home made chainsaw mill

Nice job. It shows that woodworkers have skills that extend into other areas beyond woodworking. You not only saved money in fabricating it yourself, you just paid next to nothing for free wood.

Good job and a great idea. It’s a little hard to see exactly how the chain saw connects to the frame you made.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

I also don’t see how it works.

-- Tom D

What kind of chain saw do you use? I have burned up two cheap ones cutting up logs on the long grain like you were cutting and I’m looking for a good chain saw.

been dreaming of building my own csm, but I … don’t have a chainsaw yet to begin the fabwork. Nice save on those logs. now that ya got em milled up you should be able to manage bug problem pretty easy

It looks to me like the bar only attaches on the engine end leaving the sprocket end open.
In some cases this is good, it allows cutting of a log almost twice as wide as the bar….. but there are caveats.
Oiling, heat, flexing, etc.

For those that don’t see how it attaches, the bar is squoze between a couple of plates that are welded to the bars with the bolts.

Mine has attachment on both ends, but then the caveat on that is you lose a few inches of bar length because the sprocket end attachment has to be far enough behind the sprocket to not compress it when tightened.

I use a Poulan 5020, 20” bar with full chisel chain. So far I have cut down and disposed of 6 large oaks and cut 6 logs into slabs, 16” wide.
I also changed the bar to an Oregon Pro bar 28” and have cut up 6 more 8” oak logs into slabs.

Lately I bought an antique Pro Mac 610 with a 20” bar and 60cc engine, (Poulan only has 50.8cc), and with some hot rodding will put a 32” bar on it.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

Dallas is exactly right on how it is attached.. Cdaulton I am currently using a sthil ms 170 with a 16” bar but I find that it has some bar oiling issues so I am looking at a larger husqvarna 455 with a 20” bar and hopefully it will go a little faster. Right now it takes about 15 mins per 10 ft to cut through it. Some sites say to use a ripping chain to have a finer finish but I just cut it an 1/8 ” larger width wise and run it through my planer.

I’ve never used a set up like this ,but I was wondering if you had a longer bar if you could attach another handle on the end to make it easier to pull the chain saw through the wood.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

Stihl 510. Get this and you will not wear it out, burn it out or be sorry. It costs but you only pay once.

Jim – yes you could make it a bit longer and add another height adjustment for larger bar chain saws. This is what it would look like if you follow the link http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_7745_7745?cm_ven=natural&cm_cat=netconcepts&cm_pla=&cm_ite= . I built mine to function for the smaller bar chainsaw

Very cool ,thanks for the link.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

How do you get your first cut nice and flat to set up all the rest of your cuts?

-- I came - I sawed - I over-built

I’ve got a Stihl 038 with the Alaskan mill.
The key is to make your first cut level as all other cuts reference off that. I use a fibreglass extension ladder and put shims in if there is a big offset. Afterwards you have a nice flat surface to reference.

Turn your oiler up to max. This type of sawing is creates a lot of heat and will destroy your bar if you don’t have enough oil.

I “paid” mine off first weekend sawing up some birch. Would love it if we had cherry or maple here.

Luke,

I have a photo suggestion: before uploading the photos, simply double click them and they will open up in Windows Photo Gallery (assuming you’re using windows) Toward the bottom there are spiral-like arrows. Just keep clicking these until the photo is right side up, then click the “X” in the top right to exit. Before exiting it will ask you if you want to save the changes. Click “yes” and then all of your fellow LJ’s will be able to enjoy your wonderful photography without getting a crick in the neck!

Nice project by the way!

-- "Begin every endeaver with the end ever in mind."

Great Toy
Jamie

-- Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own. --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe