Macpherson

You're not wrong....I can't help thinking that from a milling point of view the bar tip has the opportunity to be better engineered, I can see the possibility of a dedicated milling tip with a spring loaded tensioner and a guide roller like a large rim sprocket but with no teeth...it would be great if the chain could just stay at the same tension automatically regardless of temperature.

I'd imagine that with the extra long bars you're using you must find the chain getting really slack when it gets hot. I'm relatively inexperienced in milling compared to yourself and many others on here but I'd say that if I don't keep an eye on the tension as I go the finish of the board can suffer from one end of the cut to the other as the chain stretches particularly if I stop and start.

You've got a crackin setup there.....I've been using a 6m alloy extrusion 2x4" as a straight edge for a while but even with this saw the motor's only about 1/2" off the deck at max cut so going to have to do something....might try to adapt some of this guy's ideas, cheers.

Yeah, I was looking for something to get a straight edge on the milled boards, I looked at the 300mm Makita but it was a lot more money...... I was surprised that mine's not soft start, has that got a kick to it as well ?

Feck, that's a cracker....I just bought the Makita with the 4" cut and I thought that was big...what make is it, will you rig up a track for it ?

I thought this guys kerf size comparison is worth a look....Kind of puts things in perspective https://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/real-kerf-sizes.137465/

Yeah, perhaps a bit of both.... I suppose the longer the bar the more resistance in general..... The Lo pro chain seems to get the thumbs up with folk liking the finish they're getting plus noticing ease of cut with less strain on the saw so I guess it's that when this set up is pushed to the limit the sprocket becomes the weakest link. Personally as I'm looking to expand the width I can mill I'm not sure if this is something that I want to be worrying about, cheers.

It's out of stock🙃

One of these might solve the problem if it would fit a GB bar G975 Granberg Helper Handle with Roller WWW.CHAINSAWBARS.CO.UK G975 Granberg Helper Handle with Roller

Totally agree, from the photo's if I'd made that I'd expect it to break. From milling point of view as the tip never enters the kerf it wouldn't be impossible to to make a bar tip that uses a rim sprocket on a proper bearing that is a bolted on serviceable part avoiding the awkward use of rivets and the fragility of this crosscutting design for very long chains.

To me it looks as though the bar tip gets splayed out when the sprocket fails and there's nothing to stop saw pulling the chain in and spreading the tip. I can see the hot chain shrinking back and overstressing that fragile looking sprocket to the point that it would cause stress fractures leading to failure at next use possibly.

It does look very fragile, very little material between the root of the tooth and the ID, sure looks like a weak point considering the varying forces that are applied to it, quickly alternating hot / cold / tight / slack chains.... can't see any discolouration due to heat but it would still be interesting to see what it bears on, cheers.

Good point ..if you've got a f*^%&" one, drill out the rivets and put up some pics of the sprocket and it's bearing, just from your pics it's easy to see that it has a much reduced diameter so therefore far less material that must equal less robust, cheers.

Me too, I got the skidderoon with the wire loop for wrapping round and dragging brash, great tool👍

A pal of mine converted a small Ifor trailer after seeing Mathews first log arch trailer...he welded a hitch to the front of his landy and then just used the winch as normal to work the arch, cost next to nothing 👍

A very clued up young guy, I followed his channel a few years back when he videoed the entire build of his giant hand made band mill from the ground up and which he's had some really great logs on since. Cheers.

I too was thinking of going this direction in order to max out on my 48" setup and I'm now trying to analyse the sequence of the failure So it would seem from the last pic that the sprocket has given up bending out the plates of the tip and then causing the chain to jam and snap, Alasdair's looked similar except his looked like the chain had continued to run round the tip for a bit longer after the sprocket buggered. If a chain was to snap it's most likely that it would just fall away doing no damage to the sprocket.....so what's causing the sprocket to fail ? Has it a bearing in it ?.....that perhaps collapsed or wore out Did it seize....and if so was it due to lack of lub or excess pressure beyond it's design capabilities or both ? Could heat or stretch have quickly and significantly changed the pitch of the chain enough to break off teeth or snap the sprocket ? It would be interesting to drill out the rivets and take a look at and measure the bits. To me it seems that the sprocket might the culprit but obviously you'd have to have the evidence to hand in order to inspect the debris and come to a conclusion.....there's no doubt that the saw has the power to snap the chain once it's been snagged. Thoughts welcome, Cheers. Jeez is this the cancel culture at work😄

Yeah, none of them very mechanically minded. I've nothing against Huskies, I love my 266.

Don't know the full answer to the question but a few of my neighbours have various new small Huskies for firewood that have this disability...I'll stick with my old stuff thanks.☺️

Still does

This brief description from chainsawbars sums up the pros and cons of lo pro. I only have experience of Stihl pmx chain from cross cut / felling point of view and found it to be too fickle and with the need for it to be to A1 sharp at all times or else it just didn't seem to have enough clearance in the kerf....so I can see how they could snap I can imagine with the extra chain length and stresses of milling that the lo pro could be a pita for a 15% or 1.5mm saving of kerf wood...I don't think I've ever felt that I was even close to snapping a regular chain while milling....I'm using 3/8 Granberg at the moment and I like it although I'd also like to try the Oregon skip when I get an excuse, cheers. Going Lo Pro - Chainsawbars WWW.CHAINSAWBARS.CO.UK Pros and cons of using a lo pro ripping chain system. GB extra thin bar designed to run Stihl 3614-63PMX. When entering the world of chainsaw milling the term ‘ripping chain’ can be a...

Log slightly bigger than tyre, put tyre on top, mark round with pen then trim log with saw neatly to near mark and down about an inch or so to the point where when tyre is offered up it slips on and stays just like when it's mounted on a wheel rim....it'll sit tight and won't want to fall off 👍

Me too, if I'm milling at my place I've got a 15 degree slope where I stick the logs to be milled, makes all the difference, cheers.

Here ye are Chainsaw lumbermaking : Malloff, Will : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive ARCHIVE.ORG vii, 213 pages : 29 cm

You can download it and read online, cheers.