Layne

I've got some 35-40" rounds, 30cm thick, to split from a recently felled large Sitka Spruce tree. I've been looking on forums, youtube etc for advice on how to deal with them but haven't found anything that seems definitive yet. I see there are lots of ways to go about this (by hand, I don't have a large mechanical splitter, only a small one for when I've broken them up a fair bit), and lots of different types of maul, weights of sledgehammer and different styles of wedges - straight, twisted, grenade style etc. I'd be really grateful for some advice on what would be the best equipment to buy and how to deal with these. Unlike lots I see being split on youtube videos, these are very large and don't have any visible cracks in them at all as a first way in to splitting them. Thanks guys! Layne

@Rough Hewn thankyou! Any idea why my cutting tooth is ending up curved rather than straight? Seems I need to get myself a professional metal grinder.

@Rough HewnOk thanks for that; mine are currently the other way around so that won't be helping I'm sure, I'll correct that. When you say that the sharpening is all over the place, where do you see I've gone wrong? I sharpened a load of my crosscutting chains on my bench grinder yesterday, and when I looked at the angle of the tooth (I've seen Rob from chainsawbars say it should be around 60 degrees) they were much more like 80 or even 90 degrees, which I gather is not good. I'll add a photo tomorrow of that. Do you guys get the correct 60 degree angle on your teeth with your bench grinders?

@Rough Hewn I've got the Stihl depth guage device in the tool roll, I tried this time using granberg rather than with the gauge and file but yes it felt like it took them way too low to me. I'm a bit confused about the teeth length for the two different types of teeth on the granberg ripping chain, people seem to call them different names so to make it so I can understand - should the half width ones be longer or shorter than the full width ones?

Hi guys, I'd really appreciate your insights. I had a go at sharpening my granberg ripping chain with the granberg precision grinder. I felt like I got the teeth lengths set pretty well using the gadget trigger_andy recommended, with the cutter teeth set longer than the rakers and I set everything to 10 degrees. The depth of the raker teeth are a bit all over the place from a previous attempt at sharpening, when I felt like I was taking way too much off so backed off after a few. I took it out to the logpile and stood a log on end to cut down it to see how it went. It seemed to cut fairly well but after intiially cutting straight it started to run off, not as severely as before. I haven't tried it on the mill - got a 24" alaskan mill on the way so I'm trying to improve my sharpening in the meantime. I've attached a few photos of the chain. Cheers!

@Rough Hewn cheers I've used the ladder before for my first boards and it seemed to work well, I'll cast an eye down it for trueness. I'm thinking because I've already recently bought the 48" Panther with a 48" bar for the 661, and most of the trees I'll be milling in our forest are more in the 12-20" range, I'd go for the 24" mill to be a bit more manageable to carry off into the woods, and I've got the Panther for anything over 22".

@trigger_andy thanks again!

@alandurrant thanks! I'm just getting a 24" alaskan mill to improve my smaller milling setup. I'm going to move up to using my 661 for this as well when I can get the bar I'm after - the Sugihara Pro solid bars look like a good option for milling, what do you guys use? That's a great tip to drill through the ladder (so you can screw it to the log right?) and I'll be attentive to wedging it as needed. Thanks for all the advice, I'll look into the grinder you mention.

@trigger_andy yes definitely better than my hand filing When you lower the grinder it does pinch and clamp the chain in place so that doesn't seem to be an issue. I find there is a little bit of play from side to side in the arm that swings down, which made me go for the granberg precision grinder as I thought this would be more accurate in terms of getting the length of the teeth bang on? I clicked on the link but it only seems to take me to an amazon home page.

@trigger_andy @Rough Hewn thanks guys I really appreciate all your advice. Ok 10 degrees, keep things simple, use a ladder, I'll do all that. I'll get a bar and ripping chain for my 661 to go with an alaskan mill and get working on my chain sharpening. I looked at the ripping chain in the photo with a friend's jewellery making magnifying lense and I could see that the teeth are if I'm understanding the term correctly a bit laid back i.e. the angle at the point is more than 60 degrees. So I imagine that's because I've filed with the round file not low enough on the depth setting? Is there a good way to know exactly how deep to set the file? I've read people say things like have 20% of the file sticking out above the top of the tooth. The grinder we've got in the workshop that I use for all my crosscut chains is a Portek Maxi Mk II. It has a grinding disc that you hinge down onto the tooth rather than a round file. Seems to work fine for my crosscut chains. When you guys refer to a metal bench grinder for using in the workshop, which do you recommend? Sounds like I might want something better than the granberg precision grinder for sharpening my chains in the workshop.

Another question - it is possible with the granberg grinder to tilt the file to various angles as well as the 10 degree/30 degree etc swivel setting. I was watching an experienced tree surgeon hand file his chain recently and he was holding the file at a slight upwards angle towards the teeth as he was sharpening. Does anyone adjust this setting or it better set to 0 degrees?

@Rough Hewn thanks I like to take care of things so I'll switch to using the 661 with a bigger alaskan mill than the small log mill, which I think I'll pass on to someone else. So it sounds like I'd be better off switching back to taking a ladder out into the forest with me to do the top cut rather than the 6 by 2. Ok I'll go with standard 3/8 chain. I've got the low pro on the 48" Panther mill we just bought, I was wondering how delicate that chain might be. I heard great things about skip chain from someone else recently; he told me he'd found it cuts just as fast as regular chain but is less work for the chainsaw, so it seems like a good way to go. I just read that it comes into it's own on longer bars - would it be worth getting if I went for a 30" bar for the 661 or only if I opt for a 36" bar? With your tips for the angles on the granberg chain - I've seen the teeth referred to as scoring cutters (the half width ones with a recommended sharpening angle of 20 degrees) and clearing cutters (5 degrees). So am I right in understanding that you are referring to the scoring cutters as the cutting teeth, and you grind these to 0 degrees? Another beginner's question: when you say you drop the clearing teeth lower than the cutters that means that you sharpen them back more so they are shorter, is that correct? I'll get to work on improving the quality and frequency of my sharpening. @Toad thanks for the heads up, I'll check that

@muttley9050 cheers yes that sounds like a great smaller setup. After beginning to do some milling with the 48" Panther Horizon it felt not ideal to be using a mill with the bar only attached at one end. Ok yes I'll get onto the chain issue and report back on my progress. Thanks again everyone!

@trigger_andy ok cool that sounds like a great way to go about milling with the 2-3 chains and hand filing during the day, I'll do that. It's so valuable to learn how you guys with experience do things, thankyou! And yeah it seems a shame to have the 661 now (a recent addition) and be milling with the 241.

@openspaceman thanks yes I can see that. What does the more pronounced score on the nearside top plate tell you?

Here's what I meant about the diiferent angles from the chainsawbars website: Granberg ripping chain has been modified further – this configuration features x2 scoring cutters followed by x2 clearing cutters. The easiest way to sharpen this is by making all the cutters 10 degrees however if you wish you can sharpen the scoring cutters to 20 degrees and the clearing cutters to 5 degrees.

@trigger_andy ok thanks I'll get a vernier caliper then, and a bar dressing tool which I don't have. I'd not known about dressing bars until I started learning about milling. I had at least been rotating my bars in the past. That all sounds like great advice; I can see that knowing how to do the proper maintenance and get the chains sharpened really well is even more important for milling. I've also got a MS 661c to use with the 48" Panther Horizon mill. I feel like I could do with an inbetween setup for milling upto 24" logs; seems if I put a 30" or 36' bar on the 661 I'd have a really powerful saw for this size of log?

@trigger_andy ok thanks. Yes I've got a depth gauge. One thing I've actually never done though is sharpen a chain by hand just with a file, freehand style. I had a hand jig that worked a bit like the granberg grinder and screwed onto the bar in the past, and now for my crosscut chains we've got an electric grinder with a round stone that you hinge down onto the tooth, can't remember the make of it, I'll look tomorrow. Sounds like it's time for me to learn to use a hand file, I've just bought a couple with the guide ruler bit attached. Oh and with regard to sharpening angles for the granberg ripping chain - they say 5 degrees for the cutters and 20 degress for the others, which is what I've been doing, but I've heard people say they just do them all to 10 degrees. Which is best?

@ tigger andy I've been trying the method used on the granberg instructional video for the precision grinder to measure the tooth length - a bolt with a couple of nuts attached which are adjusted to set the measure. Is it worth me getting a vernier caliper? I'm just getting a sense of how accurate this all has to be, is it a case of the more accurate the better?

Does the sawdust look ok to you guys? Did I get it reasonably sharp? It did seem slow going to get through a log when it was cutting straight, but I believe the MS 241c is slightly underpowered for the small log mill?

Thanks tigger andy - I'm pretty sure I didn't get an instruction manual with my grinder, I'll double check that in the morning and find a way to get hold of one so that's really helpful. I heard a guy on a youtube video say about the dial and how many clicks to lower it. I was really surprised how much it took off though, I felt like I might have just ruined a chain when I ground the first one down. I backed off a bit from doing three clicks as a result and about halved that for the rest of them. How do I remove the burned on sap? I wondered about that. Thanks AJStrees, I'll look over the mill for any potential misalignments anywhere. I used a ladder before, and have been using one with our 48" Panther horizon mill I've also been learning to use recently. The length of 6x2 has seemed to work pretty well when I've used it though I did notice the potential for it to bend when being screwed to the log today. Does everyone think a ladder is the better way to go? I've got the Will Mallof book, working my way through that at the moment. Thanks Doug - I didn't notice catching anything while cutting. Thanks openspaceman. I'd like to get really profficient at being able to see when a chain is sharpened well. A friend mentioned today about a jewellers bit of kit he was using to inspect the edge on a knife he was sharpening - that sounded worth finding out about. How do you tell - just by eye or by taking a photo/anything else?

Hi everyone, I've read threads on here numerous times and they've been incredibly helpful so thankyou all for that. I'm just starting to do a lot more chainsaw milling so that felt like a great time to join and be able to ask for guidance as there's a lot for me to learn for sure. I've been working with my Granberg small log mill for the last couple of days, using an MS 241c with an 18" bar and granberg milling chain. I bought the chain new earlier in the year and milled a couple of dozen larch boards for cladding, so it was time to give it a first sharpen before using it again this time. To do that I've just bought the granberg 12v precision grinder and a diamond file from Rob at chainsawbars. So I got it set up and had my first go using it - after a couple of tries the chain was cutting pretty ok I thought so I headed off to the woods to mill some larch trees around 11" in diameter in 3m lengths. The first day milling yesterday went ok, the cuts were running straight and producing nice boards. Towards the end of the afternoon it felt like the milling was quite slow so I timed it and it was taking me around 20-25 minutes to mill one board, refuel (the saw was getting through a tank per board) and get going on the next one. Since I'm new to milling I don't have many references yet but that seemed a bit slow to me and I felt like I was pushing on the saw harder than felt optimal so I decided this morning to give the chain another light sharpen on the grinder and headed off again to do more milling. I'll attach photos of what I'm describing so hopefull that will help you all to see what I'm trying to explain. With the first (top) cut the saw started to struggle and take some pushing through around halfway along the log, and was clearly getting hot, so I took a step back to have a look what might be going on. I discovered that the cut had ran off line and was diving deeper into the log (see photo), so no wonder the saw was struggling. I had a look online for what the problem might be and found a post somewhere with 3 suggestions- the chain was not sharpened correctly, the bar might have burrs or be bent. So I took the saw to the workshop and found that the bar did have burrs on it, slightly more on one side but there were some on both, and the bar had a little wiggly bend on it (at around the point where the mill screws onto the bar). So I files off the burrs and straightened out the bar to pretty straight. Since the first cut had ran straight for the first metre and the cuts were running straight yesterday, I didn't resharpen the chain and went to a new log to try again. This time I found that the saw became hard work to move through the log within the first few inches of the cut. When I stopped and took a look I could see that the cut in the log was again veering off downwards (see photos - I've held a tape measure to extend the line so the angle can be more clearly seen). I also took some photos of my setup at this point with a tape measure held up in a couple of them to try to see if the saw was somehow not lined up straight in the mill - it seemed to be ok to me. At this point it felt like my issue might be more with the chain sharpening, so I headed back to the workshop. As a further test I took the mill off the saw and stood a firewood log on end and cut through it to see if the cut ran true. It curved off increasingly to one side and exited the log partway down (see photo). So this leaves me with a few questions I'd appreciate any advice on: - was my chain poorly sharpened the first day to be cutting at the speed described above? I've also attached a photo of the sawdust, which is definitely fine and not like the large strands I get when using ordinary chain for general tree work. I couldn't remember what the sawdust had looked like when the chain was new so I went to the site of my first milling and that too looked pretty fine. - what do you think is the most likely problem causing the cuts not to run straight? - if it's the chain sharpening, would this be due to the teeth not being exactly the same length (I've measured a few and they are pretty similar but not all exactly the same) or something else? - does anyone have any tips for using the precision grinder? I've watched a few videos on youtube including one from Rob to get started. Apologies for the slightly random order of the photos below, this is my first post and I'm just figuring out how to sequence them properly. Any replies would be much appreciated, thanks for reading this..