Rob D

Remember to have a wee look at his drive rim/sprocket as that can also cause a lot of issues...

When making the introductions make sure you do it formally as woodworms can get quite funny about etiquette Ok on a serious note - Ref woodworm - where you have the right conditions for woodworm - you will have woodworm. So if you have in your house the right conditions for woodworm they will already be there. A bit of a rule of thumb but on the whole this tends to be the case (in the UK at least).

I think you'll find the wood will still burn ok

You don't need to work about how much fuel the 880 uses or the extra cost of Aspen - cause you should be making more than enough not to make these costs factor. You're not selling the sausage you're selling the sizzle' Folk out there will spend £20k on a saw mill and £200 on a website and charge £220 a day.... ...when their competitor spent £15k on a sawmill £3k on a website and the other £2k advertising/social media/t-shirts etc and charge £350 a day.... and have more work. £320-00 a day.

Am selling green oak tables at a garden center near me with the following info - may adjust slightly. Price to garden center for a 6 foot table - £220-00 +vat. Price they will sell at £380-00 inc vat. I'll deliver locally for free but anything outside of 5 miles will be charged according to distance. Really did not want to get involved in delivering as always takes longer than you think - but they had no way of delilvering so it was take it or leave it.... What does ‘green oak’ or ‘green’ wood in general refer to? It means the timber is relatively freshly sawn and un dried. Pros – you save a lot of time and money making fresh timber straight into furniture. Cons – you never know how the wood will behave as it starts to dry What is it meant by ‘live edge’? This is the natural edge which makes the table look rustic. With oak the live edge is not durable and so it tends to get woodworm and decompose if not treated. What do I treat the table with? What is best? Whatever you like! There is no best treatment – stains will last longer but take away some of the natural rustic look. There seems a lot of mystique in how best to treat wood. Go to B and Q, purchase an outdoor treatment that suits you, slap it on – not really much mystique in that is there What happens if I leave it outside untreated? Will it rot? The outer sapwood may decay – but the heartwood is raw oak – they didn’t build ships and buildings out of oak for nothing – it is very decay resistant so will last years upon years. If you start treating wood you will be doing it every 3 to 4 months or so – if you’re the sort of person that enjoys this it’s probably worth doing. If you’re the sort of person who just likes ‘the idea’ of doing this – prob not worth doing. Can I put this table inside? Course you can – but indoors it will more likely bend and warp faster. It could stain carpets. Several of the hex bolts on the brackets may snap. Best would be to keep it outdoors for a couple of years – then sand it, treat it and bring it inside. Most of the water will have escaped from the wood by then and if nothing else it will be lighter (in weight!) One of the screws that held the brackets in place snapped – what do I do? Just replace it! It happens! Ok we are really interested in buying one of these tables – but are concerned about how much it may bend or if it cracks... If you’ve read the above you will have or should have come to the conclusion these tables are not for you!

Haha! I have not the faintest clue as Laurence my manager did it!

So just to get this straight you're saying that because you charge less for using more valuable kit then the prices I stated are too high?

And that's a bad thing? Milling is a hard old slog - just cause the gear doesn't cost that much it is very hard on man and machine + it is a skill to operate it as it's meant to be operated. Also I find before a days milling it takes me 2 to 3 hours to get fully set up with all gear serviced and ready. I've done plenty of days charging £400+vat just with myself only. If people call then that is my price. With the right log, the right set up and right know how you can easily mill £800-00 of timber in a day. Or you can make a green table worth £400-00 in half a day and mill a good few planks in the other half the day. It all depends on how you market and sell yourself to the customer. Virtually all the milling jobs I've done have been because other chainsaw millers have never turned up to do the job.

Can be one of those things where you have a lot of wood and it would be nice to make them very quickly into tables. Have now got a kit for this - you can make up a wooden frame using x4 mini mill rails. This allows you to cut legs straight out of the log and if you set the height correctly you get x2 legs exactly the same as each other. But you could still cut the legs with a circular saw. No cross bar is needed on the table. You could make a bench with the same system. Even untreated and fresh sawn you can sell these pretty easily for £240-00 each. Can buy here https://www.chainsawbars.co.uk/product/tb-table-bench-making-kit-see-description-details/

We quite regularly get enquiries about a mobile chainsaw milling service - customers also often comment that they'd arranged someone to come and do a days milling but no one turned up. I reckon if you don't end up doing a job it's because you've priced it too low! As a rule of thumb - if you have a good sized set up (MS880 or equivalent), a vertical mill/saw and know what you're about I'd say £320-00 for a days work is around the right price. If there's x2 of you then £420-00.

Vid here [ame] [/ame] We now finally have the design finalised for our new first cut systems. A few main points: They come in 1.5m sections that join together to give you longer systems The LIGHT system is made from 30mm profile and is much cheaper, lighter but is more limited in terms of strength and options The HEAVY system is very solid, made of 45mm profile and comes with pre drilled rungs (40mm profile), a fixing kit and adjustable fixing brackets that can also act as braces. Has taken a lot of work to get to this stage! Prices will be: £75-00+vat per 1.5m of the light 1st cut system £160-00+vat per 1.5m of the heavy 1st cut system Intro pre order offer (as they will not be physically in stock for x2 - x3 weeks). Buy x2 1.5m sets of the LIGHT system and get a free hex bolt fixing set worth £16-00+vat https://www.chainsawbars.co.uk/product/pl15-1-5m-section-1st-cut-system-light-intro-offer-see-description-details-2/ Buy x2 1.5m sets of the HEAVY system and get another whole 1.5m section FREE - bonus section has rungs and joiners but not log end angle style fixings (so you would have 4.5m length total) https://www.chainsawbars.co.uk/product/pl15-1-5m-section-1st-cut-system-light-intro-offer-see-description-details/

Yep cheers Mark think I'm sorted now.

Could have easily chainsawmilled the main trunk.... not all walnuts are created equal and only some roots are worth £

Double ended chainsaw milling - What is it? Chainsaw milling usually involves using x1 powerhead. Double ended milling means you are running a chainsaw at each end. Favourite question? Surely the chainsaws have to run at the same rpm or else one will be running the other. A resounding ‘no’ is the answer! Say you have an MS880 and when you rev the ‘nuts’ off it unloaded it is running at 12,000rpm. Say you have another MS880 and you rev the nuts off that and it’s rev count is 12,500rpm. If you hitched these up to a double ended bar and ran them both full tilt out of the wood then one saw probably would be driving the other to a certain extent. But that’s the point – when do you rev saws that high for any period without cutting? You don’t! Both saws revs will drop right down as you introduce it into the wood – both saws say may now be revving at 8,000rpm – both are trying to push that chain around the bar. Second favourite question? Do you need to use the same saws? Again a resounding ‘no’! The combos I’ve used (and have worked really well each time) as follows: MS260 and MS440 on a 50” double ended bar running 3/8 .063 chain Makita 9010 and Makita 9010 on a 60” double ended bar running .404 .063 chain MS880 and MS660 on a 72” double ended bar running .404 .063 chain 395XP and 372XP on a 72” double ended bar running .404 .063 066 and 088 on an 87” double ended bar running .404 .063 MS660 and 390XP on 72” double ended bar running .404 .063 Which manufacturer’s chains used in the above – can’t remember! But various and all worked fine. Speed? How much faster? If done correctly you mill around x3 times the speed as with a single powerhead. Not actually measured this but that’s what it feels like. Power at both ends and oil at both ends makes a huge difference in keeping chain speed up and pulling the saw dust out of the cut. No need to buy an MS880 as x2 medium size saws will do it. So if it’s all so brilliant why isn’t everyone doing it? Set up is very awkward indeed. .404 chain is the strongest so that’s the best to use which may mean changing the drive rim over. Fine on outboard clutches but a pain in the backside on inboard clutches. With such long bars trying to fit the saws each end with one being back to front can be fiddly and time consuming. You will also likely need bar spacers on saws 90cc and smaller. Not everyone has access x2 saws to do it with! If one saw won’t start then can be frustrating. Starting the cut is more awkward than a single powerhead and especially so when using the log as a reference (not a ladder or first cut system). Chain slackens regularly and easily. To start with cutting can be uneven and it’s harder to get flat even cuts using a double mill. Takes x2 people instead of x1. You need someone who knows what they are doing on the far end. They control the speed of cut. Communication is tricky between both millers – you need to have a feel of how the other person works Lead saw gets pulled hard up to log. Going ‘up’ and around a bump is fine. Coming off the other side of said bump all that power means the mill really jumps around it and causes the chain to bog down (see further below – running a straight edge down the log for lead saw). You can almost be caught in a groundhog moment pulling the saw back and then it jumps forward and bogs down again. With a single powerhead you can hold it back but with a double ended set up you can’t! Poor set up and inexperience operation can mean the bar flexes up or down in the cut. Allowing the saws to rev themselves too high can only lead to piston scoring and a large bill. An inexperience person on the end of the log could easily cause this. Temptation is to go the whole way down the log without resting the saws – another way to overheat them. There are some pretty awful videos of people chainsaw milling on youtube so be careful what you watch and read. Some of the blunt chains used mean that no matter how much power you have the results are painful to watch. Here’s a few of myself running different set ups - Husky 395XP and 372XP (the chain tensioner position on the 395XP makes it harder to adjust chain tension but it is still possible) Stihl MS660 and Husky 390XP Stihl 088 and Stihl 066 Not a bad video here, but would be good to have a method of siting the mill so power heads are the same distance off the log. View full article

Good work - and good pics!

I hate those threads where folk give virtually no details to allow others to answer them Break it down some! What saws you got? What mills you got? What experience do you have? Where are you based? All of that has a bearing on what price you can charge.

Oh welcome to the forum by the way

We looked at importing them when they came out - too expensive for what they are IMHO. Used to own a Peterson WPF - superb machine for what it could do - max cut was 8" and the engine had to work to cut that: this had a Honda twin 27HP engine 090 has 13HP I believe MS880 has 8.6HP and most will be using with an MS880 So a third of the power that the large Peterson have to do the same cut. Not saying that it doesn't do the job - it does - but the price compared with functionality will mean it will never sell in high numbers (again IMO).

Haha! Yep but it's irrelevant whether you need one or not - it's just if you want one or not

We will soon be looking to import some of these drills which attach to your saw... Should have one to play with towards the end of next week - slight issue is you need a wide range to fit different saws... May well do a pre order style offer where you tell me your saw and we'll order that one in - you'll wait 6-8 weeks but you'll get a better price. PM me if interested.

I reckons you could be right!

We now have a new quick release style system for the new Granberg brackets. Operates on a clamp handle one side and thumb nut the other. Crude video here - we had to get our own U bolts made so they were a metric thread.

Yep your bar is fine - I tend to be around 2" from the nose sprocket as a rule of thumb but check to see if the nose sprocket gets hot. Correctly sharpened chain is the key and most important aspect of milling (and all chainsaw work really).

You can't clamp on or near the nose - or good chance you'll knacker the sprocket. With regards setting up and milling it's a big topic - do your research on here. We have loads of vids here as well Videos - Alaskan Mill ? Mobile Chainsaw Mills