Alaskan chainsaw milling

[mikeakc]

My parents have a Hornbeam tree which has been standing dead for a number of years and has come down recently. I tried cutting into usable slabs freehand with a chainsaw they are sufficiently wonky that I am thinking of buying an Alaskan mill. I have asked local tree surgeons to quote, most don’t want to know and only one has come back with a price and he’s talking about £450 for the day which seemed pretty punchy!

Can anyone tell me whether they have used one and whether they would recommend it? I’ve put a photo of the tree below and the products I’m considering buying. I’d like to turn it into a dining table top and will of course report on my progress!
Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

[mikeakc]

 

[mikeakc]

View attachment 280940

I’ve taken one 8ft section from one of the three trunks. The tree should provide another 8 x 8ft sections but don’t want to ruin any more timber with wonky cuts!

 

[Biathlonjimmy]

I have a 48" bar on my ms880 strapped to a mill which does a great job. Max cut is about 42". How wide is the hornbeam?

 

[splash]

Why not hire a trailer or flat bed vehicle and take logs to a sawmill ?

 

[mikeakc]

Why not hire a trailer or flat bed vehicle and take logs to a sawmill ?

That’s an interesting suggestion. Do you know if they hire out trailers with 12 V winch on the back? There’s no way we could manhandle the 8ft logs into a trailer they weigh a bloody ton! I do think the Alaskan Mill would be a handy bit of kit to have but milling this many boards at 30 minutes a board will be time consuming

 

[nun_hunter]

It looks like a great project and seeing people use those mills they do t seem complicated to use.

Personally as someone with a couple of chainsaws and who loves making things I'd buy the mill and really enjoy the project. You'll be so much happier and proud that you did it all yourself even if it takes more effort to plane and straighten the rougher chainsaw cuts Vs getting a saw mill to do it.

 

[nun_hunter]

Mobile Sawmill Service UK wide — SAUN

Or try these guys and see how much they charge.

 

[Greenmist]

Quite a few diy designs on youtube, I watched one chap use a simple frame on his saw, and an aluminium ladder to guide it

 

[Apthorpe]

I’ve got one (somewhere in a shed)….it hasn’t had much use recently. Quite a bit of the timber cut with it remains unused too. It will only cut as straight as the object you’re using as a guide, and then you’ll be hoping it won’t warp while seasoning.

You can get logs onto a trailer sideways with two ramps and cables, ropes or chains round it and pull the logs so as to roll them.

The sensible person will put the whole idea out of his head. It’s appealing as an idea and initially quite satisfying, but a bit of a time and labour consuming pain if you want anything for internal use. By the end, paying someone else to do it may seem like very good value.

 

[Home Loader]

An alaskan mill is a nice idea, but realistically very hard work, having spent many an hour using one, my largest cut was just over 5 foot wide and 10 foot long in Oak. Never again.
I now do anything I can to get the wood to the mill, look around locally I'm sure there will be someone with a mobile mill.

 

[splash]

Apparently so !

 

[sikasako]

I bought an Alaskan Mill attachment from Amazon and used it to mill timber for a bench and table / seats.
Remember that you need to use a ripping chain with the mill.
As stated earlier it’s not a fast cutting process and is a lot of work.
Top tip is to bolt a hand wind boat winch into the box section of the mill. This allows you to rev the chainsaw with one hand, while winching the saw/mill through the timber.
There are some videos on you tube showing similar winches being used on an Alaskan mill.

 

[countrryboy]

Wot dia is the hornbeam?
Doesnae look a real monster ( althou i know nothing about hornbeam) some tres are worth doing where others arent worth the hassle.
Many trees get tougher as the dry after there dead/cut so could be a bugger of a job

U can buy imitiation alaskans of ebay, i bought mine years ago for around 80 quid.
Been using it quite a bit recently and it needs some TLC, a few bolts need replacing with lock nuts or spring washers always been a bit of a pain at times but getting it fettled up as i use it.

Bloody handy bits of kit and amazing how good a finish u can get with the proper ripping chain.
I bought a cheap aldi chain sharpener grinder and occasionally touch up the chain after 5-10 free hand file sharpens just to make sure all my angles are correct and cutters the same length, just keeps things right.

Wot saws do u have at the moment? U do need a decent sized saw, and it can be hard on them and ur not long going throu ur combi can either.
U lose roughly 6ish inch of ur bar length the way the mill attach's, althou if u took ur dogs of u'd sneak and extra 2" or so.


Do u have access to other bits of timber to plank?
If purely just for that 1 tree and u'd need to buy a bigger saw just for the 1 job ur far cheaper getting the boy in at 450 quid.
But if u will always have access to odd bits and will find a use for them and have a saw big enough, a cheap mill would be well worth a punt.
If ur saws borderline for size u can get low pro bars which are a narrower kerf/narrower cutters so smaller saws can pull longer bars/chains, u could even get a skip tooth chain, only has 1/2 the teth of a normal chain so again a smaller saw can pull a longer chain, bizzarely more expensive than normal chain.
Also if u try to always have ur logs on a slope and plank downhill, gravity will help it move, if u dont set up a winch

It is a lot of work and the timber can be bloody heavy to move when u start cutting thicker boards, also can be stourey/dusty work often with ur face always near the exhaust fumes
H will likely have quite a few saws all be well over 1K nowadays, possibly a proper alasjkan or panther mill which are serious money too, a heap of bars and chains. If goning hard all day with a 880 or 660 could easy get throu 10 if not 15L of petrol, 30 quid just like that

 

[John Doe]

£450/day for a chap to come in with a mobile sawmill is a perfectly fair price in my opinion. I think you would be surprised how quickly he will get it done.

 

[snake_2586]

Having used an Alaskan and one of these I would suggest one of these any day, Timberjig Ultra-portable | Ultra-portable Sawmills | Sawmills | LOGOSOL, It is so much easier to use and set up, it is also a lot easier when it comes to sharpening/changing the chain.

You don't need the fancy aluminium rail they sell just make yourself one with to pieces of timber and some 90deg shelving brackets.

 

[countrryboy]

Having used an Alaskan and one of these I would suggest one of these any day, Timberjig Ultra-portable | Ultra-portable Sawmills | Sawmills | LOGOSOL, It is so much easier to use and set up, it is also a lot easier when it comes to sharpening/changing the chain.

You don't need the fancy aluminium rail they sell just make yourself one with to pieces of timber and some 90deg shelving brackets.

Can u cut wider boards with that timber jig?

I would of thought too much movement in the nose when u get onto longer bars and it could wander all over the place.

Must admit does look a handy thing for cutting up bug planks/sleeper size stuff u have already done with the alaskan.
Althou i take it to get consistant board thickess it would depend how accurate ur measuring as i take it u will move the supports down on either end of the log?


Just thinking if that is the case
Would u not just be better with a very small alaskan? As the thickness is already pre set and u have ur nice flat surface as a guide.
The 1st cut with an alsaskan can be a bit if a faff buggering about with ladders
The logsol F7? dose look a handy bit of kit for ease of the 1st cut but only works with smaller logs, and a bit of cash too.

 

[countrryboy]

Just noticed the OP's very 1st photos.
Im guessing those planks are about 18" - 2ft?
Are the rest of the stems smaller than that? Don't look massive in the photo still attached to the tree.

When u get down under 18" surprising how few boards u get out of the tree, by time u have the chunky half round top and bottom boards, esp if u have any bends in them.
Ur not so bad if only bent on 1 plane as u can then get some nice curved boards, but if bent on 2 planes esp on smaller timber u will lose a lot of ur log.

U could try sticking a couple of nails/screws in either end and either 'ping' a line or la/support a light rail/straight edge along where u expect the 1st cut to be to help visualise it, so its a constant cut and not flying in parts and see wots left of the timber, and u will have the exact same on the bottom of the log too

 

[snake_2586]

Can u cut wider boards with that timber jig?

I would of thought too much movement in the nose when u get onto longer bars and it could wander all over the place.

Must admit does look a handy thing for cutting up bug planks/sleeper size stuff u have already done with the alaskan.
Althou i take it to get consistant board thickess it would depend how accurate ur measuring as i take it u will move the supports down on either end of the log?


Just thinking if that is the case
Would u not just be better with a very small alaskan? As the thickness is already pre set and u have ur nice flat surface as a guide.
The 1st cut with an alsaskan can be a bit if a faff buggering about with ladders
The logsol F7? dose look a handy bit of kit for ease of the 1st cut but only works with smaller logs, and a bit of cash too.

You only use the rail for the first two cuts to produce a 90deg on the trunk then it is just down to the jig that is attached to the saw, when I'm 'playing' with a trunk I'm normally looking at taking the top off flat which normally means removing a slab about 3-4inch thick, I don't bother with the brackets they show on the ends I just screw my rail straight to the trunk, after the first cut I then roll the trunk so that now flat side is vertical and then screw my rail to that side this time looking to remove the now top, down to give a 90deg corner, after this the rail is removed all together and the jig just hangs on that top corner and cuts to however thick you have it set, normally for me that is a 8-9inch thick slab, after I have cut as many slabs out of the trunk as I can get, I then stand the slabs on there bark edge, they now at this stage have 3 clean cut faces, I then set the jig to cut 1inch, doing this I end up with lets say 8x1 planks, where if I use the alaskan it means I need two parallel rails (ladder) attached to the log to start with, then after I have the top flat I can just go down in 1 inch steps but I then have to go to a different tool to do the edges to get the same 8x1 planks.

As for length of cut I normally run a 36inch bar on a 660, and that gives me a cut length of I think 30inch, but after I have my slabs cut I drop back to a 20inch bar for cutting the planks.

The base kit I think cost me £150, I then had a couple of 6x1s lying around to make the guide rail and cut some blocks square to hold it all square.

 

[snake_2586]

This shows what I was trying to describe.
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