chainsaw mill

[edkemper]

Just a personal opinion? Use the mill for lumber. Leave the logs intact w/o the bark to use for the cabin walls. Any time you cut a log to stack them you invite water into the joints and invite a lot of maintenance down the road.

 

[muddstopper]

I thought about building a chainsaw mill, once. I have a 362 husky chainsaw with 24in bar, and thought before trying to build the mill, I would just see how well the saw would rip a log. Log was a 4ft dia red maple. Just making a slab and half way thru the log, i said to heck with this and blocked the log into firewood. Lots of folks have chainsaw mills and like them, but they are not for me. If your going to build a chainsaw mill, you better have plenty of saw hp to go with the mill.

 

[MNBobcat]

I thought about building a chainsaw mill, once. I have a 362 husky chainsaw with 24in bar, and thought before trying to build the mill, I would just see how well the saw would rip a log. Log was a 4ft dia red maple. Just making a slab and half way thru the log, i said to heck with this and blocked the log into firewood. Lots of folks have chainsaw mills and like them, but they are not for me. If your going to build a chainsaw mill, you better have plenty of saw hp to go with the mill.

Chainsaw mills are cool but they are a lot of physical work and relatively slow. If I were going to build a mill it wouldn't be that hard to make a bandsaw mill. I guess it comes down to how much would you think you might be milling. If only a little, a chainsaw mill is less expensive and simpler to get started with.

 

[PILOON]

I made a couple from scratch.

Basically a channel about 6" long a tad loose to fit a 2 X 4 with 1/2" bushing welded precisely across the width.
A 1/2" bolt was then welded to a 2" x 3" flat exactly centered and vertical. That flat was attached to the saw blade close to the motor head.
Bolt is inserted into the sleeve and a lock nut screwed on almost snug.

Next a VERY straight 2 X 4 is attached to the log to be sawed with 3 screws, one center and one at each end.

I did discover that a special ripping chain worked best. Basically it is skip toothed and excavates chips rapidly requiring less effort and speeds things up.

2 were made. one for me and one for my pal.
We made lots of 4 x 4's for posts.
Kinda fun but would not wish to saw enough to build a house that way.

 

[EddieWalker]

Just a personal opinion? Use the mill for lumber. Leave the logs intact w/o the bark to use for the cabin walls. Any time you cut a log to stack them you invite water into the joints and invite a lot of maintenance down the road.

I don't think it matters how you cut a log, they are all prone to moisture issues unless you put a big porch over all four walls. Chinking might be worse because it allows moisture into the space between the chinking and the log that is created when the log shrinks. .

Eddie

 

[Sodo]

Yep easy to make, easy to buy. these are only about $45. But as I said, you'd be surprised how strenuous it is to use them. Depends how bad you want that beam. In my case I can make a beam much faster than a trip to town, and saves a couple hundred bucks, you can make it payback quick. Making 4x4s you're mostly paid only in satisfaction, but can't knock that!

Agreed on the large powerhead and skip tooth, its already strenuous, you want to cut as fast as possible. ------Which adds cost and eqpt. Making 2x4 would never be worth it. but 4x8, 8x8 can work out. And especially if just making one flat on a round.

 

[Egon]

The amount of perceived work is greatly reduced with a sharp rip chain and a slow feed rate. Extra time spent sitting in the shade with saw and file at hand is well spent.

 

[plumbstraight]

everyone that has made a comment here is right on with their experiences. for me I just needed something that works for me. I love to tinker and built this to do what I need. It is a bit slow and I did put a bigger saw on and it cuts many more times faster than what I was using in the pics. Being able to take off 4 boards at a time sure cuts down on time spent, no matter if I am making smaller lumber or larger beams. If after making the vertical cuts and making anything from a 1x4 to a 4x16 three or four at a time works for me.

I must say too that being able to cut large beams like 18x18 with four cuts without wrestling the log around sure helps. Is all done by moving the saw, not the log.

 

[PILOON]

I posted earlier about my homemade rig.
The PIX of that Hudson boardmaster is similar in concept to what I made except I used 2 x 4 and hudson uses 2 x 6.
I used DOM sleeve while Hudson uses 2 washers.

I cannot stress enough that the trick for successful operation is a special ripping chain. It is 2-3 X faster and much less effort to use.

 

[Sodo]

I saw ripping chains on Amazon. Any idea what makes it better than skip tooth?