Ideal small milling saw

[Big J]

I think that unless you are only going to very infrequently mill, there is no such thing as an ideal small milling saw. You will always want for more power. Absolute minimum that I would go for is an MS660. It's a usable saw for day to day work (MS880 is too big for almost everything) and isn't a million miles away from the 880 on power.

 

Even so, I find myself wishing my 088 was about twice the power!

[Rob D]

Yep ditto above! You always seem to want more bar length and more power when chainsaw milling no matter what logs you set out to mill.

[Chris Sheppard]

Has anyone had much experience using a husq 390 on an alaskan? I could do with getting a 90cc saw and am tormn between the 395 and the 390 - on paper the 390 doesn't look to be much behind on power, but in reality how do they compare? It's probably be used as much for felling as it would for milling, but the lower weight of the 390 makes it sound more appealing for dragging round the woods all day.

[TMJ]

....and consider what sort of wood you will be dealing with most of the time. NB my last thread which refers to oak that i have found rather slow going on bigger cuts with my MS660.

Father has got a dolmar (now made in makita blue) which is harder to get parts for and those parts are frequently more expensive. So the argument of economy over time rings a bit here. A small factor but the side chain tensioner is useful on the stihl when clamped in the mill. I think (but not sure about this) the 7901 tensioner is in the traditional place and thus harder to get to. If it is of interest this vendor, saw_doctor, sold a new 7901 with two bars at auction for under £500 a couple of weeks ago....maybe more in the pipeline.

[agg221]

The other point is that the mill isn't exactly quick release.

 

You can either take the whole mill off the bar, but since it will have a ripping chain on you'll still need to take the chain off, or you can just unbolt the bar and chain complete and put a different bar on for other work.

 

If you don't really need a big saw for anything else, have you considered buying a sorted out 051, or budgeting for having it sorted out within the price, and using it exclusively for milling. It's a low revs/high torque saw, which seems to work well as a combination and you can get a 3/8" sprocket for them (Oregon). Yes it will spend a lot of time in the shed, but you should be able to get there for less than £150 all in with a bit of luck, and it will have a resale value of over £100, so compared with the mill, bar and chain it won't be tying up too much capital.

 

Just a thought.

 

Alec

[Mozza]

Has anyone had much experience using a husq 390 on an alaskan? I could do with getting a 90cc saw and am tormn between the 395 and the 390 - on paper the 390 doesn't look to be much behind on power, but in reality how do they compare? It's probably be used as much for felling as it would for milling, but the lower weight of the 390 makes it sound more appealing for dragging round the woods all day.

 

Never milled with it but my 390 was awesome for felling/logging, was really impressed with it when I got it, had a 28 inch bar on and it flew threw the wood. Pretty light too for its power, I would highly recommend it but as I say, I've never milled so I wouldn't know how it would handle a mill but if it's felling and logging is anything to go buy, it wouldn't struggle, especially with a ripping chain etc.

 

I thought about getting it ported and what have you a few times but every time I used it, I just ended up thinking it didn't need any more power.

[offgridchris]

believe me you always need a bigger setup than you first thought.

[chazzer]

What about one of these?

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5GuT5dCpoY]DIY Alaskan chainsaw Mill - YouTube[/ame]

 

Charlie