How to Mill Dimensional Lumber with a Chainsaw – Alaskan Sawmill
Hey it's Brock here with Rock Hill Farms And today we're going to cut this big Oak log into some dimensional Lumber Using a chainsaw and an Alaskan sawmill Should be a lot of fun let's get the log Moved and get started [Music] Foreign [Music] Foreign So I actually had quite a few logs to Choose from out there but I chose this Log for a specific reason and that is That most of it doesn't have any bark on It it's just been out there long enough That the bark naturally fell off And that's true about three-fourths of The way around the back side still has Some bark but that'll be pretty easy to Remove and the reason that matters is Bark dirt and mud quickly wear out your Chain on your chainsaw And that's true even for a bandsaw mill But it takes so long to make each cut That I really want a sharp chain so I Don't want to be dealing with that so The first step of this is to remove the Bark that's still remaining on the back Side And to cut this in square so it's easier To manage if you can't remove the bark a Lot of times your best bet is to Pressure wash the bark pressure wash the Log even without bark so it's as clean
As possible but it's like 23 degrees Outside right now I don't have a lot of Enthusiasm for pressure washing so we've Got this one and we'll just clean the Bark off the back side and then get Started Okay Foreign [Music] Foreign [Music] [Music] Foreign [Music] The first thing I need to do is there's A big hump right where that Limb was And I need to take that big hump off of This log and I'll be doing that freehand So I'm gonna pop the door open and make That cut [Music] Thank you So as we get down here we're at about 27 And three quarters so obviously that's Going to require the 36 inch Chainsaw Mill from Granberg but up here Our first cut Is only going to be about 18 inches wide So I can go ahead and use my 25 inch and That'll be easier to manage we'll just See how it goes the way I'm going to do This the way I've done it in the past I Just cut slices off this all the way
Down And that works fine and you get whatever Width you get And it's all Live Edge but I'm Considering on this one making a square Can't and then cutting actual Dimensional Lumber but we'll see how it Goes as we work through it So the log is 26 tall on this spot right Here and 23 tall on the other end every Log has some taper And if we ignore that taper we'll end up With a tapered can so with three inches Of taper I really think I need to put an inch and A half under the ladder on that end if I Take off an inch and a half more on this End than I do on that end we'll end up With a camp that's the same height on Each side So for your first cut you have to attach Something to the top of the log I use This ladder And you want to Attach it securely to the log but only Have a half an inch or less of screw Sticking through into the log Because you have to cut more than However far down your screw is make sure That your chainsaw doesn't hit the Screws We're going to screw the ladder down to The board and we're going to screw the Ladder down to the log at the other end
On all of our future Cuts we'll be Trying to make sure we're Level side to Side and level long ways but for this Cut it doesn't matter if we're level Side to side we just need to establish a Flat face Okay so I'm looking at where I want my First cut now in the past when I was Just slabbing this I would make this cut As high as I could make it And still avoid cutting off the screws That are holding the ladder down but in This scenario I'm trying to square this Up And if you look right here And you picture a square can't coming Out of this log I think cutting it at The bottom of this scale is going to Come pretty close to that and you're not Going to get two cuts in between the Ladder and this line So I'm going to make my first cut Right here Now that I've got that there I can come To this corner Where that line hits the edge of the Wood and draw another line And kind of square out where my cant is Going to be Okay Do the same thing over here So that should give us a cant Let's see if this is actually Square
Here Or at 18 and a quarter 18 and a quarter Okay so we're going to get an 18 inch Cant And then in this direction We're getting 19 . So now we know where we want our first Cut to be on the log we need to know how To set the mill up to get that cut so I Put the straight edge across the top of The ladder and measuring down from that It's five inches from the top of the Ladder to my mark So I can set the Sawmill up to make a five Inch cut Foreign [Music] Thank you [Music] Okay there were a couple Ups and downs with cutting that a couple Things that didn't go perfectly number One Oversight by me you need to have some Plastic felling wedges to slide in Between and hold this up and keep the Weight of your off cut from setting on Your chainsaw bar problem number two I did not get a level cut on this Because
As the saw got down towards the end it Actually walked upward and that is Because in places Like right here But more so all the way down This is just slightly wider than the Guide on my Mill And the result of that is That the side edges of the mill were Rubbing along the edge of the log and it Was lifting it up just a little bit But Those are minor inconveniences they Aren't going to stop us from proceeding Here So now I'm gonna and the end result is I Have my mark on that end the actual cut Is quarter to a half an inch above my Mark Foreign [Music] So I did a little bit of work off camera And I put together the Sawmill this new Mill is exactly like the old one it's a Granberg Mill they're really simple Takes about 20 minutes to assemble And the only difference is this one is Capable of handling a 36 inch bar so I've got the 36 inch bar on the saw got The new Mill put together Then I got the ladder set on here and I Measured to all four corners we're at 25 And a quarter From a level concrete floor
Up to the ladder All four corners is 25 and a quarter now To accomplish that I put some different Thicknesses of wood in different spots Under this ladder screwed that down then Screwed the ladder to the wood So now The bottom is cut flat setting flat on The floor now we'll cut the top Level with the floor we'll have two Opposite sides that are level with each Other [Music] [Music] Thank you Laughs Thank you [Music] All right Foreign So now we need to get this log setting Level We're pretty close as you can see There's A little bit of a gap in here I'm gonna slide this forward a little Bit I've got two pieces of wood holding This It's two so that if I move one the other One catches and it can't roll onto them And just inch them forward and back Until We are level Foreign
I'm gonna wedge something in just Multiple spots on both sides of the log And Having a 90 degree face gets us one step Closer [Music] [Applause] [Music] Foreign [Music] I actually had two cameras pointing at This last pass and at some point during That cutting both of them shut off That's all right [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Everyone [Music] Foreign [Music] Hahaha [Music] Foreign [Music] [Music] That got really dull before the end I didn't want to take it all apart to Sharpen it so I wanted to finish that Cut But we'll get it fixed up now I tell you what that's pretty nice Looking and it's not that bad of a cut
Considering it was done with the Chainsaw [Music] So I got this all set up for the next Pass And realized it's not going to work I Switched it back to the 25 inch bar and The smaller Mill And The rails on it I I adjusted them out Far enough to get it to slide over and I Thought oh good we've got it and Then I locked everything down and then I Checked and I can't I can't roll my chain And it's what I was afraid of I'll show You real quick The problem with adjusting this all the Way out is you clamp right here on the Bar and if you notice where that's Clamped is on the nose roller And it's putting pressure on that nose Roller it's going to tear up that Bearing And obviously I don't want to do that And I can't bring it back in anymore It'll barely fit over the cant So to do this I'll have to sharpen my 36 Inch switch the bar and chain back Switch the mill back and I realized with How loud this saw is it's just after Midnight there's a chance I'm keeping my Neighbor awake And I don't want to do that either so
I'm going to finish this off tomorrow But I'm going to wrap the video up today You see now that I've got it down to a Cant It's just a matter of continuing passes But I think instead of continuing to Slap two inches at a time off this and Make a bunch of 2 by 18 Which is some nice Lumber how often do You come across 2 by 18s but I think Instead of that I'm gonna slap four Inches off of it at a time And then rip the four inch sections off Of it I should be able to get four Three four by fours and a four by six Oh yeah so I should be able to get four Four by fours out of each rip on this And still have a two by four left That's pretty darn good I could get a Whole stack of four by fours out of this And that's good I mean this is This is Oak and this is going to hold up Really well if I get a bunch of four by Fours I can build something structural Out of it so anyway I appreciate you Taking time to watch this video put Links on the screen to a couple more of Our videos and I'll see you next time
