Alaskan saw mill

[Darren]

Anyone have one? is it worth getting or should just hire a portable saw mill for the day?

What Chainsaw would you recommend to go with the mill?

[James M]

I made my own, it's crude but it works for roughly squaring logs. The cost of the proper ones was too much. I think you need to invest in a very good one to get the sort of quality you see on youtube.

Seems that with a ripping chain and careful set up you can get good quality results if you take your time.

In truth it's slow and setting up the guide plank is a pain, if I had access to a sawmill and knew I would have enough timber for the day I'd use it for large volume rough slabbing.

[Ian in Northampton]

There's a lot to be said for hiring in a woodmizer or similar. I've had a chap in at work and he gets through it pretty quickly. Depends what you want to produce but with a chain saw blade you loose a significant amount of timber when planking. The band saw blade is just over a millimeter thick so minimizes waste.

[Adrian]

Darren , I'm enthusiastic about the Alaskan saw mill, although I agree with james and Ian comments as an entry level mill its brilliant.

My problem was and is cutting beams 8" X 8" X 6M and 10" x 8" beams, with the added problem of having to hand carry the milling equipment into the wood.

For the guide rail you can use a straight rigid plank or even an aluminium ladder, I needed to cut 6M and my ladders aren't long enough so I got two lenghts of 40mm square hollow section steel @ 7.5M and the made a series of 4 supports for the rails, I'll send Tracey some photo's to on pass to you.

I Take time to get the first cut accurate then the rest is easier. The second cut to whatever thickness you need is done using the surface you have just cut as the guide. The third cut @ 90 degrees is done with an Alaskan Minimill and a pre-made guide rail, the final cut is done using the Alaskan mill III again.

[Adrian]

Darren to answer you question about chainsaw, for slabbing I use a Sthil 660 with a 36" bar and a ripping chain, its too long for the trees I have so I suspect a shorter bar may be more economicalon fuel. For use with the Minimill I just use the general purpose saw I trained on, the Sthil 230 with an 13" bar and normal chain.

[Darren]

Thanks. Is it slow planking with a Sthil 230?

[John H]

I bought a chainsaw mill in 1987, it uses a pair of 2101xp husqvarna saw (the largest saws they made).

We milled a lot of large timber with it but it really is a young man's tool. It is hot dusty and smelly work .

I now have a woodmizer lt40 ,it is old but still does a good job.

Where abouts are you?

John

[Darren]

I'm near Horsham, West Sussex. How much did your woodmizer cost?

Thanks Adrian, Tracy got your pics. What was you planking?

[John H]

Too much, I bought it in the days before Ebay, there were very rare. Now they do occasionally get listed , as do swing mills such as Peterson and Lucas.

[Adrian]

Darren

I use the Stihl 230 to put the staight edge on the plank / beam so it is bit slower but means I only need to set the saw into its jig once perday. In the photo's the planks are Scots pine and will be used for the (rafters ? 8" x 2") of my bothy, the the 8"x 8" & 10" x 8" are to be the load bearing members and are Larch.