Thread: alaskan chainsaw mill prices

G'Day,

Check out the following for prices for Granberg mills:
Australia
http://www.cannings.com.au/granberg-...-australia.htm

Canada (they ship to Aus)
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...27&cat=1,41131

Cheers, Christian

Here in Tasmania I have been quoted $480 for the 36" GB mill. I was told they could do the 36" Alaskan for about the same price. I also saw a new 36" GB on Ebay going for $499 and was told freight to me was $17.50.

i can get all the parts needed to make the mill for aproximately $300 plus the sighn track and bolts.

that is to make my version with many improvements mainly make it a lot stronger.

you got a bit of making going on Carl

well i gotta keep myself buisy. wile its raining.

Originally Posted by weisyboy

well i gotta keep myself buisy. wile its raining.

Rain WHATS RAIN, maybe you ort to think of moving to Ballarat - less rain than Brisbane for the last 10 Years,

Aaaaaaaaaaaahhh Ballarat sunny one day ......................the next


Cheers

Originally Posted by weisyboy

well i gotta keep myself buisy. wile its raining.

If you bought a Drizabone you could keep working in the rain, pay for the coat in the first few hours and pay for a mill in next to no time.

I had a 48" Alaskan with two Husqvarna 3110 (?) heads. The only modification I made for it was a really good oiler, but I had no strength issues with it. What strength improvements are you building into yours?

strength improvements include double bolting on the ends of the rails, im replacing a fair bit of the alloy with steel.

other improvments i am considering are tool less height adjustment (this really anoys me on the alaskan), modafied outboard clamp to give up to an extra 2" cutting capacity on a gien bar, welded nose gard, anti vibe handle.

• strength improvements include double bolting on the ends of the rails,
• replacing a fair bit of the alloy with steel.
• tool less height adjustment (this really annoys me on the alaskan),
• modified outboard clamp to give up to an extra 2" cutting capacity,
• welded nose guard,
• anti-vibe handle

Sounds like a good list Carl!

anything iv missed

If I were to make a (big) chain mill from scratch, I would add twin screw threads for height adjustment and link the top of the threads with sprockets and 1/4" chain to ensure they turned in unison.
It would probably be too much for a small mill, but when you get up to a 48" bar (I had a custom 54" bar too!), it automatically becomes a full-on two-man assault.

Have you considered shielded adjustable levers for your tool-less adjustment? They're not too expensive now and they should work well in the oily, dusty environment.

I made a lightweight, sectional aluminium ladder for the mill to run on for the first cut. It was made up from welded parallel eight foot sections of 5" channel with plates, coach bolts and wing nuts (for tool-less assembly). The ladder was in turn loosely bolted to slotted, two-prong steel dogs (again, with coach bolts riding in the slots, and wing nuts) and the whole assembly then set on top of the log. The dogs were then hammered into the log and the wing nuts were tightened, thereby securely anchoring the ladder to the log. The whole lot was very light and fitted in my 8x4 milling trailer.

Originally Posted by Woodwould

If I were to make a (big) chain mill from scratch, I would add twin screw threads for height adjustment and link the top of the threads with sprockets and 1/4" chain to ensure they turned in unison.

I was keen to implement coupled vertical screw adjustment on the BIL mill, and I even started experimenting with a basic setup but I am now glad I didn't use it. Firstly just adding a chain and sprocket adds weight and it already weighs enough, but the main problem was vibration since it was going be difficult to tighten the chain without bending the verticals, otherwise the chain just vibrated like crazy - right in front of the operators face. A way around this is to add cross bracing (more weight) but if you want the mill to be adjustable for different length bars that means making an adjustable length cross brace - more weight again.

The vibration of the verticals is a problem if you want tall (600 mm+) verticals. The Railomatic saws which also use screwed vertical adjustment, have a steel brace across the top of the verticals and a bungee cord to stop the cranks from vibrating. Carl, if you haven't seen the Railomatic site - it's definitely worth a look, you will get a lot of good ideas there.

The twin independent vertical adjustment screws with cam locks on the BIL verticals work extremely well and are very easy and quick to adjust. I have a piece of ally bolted to the mill frame that has a slot cut in it to hold a steel ruler that rests on the bar and I just turn the screw adjustments till I get the height I'm after. The inboard crank is the one closest to the operators face does not vibrate much because BIL has twin inboard verticals, but the single outboard vertical crank does. Some depths of cuts are worse than others - I have toyed with bungee-ing it down but it seems to have survived so far.

The way I drew it up was with a larger, ecentric sprocket and handwheel in the centre of the brace. Altering the ecentricity of the handwheel sprocket would tension the chain.

The weight was a consideration, but then as it would require two men to operate anyway, I didn't give it a second thought. Plus, it would still fit in my 8x4 trailer with all the rest of my logging gear and would be a darn sight cheaper than a band mill.

I only worked elm, ash, oak, walnut, mulberry, cherry and other traditional furniture timbers for my own use. If I was a miller by profession, I wouldn't mess around with a chain mill, I'd invest in an altogether better set-up.

having a chian setup to adjust the height would mean it could not be an adjustable length. which i want. i ahev seen the rolomatic/railomatic site. i love there railomatic mill and would love to have one but i like the alaskan as well.

keep the sugestions coming. the tool less adjustment on mine so fat is jast a couple of big thumb screws.