So last fall I bought a 36” granberg mill and there it sat collecting dust in the garage. I’m headed to our camp in a couple weeks to get some things in order for gun season. There is a ton of downed trees, beech, maple, oak, ash, aspen, pine, pretty much any tree that grows around there we got one down. I want to get the mill going and see what I can do. So far I only have the mill and saw. I still need to get a chain and some sort of guide rails. I did some research and seems like granberg has everything on their site that I would need. So for my questions from those more experienced. I have a 20 and 24 inch bar, should I even bother getting a chain for the 20 or just get a couple for the bigger bar? The bars are 3/8 .050, how many drive links should I order for the 24”? I think the 20” is 72. Are the stock bars ok or do they make a special “milling bar”? Are the guide rails from granberg pretty good? I saw a few ideas of how to make your own but personally I don’t think the price they are asking is terrible and I don’t really feel like messing around with ladders or 2x4’s. Guess I kind of answered my own question there. My biggest saw is a 372, is that going to be ok for just some hobby work? I’m not trying to build a house out of the lumber just build some furniture or something, maybe give a little away. Thanks guys. I know when I first got this thing Shawn Curry actually offered help in person if I could make it out to his place. Never happened but great offer, very good people on here!
Hey, A 372 is ok for milling with a 24'' bar drive link count is 84 granberg milling rails work good milling chain can be bought at any good saw shop or try baileys on line they also have it Milling is hard on saw I run a 25 to 1 mix to keep saws alive I run a 2095 jonsered and a super 1050 Homelite on my mills 56'' granberg Good luck!!
Like JB Sawman says. Milling is hard on saws and sawyers. Take your time, run plenty of oil in the mix and tune the carb on the rich side. You can use regular chain, but ripping chain is nice too. In addition to standard PPE, you might want to think about a respirator. It can be dusty business. Good luck. We are all looking forward to pictures!!!
Thanks. Ordered up the rails and a few loops. Hopefully we get some good weather on the 20 so I can get this all figured out. I’ll grab some pics too, good or bad!
Make sure your oiler adjustment is wide open on your saw. You will probably max out at 18" slab width with a 24" bar and a 372 is going to have about all it wants with an 18" cut. Do you have a smaller saw for the other than milling cuts? Its a real plus if you keep the mill on the milling powerhead if you will be doing more milling. And it seems there is always a pig ear that needs trimmed flush or some other cuts that need done in the process of chain saw milling. If at all possible, get the log you are going to mill up off the ground a couple feet. And if you can pick a day to mill, make it a breezy one. Blows the exhaust and a lot of the dust away. Take time to peel any bark that may have grit in it off before you start cutting . a sharp chain will mill well. It doesn't take long for a chain to get dull so it's good to have spare sharp chains with you. An auxiliary oiler really helps prolong both bar and chain life. And the drive sprocket and clutch drum splines. I hang a sledge hammer head on the bar tip side of the mill to help keep the tip from raising. Counter acts the powerhead weight.
24's should be 84 drive links. I'd just get extras of them and skip the 20's. Make sure you have plenty of wedges. As you go down the log you need to wedge up the tail of the board and keep them close to the cut. This helps keep the bottom of the slab off the back of the chain, keeping it a little smoother finish wise, and prevents pinching. Plan to have lots of stickers ahead of time and some weight for the top of the stack. I use cinder block. I haven't peeled any bark, but I also haven't milled skidded logs, or ones that have been drug across dirt. To this point, I've used 2X8's or my old alum ladder for a guide on the first cuts. Works well. If you are milling in an area where the grass is wanted, may want to throw a tarp down to catch the dust.
Thank you for the replies and tips. I do have a smaller 346 Cold Trigger Finger so that’s all good. I have a bunch of wedges. Just have to take the time tomorrow morning to get the damm mill out of the box and set it up. Will definitely start with a 18” or smaller log, not sure exactly what’s out at the cabin but there’s tons of down trees and standing dead so I’ll find something suitable. I’m sure this will lead to me buying a larger power head eventually but just trying out milling for now.
As with most things chainsaw cutting related. Great Sharp chains make all the difference ! When you notice a dip in cutting speed, chances are you got some grit somewhere that dulled the cutters.
Got the mill all put together Friday night. Looked like a mess of parts but set everything out and took my time and it went together easily. Got out to camp Saturday morning and of course it’s raining pretty much all day but I couldn’t let a little rain get in the way of this. It’s been a couple years in the making so needless to say I’m pretty excyabout this. We originally went out to the woods a ways and skidded a wind blown beech back to the cabin. It was so muddy though I decided I didn’t want to use that one. There was a really straight standing dead oak (red I think) close to the cabin that needed to come down so I dropped that one and decided to give it a go. Maybe I should of tried a pine or something softer for my first attempt but this was close and easy. Came out fairly good. Take a look. Little bit of punk on the edges but not bad. It honestly worked way better than I could of imagined, had a huge grin going.
Definitely a trial and error type process. Learn a lot of tricks the more you do it I’m sure. Set the depth at 1/1/4” and it is really accurate through the entire board except for the end where I finished. Got a bit of a wave on all the boards I cut right at the end where I finished the cut. Now I Just have to figure out how to properly dry the wood and file chains the best way for milling. Any tips or advice is greatly appreciated.
Awesome log to lumber pics!! That’s the best part, opening up and seeing what’s inside. If you file round, use 10 degrees. If you’re square filing I have good success with about 15-20. Adjust rakers to your powerhead and wood type. Two thumbs up bud, that log is purdy! Sticker it up out of direct sunlight and paint those ends ASAP.
Well, the good stuff is called Anchorseal. You can get by with old latex. That’s all I’ve used so far. It certainly helps but isn’t as good. I think proper drying is one of the steepest learning curves. Make sure you have a really good level foundation to stack on. And properly weight and top cover your stack. I’m no expert here but I’ve already paid the price. I milled a bunch of apple and I didn’t top weight it enough. It twisted. I should have bought a bunch of cheap ratchet straps.
I just used some latex for now. I was looking at the anchorseal website though and noticed that their manufacturing and headquarters is right in my hometown. May take a ride down there on lunch and pick some up. Can’t wait to get back out in the woods and make some more lumber!
I think latex works just as good or better than anchor seal....cheaper (free) too. The only downside is not putting latex end scrap through the cat stove.
It might depend on what kind of "latex" paint. Outdoor alkyd enamel is still "latex" based but all other "latex" paint is vinyl acrylic based and actually has no "latex" in it. I'm pretty sure some of the old no-longer made "latex" paints were the ones you needed a oil based primer so it would not raise the grain of the wood. There's a difference between vinyl acrylic and acrylic and I'm no chemist or artist.
Hey i have some high quality logs I have stored for my sawmill and have used both latex and anchorseal and found the anchorseal does hold up better for wood that end checks easily eg hickory and oaks I think its worth the cost for the gain in quality as to your sharpening the granberg chains in the past had detailed sharpening instructions some teeth were filed 5 degree and some 10 degree I use oregon rip chain and use a 5 degree cut on teeth and keep the depth gauges at 25 degree I use 2 super 1050 homelites on a 66" bar on my granberg mill but only for large logs anything less than 30" goes on bandmill thanks for sharing the pictures !!
