Robert Raven

Oaklay that looks great, is that a winch for advancing the saw? I'm thinking of adding one, does it just pull a wire fixed at the end of the mill?

Hi there, I built one very similar to these- photo to follow. I got some plans from the USA, Google 'procut sawmill'. They were pretty helpful and took out a lot of guesswork and therefore expense! I did a lot of soul searching about wether to go for a bandsaw, having decided to go to the trouble of all the other bits. But like you I had a big chainsaw already, and for occasional use, you'd never save enough time/wood to cover the extra expense of the bandsaw. It's also not that slow- today I was doing some pine, made a three sided cant (which is where these mills excel- super accurate and square), 8.5" wide and 11 feet long, 1 minute 20 per cut, which I think is fine. Also, if you decided to at a later date, you could take off the chainsaw and mount a bandsaw on the same carriage without a lot of trouble- or just make a new carriage. I got my bearings, sprockets and chains for very little online, they don't turn fast or with any weight on so don't have to be top quality. Also got the gate wheels off ebay, they are perfect. Chassis was an old portacabin base, 24' long, made narrower and mounted on an axle off an old caravan. All very cheap and cheerful, quite fun to build. Wouldn't tow mine on the road though, too long and low. My tips would include putting on plenty of log dogs and clamps and some very sturdy fences at 90 deg, once the log is secure you can just blitz through it with no messing about and get really accurate results and a good surface finish. I put adjustable legs (like a trailer jack) at each corner to level it up, then a pair of legs in the middle to stop it flexing under a heavy load. Also work out the gearing of the sprockets so that one turn of the handle alters saw height by 1/4"- makes it a doddle to get boards of totally consistent depth, without using a tape measure every time. Sorry for the ramble! If you decide to go for it let me know and I can dig out the invoices and let you know the suppliers. All the best, Rob

I reckon there's a use for it- I just cut a load of cladding from 20" logs with a chainsaw mill, it was pretty hard work. I could have quartered the logs with the chainsaw and passed the quarters through this machine in much, much less time, and I expect it would be easy to make them quarter sawn too. £5k for pto version, you'd want a fair bit of wood to go at but doesn't sound ridiculous- cross cut pto saws make silly money.

Yes that's the one, cheers. Would love to know what type of motor he was using, wouldn't be hard to mount one to a plate with some bar bolts and a tensioner.

Hi all, Saw a thread a while back about a hydraulic powered chainsaw on an Alaskan, but can't seem to find it now. There more I think about it the more sense it makes- stacks of power, no smoke, low noise, cheap running costs. I saw Rob D had put up some pics, Rob do you know what type of hydraulic saw they were using? Has anyone made one of these using a hydraulic motor and a harvester bar? I see you can get 16tooth sprockets for .404 chain, so a fairly fast hydraulic motor should be able to just about match the chain speed of a 7 tooth sprocket at 10,000rpm. Look forward to hearing what you all think, Rob

silverclaw.eu Found this- I've always thought a big circular saw would make a simple and robust mill for small timber, or a re-saw to go with a chainsaw mill. Nice to have a choice of power options too.

It was the aluminium cup itself that was damaged, not the steel ring. Has now been repaired and all running nicely again. Glad to hear there are plenty of others still making good use of these saws!

Thanks guys- it's the early one with three lugs on the back. I've seen one on eBay USA which looks right- very confusing that there are so many variants and not all available. I guess that's old saw for you. Thanks for the replies, Rob

Hi everyone, I need a new starter hub, pawl ring, whatever you call it , for my old stihl 070. The part number on it is 1106 195 4110. Stihl dealer says 'parts no longer available. I've looked at the parts diagram online, but it shows a different part- does anyone know if there were more than one arrangement for the pawl ring, where I can get a new part, or if I can change it for the other system? Rob

Thanks everyone for the replies and DM's, should be able to get sorted now.

Hi all, I'd like to stock up on aspen, but my local stockist rarely has it and charges a fortune- is there a better way to buy it? Can I get it delivered from anyone? I'm in NR34, north suffolk Looking for about 60 litres before starting my winter projects. Thanks, Rob

Hi there, All of a sudden my ms390 has a problem. It starts ok, revs up nicely for maybe 10 seconds, then stops dead. Restarts again immediately with no problem, then does the same thing again. Checked filters and plug, didn't get any further than that. Would like to look into it further tomorrow, any ideas where I should start? Thanks, Rob

Is this it?

Hi everyone, I am wondering about milling some featheredge with my Alaskan, does anyone have experience of this? I've heard people mention radial cutting, how do you arrange that? What size is sensible? The only logs I have in are oak, one about 16" diameter and the other 36". Don't want to waste the big one if possible. Also I will eventually need some WRC featheredge too, is it worth sourcing a log and cutting it myself or is it all to much trouble with an Alaskan? Cheers, Rob