Chainsaw milling novice- cut not running straight, chain sharpening issue?

[trigger_andy]

4 minutes ago, Layne said:

That's a great tip to drill through the ladder (so you can screw it to the log right?) and I'll be attentive to wedging it as needed. Thanks for all the advice, I'll look into the grinder you mention.

I used to drill through my ladder until someone else suggested some thin planking over two rungs and screw down the planks to the log. Its very secure and saves damaging your ladder. Just make sure the plank height sits under the side rails. Something like 3/4"-1" usually works. You still need to wedge/space out the Ladder depending on the log though. 

[Layne]

@trigger_andy thanks again!

[Rough Hewn]

 @alandurrant thanks! I'm just getting a 24" alaskan mill to improve my smaller milling setup. I'm going to move up to using my 661 for this as well when I can get the bar I'm after - the Sugihara Pro solid bars look like a good option for milling, what do you guys use?
That's a great tip to drill through the ladder (so you can screw it to the log right?) and I'll be attentive to wedging it as needed. Thanks for all the advice, I'll look into the grinder you mention.

Get the 36” bar and mill,if you can.
That way you can mill small and medium wood.
Check your ladder has no bumps or rivets, and is vaguely true.
[emoji106]

[Layne]

@Rough Hewn cheers I've used the ladder before for my first boards and it seemed to work well, I'll cast an eye down it for trueness.

I'm thinking because I've already recently bought the 48" Panther with a 48" bar for the 661, and most of the trees I'll be milling in our forest are more in the 12-20" range, I'd go for the 24" mill to be a bit more manageable to carry off into the woods, and I've got the Panther for anything over 22".

[trigger_andy]

1 hour ago, Layne said:

I'll cast an eye down it for trueness.

I have a 2.4m screed level I use for squaring up my bandsaw mill and I also use it to see if there is any dips in the Ladder when I feel like breaking my back again Alaskan Milling.  Its only about £40 so worth it. 

[Layne]

Hi guys,

 

I'd really appreciate your insights. I had a go at sharpening my granberg ripping chain with the granberg precision grinder. I felt like I got the teeth lengths set pretty well using the gadget trigger_andy recommended, with the cutter teeth set longer than the rakers and I set everything to 10 degrees. The depth of the raker teeth are a bit all over the place from a previous attempt at sharpening, when I felt like I was taking way too much off so backed off after a few.

 

I took it out to the logpile and stood a log on end to cut down it to see how it went. It seemed to cut fairly well but after intiially cutting straight it started to run off, not as severely as before. I haven't tried it on the mill - got a 24" alaskan mill on the way so I'm trying to improve my sharpening in the meantime.

 

I've attached a few photos of the chain.

 

Cheers!

[Stubby]

In the middle picture I can see what looks like damage on the cutter to the right of the picture . 

[Rough Hewn]

Buy a depth gauger device.
Costs about £5.
Your depth gauges are too low,
Sharpening is all over the place.
You will really need a bench grinder or local dealer to sort that chain out.
The raker half teeth must be lower than the cutting teeth too[emoji106]

[Layne]

@Rough Hewn I've got the Stihl depth guage device in the tool roll, I tried this time using granberg rather than with the gauge and file but yes it felt like it took them way too low to me.

I'm a bit confused about the teeth length for the two different types of teeth on the granberg ripping chain, people seem to call them different names so to make it so I can understand - should the half width ones be longer or shorter than the full width ones?

[Rough Hewn]

@Rough Hewn I've got the Stihl depth guage device in the tool roll, I tried this time using granberg rather than with the gauge and file but yes it felt like it took them way too low to me.
I'm a bit confused about the teeth length for the two different types of teeth on the granberg ripping chain, people seem to call them different names so to make it so I can understand - should the half width ones be longer or shorter than the full width ones?

The half size teeth are for clearing the chip, not for cutting. I keep them a bit lower than the bigger cutting teeth.[emoji106]