Thread: Newbie CSM advice

How do you think ripping with a CSM compares with ripping with a reasonable size circular saw, Bob?

I was pondering how best to do this over the weekend with some of the deodar slabs.

Originally Posted by BobL

I think the double ended chainsaw mills are better for horizontal work such as slabbing or cutting boards, while single ended mills are better for vertical work such as ripping different widths of timber off slabs.

Do you know someone in Melbourne who can do this work, Bob? For doing wider boards I'm considering whether to extend my current Logosol setup to the Logosol slabbing arrangement or buying an Alaskan style kit. The bar on the basic Logosol system is unsupported at the far end. This can produce some uneven width boards in my experience - which may be operator error on my part - but it seems to make more sense to support the bar at both ends.

I have some good sized blackwood and oak I'd like to slab but I've held off because I didn't want to make a mess of it. The tree has put years of hard work into making that log. I can stuff it up in minutes. I need to have more confidence that I can produce a board of even width from larger logs.

An uneven board can always go through the thicknesser but for an even board, thicknessing is cheaper and wastes less material and also better recovery from the log.

Originally Posted by BobL

This is easily doable with a 50 cc saw.
I'd contact Laurie (aka Sawchain [email protected]) and he will set you up just fine.

Originally Posted by MAI

How do you think ripping with a CSM compares with ripping with a reasonable size circular saw, Bob?
I was pondering how best to do this over the weekend with some of the deodar slabs.

Do you mean a hand held circular saw or a table type saw?

I was thinking about handheld. I found some handhelds that can do cuts 100mm+ deep on the weekend. Although what sort of accuracy they can achieve with an inexperienced user - like me - ripping along a long cut is another matter. And how safe they would be.

I guess with a pedestal bandsaw or a larger table saw you're starting to have a mini-sawmill. There's some Youtube videos of all sorts of interesting approaches along these lines.

Originally Posted by BobL

Do you mean a hand held circular saw or a table type saw?

Up until I made my vertical mill I used Makita and a Hitachi 235mm circulars to rip hardwood slabs up to ~2" thick and 2.4m long but I would not want to be doing that on a continuous basis ie more than 2 - 3 cuts as they just get too hot under that sort of use. If I just need a couple of rips in 2" thick material I still use the circular but otherwise I get out the minimill. On short stock I use my bandsaw.

When using the circular I use a 3 m long 75 x 25mm rectangular hollow ally bar as a guide, so accuracy is as good as how well you can set up the bar.

Softwood would be a bit lighter load but even there a few cuts in 3" would probably be the limit.

I have only done this once because it is a bit fiddly but with the mini mill and a 16" bar I was able to stack 3 or 4, 2" thick slabs on top of each other and rip them in one pass.

Thanks, Bob. Much appreciated.

I guess while doing both crosscuts and rips are conceptually simple there's a range of approaches on how do it in practice depending on factors like budget, operator skill and the eventual use of the wood. With respect to required accuracy, at one end woodworkers such as luthiers and bespoke fine furniture makers have very tight tolerances. At the other end, some rustic furniture folks see using anything beyond a chainsaw to cut wood as delivered by nature as getting a bit fancy.

I had a wood turner with me on the weekend picking out some deodar. Fascinating to hear what they require for a particular purpose and how that affects breaking down the wood.