end of the log. That's what happened to
the chain. Like I said, the operator. After sharpening the chain I went
out and it cut good. I slabbed off another slab in about 5 minutes. Which
I think is decent. Afterward, I used my homemade alaskan style mill. I installed it and started my first very cut with this type of mill. I was very impressed with the alaskan style mill. A few things I immediately noticed was that I could feed it into the wood a lot easier than I could with the beaming jig, therefore making the cut a lot faster. I slabbed off 3 more slabs in about 4 minutes or less in a 8-10 inch cut. I tired less with the alaskan because it rested on the wood. When I was using the beaming jig I felt like I had to put a whole lot of pressure on the saw to get it to cut. Not so with the alaskan mill. Another thing I noticed is I would really like to get a bigger saw. 90cc +. 60cc is OK but still too small IMO. It's OK in small stuff. I wouldn't want to get into anything much larger than a 16 inch log with my 60cc saw. Just as a side note, I got some really nice slabs of beatiful maple. One other thing I noticed is: I love to hear a chainsaw run anyhow, it's a beautiful noise. Milling is a very addictive disease. I can't wait to get that saw into some more wood and hear it scream. Thanks! Hope I didn't bore you too much.

Duane in VA.

Im glad to hear that you have things going your way now. I love to hear them ole saws scream too. Good luck with your future milling.