The general idea is you attach this rotating box onto the side of your chainsaw, and then the box snaps down over a 2x4. And then as the chainsaw runs, you can pull it along like this— and it will cut a flat spot into a log. And thus, you turn your log into some usable lumber. This is a chainsaw video, so bla bla bla safety is the most important thing—don't do anything that I do. [sigh] You know, it's your own responsibility. Also, I'm sure that your mill is the greatest and your chainsaw is the best one you can buy, but this is the smallest chainsaw I own, it's probably the smallest chainsaw you can buy, and that's because it has a thin kerf, and it's a really light-weight. Also, everything here is just 2x4s
and ¼-20 bolts—real cheap, some drywall screws—I didn't even have to run to the store. Because the main idea here is that it's not rocket science; it's just putting a flat spot on a log, like people have been doing for a bazillion years. Apologies for the combative attitude, but some of you see a video like this as an open invitation to give me advice. The first time that I ever milled a log, I just used a circular saw, cut from both sides and then a big, long Sawzall blade to connect the two cuts together. So, what gets you through milling wood is tenacity: you can do this if you want to. But I've milled various ways, and this is a really simple way. I haven't tested this, but I feel certain that I can produce a usable result. Why am i confident? Because I can do it without any jigs— with some practice, you can freehand well enough to run your board through the planer and get away with it. I'll be using an MS170. It's really lightweight, really cheap, as I said, makes a thin cut. And I have the chain extra sharp, so it should rip right through quickly. If it does take a little longer than a larger chainsaw would, it's worth the price, because I'm able to work
longer since I can hold this lighter machine for a longer period of time. Here's the chain I'm using. It's not the type of chain that's made with a 10° angle. It has a 30° angle. Yes,
I'm aware that there are chains that are better suited to the purpose, but that's not the type of chain that I'll be using today. Ok. So you understand that this rides on a 2x4 rail that can be any length. I'm going to remove this for clarity. Dimensions first—quickly: it's 12" total.
The 2x4 blocks are 5" each. The plywood is ½" plywood, ripped to 2¾". The drywall screws are ¾" down, located at 1" and 4" from each end. The holes drilled through for these bolts are ¼" holes, and they're ¾" down, located at 6", which is the center of the jig. The wooden washer things are just cutouts from a 2" hole-saw. It's worth noting that if you're making some, you should make some of
various plywood thicknesses— that way, you can adjust if you change the bolts for different blade clearances, different thicknesses of cut. Saw somewhere that somebody had heated up a nail and put it in the drill press in order to reduce the temper enough on the bar to be able to drill through it easily.
I tried it. It didn't work. Don't waste your time. Just drill with graduating sizes of drill bits; it's just like any other hard piece of metal. I drilled a ¼" hole to accept the ¼-20
bolt. The way that you're looking at the jig now makes use of two 3" bolts like this. Here against the bar I used a brass washer (in case it spins), just because brass is a softer metal. And what connects the two 3" bolts together is a coupler nut, here in the middle. Then there's a jam-nut on each side to prevent it from coming loose. Why didn't I just use one long piece of all-thread the whole way through? In a word—deflection. This bends more; it's just not as rigid as the solid piece. Also, the threaded rod will make more slop in the hole back here around the bar. It's better to just have solid material. Deflection is also the reason that I didn't just use one bolt to the inside. When you extend it all the way to the outside of the jig, you cash in on the diagonal strength of the entire wooden fixture, and it just ends up flexing a lot less. Take a look:
Notice how they move together? If I used a bigger chainsaw with a thicker bar there would be even less deflection, but I can tell just from having used a chainsaw a bunch that this is rigid enough to make a reasonably straight cut. ¡Yeah, put your money where your mouth is, and get to the cutting, right? Eh, [laughs] even if it fails I'm still gonna post this, and then you can learn from my mistakes hopefully. Ok, so I've rotated it 100 times and nothing's come loose. That's why I switched over to the coupler nut with the jam nuts, because something has to rotate somewhere for this to rotate, and you want a low-friction spot to allow rotation to occur before
one of the bolts comes loose. We don't want that to happen. It seems like in this jig it likes to
rotate right there, and so I'm thinking of making a washer out of some plastic milk jug, and then that'll give me a really low-friction spot there. [These captions were painstakingly typed by pocket83. Sorry for talking so much!] You need at least ½ of a tube
of graphite in order for this to work. [sigh] Sarcasm. That is nice and tight. And then the last thing is this jam-nut. That feels solid and smooth; it just feels right. Well, as right as this can feel, chainsawing with a with a chunk of 2x4 attached to it. Also note, because you might not be able to make this out on camera, but I sanded this really smooth, all the inside faces that will ride against the rail. And speaking of the guide-rail, let's prepare that right now. It's nothing to look at cosmetically, but it is quite straight. The material we produce can only be as straight as the board that we're using. But it's also pretty rough, so I have a piece of granite floor tile here with sandpaper on both sides. I'm not going to pass it through a planer. I'm not going to pass it through a jointer. I'm just giving it a flat sanding to help knock off any of those little bumps that might snag my apparatus there. this side the bottom goes against the wall so doesn't
matter so far so good that made a big difference but watch you can see a couple spots where it
catches especially here here are the materials that were working with today that one is about 7
feet long it's at it at its bottom about 10 and a half inch diameter this one here it's about
13 or 14 feet long and it has about a 15 inch diameter at the base both are maple they've been
sitting here for about two weeks and the reason that they're white is because there's paint on
the end to keep the moisture from coming out now I want to talk about the limitations inherent to
this design it's very important to consider this in terms of milling this is as low commitment as
you're ever going to get but it's almost toy like it'll work for small things but this bigger log
it's going to give me a problem the maximum depth that I'm going to get here is about eleven and a
half inches and that's on a bar that the maximum cut I would normally get is about fourteen and
a half inches so in order to get this here I sacrifice if I keep this angle at ninety degrees
which is not entirely practical eleven and a half tops this is the price that you pay for the
simplicity now you might you might suggest one or add a bigger bar and a bigger saw because as the
bar lengthens so does the amount of error the idea is projected error if you look way out there in
the distance about a hundred yards away there's a utility pole and if I wanted to determine what
level is from here to there you can't you a tiny instrument like this little 8 inch level because
whatever reads level if it's off just a little bit here over this 8 inches that error is going
to project out 2 feet well there I'll put a link below to a video about milling with an apparatus
that connects to this part of the bar as well and it really makes a stable device that the results
speak for themselves that go check that out these first few cuts are just depth cuts it
makes a groove that I can just rub away by turning the chainsaw sideways I'm trying to get
it approximately flat just so that I don't lose any depth of cut later the board was just
fastened with 3-inch screws nothing fancy just make sure it's stable oh I should also
mention that I really wish I would have used the draw knife to remove the bark because bark
does dull your chain but I tried using it on a similar log and it just wasn't ready yet logs
are funny that way where there's this time where the bark just sort of peels away and if it's too
difficult then it might not be worth the energy the contrarian in me wanted to use this little
chainsaw deliberately just because everybody says you can't it's my favorite chainsaw I can't help
it I have a larger one and I just go back to this one again and again it's inexpensive and I abuse
it and if it breaks I'll buy another one it's not a problem for me there's another consideration
though I have a 20 year old back injury and so a lighter chainsaw is really worth it to me
results really nice the one flaw was down here and you can see there's about a quarter inch lip
right there where the bar kind of went out but the good news is I did it because I was rushing it
I was getting excited and I could feel and see that it was happening so I think there's material
there that I could just go over again and fix it up I'll give it a try note that the best result
happened when I kept the stationary at something like thirty degrees and just held still as long
as I could starting and stopping for the the camera footage definitely caused problems
if if I had my way I would not record this okay real quick my early conclusions are yes you
must have one of these it's very easy to operate very easy to build and it's virtually zero
commitment caveat it works nice for a small log but for this monster here I don't think
I would recommend it but we'll see I'll catch up with you later I'm going to do the other
side okay this one went not quite as well I was able to do a little bit better down here
but I had chain problems at the beginning so I swapped out I gave it a sharpened first it
still didn't seem to do well and then I gave it a new chain updated conclusions this little
chain saw is too small yes it can be done but it's not very practical you can do it if it's
the only thing you have and especially on a smaller log like this but maple pushes the limit
all told this is a success but it's not ideal those slabs were not wasted I made them thick on
purpose because their edge material for this pea gravel bed under the deck this little garden
bed was put in about a year and a half ago so that's how you can expect it to hold up over
time just be sure to remove the bark because bark just holds moisture and it'll make it rot
faster okay so an updated update I was able to straighten it up a little better it's certainly
not bad at all one thing that I want to advise anybody who wants to attempt this on don't rush
it it's a lot of the imperfections in this are the result of me just trying to get through it
fast it's just really nasty or natural to want to portion it to work faster you just have to let
it do its thing after a little bit of practice I think this could really do pretty well I give it
a B+ grade no I didn't want to make screw holes anymore so you'll notice in all of the follow up
cuts that I use clamps whenever it's possible in order to use the clamps though you have to do
this little clamp dance where you move the last clamp from behind the chainsaw to over to the
center of the board again it's unfortunate but most of the work here is not chainsaw work it's
work that takes place around doing the chainsaw what's it carrying and grabbing things and
running back and forth probably the best thing about this process though is that with each
cut the subsequent cuts become easier because the log isn't isn't it about 15 seconds from now it
is pouring rain more on that in a bed what I'm doing here is using a circular saw to make a cut
on each side of the board and the idea is to cut the remaining part in the middle that's holding it
together on the bandsaw it's not the best way to do it in fact to be it's awful but I wanted to
show that there are multiple ways that you can skin this cat and also at least in theory it's not
a bad idea because it makes a much thinner curve also it's nice to just mix up the task because
it gets tedious making so many chainsaw cuts I'm freeing in a way here with the chainsaw and
I'll be moving it into the bandsaw in a moment it kept raining and I ran inside with all my
tools we were it was pouring on us and when I set my chainsaw down and turned around to get more
tools they caught me so it's been a rough day lots of bad luck this is my first mated pair I did one
that's rough cut 7/8 and that one's about an inch and a quarter I don't like the bandsaw method it's
pretty awful I put a circular saw cut on each end and the cuts rarely ever line up perfectly so
look what I have it's within the realm of what you can fix with a planer but I just wish it
were a little bit better given how much work it is for the remaining three boards that are
left on that beam these three boards here I'm just going to use the jig I like the chainsaw jig
much better it's faster and easier and though cuts really aren't bad with a little bit of practice
and some patience you get a pretty nice result from the edge of your guide rail you have one
half of an inch for plywood and three-quarters of an inch for that plywood spacer before the
kerf of chain starts so you have to add those two numbers up to determine how much material is
the smallest amount of material that you can use this device for the good news is that once you get
it that small the remaining board can be moved to the table saw keep an eye on your clamps they
can rotate loose while the chainsaw is running all of that for seven boards that's it for
now no they just have to cure for a year they range in thickness from I don't know
about an inch to an inch and a quarter and after they air dry for about a year then
I'll run them through the planer and give them better I just straighten them up that's a
lot of usable material for me so is it worth it that's for you to decide for me every once
in a while sure it is one more thing I put polyurethane on the ends just to keep the
moisture from squeezing out of the ends too quickly and I'll keep these out of the Sun
and off the floor and stacked with spacers between them nice and flat thanks for joining
me hope you found this somewhat interesting and useful see you next on next time we'll
probably involve a slightly bigger chainsaw
