hey everyone my name is matt. in this video i'm going to show you my process and how i turn a log like this into slabs like these using my chainsaw mill. so, let's get started! the first thing to doto get started is i need to mount my chainsaw in the mill.that done by sliding the bar into the clamps and then tightening down the screws. when you're bolting the chainsaw bar into the mill you want to alternate going back and forth from the left and right to make sure that you're getting even clamping pressure across that clamp
otherwise it'll be skewed and it would beclapping very well now. now we need some logs.today i'll be milling up these three sections of walnut they're about three feet long and 15inches in diameter and i picked these up for free offcraigslist for the first cut the mill needs somethingthe reference off. so here i'm using part of an extension ladder i drilled some holes in the ladder whichallows me to screw the ladder directly to the log
when i'm screwing down the ladder want to be careful that my screws don't accidentally distort theshape of the ladder this is very easy to do if you overtighten certain spots, you could actually put a twist into the ladder the next thing to do is set the cutdepth on the mill you want to make sure that this initial cut -the depth is longer than the screws you used. if you hit one of those screws, you'll pretty much ruin your chain and don't ask i know that :)
so before getting started i'll top off my oil and gas. and ithink this is the messiest pour i've had in my life just because i was filming it. i'll also take this time to quickly tap out the air filter and get rid of any debris in there. i'll do allthese three things again as i'm cutting every few cuts i'll stop and refill the oiland gas and knock out my air filter. now it'stime to start the saw for this first cut the mill just rides right along the top of the ladder towards the end, i stop and insert awedge into the kerf
that keeps the bar and chain from binding as it exits the cut after i make the cut, i can remove theladder and now to take a look and see what theslab will look like. this is easily the most exciting part so i want to make this first lab threeinches thick so i set the cut depth on the mill tothree inches for these subsequent cuts, the mill canreference right on top of the previous cut so just to give you an idea of how longit takes to make each cut
this cut here took six minutes this next cut i can leave the saw set to3 inches because i want to make another three inch cut i did however top of my gas andmy oil and i also cleaned my air filter so you can kinda see here why your air filter gets clogged up so easily doing this the saw is so close to the ground and all that dust is get kicked backup right into the air filter and plugs it up pretty quickly so for this next cut, it looks like i can get a four inch piece out of it just to be conservative i check bothsides make sure looks good
and then i can reset my saw depth to 4inches now the closer to the ground you get the more tricky it is to do this if it's possible, it makes it a lot easier if you can get these things raised off the ground so after milling the other two logs,here's what i'm left with i've got a few off cuts, a nice pile of saw dust and an awesome stack of lumber so the chainsaw mill that i use is apanther mill 2 there are a lot of other manufacturersout there that offer similar products i really like this one. i'll leave a linkto the website for this manufacturer
in the description. with the panther millthese are all custom-made to order. so you can order them at anylength you want. this one here is a 42 inch model and that's the length of these bars. the nice thing here is you don't have to make any modifications to your chainsaw bar this has a built in clamp that allowsyou to clamp the mill directly to the chainsaw bar. the clampscan move anywhere along these rails to fit any size bar so if you end up getting a larger one, i likei have here, you can use it for both
larger logs and smaller logs withthe smaller bar on it today you saw me using my 28 inch bar on this mill but i also have a 42 inchbar which i use for much larger logs with the 42 inch bar on there you getabout three feet of cut width after taking into account the length of the tip of the bar sticking out past the clamps and thewidth of the clamps themselves you're ending up with about 36 inchesnow one thing i really like about this mill is that is made out of steel
and while that might sound like a badthing because the of the weight the weight is actually a positive in myopinion. with the added weight in the mill that offers a lot more counter balance asyou're working the mill over the log balancing out that power head. now theother thing you might think that you need a big chainsaw for this that is sort of true. you don'treally need a chainsaw this large to mill logs; really you don't. it justreally depends on your expectations obviously the larger size gonna cut alot faster than the smaller saw
but if you're just out there cutting some small logs or just cutting really occasionally you know a smaller saw such as this one was certainly power that mill and getthe job done it will just take you longer. so one last thing worth mentioning is you can also get ripping chain for yourchainsaw. that will give you a little bit of a quicker cut and make it a little more clean andsmooth. now today i was just using my standard crosscut chain
since on those smaller logs you really can'tnotice that big of a difference and there really isn't any improvinggoing to ripping chain over a crosscut chain so i hope you found this video somewhat informative. this is just scratching the surface on milling your own lumber there's a lot more besides this such asgoing out and getting logs, getting them back or milling them on site, and them obviously drying them from here bu i hope this got you excited about theprospect the milling your own lumber in your backyard and having something coollike that you use in your shop on one
of your future projects so thank you for watching as always ireally appreciate it. if you have any questions about anything i talked abouttoday please leave me a comment i'd be happyto answer any questions you might have and until next time, happy woodworking