Chainsaw sawmilling

[Karl_TN]

@woodtickgreg, Someday I hope to get a s Super Jolly Grinder with hydraulics (they make the Oregon grinders but are slightly cheaper). Just wondering how do you grind the rakers down to a consistent height because I despise filing them by hand? Have you tried CBN or diamond grinding wheels on your chainsaw grinder yet?

Also, do you let everything air dry or do you own a kiln to speed up the drying process so you don’t have wood piles taking up room drying for years with those thicker boards? (Edit: just noticed Dan beat me to this question).

 

[woodtickgreg]

Do you have a kiln or just air dry your lumber before using it?

I air dry all of my lumber, no room for a kiln living in the city. I sticker and stack lumber in my garage for drying, fans when I first stack it to dry the surface of the wood, then just time and the heat of the garage does the rest.

 

[woodtickgreg]

@woodtickgreg, Someday I hope to get a s Super Jolly Grinder with hydraulics (they make the Oregon grinders but are slightly cheaper). Just wondering how do you grind the rakers down to a consistent height because I despise filing them by hand? Have you tried CBN or diamond grinding wheels on your chainsaw grinder yet?

Also, do you let everything air dry or do you own a kiln to speed up the drying process so you don’t have wood piles taking up room drying for years with those thicker boards? (Edit: just noticed Dan beat me to this question).

I use a raker depth gage to set the grinder stop up to the correct height. I did a thread on this somewhere here a long time ago. I'll see if I can find it and post a link. I have not stepped up o CB or diamond wheels yet as I stil have several of the standard pink grinding wheels that I use. They work fine for me and I like that I can dress them to whatever shape I want.

 

[woodtickgreg]

Here's a link to the granberg website. Prices have gone up some over the years and that is to be expected. I also see they have made some improvements to some of their brackets. I still think they offer the most bang for the buck.

Alaskan® Mills | Shop Alaskan® Mills | Granberg International

granberg.com

 

[woodtickgreg]

Here's a link for a thread I did on sharpening and setting the rakers.

Chain rakers and how to set them.

Chainsaw chain sharpening and rakers and how to set them has come up here before. The rakers control how deep a cut each tooth can take and having them properly set is important. As you sharpen chains the teeth get smaller and shorter in height as well, then they take less of a cut, then the...

woodbarter.com

 

[djg]

I air dry all of my lumber, no room for a kiln living in the city. I sticker and stack lumber in my garage for drying, fans when I first stack it to dry the surface of the wood, then just time and the heat of the garage does the rest.

So you don't get your lumber down to the recommended 8-10% MC before using it, but only to the 12-15% MC Air drying can achieve? My numbers may be off, but I think you get my idea. The reason I ask is I have several shelves of AD lumber in the basement waiting for me to get off my butt and build a kiln. Can't use it that wet?

 

[woodtickgreg]

So you don't get your lumber down to the recommended 8-10% MC before using it, but only to the 12-15% MC Air drying can achieve? My numbers may be off, but I think you get my idea. The reason I ask is I have several shelves of AD lumber in the basement waiting for me to get off my butt and build a kiln. Can't use it that wet?

Honestly I think people get to hung up on moisture percentage numbers. My lumber is air dried to the relative humidity of my area and very stable. I have never had any problems using my lumber for indoor furniture. Remember lumber is hydroscopic, meaning it is constantly absorbing and releasing moister. You can kiln it and get it as dry as you want, lower than the humidity of your area, but once it's out of the kiln it's going to absorb moisture from the air and the percentage point is going to go up. When people have a failure of a project they have built it's usually because they did not allow for the movement that naturally occurs in all wood from season changes in humidity. Not because the wood wasnt dried to the magic 10% or whatever number. I cut my lumber thick because it will shrink as it dries, and it will also loose weight as the moisture is released. I also think air dried lumber is easier to work with, not as brittle or splintery.
Now one good thing about a kiln is being able to get the temps of the wood up and hot enough to kill bugs, but I've never really ha a big issue with that either. If the log is really buggie I pass on it and move on to better logs.

 

[Karl_TN]

For those following this thread, here’s a link to a place with Super Jolly hydraulic grinder for $330:

https://maverickmowersupply.com/700010-chain-grinder-super-jolly-w-hydraulic-clamp

Exactly the same as the high end Oregon 620 grinder (both made by Tecomec), but $125 cheaper.

 

[djg]

For those following this thread, here’s a link to a place with Super Jolly hydraulic grinder for $330:

https://maverickmowersupply.com/700010-chain-grinder-super-jolly-w-hydraulic-clamp

Exactly the same as the high end Oregon 620 grinder (both made by Tecomec), but $125 cheaper.

Wow, that's still a little too pricey for a weekend warrior like me. I know it's been covered before, so I'll just do a search, but I would like to get a reliable low end sharpener some day.

 

[woodtickgreg]

Wow, that's still a little too pricey for a weekend warrior like me. I know it's been covered before, so I'll just do a search, but I would like to get a reliable low end sharpener some day.

I have a more basic Oregon grinder, still professional, way cheaper, and what a lot of small engine shops still use to sharpen chains for their customers. Just stay away from the harbor freight grinders in my opinion.

 

[woodtickgreg]

This is a good quality grinder, all anyone really needs.

https://www.amazon.com/Oregon-410-120-Bench-Mounted-Grinder/dp/B00Y0S88Y8/ref=asc_df_B00Y0S88Y8/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198076851563&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13502613898259418769&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9016789&hvtargid=pla-320836411855&psc=1

 

[vegas urban lumber]

This is a good quality grinder, all anyone really needs.

https://www.amazon.com/Oregon-410-120-Bench-Mounted-Grinder/dp/B00Y0S88Y8/ref=asc_df_B00Y0S88Y8/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198076851563&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13502613898259418769&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9016789&hvtargid=pla-320836411855&psc=1

i have one of those and it works really well. i could never get a sharp chain by hand, but with that grinder resharpened chains cut better than when fresh out of the package

 

[turtlewoodwork]

This was incredibly helpful.

 

[Ken Martin]

You can get basically the same machine from Harbor Freight for less than $50. I bought one at one of their sales for $29 and it works just fine.

 

[turtlewoodwork]

So now that people around here know I have started a woodworking business, several people have reached out to offer me free wood from their property. My brother has access to an old wood mizer on his property which we used once a few weeks ago. He lives about an hour away from me though, so its not terribly convenient. I enjoyed trying out the mizer and was thinking it would be cool to be able to mill wood here at my place, but there's plenty of challenges I was not aware of. Glad I didn't jump the gun on anything before reading this thorough breakdown of the components.

There is a mill I go to now not as far away where I purchase my wood that I believe will mill pieces for you which may be a better solution to my 'abundance of free wood' issue. At least for now.

 

[woodtickgreg]

@turtlewoodwork
A Woodmizer is a good mill and loads easier to use than chainsaw milling. Milling with a chainsaw is extremely physical.

 

[turtlewoodwork]

@turtlewoodwork
A Woodmizer is a good mill and loads easier to use than chainsaw milling. Milling with a chainsaw is extremely physical.

Yeah thats what I gathered from your first post. All the sudden I was like... wow. Can I even do it? Should I even do it? Probly not even though lifting weights has really helped me a lot.

 

[Eric Rorabaugh]

An hour away to the mill isn't that bad. But if you are getting free wood from close to you, why don't you stock up. Then see if you can bring the mill to your place for a couple weeks. Saw everything you have and you'll be set.

 

[turtlewoodwork]

An hour away to the mill isn't that bad. But if you are getting free wood from close to you, why don't you stock up. Then see if you can bring the mill to your place for a couple weeks. Saw everything you have and you'll be set.

Some of the free wood is close, some is an hour the other direction. I don't think I can bring the mill to me not just because I don't have the means to haul it, but it belongs to the community down there.

At this point, I'm planning to take another load down there for milling when I can, but I am curious....I came across portable bandsaw mills. Does anyone use these? Seems like it would be more manageable with the proper setup.

 

[Eric Rorabaugh]

That's about all anyone uses except for big sawmill companies. Several brands out there. About all have a trailer option. All depends on your budget. Woodland mills makes a good mill for a reasonable price. But depending on budget, there are other more economical choices. You can get some that you could slide on a trailer or in the bed of a truck and take where you want.