agg221

I make that 3.3cu.ft total The differences between green and seasoned are price (seasoned is more) and whether it shrinks or moves (green will shrink, but in the width and thickness rather than the length where shrinkage on this length wil be negligible). Whether this is a problem or not depends a lot on your design. Are these for indoor or outdoor use? If outdoor, I suggest either using a naturally durable timber such as oak, sweet chestnut, robinia or larch, or applying a series of coats of something. Alec

Hi Richard, where in Surrey and how many of each size? Do you mind if it's green or seasoned? I'll be milling some suitably sized semi-dry oak this weekend. Alec

You could try with a soldering iron but you would need a pretty high temperature one - check the underside of the handle and you will probably find a code which runs PA6-GF8 which is nylon 6 with 8% glassfibre filling. It is weldable but best done with a hot air gun with a fine nozzle, and it takes 360degC to do it. If you do decide to try to weld it, dry the inside of the tank, then get a hot air gun pointing at it, far enough away that it gets warm but not hot, and leave it running for about 4hrs (really). Nylon takes on water and it spits and won't weld unless you dry it out first. The other option is putting it in the oven on ultra-low but unless you have a big oven you will need to take it to bits first and you also need a rather tolerant wife/partner, or one who is going out for the evening..... Alec

Can you post a picture of the crack? It may be weldable. Alec

Sadly not at the moment in my case - struggling to find some 3/4" x 0.080" chain..... Mind you, it is for a 1940s 2-man Teles so I suppose I could be looking a little late

Yes - it was in a good mood that day

I've generally reckoned that a chainsaw produced a more even thickness board as milled than a bandsaw - less tendency for the bar to wander up and down than the band. This includes some reasonable size mills - bands up to about 3". It's the speed/kerf where they really win. I reckon there are three factors which influence the preference for bandsaw/chainsaw (aside from the logistics of access, transport and handling), namely diameter, product thickness and value add. Diameter is the most dependent on mill, but I think there is a transition point somewhere around 2' above which the kit for moving and rolling logs gets more heavy duty and the wider boards mean the total loss in sawdust is less significant. Ultimately there comes a point where there are no options other than a chainsaw mill. Product thickness is a ratio of sawdust to wood. Whilst a bandsaw is always going to be more efficient, I reckon I can live with the chainsaw kerf on 2" and above. Value add is about onward processing, and hence ratio of time spent producing timber to time spent using it. If you are selling timber as boards, you need to be very efficient in processing. If you are adding a lot of value (ie creating things out of it) then your overall profit on time is less impacted by slower milling. So, if you are mostly milling 1' dia softwood into floorboards then you need to whip it through at tremendous speed, whereas if you mostly sell thick slab type furniture with a lot of design detail/carving then the impact of milling by chainsaw will be negligible. Alec

Realistically, if you need to get in to tight spots or up foot (or barrow) only tracks then you want everything as small and light as possible. The trailed bandsaws are only really applicable if you can drive them up to the log, or move the log to them. Have you seen the milling pictures/videos thread in the past couple of days? Burrell has posted some pictures of the tree we milled on Saturday - 4ft across and at times one of us had to stand on the collapsed fence to squash it down enough for clearance on the mill - I even ended up milling through the berberis at one end of the upper section there was so little space. I don't think this could be done with anything other than an Alaskan (nothing against other chainsaw mills - just a bit less portable). I do run a chainsaw driven bandsaw mill, which is excellent - there is a brief video of it on the same thread. The up side is that it gives the speed and narrow kerf of the bandsaw with the portability of the Alaskan. The down side is that the throat is only 14" so you do have to break down larger logs first (not too tricky) and that it can sometimes be temperamental like all band mills. The other down side is that they are only available in the US. Alec

Yes, I'd forgotten the 050 and 051. The 066 and 064 are on the smaller mount that fits the 024 and up. Not sure my 026 would like a 36" bar though... Alec

This I think is the problem - it's the unavailability of the handful of parts which aren't interchangeable, most notably the coil. Also, for some reason which I'm not sure of, despite the fact that you can buy a good quality non-OEM pot and piston for an 076, 070 or 090 you can't get one for the 084/088, so it's genuine every time which makes them more expensive to run for milling on average. Don't forget, this is running the saw hard for whole days, as compared to getting it out for the big fell/ringing up every now and again, so it gets a lot more wear. Conveniently, the bar mount pattern is interchangeable across all the big (100cc+) Stihl models, even the Contra. Alec

14" width, 9" depth, which is big enough for most things. I have used it for milling a lot of boards, and dimensioned timber for the extension, both of which it does with ease. I reckon it does a 12" width x 20' long cut in oak in about 2mins, with a kerf of about 1mm. It will do about 6 boards like that to a tank of fuel in the 044 that powers it. It's a lot more temperamental than a chainsaw mill though and on a bad day it will eat saw bands. Alec

Yes - not exactly its most pleasant feature! Alec

Funnily enough, there is a well priced 088 up at the moment on Arbtrader..... Of your list, personally I would go with the 076. All will do the job though. The Husky is fine, and will pull a big bar, but people generally seem to prefer Stihls for milling (don't really know why). The Dolmar would worry me on parts availability. The 084 has certain parts which I believe are NLA. The 076 still has full parts availability, both OEM and aftermarket decent quality, which on a working saw is significant. I run one for most milling, although I did stick the 090 on Burrell's 4' bar for quartering the big lump of oak this weekend and it chewed through it in a more determined and unstoppable way! Alec

I like stickers about an inch wide by say 5/8" thick. I place them every 2' or thereabouts and place the first set about 1' in from the end. I wouldn't worry about painting the ends at this point - if you were going to do this it would be better while it was still in the round. Alec ps - we need pictures!

Green or dry? Alec

Good to see the pics, although I'm not sure I wanted reminding just yet of some of it, particularly being coated in sawdust from the mini-mill - my wrists ache too but at least the cramping up has stopped. Only thing I think isn't shown in the pics is running the 090 on the 4ft bar straight up the middle of that bottom section. Only fitted with 1/2" to spare. The winch would have been good on that one, just haven't got round to fitting it yet. Did you get any pics/video of the Ripsaw in action (or video of the mini-mill)? Alec

Aspen from the dealer is now more like £18 if you're just buying 5l. For context, yesterday's milling (oak tapering from 4' to 3' x 20' long, taken into a mix of 2", 2.5" and a couple of 3") was done on about 15l of fuel in the end. The idifference between Aspen and pump fuel would have been about £30, but with no risk of damaging big saws from dodgy pump fuel, and I don't have a bad headache or feel ill the day after. Alec

Excellent detailing. Wish you were closer as I need something doing in that sort of style. Alec

Hi Neil, If your oak logs are under about 28" then I would start by buying a 48" mill, ripping chain to fit your 36" bar and the grinder. This will get you going and let you try it out. You will find a lot of threads on here in the milling section which give good advice on different ways of cutting up a log to get the most out of it, so it's worth using the search function or browsing through. If you haven't already decided what to do with your oak once you've milled it, it's worth doing this before cutting it up, as it determines what thickness to go for. You will also need something to act as a rail to run your first cut down - most people use a ladder which works fine if you want to go to 10-12' or so. There are also rail systems available, but these can wait until you have made a start. Alec

As per RHS, but I prefer to do it once the leaves are off as I can see the structure more clearly. I don't prune in heavy frost (or snow) and tend to do the trees which I want more vigorous structural growth from earlier, the ones where I want more even bud break (ie more aiming for fruiting) later. Alec

You need an Alaskan Mark III mill - with an 880 I would go for the 48" model as you can run them with a shorter bar, which is easier than extending the mill late. What bars do you have? To try it out, the standard Stihl 47" Duromatic will work OK but if you buy bars for milling go for a roller or sprocket nose as it takes less power from the saw and the hard nose heats up more easily which also messes up chain tension. Bolting the mill to the bar you lose the length of the dogs, the sprocket and an inch for the clamp at each end, so typically your maximum cut is 7-8" less than your bar length. You need a ripping chain. Opinions vary but the Granberg chain is reckoned by many to cut slightly faster and leave a slightly better finish. It is however more expensive. For milling you need all teeth to be identical and dead sharp, which you can't do by hand. The Granberg precision grinder is good for this and can be used without taking the chain off. You can find all the above at Chainsawbars ? chainsaw chains, chainsaw bars and chainsaw accessories - run by Rob D who is the same seller as you've found on eBay and is also on this forum. Alec

Agreed. Elm is also good underwater, as is pitch pine. The best at the waterline, ie your posts, would be greenheart or purpleheart. Rob D had some greenheart - not sure if he has any left though. British Waterways use both for lock gates, so I would start with them and find out if you can get hold of some reclaimed sections - they will be well oversize so you would need to get them resawn. I would use oak for the bridge itself as it will last well and be suitably native. I wouldn't worry too much if it was green or seasoned, just design to cope. Alternatives would be robinia (which would also be OK for the posts) or sweet chestnut, but I would want to reduce the span for either of these. A 15ft span sounds OK, but I would want to design the structural members carefully. It either needs to be a structural deck with side rails applied, or structural side frames with a deck, forming effectively a U-channel. The latter would allow you to use smaller, lighter timbers but would require more care in the design. Alec

OK, can you see a row of yellow boxes near the top of the page - the first one is 'Home'? If so, the last one should be 'Quick Links'. Click on this and 'private messages' should be an option. I don't know on the issues you're having with the box on the top right I'm afraid. Alec

OK, scroll to the very top of the screen. Against the red background on the right hand side is some text which starts 'Welcome, Gazunited.' On the fourth line it says 'private messages'. Alec

I'm with Landrover 101 on this - the symptoms are very similar to those I had earlier this year on the Volvo. In my case it got really bad and would stall if you tried to pull more fuel through - limping it to the garage down busy A-roads at no more than 40 with it randomly stalling when you tried to go up longer hills was memorably unpleasant. It could be the filter itself, but I would also check the fuel lines and the housing - anywhere that could have got constricted over time. Alec