372 and an alaskan mill

[chep]

Hey, I have a 372 and a 28 inch spalted sugar maple log in a very inaccessable spot. The home owner wants me to mill it very badly. I am working on getting an 066 running, but it will be a while. So in the meantime, will my 372 pull a chain long enough to mill up this tree? I have run through a few searches here, and people advise opening up the muffler to "let it breathe better"... whats that all about? Is it intelligent?
Thanks
chep

[Al_Smith]

Well I'll tell this about milling with a saw.It takes power for the long haul so use something that has some brute strengh . Run it richer than normal because it has to run for long periods of time to make those cuts .

I once tried milling using a mini mill and a Stihl 048 which is 77 cc's .It pulled through 18" oak but not with any speed . I used both a Homelite 2100 plus a Mac Sp 125 in the same log with much better success .

Bear in mind that even with those large ,powerfull vintage saws I could still only get about a foot a minute .So with that in mind ,using a 72 cc saw is going to be a long drawn  out experiance .Doable but labor intensive to say the least .

[Kevin]

If this is a one time deal you don't have to bother with the muffler but it does allow the engine to run somewhat cooler.
Use a full skip chain with rakers down to .040",  40:1 fuel mix and open the bar oiler wide open.
Wearing a mask with help with the exhaust fumes.
It also helps save your back if you can get the log off the ground so you aren't bent over.

[Ianab]

Almost anything is possible if you have the patience.

Definitelty use a skip chain - or even double skip.  The idea there is that if you are trying to drive too many cutters you end up just scraping dust with each one. They are all using some of the available power to cut through all the wood fibres each pass, but not achieving much.

With a skip or multiple skip chain you can concentrate the cutting pressure and drive power on less cutters that can each get a decent bite of wood and achieve something. It still wont be fast, but you wont be bogging the saw or pushing as hard.

Also plan your cutting for the least number of cuts you need to break the log down into moveable pieces. Maybe 4 cuts? Take a 8" deep slab off the top, roll over and take another 8"slab.  Now stand up the 28x12 and make 2 more cuts, only 12" wide this time.

Haul out the cants  (quad bike trailer or similar?) and resaw them on your normal mill.

Ian

[Al_Smith]

That right there is probabley the smartest advice anyone could give .Break it down enough to move it to a proper sawing rig .

Some on this forum or many others for that matter  might think chainsaw milling is the greatest  thing since canned beer but I'm not in that club . If you want to listen to a bellowing saw for hours and work your butt off to get a little usable lumber then I say go for it .Otherwise stick that puppy in a bandsaw rig or big circle saw and be done with it .

Stack and sticker the lumber then drink that beer in the can  under a shade tree .

[rebocardo]

I limited my Husky 365 to about 14 inches on oak, I really think 20" would be the max for a 372, I own one and use it for ripping firewood with a ripping chain. Usually with the grain, but, sometimes I use it to cut straight down on a round/cookie.

You can use a 28" bar with the ripping chain, just limit your cut to 20". I would make a 20" cant and cut it into 20"w x 2" slabs.

[woodsrunner]

Follow Ian's suggestions on how to do this. A 372 will really be taxed to mill this size log. Having said that IF you are very careful you can do it. Be aware that milling is very hard on a saw. Lots of heat generated for extended periods of time. Let your saw idle to help cool it down at the end of each cut and don't push it too hard. No sense in burning up your saw. Also on most alaskan style chainsaw mills (which really are nothing more than a jig to allow your saw to cut in a regular or straight plane) you will lose anywhere from 4 to 10 inches of bar length. For instance on my GB mill a 42 inch bar on my 395 give me about 34 inches of actual cut width. Don't be afraid of chainsaw milling it's not as bad as alot of folks make it out to be. It is, however, just like most things. To produce useable boards, cants, slabs, whatever you need to learn a little about it. It will be easy for a novice to end up with non-square timbers or boards. I highly recommend using ripping chain. If you need more help or advice just ask. We'll try to help.

Scott

[Al_Smith]

Well as far as that goes ,I believe the guy's name is Alan Combs who sells plans for making a chainsaw mill recommends breaking the logs down into cants .After which resaw for size .He claims it's much faster plus you will get better quality lumber .

[woodsrunner]

BTW, I'm a big fan of using a bandsaw mill or circle mill to produce lumber. I feel the chainsaw mill is best suited for pieces of timber you can't deal with any other way. In my case, I use the CSM for cutting live edged slabs out of big stumps, butt cutoffs and crotches that are waste from logging operations on my timber land. It allows me to salvage very nice pieces of usable timber that would otherwise be turned into firewood. In my opinion, it is a very specialized piece of equipment to do a specialized task under unusual circumstances. I have access to a good circle mill and 2 good bandmills  for sawing my "normal logs" into "normal lumber". Having said this, I really enjoy using my csm. Yeah, its hard work, but, so is off bearing for a woodmizer . If you do a little research on the topic you will figure out how to do this fairly easily. It's actually really rewarding to take a walnut or cherry crotch that the guys at the landing cut off and pushed into the cut off pile and open it up and see a beautiful piece of wood. Check out my gallery and you will see a few pictures of what I use mine for.

Scott

[woodsrunner]

Well as far as that goes ,I believe the guy's name is Alan Combs who sells plans for making a chainsaw mill recommends breaking the logs down into cants .After which resaw for size .He claims it's much faster plus you will get better quality lumber .

I've looked at the Procut website alot. It looks like a nice design and I think it is a sturdy and well thought out concept.  I look at it and think it would be easy to build and then I think if I'm going to go to that much effort why not build a bandmill? I do think there is a place for his design and concept tho. I'm still on the fence about the concept for me and my situation.

[Al_Smith]

Well actually I've got a bandmill in the works .I just need to finish it .Rubber tired deal using a a Ford Escort CV drive with either a 16 HP Briggs, a Wisconsin twin or a 34 HP Wisconsin V4 .I have all three to choose from .

Back to the chainsaw rig .On some site on the web someone had a commercialy made giant deal which used a an 18 HP Briggs with a speed increaser and a 4 foot bar for slabbing .They also offered an electric motor version .

Actually something like that is about the only way you could cut a big old crotch .

[woodsrunner]

Yeah I've seen those. Lucas makes them. Peterson also I think.  If I was to get serious about slabbing thats probably how I would go. Thats where I think the procut design would work for me. just make it bigger and put an 18 to 20 hp 4 stroke with a harvester sprocket on it. As I said earlier I have 2 buddies with woodmizers and an old family friend who has a circle mill. They will cut anything normal I need cut for a really reasonable price. No way I can own a band or circle mill for what I can have lumber custom sawed for me. As much as I would like to.

[Al_Smith]

There are pros and cons to ownership of anything .

I would be leerly of running logs through a circle mill in my case because many are residential take downs that are salvaged . The price of a big inserted blade would scare me to death if they hit metal or something and blew all the inserts out and ruined the thing .

With a portable bandsaw the price of a blade is not that bad . I suppose using a chainsaw you might ding up a couple of teeth but not likely ruin the whole thing although it might take an hour to repair it so it's usable again .

[woodsrunner]

Yeah I hit a rock about the size of a golf ball with the chainsaw mill once. It was completely encapsulated by the wood about 10 inches in from the bark. didn't really mess anything up just dulled the teeth. Had to stop and resharpen. then had to figure out how to finish the cut!!! went to the other end and started and came back up to it. the took the 385 and did a little bore cut kind of thing to get close to the rock and took 2 crowbars and popped the slab off. Didn't ruin the chain. But you're right there are certainly pros and cons to any method. This works for me for those special pieces and anything else I let the sawmill guys saw for me. But my logs come from my own timber land so don't have a big issue with tramp metal in them. They will saw for me for 20 cents a bf. No way can I own a band mill for that kind of money.

Scott

[Al_Smith]

 20 cents to a quarter is about the going rate here also .

I suppose I'll have around 500 in a homebuilt but then too I'm a world class junk collector and have about everything except the band blades .

I have about 75 bucks in the two Wisconsin engines,nothing in the Briggs twin  and nothing in the two Escorts I scrapped for parts . 50 in the transport axle as it will not be a portable rig that every Tom Dick and Harry would think I'll drag all over the country side to cut lumber for them because I'm such a nice guy .

 
With ye olde Alaska mill deal you can get 500 in the tool  and 1500 in a large Stihl or Huskey  to power one and still work your butt off . My  butt is getting a tad too old for that .

[chep]

Thanks for all the replies folks! Due to the location of this log, there is no other option than a chainsaw mill. It is located on a "camp" property in the adirondacks that is accessable by boat only. It would be a serious undertaking to move cants from there back to the home base where I do have access to a bandsawmill.

The most likely use for these slabs will be mantle pieces, so one edge can certainly be dimensional while the other is live edge. I guess if i am going to use the 372 then log breakdown and my sawing sequence will have to be pretty well though out...

Why will running 40:1 be advantageous over 50:1?

thanks again

chep

[Ianab]

Why will running 40:1 be advantageous over 50:1?

Cheap insurance.

You are going to be running the saw full throttle for a long time, and it's going to get hot, make sure it's well lubed.

Ian

[rebocardo]

> is accessable by boat only

Can you float pieces of wood or large cants to a dock on the other side and pull them out with a truck?

re:40:1

I know the saw and bar can get extremely hot and one reason (imo) is because the muffler is never really clear of the wood and you are running it full throttle for at least 5 minutes at a time. Something you would not normally do.

[Al_Smith]

Why will running 40:1 be advantageous over 50:1?

thanks again

chep

Well for what it's worth I run 32 to one but I don't want to start the ever on going oil wars again .

[Hilltop366]

I also use 32:1  so I can run the same gas in my Saw / Line Trimmer / Lawnboy mower with out having to have three cans.
This also keeps my gas fresher.