home made alaskan mill

[evo]

I've been eyeballing wood on almost a daily baises. I can't let it go any longer, so I made a mill. At this point all I have is a 361 with a 25" bar, and I know I'll burn it up if I go at it full bore with this saw. I don't plan on doing production work with it, just planning on making longboard skateboards, and furniture...

 

[Colin]

Very cool.

We've got one, and run a 441Mag with it, but we've been ripping a lot bigger logs. Biggest we've done is a 30" DBH American Elm log. White and red cedar seem to be my favorites so far, most useful for me. What is that you've got there? Ash?

 

[Adkpk]

Well, I was going to comment on the nice job you did on the mill but then I saw the cute kid. She looks like a darling. Nice job on both accounts.

Tune the saw so it revs below the regular high revs as to flood it out and it will 4 cycle more. I did that with my 660 and I've not had to redo the piston-cylinders since. And of course give yourself time to put it down if you feel it getting hot. Don't pick it back up till it's completely cooled off.

 

[evo]

That's Garry Oak (Quercus garryana). I use just a normal full skip chisel chain, and was amazed at how the oak turned out.

If I do much more I will have to get a bigger saw. I actually made this for a specific cherry tree that was cut down by some loggers doing a "selective thinning" in a monoculture alder stand. It's not the straightest log ever, but it's 22' dia. One of the bigger bitter cherries I've seen around. On the cherry today I thought I would cheat and try to make the 1st cut at about a 45 degree angle down the length. It looked to be the best starting point since the log is slightly oval. I was already tired, and was looking for a shortcut on wrestling the log to make the cut level... Live and learn I guess.

 

[evo]

Here are some new boards... Apple is the larger, and the pinkish is pacific dogwood. The kid was off playing with trains, so no scale....

Hard to see with the photo, but there is a window where I cleaned the bark out of the seam. I also like how the stub grafted back to the trunk.

 

[treestyler]

Nice to mill your own wood aye.