I've been playing phone tag with a guy that had a 36" mill for a few months. He called me today and said he was in town and I could stop over. So I am the new proud owner of a mill and the mini to cut timbers. Can't wait to use this thing!
Once you start,there's no turning back..... Owned my Granberg mill for 22 years now,dont get used near as much compared to the first 10 or so,but I'm still like a kid at Christmas opening presents when each log is opened up........ Gonna get a mini-mill sometime soon,would be great on smaller logs/other stuff that's still a bit large for my Delta bandsaw with riser block.....
Congrats Swags! I remember you posting about that guy awhile back, something about waiting for him being in the area again. Looks like it worked out for you this time around. I know more pics are coming from you now.
I need one of those in the worst way... But I need the saw too - don't think my little echo is gonna cut the mustard for that job..
Shoot I've got a pile of hemlock, a few oak, walnut, and some cherry I can mill. And my uncle has a big walnut and mulberry he wants to mill. I need to order a few milling chains. Where is the best place to get milling chains?
Square filed mostly for me. 25-30° works fine. If you're going to plane and sand it doesn't make much difference.
Ok, I don't have a planer, but if I do a lot of it I could look into getting one or maybe finding someone that will let me use one. I really want to make a live edge kitchen table. But with the mill and bars I have I will need to use two slabs and join them together. I'll be looking into the best way to do that. A buddy of mine has a small jointer that I can try.
Years ago a local shop use to make ripping chains to Granberg specs for me,but he don't do that anymore.Last summer I ordered a few Woodland Pro from Bailey's.10 degree angle.But for most things I just use normal round chisel skip tooth chain with 30 degree angle. One of these days I'll clamp the mill on the Mac 125 with 42" .404 bar,see what it can do.....
Rule of thumb is 1 year per inch of thickness for air drying.Make sure your stack is parallel,the foundation is on the same plane.The top of stack can have a slight slope,to help shed water,but everything has to be equal to prevent twisting/warping as it dries. Thicker /shorter blocks/slabs from 3" & up I just set aside for several years,checking them for any severe cracks every few months.
I'm getting ready to send some cherry and maple to a kiln. 2" thick stuff. They wanted it to air dry for 2 months before they would consider putting it in. I made a stack and ratchet strapped them down. Every week you can tighten it down a couple clicks as the moisture goes down. I wanted to use some 3" thick oak but it has so much checking on the ends I don't know if it will stay together.
