What did you do to or on your Kubota today?

[Matt Ellerbee]

Anyone use a chain saw mill? Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks.

Turn the oiler all the way up. Wouldn’t hurt to have an auxiliary oiler too. Get a milling chain, the grind angles are different on them. Milling is HARD on a saw.
I had this milled last year. Took the logs to him and gave him $250. Picked up a few days later. Found him on facebook giving away saw dust, he had a bandsaw mill.

 

[rc51stierhoff]

Turn the oiler all the way up. Wouldn’t hurt to have an auxiliary oiler too. Get a milling chain, the grind angles are different on them. Milling is HARD on a saw.

Do you have an opinion on a brand and model? I have 2 more trees that tipped over or snapped like the one I have been working on in the pics that I have not started to cut up and have several acres of similar sized trees (I just can’t see turning all that into firewood)…however for the couple I have and the terrain I can’t get a logger to come out to get one or two (they want a truck load and I don’t blame them). On my property I can’t get anything bigger than my B near them…and the B can’t handle the logs so I am sort of stuck in place. So I think an Alaskan would be portable and I should be able to make some slabs with a little elbow grease and some go go juice. I’m leaning towards granberg, but I have zero experience with a mill. Help me spend my money…what mill and size bar makes sense. I plan to use with a stihl 461. I’m thinking that means I could do a 30 or maybe a 36” bar. Thoughts?

Alaskan® Mills | Shop Alaskan® Mills | Granberg

The Alaskan® Mill has a variety of options to accommodate anything from small, at-home projects to larger commercial jobs.

www.granberg.com

 

[DustyRusty]

The most efficient mills use a band saw. If you wear out your chainsaw, then you are half way to the cost of a band saw. Look on Craigslist, or Marketplace for a used one. I have seen them come up for sale, and they are inexpensive compared to the cost of a new unit.

 

[Matt Ellerbee]

Do you have an opinion on a brand and model? I have 2 more trees that tipped over or snapped like the one I have been working on in the pics that I have not started to cut up and have several acres of similar sized trees (I just can’t see turning all that into firewood)…however for the couple I have and the terrain I can’t get a logger to come out to get one or two (they want a truck load and I don’t blame them). On my property I can’t get anything bigger than my B near them…and the B can’t handle the logs so I am sort of stuck in place. So I think an Alaskan would be portable and I should be able to make some slabs with a little elbow grease and some go go juice. I’m leaning towards granberg, but I have zero experience with a mill. Help me spend my money…what mill and size bar makes sense. I plan to use with a stihl 461. I’m thinking that means I could do a 30 or maybe a 36” bar. Thoughts?

Alaskan® Mills | Shop Alaskan® Mills | Granberg

The Alaskan® Mill has a variety of options to accommodate anything from small, at-home projects to larger commercial jobs.

www.granberg.com

No I don’t. Never used one. On the chainsaw forum I’m on, those guys say it is very hard on the saw. You will want to be in the 90cc range for that size log. As I don’t believe that 461 will pull a 36” chain. That saw in the pic is an 044 with 24” bar. It was struggling to just make that one cut. I had to cut from both sides and the saw got overly hot.

 

[Russell King]

That’s a black walnut tree…there was some damage and bugs at the bottom but I think I am going to keep that log (that saw is sitting on in pic)and buy chain saw mill and try making some slabs to use in the wood shop. Anyone use a chain saw mill? Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks.

Here are recommendations about the chainsaw milling:

Get long bars and rip chains for your largest chainsaw. The rip chains are ground at 10 degrees instead of 30 degrees and will cut faster and smoother than regular chain.

Get a few air filters for the chainsaw, they seem to clog faster doing the ripping than normal use. It may just be the length of the cutting that is done but I had trouble figuring out why my saw was not running well until I removed the air filter. The color of the filter is too close to the color of wood dust in my opinion.

Granberg makes a lot of good Alaskan mills to cut the slabs with. They also make a edge cutting mill to cut the first layer flat so you may want to get one of those also. That is all I use but I don’t cut slabs, I just cut logs in half for benches and step treads.

Build something to get the logs up to a reasonable working height and get them somewhat level and stable.

You might be able to hire a mobile sawyer that would be much faster.

 

[rc51stierhoff]

Here are recommendations about the chainsaw milling:

Get long bars and rip chains for your largest chainsaw. The rip chains are ground at 10 degrees instead of 30 degrees and will cut faster and smoother than regular chain.

Get a few air filters for the chainsaw, they seem to clog faster doing the ripping than normal use. It may just be the length of the cutting that is done but I had trouble figuring out why my saw was not running well until I removed the air filter. The color of the filter is too close to the color of wood dust in my opinion.

Granberg makes a lot of good Alaskan mills to cut the slabs with. They also make a edge cutting mill to cut the first layer flat so you may want to get one of those also. That is all I use but I don’t cut slabs, I just cut logs in half for benches and step treads.

Build something to get the logs up to a reasonable working height and get them somewhat level and stable.

You might be able to hire a mobile sawyer that would be much faster.

Thanks. At my place up north I have someone with machinery that can come and pick up and take back to mill and he does great work and reasonable…but he is 4 hrs away and I can’t bribe him enough to get him to come to my residence…or he hasn’t hear the right offer yet. I have called a couple locals today and see what they think if they have something potable or a way to get it out of the woods. I think if I could get my Mx to it I could get it out of the woods and figure a way to get it on a trailer…price has held me back thus far on buying a mill. Looks to me like to not too hard to be approaching $1k for the buy in price…I am struggling that I only have a couple to do…if I get get a local here and split the spoils or pay a modest price I think it would be a better solution for me.

I appreciate all the inputs and thoughts from everyone. Stay tuned.

 

[Siesta Sundance]

Safety is priority in this milling video.

 

[trial and error]

Finally got Humpty dumpty all back together after the fourth split doing the clutch. he fingers on the pressure plate ended up being most of my adjustment issue. The throw out bearing wasnt contacting the new pressure plate until way to late in the pedal throw. Even if that wasnt it, adjustung them helped me get everything else at least close to back into spec and have a pedal that feels pretty close to what it should

 

[fried1765]

The most efficient mills use a band saw. If you wear out your chainsaw, then you are half way to the cost of a band saw. Look on Craigslist, or Marketplace for a used one. I have seen them come up for sale, and they are inexpensive compared to the cost of a new unit.

Excellent advice.
OP's chainsaw mill is not an efficient or cost effective idea.
Used bandsaw mill has resale value (likely no net cost).

 

[Quick]

Thought the bucket on my little B was bullet proof. Nope. Trying to roll a stump (that I couldn't lift) on to the burn pile was going okay, until it rolled back and fell on the corner of my bucket.

No worries. Took the bucket off, stood it on it's end and used a BFH to make it conform to original shape. (-:

 

[Magicman]

Looks like "character" to me.

 

[leveraddict]

Safety is priority in this milling video.

At least they wore hearing protection!

 

[Russell King]

Safety is priority in this milling video.

I’m going to look into getting some of those protective flip flops, those are sweet!

 

[N3BP]

Added a gearbox breather to my MMM. I'm trying to figure out why it keeps seeping oil through the pinion seal. When I went to open the fill plug, it let out a whoosh of air. That's when I thought it might be from built up pressure. I can't figure out why Kubota omitted a vent from the older boxes. All current MMM gearboxes are vented.
I didn't feel like drilling and tapping the box, so I just used the fill port to double as a vent.

 

[flyidaho]

I had to set some iron that was a bit too heavy and awkward to set by hand (I tried), so I

cobbled up a quickie extension out of 3" sq tube, lashed to my forks. The big angle was only about 100 pounds, and the extension was the next piece I'd be setting, closer so I could just use the forks for it. It went perfect, though at one point it did occur to me, a professional crane operator, that I had taken the mower off and had no counterweight, but I do have filled tires, no daylight appeared under the rear tires!

 

[Fordtech86]

Worked up ground again for next years expansion, ready to start mixing compost in it next.

worked up the fall gardens too.

Not on the kubota, son was mowing, finished up around the house, and I had noticed the neighbor couple hadn’t mowed their grass in a while, their mower is broke down and the husband has health issues and the heat is rough on him. Went to put more gas in ours and it’s steady dripping out the bottom WTH!

pulled the side cover and tank…

not sure what the hell they from, only the the middle one on the crease was leaking right now…got the plastic welder out and filled in all 4 though

storm came through before it was back together so will send him over there to mow tomorrow if it’s dry.

 

[ken erickson]

I introduced a young man studying wildlife and habitat work to tractors and grapples. Impressive young person, listened to my safety talk, operation and controls and not once did he take his phone out and look at it!

Since purchasing my habitat restoration property I have met some great youngsters. It is easy to think that all are living in their parents basements and gaming 18 hours a day. There is Hope out there!

 

[NorthwoodsLife]

I introduced a young man studying wildlife and habitat work to tractors and grapples. Impressive young person, listened to my safety talk, operation and controls and not once did he take his phone out and look at it!

Since purchasing my habitat restoration property I have met some great youngsters. It is easy to think that all are living in their parents basements and gaming 18 hours a day. There is Hope out there!



View attachment 107425

It's slim odds, but there's still some very capable younger folks out there with a head on their shoulders. Great post.

 

[Mak65]

Yesterday, not today… Thermometer hanging in pole barn read 102. Decided it was a good day to grease all fittings on chipper and shredder (the only two things that run off PTO and not stored outside the barn. Pulled apart PTO shafts on both and greased them, too. The only fitting I couldn’t get was the shredder’s wheel axle as I had parked it with it behind the support fork. Too hot to move tractor and hook up just so I could rotate the wheel. I have it noted to do so before mowing again

 

[Labman]

Worked up ground again for next years expansion, ready to start mixing compost in it next.

What did you work the ground with? It looks nice.

View attachment 107416

worked up the fall gardens too.

Not on the kubota, son was mowing, finished up around the house, and I had noticed the neighbor couple hadn’t mowed their grass in a while, their mower is broke down and the husband has health issues and the heat is rough on him. Went to put more gas in ours and it’s steady dripping out the bottom WTH!

pulled the side cover and tank…

View attachment 107417
not sure what the hell they from, only the the middle one on the crease was leaking right now…got the plastic welder out and filled in all 4 though

View attachment 107418

storm came through before it was back together so will send him over there to mow tomorrow if it’s dry.