How to use a Chainsaw Mill

hey guys today I'm going to show you how I use my chainsaw to roll up these cherry logs I'm going to go through step by step on how I set up all my equipment over here I have a eight-foot ladder that I'm going to use for the milling process and it gets screwed onto the log with these screws right here screws and this goes through the platter like this and into the log just want to make sure you don't go too far into the log that you're at chainsaw doesn't cut through the screws I use impact driver to get those in and then you're gonna need some wedges some wedges and that kind of keeps the log from collapsing on itself one-year milling I'll show you that too as we get going make sure you have good safety equipment here I have chainsaw chaps with the ballistic fiber so off the chain so I'll hit your leg it'll be stop the blade from you safety gear got a helmet visor and ear protection so work gloves if you don't have that type of helmet you can get this type here just a hardhat with some safety glasses maybe and some ear protection and over here I have my chainsaw elf this is the Panther two chainsaw mill and the chainsaw bar gets clamped in here I'll show you that too I use half-inch wrench and a crescent wrench to use that to just make adjustments then these are spacer blocks I have three quarter inch blocks several of those these are oak blocks and one inch and these are just spacers that go in here and determines the thickness of your cut fuel for the chainsaw synthetic or you can do a 50 to one for my saw borrow oil a funnel don't get over your chainsaw I have an extra ripping chain and my chainsaw tool today I'm going to use the my Husqvarna 872 XP and it's a 77 cc chainsaw right now I have a 24-inch bar on here that has a crosscut chain on it final switch it out for this 36 inch bar okay and the bar I'm using is a 3/8 inch 60 3115 drive links for this and I'm going to be using a semi chisel ripping chain so I'm gonna install that now and I'll show you what that looks like here's a handy little guide to show you what size chainsaw engine you'll need for the log size you're cutting alright I'm gonna switch out my bars here get my chain taking off the 24-inch and put it on the 36 take off your bar nuts okay or you wanna make sure you have the chain facing the right direction make sure the cutters are pointing forward and this is in front of the tooth this way would be backwards don't ask me how I know that okay with tension you chained you want it tight enough where it's not going to be sagging like this one and it still has to build spins this one needs to be a little tighter looks pretty good should still be able to spin without too much effort too tight you want hanging too loose either you come off on yeah I think that's pretty good right there so then you tighten down your bar nuts don't over tighten Oh it'll be hard to get off just snug good to be a little tight and see how it runs yeah you also want to top off your fuel and bar oil today I'm going to use the synthetic Husqvarna fuel I just fuel says if you don't use your chainsaw for a while then it doesn't get all gunked up with the uh unleaded gas oil mix check your bar oil make sure it's full I changed my bar oil our ad borrow oil every time I add gas so this is pretty full I just used this the other day cross cut the cherry logs they were 9 to 10 feet long and my ladders on 8 feet so I cross cut them into smaller sections most of the stuff I'm going to use with they're going to be smaller smaller projects so I'm not gonna need really long boards all right that's it on the chainsaw and it's ready to go set that up okay now I'm gonna set up the log flag on the log you want to make sure that the ladder is a level and not twisted or any way so I'll put the screws in kind of easy start here don't go too far just to get your log leveled out other hand and couple in the middle [Music] important you don't go too tight with the screws you don't want to twist the ladder it's not be pretty good all right we're gonna put the chainsaw on the mill we're gonna do it with the head facing up and the bar slides okay I'm gonna make sure you don't clamp the sprocket down here I'll show you that okay you want to make sure you don't clamp the sprocket so you don't want to clamp here this area needs a spin I always clamp it a little bit behind it then down here at the end of the head make sure it's centered centered good there's a chainsaw head here's what it looks like alright then you're gonna tighten down these nuts here first by hand kinda evenly on both sides same thing down here tighten in this one this one that one and you're gonna tighten it down a little bit on each I don't want to over tighten alright I'll finish tightening this and be right back alright let's talk about putting the spacers in for the panther mil panther mil - if you don't put any spacers in your thickness of cut is gonna be just like this right here if you can see very good but that's gonna be really thin so you got to put spacers in so you can get some wider boards here you would probably not have much of a board at all if you didn't put any spaces in so the spacers are gonna go here and here so it's gonna lift this up let me show you what that looks like okay so here's my spacers I'm gonna start by putting a one-inch one and show you so you lift this up you're going to place it between the bar and the bottom of the mill chin now that would give us a one-inch cut I've got a one-inch block here so this spacing would leave you with a one-inch board when you when you use your mill I'm gonna go thicker than that probably gonna go at least two inches and put another block in raising this up here so that's gonna give me a 2-inch thick board when I do this and if I want to go higher I've got some three quarter inch boards basically I just ran these oak boards through my surface planer and made sure they're exactly one inch or 3/4 inches so right now I'm set up for a two inch thick slab I'll probably start with that on this first log I've got four logs today to cut through so I think I'll just start with the 2 inch slabs okay now next thing you want to do is tighten these bolts down this gives you that two inch setting and then on this side tape it up cheat a on you never over tagging problem later okay now you want to take these spacers out all right make sure your chain still spins everything's looking good all right now let's show you how this is gonna work with the log what to say I really like this Panther mill pretty solid solid steel made in USA I think they're made in Florida this one was about a hundred and fifty dollars I think but I think that they custom make them too when you place your order in they come in different sizes and think mine goes up to like maybe a 52 inch bar it's pretty big but biggest bar I have is a 42 inch bar I got 36 on here now Panther mill nice and solid heavy it's nice this weight you know helps with the saw the saw is pretty heavy and having this extra weight to balance it out helps a lot especially when you're running across a aluminum ladder all right I'm gonna show you how this works with the the ladder and the logs it up okay one thing I've remembered or just revert it forgot to tell you is when you make your first cut you got taken to count the thickness of the ladder that you're using so here we have aluminum ladder standard probably about two and a half three inches thick so I had to lower my chain bar down about an inch and a half to two inches just to get that first cut sure you hear that first cut so it wouldn't cut into those screws and basically what's gonna happen is if we're take the bark off this first cut with the ladder they'll give us our flat surface and then once the bark is off and we got a flat surface we can take off the ladder and then just run the mill on the log itself because the log will be flat and then each successive cut you can just keep using the top of the log till you get down towards the bottom alright so let me start up the saw I'll put my safety gear on first and start up our saw and show you the first cut [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] let's see if the water look like tell the rest the cuts will run with the theme song running off the plaster after that first cut a couple things we're gonna lower the the space between the bar and the rails down back to our two inch thickness because now we're going to cut two inch boards and my chain is need to be tighten up a little bit that's too loose probably came loose I don't know if I have the barred nuts tied back also my chains a little dull it's throwing out mostly dust so I'm gonna give it a quick sharpening and we'll be right back okay sharpen up the chain now I'm gonna lower it back down to the two inches that I'm gonna get my slab with so I'll use two blocks to one inch blocks on each side all right okay so got to one inch blocks in to make a two inch slab okay now you're gonna see what we use the wedges for to keep the the bar from getting pinched in the slabs so we use wedges to profit open it [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] okay guys well that's how I do my chainsaw mill setup and if you decide to do this it's a lot of fun a lot of work but it's not too expensive get a good chainsaw good mill and be safe get good safety equipment it's a lot of fun rewarding to be able to go and build a piece of furniture from one of these planks it's pretty nice maybe a coffee table or end table anyway good luck with your woodworking and your chainsaw going til next time [Applause]

Channel: Richard Goodman

Views: 982,734

Rating: 4.56464 out of 5

Keywords: Chainsaw Mills, Chainsaw Milling, Chainsaw, Logging, Husqvarna 372XP, Chainsaw Mill Set Up, Chainsaw Milling step by step, Panther Mills, Woodworking, Slabbing Logs, Panther Mill II, Lumber, Making Lumber, Homesteading Techniques

Id: Ki-oANgTEJY

Length: 23min 28sec (1408 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 22 2016