Chainsaw milling experiments
I wanted to cut these into boards on my 18" bandsaw, but the quarter sections alone weighed 140 pounds (63 kg), too heavy to get onto my bandsaw. I could have used my bandsaw sawmill, but I didn't want to go get all the bits from my big country workshop to set up the mill in my backyard again. So I figured maybe I should use a chainsaw to cut the quarters into halves lengthwise, and then put it on my bandsaw.
I could cut the ends of the log that way, but I wouldn't be able to reach further than the length of the chainsaw bar. I figured the next best thing would be to cut through the log at as shallow a tilt as possible. But I needed some way to guide the chain saw to make a straight cut.
My next thought was to run the chainsaw itself along the 2x4, but the saw's housing is not quite parallel to the bar. So I drilled two holes in the chainsaw bar (it's hard but just drillable), and made this piece of wood which provides a surface parallel to the bar.
This cut surprisingly fast. With my banged up old Stihl 026 (a relatively small chainsaw), I was able to cut the 5 '(1.5 meter) long log, 10" (25 cm) deep in just 2 1/2 minutes.
Cutting this way, the kerf tended to fill with sawdust. If the sawdust got in there tight enough, I literally had to cut it out, and sometimes the saw cut slightly off kerf in doing that.
Some of the shavings, from the first cuts, are long and straight. These can jam up around the sprocket, though it wasn't too bad. But these long shavings are excellent kindling for a wood stove, so I let them dry in the sun and then saved them for the winter. It was tempting to keep milling these into boards with the chainsaw, but that would be wasting a lot of wood because of the wide chainsaw kerf.
I filmed the last part of the video as timelapses using my Raspberry Pi with camera module and my imgcomp software to only record while there was motion.
When resawing, sometimes I hit a point where the blade lacks critical sharpness and I can't continue. (more on that here). This point can be very abrupt, and I hit it in the middle of cutting a board. I had to back it out and sharpen the blade with a Dremel. Sharpening itself only took 3 1/2 minutes. Cutting was much faster after that.
I used to dry the wood by stacking it on the south side of my house, but I suspect this caused it to dry too fast initially, leading to cracking. So I intend to leave this wood in my shed in the shade for a few weeks. They have been cutting down all the ash trees in Ottawa because of the emerald ash borer. I really like ash wood, so I was keen to save some of it before it's all gone. I'm really happy with how well my chainsaw milling technique worked. But I tried the same thing with some silver maple and my "Poulan Pro" chainsaw (the kind you can buy at stores like The Home Depot), and the results were not as good. At some point the area around the sprocket got so clogged up with shavings that the chain couldn't run at all. Silver maple is much "stringier" than ash, which also caused some problems last time I milled some with my bandsaw mill. It could also be because of the smaller, narrower chain on the Poulan, or maybe that the Poulan chainsaw is just not as good as a Stihl. But for cross cuts, the Poulan works well enough. There are also special ripping chainsaw chains which are slightly better at cutting into the end grain. I didn't need one for ths method of milling, but enough people have emailed me about ripping chains, I thought I should at least mention that I am aware of them. But I don't have one. See also: Milling a log on the bandsaw (video) Back to my Woodworking website. |