anyone got a chain saw mill gransford

[gardnesd]

How big does the chainsaw need to be for this thing to do some heavy cutting? How much does a ripping chain set you back? Is the saw dedicated to the mill or easy to remove? Why not buy something like a lumber smith?

[dwacker]

My buddy has one but you need the biggest most powerfull chainsaw you can buy to get anything done in a reasonable amount of time. Way to much work! The tiny mini mills are cute but unless you are just looking to spend money for a toy they are pretty much useless. You will have to cut and sticker alot of lumber to make your money back, even then the machine will be wore out before you do.

Id look at finding a local small bandmill and make friends with the owner before spending to much time toying with those things.

Don

[TimV]

I have and use an Alaskan Mill. My chainsaw is a Stihl MS290 farm boss with a 16" bar. I bought the mill for $75 from CL. The chainsaw is very easy to install and remove through 4 bolts that fit the chainsaw tool wrench. Since I only have a 16" bar, I'm limited to a max width of about 12". That doesn't bother me since very rarely do I ever need boards that wide anyway. For trees that are bigger, I use an attachment that runs along a 2x4 and cut the tree in half first then use the mill. I use ripping chains which track better and provide a smooth finish. I actually made my own ripping chains with a dremel tool. The guy I bought the mill from had ripping chains but they were for a much bigger saw and bar and didn't fit my setup. He gave me one as an example to grind and told me how to grind the teeth. You have to max out your bar oil flow and make sure you don't run out. I'll typically use a chainsaw tank of gas per two slices of the log. Milling the lumber is hard work and is slow but for wood that would have ended up as firewood, it can't be beat. Sure, I would love a real sawmill, but even that low end one is still $2k not counting blades. I've cut 3 white oak logs, 2 red oak logs, 2 cherry logs and 2 walnut logs so far with each log being 12-20" in diameter and 7-8' length. I missed my neighbor who had an ash tree cut down by a tree trimmer by about 4 hours. I was a little disappointed at not getting that chance to cut some ash too.