Milling Beetle kill in Northern Alberta

[Wolverine]

I get cold just looking @ your pics pig!
Very awesome wood score. How do you go about drying these in such extreme climates?

 

[JackAXE]

1. Burn their azzes

 

[JackAXE]

 

[flying pig]

I get cold just looking @ your pics pig!
Very awesome wood score. How do you go about drying these in such extreme climates?

I have a 10x16 shed in the back yard. It doesn't get a lot of air movement but the pine has been dead standing for at least a few years now and that spruce was laying down already but well elevated by its branches and stump. The pine is really dry already, the spruce was close to punky on the top side but really good a few cuts in. The air here is very dry especially in the winter and I'm positive it will dry more than a guy'd think even though we average between -5 and -35 here all winter. Other than that it's just stack er up, band it, and paint the ends same as any other.

 

[flying pig]

 

[flying pig]

 

[flying pig]

Went out to mill 2x12s for my deck this weekend. I've decided to use the spruce slabs for two tables for the kitchen in my father in law's camp and for making benches in my garage. So I'm going dimensional pine for the deck on our house.

This treeturned out beautifully. A real killer milling tree. Just under 30ft of millable trunk before the top branches out. Probably a pick up box load of firewood in the top and from trimmings. Lots of branches to re spread when we are done milling to keep forestry happy though. It was a real jungle to limb this one. My 359 crapped out on me first thing so I wound up using the 2100s for everything. I burnt about 3.5 gal of fuel in 9 hours that day.

The mill is working flawlessly now. The mods I made to it really helped a ton. Everything runs cooler, stays true and vibrates a pile less. The new chain grind works beautifully and must put way less stress on the chain as it never had any noticeable stretch all day.

There were some really pretty cuts out of this tree. It was a real fat one. Over 30" at the butt which is a big tree for around here.

 

[Marshy]

What did you change about your chain?

I got a co-worker into milling and he's only used chain what has a 30 or 35 degree top plate angle. I filed him a loop with 15 degree top plate and set the rakers with the husky file gauge for soft wood. He milling some tulip popular with. 394.

 

[flying pig]

I used Maloff's exact settings for an 090 . He must have been milling hardwood, the 2100 pulls it in softwood perfect. 0* top plate, 45 or 40* hook, 0.045 rakers. That's on full skip stihl 404

 

[Marshy]

How do you measure the hook angle, do you have a tool?

 

[flying pig]

No, basically I just went with pictures of his chains and filed mine until the hook looked 'right'. It really works well. Basically go as deep with the round file of appropriate size for how far you are worn into your tooth and try to keep the gullet level from the start point. I'm at a 5/32 file on my 404 chain after the teeth are past 50% wear for example. I'd guess that a 3/16 would be good on a new chain.

I finished out the butt section from this tree today into four 8x8s 11ft6" long. I bet combined weight on them was 1200lbs. They made my 3/4 ton squat pretty good.

Soured the next three victims. Our beetle kill here is starting to rot hard from the outside in. This may be the last year for it before it's all firewood. I still need 14 2x8s 14' long, 30 2x12s 10' long, and all the railing and live edge rail tops. I figure 3 more pine trees and I'm leaning towards poplar saplings for railing. They should dry hard as rock, legal for me to cut and pretty straight.

Got this location all wrapped up today too, minus coming back with a quad and trailer to pick up the firewood from limbs and mill waste. Deal with forestry is that we spread and cut up our limbs and rake the sawdust when we are done. Pretty fair I think considering they are helping me save a pile of money on lumber and allowing me to build my new deck for my house from standing trees to finished product all in my my own, which is pretty special I think.

 

[jockeydeuce]

I wish forestry here in BC was as cool as that....They're pretty casual about dead pine for firewood, but you'll practically get lynched for milling anything on crown land.

Great thread!!

 

[flying pig]

Finally got around to getting some better filtration on my saw. It pulls fine dust through the factory filter when milling, so I made a v stack on the lathe and bought an uni filter.

We also got the bar for Dad's cabin set in place for his 60th birthday present. It lined up OK for two pieces of crotch lined up end for end, and my first crack at a counter top.

 

[flying pig]

Tried out the new guide rails today. They are awesome after the kant has been squared but not so much when squaring unless you can take much more than the length of the spikes. Ask me how much that sucked. Not only did hitting the nails suck but even getting it set up using the string and spikes method is extremely slow and painful. I'm thinking a guide board is still the best way. Maloff said he kept his square by attaching an angle iron frame to it. That might be the answer. I've always had the best luck shimming a guide board. The nails is just inviting disaster. I got lucky today and ten strokes a tooth put me back in the game. Made me so mad though, I had that chain self feeding like crazy today up till then.

 

[mdavlee]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who cuts the screws or nails they use to hold the guide on.

 

[flying pig]

Guy should just get carbide chain for the first pass and let er rip. Ha ha. Mind you I bet the cutters chip just like hss vs carbide when machining interrupted cuts. So best just to not cut the spikes.

I had to be 6.5" exactly top of the bar to the bottom of the mill rail. This is where the innacurracy of the string line method really shows. I've never had problems like that using guide boards. Think I'm off to the drawing board again.