CSMing is darn hard work. It's the absolute hardest thing you can do to a chainsaw. I've done all mine at a 40/1 ratio on the mix and a fat tune on the carb. You will find breathing the exhaust is nasty, so I've been using a strategically placed leaf blower to divert fumes. Skip sequence chain isn't required, nor is a dedicated ripping chain. I milled these oak slabs with a 28" bar with full comp, full chisel chain square filed. The full comp cut much quicker than the 42" bar with full skip. I agree with most statements above. You could mill some w/ that saw but if you were to make a regular habit of it, may want to think about a larger cc saw.
Seems like there are quite a few WNY’ers here, I’m in Hamburg. On to Jekyl original post. Did you get started on any milling yet? It’s a lot of fun, hard work and quite addicting. I’m very green at the whole thing but really enjoying it when I can find the time. I got the 36” granberg mill and stared out with a 372. The 372 did ok but I could tell more power was needed when I got in to a big white oak. Upgraded to a 395 and that seems to be plenty of power for anything I’d get into. Run 32:1 mix with oiler maxed. Finally was able to find a respirator which was quite tricky these days and it’s a lot more enjoyable, your face is right down there with the exhaust. I’d probably just try out the saw you have now, it’ll be fine to do some smaller stuff and then you’ll be hooked and upgrading before you know! Like I said, I’m real new to this but it’s a great hobby. Also, I finally got around to making some actual lumber from some of the slabs, that’s the cherry on top! Feels great to see it go from tree to slab to lumber, and then eventually a finished product when I can. Enjoy! On a somewhat related note, where can I find ripping chain that will ship fast right now? Granberg is claiming 6-8 weeks. I have only one “local” saw shop that might stock it out by our camp but he’s a Amish guy so I can’t call, gotta drive a hour out there. Anyone ever order from forester shop?
Was looking at ripping chain the other night. I’ll have to bug my local dealer friends and see what I can get my hands on. In the mean time I slapped a used full chisel chain on the grinder today and put a 10 degree grind in it. I’ll report back when I get to put it in the wood.
I ordered from JBsawman a member here. If you are in NY he is not too far from you. He made them for me to order , reasonable price and I don't mind supporting the local guy and someone that also is a member here.
I have yet to use a dedicated "ripping" chain and don't see the need to. What you did works great (10degree tp).
10 degree is what I purchased. Still new at this but they seemed to work fine. No doubt a lot of work but can't say it wasn't fun and rewarding when done for the day.
Ripping chain is just a 10 degree to 15 degree grind on chain there were some different ripping chains that had alternating grinds some teeth were 5 degree than 10 degree then they had a couple links with the top cutter removed I never saw the advantage to them the one difference I did notice was on longer bars was using skip I have a customer using 404 rip chain and he is using 404 super skip Oregon #27RX it only has 2 cutters about every 10 inches of chain he runs a 3120 husky with a 60 inch bar and it cuts really good you would think you would need more teeth but I have run it myself and was surprised how well it cuts no matter what you use ripping takes a very sharp chain to do a nice job touching chain up frequently is a must also on bars 36 inches and up a auxiliary oiler is recommended I used to do a lot of chainsaw milling I had a Jonsered chainsaw mill with a carriage so I am pretty familiar with milling I only use the chainsaw mill now to half or quarter logs to fit on the bandmill glad to help with any info JB
