Alaskan Chainsaw Milling anyone?

[Tre3hugger]

Hello fellow diy enthusiasts. So with the price of lumber skyrocketing and lots of building projects in my near future, I decided now was the time to invest in an alaskan chainsaw mill. I went with the Granberg G777 small log mill. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AMFY90/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It is capable of running chainsaws with a 14-20" bar, with 50cc being the minimum recommended engine power and 70cc being more than enough. I already had a Stihl MS271 Farm Boss with a 20 inch bar and 51cc powered engine, but decided to get a new saw because I didn't want to blow out my workhorse (the Stihl) milling stuff. Also, the lower spectrum CCs would make for some time/gas/oil consuming cuts. So I decided to get a Makita 6100 (61CC) saw that I will use just for milling. The Makita will be outfitted with aftermarket 20 inch bar and a ripping chain.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XYR44LQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The milling itself seems very straight forward, with the only real variable being the first cut. Making this level first cut on a round log seems to be the only tricky part. After much Youtube research I decided I will use a section of aluminum ladder, 12 ft, secured to the log with conduit straps and pipe strapping. The ladder will rest on pieces of 2x6 leveled on the ends of the log.

Anyone have any experience with this? Share your techniques and set up.

I dropped a nice maple tree today that I will be doing my experimenting on. I am still waiting for the chain in the mail so won't be milling for another few days. I will be sharing my experiences here, in hopes someone may learn something or find it interesting. Pics of my saws and the mill coming soon.

 

[LadyLaurelin]

Very interested! My husband is wanting one of these, but we have no practical experience with one. He does have more than enough chainsaws, though.

 

[Tre3hugger]

Very interested! My husband is wanting one of these, but we have no practical experience with one. He does have more than enough chainsaws, though.

I got pretty busy last week, and this week my parents are visiting, but I am hoping to do some milling on Friday. My first project will be all 2x4's, an outdoor hutch frame, connected to my barn, to hang my KW rabbit cages on.Will update here!

 

[Tre3hugger]

I did get my 20 inch bar and ripping chain in the mail. I also dropped a 40 foot ish maple, about 14in across, to be the first tree I mill.

 

[Chuckie chicken]

I thought about making a mill. I decided to do one log freehand in the winter to see how it went. It's good enough for what I wanted, (beams for a couple of small bridges), but not great.

I don't have a ripping chain, but either way, there's a lot of waste, (which does make for good run material ).

I got busy with other stuff, but I still have a lot of logs left (dead ash), so, with the cost of lumber I might revisit the idea.

I'm curious to see how it goes for you and what you think of the ripping chain.

 

[Tre3hugger]

@Chuckie chicken Thank you for sharing your experience! Those slabs look really nice for free hand.

I read that the ripping chain will save time, gas, and man power so my expectations are a bit high for it honestly. I will certainly let you know what I think of it.

 

[HomesteaderWife]

To be fair, we started off with a chainsaw mill early on, but the toll it took on the chainsaw and the gas/chain costs with how long it took to cut, we were working with one chainsaw and we needed it to not get burnt up because we needed it for cutting trees. People have different experiences, but for us we needed another option.

So we invested in a nice starter portable sawmill and that was 6 years ago, it's still operating and running so nicely. It paid for itself 2 years in with how much wood we cut for cabin, corn crib, gazebo, etc. I highly recommend a nice intro level bandsaw mill if you're serious about wanting to put your trees to use.

 

[630004]

An alaskan chain-saw mill is ok for low volume with a lot of waste. A mill will give you much more usable wood with a better finish.

With that being said I had a bunch of trees and decided to try the alaskan mill and there are a few things that will make your life a lot easier. Firstly, have the right bar length, this probably means getting a bigger saw for a lot of people. Next, the first cut determines everything. I found the easiest way to do this was to use an aluminum ladder as a guide. Then just take it slow and rinse and repeat.

Few lessons learned.
- Clean your wood
- Make sure you have the log stable and lifted. Wood is heavy
- Have a space where you are ok with a lot of wood chips/ mess. Alaskan mills are super wastefull and messy.

 

[raingarden]

So we invested in a nice starter portable sawmill

Got a link for that?

 

[gtaus]

I read that the ripping chain will save time, gas, and man power so my expectations are a bit high for it honestly. I will certainly let you know what I think of it.

I know this is an old thread, but for some reason it popped up again for me. Anyways, I don't think we ever heard back from you on the new ripping chain and how it worked. Any words of wisdom?