Chainsaw mill?

**Posco** · 03-06-2015, 06:28 PM

Thank goodness I stumbled on to this site. New guy here as you can surmise from my post count. Like a lot of folks here, I'm eager to get started on a lifelong dream of building my own log cabin. I bought the land and felled the logs last winter so they'll be seasoned to go this spring.

My question has to do with do-it-yourself milling. I bought a Panther Pro chainsaw mill that runs on inch and a half angle iron. I also have the Granberg Alaskan mill. I've decided to go with two-sided logs instead of a scribe fit and I'm wondering if anyone can point me to a way of chasing the taper of the logs. I want to takeoff just enough to give me good bearing surfaces top and bottom without having a log that's a uniform log thickness its entire length.

I've got tree length logs I need to mill so I'm dealing with logs up to forty feet long.

Spring is coming fast and I've got to get things moving.

**rocklock** · 03-06-2015, 07:12 PM

Well maybe not...
Logs that have been milled are call lumber.
We use green logs and stack them using steel. For example I have over 900 - 23 inch pieces of steel in my log home...
I would suggest you look at the student built homes... or mine... which is not finished.

**Posco** · 03-06-2015, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by rocklock

Logs that have been milled are call lumber.

If they were milled four inches thick their entire length, I might agree.

**eduncan911** · 03-07-2015, 03:46 AM

We use the taper in our builds, and account for it as they are stacked: a side effect of our process is that the entire house does not settle one centimeter - a seriously positive side effect. We also use the natural protection of the seasoned log's growth rings by not milling the logs - which removes the last winter's hard-growth ring (we try to fell our trees in the dead of winter, to get that outer protection - like the 36"-ers I am felling now).

We do not scribe-fit the logs because of the downsides of those styles (e.g. settling being one, water trappment being another, and a few other reasons). Well, really because we are taught differently in the class which goes over scribing, amongst all other building styles, and why we build the way we do.

Like Rock said, take a close look at the Student Home link on the home page. We are taught and practice an entirely different process here on this site.

I'll liken this post to someone asking a person who builds race engines for a living to build an automatic transmission. Sure, they both go into a vehicle - but, they are two totally different styles of building: servos, valve bodies with ball bearings, planetary gears... Planetary gears that change ratios if this clutch engages without the band on the drum, vs with the band applied on the drum, vs just the band and no clutch engaged - and then you may have two sets of planetary gears. An engine-only guy would be (and has been in my experience), "huh?"

**Posco** · 03-07-2015, 04:59 AM

Originally Posted by eduncan911

I'll liken this post to someone asking a person who builds race engines for a living to build an automatic transmission. Sure, they both go into a vehicle - but, they are two totally different styles of building: servos, valve bodies with ball bearings, planetary gears... Planetary gears that change ratios if this clutch engages without the band on the drum, vs with the band applied on the drum, vs just the band and no clutch engaged - and then you may have two sets of planetary gears. An engine-only guy would be (and has been in my experience), "huh?"

I jumped in too quick. Thanks for your kind response but now it's clear to me I came to the wrong site. Thank you.

Mark

**rreidnauer** · 03-07-2015, 08:56 AM

Bad form guys. This isn't LHOTI.

Ignore them Mark.

You asked a question, so let's get you an answer to that question. For your Alaskan Mill, you can quite easily screw a set of 2x4 tracks to follow along the taper. (make sure you remove screws in the area that the chainbar is about to pass so you don't dull out your chain) When you do the other side though, you'd have to set up the tracks again, since the Alaskan Mill works better at constant thickness cuts. The other mill I'm not familiar with, but with a quick search, I see it is a ground track style. To just knock off minimal material, you would jack up near the small end of the log to get the top of the log close to level. (you might have to shim a few spots if the tree has sag in it) Take small passes, and lower the saw with each pass until satisfied with the amount removed.

**JSmith** · 03-07-2015, 01:00 PM

Good form Ron. Very good representation of the Association.

**eduncan911** · 03-07-2015, 05:47 PM

Ron is correct and I apologize for how I came off. I usually stay out of these "how do I build a log home, differently than you were taught" kind of threads. Something just came over me to voice what I've thought of several times reading similar threads that someone just wants to build but has no knowledge.

It is obviously you got trees, tools, and a will - which combined will make it work one way or another. I should have recognized that but failed to.

Sorry about that.

**edkemper** · 03-07-2015, 06:55 PM

The way you mill a log to remove taper and end up with 2 parallel sides is to measure the butt end to the center of the log. Then jack up the small end until the center of that end is equal distance to the rail. Then you turn the log 180 degrees and repeat. That is how you take a little off each side and end up with 2 sides parallel.