Thread: What size slabbing bar for a husky 395

Originally Posted by Gordo78

Hi guys,

i've got a husky 395xp that i want to use for some milling with an alaskan style mill. can anyone recommend what size maximum bar it will take for milling slabs? manufactureres recommendations are for a 36", but i was wondering if it will take a bigger bar for slabbing. maybe with an auxilary oiler?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Gordo

90 odd cc can cope with a cut up to about 1 m.

A 42" bar in a conventional CSM has a cut width of about 36" - this agrees with the manufacturers 36" bar which can be fully utilised on a conventional saw.

You can run longer than this but I would not do so on a regular basis as cutting will be slow especially in dry wood.

sounds good. i actually stumbled across another of your replies to a previous thread offering similiar advice.

what about a longer bar, say 44" plus but only regularly using it for a 36" cut? I'd only have to buy one long bar for slabbing then and be able to do wide table tops and use my standard bar for cutting beams etc. my current dining table is an 1100mm wide slab, not that i plan on wearing it out anytime soon.

I've only used chainsaws conventionally before and I'm brand new to these chainsaw mills so excuse any silly questions.

if it's not too much trouble BobL, can you recommend a bar brand for the 42"?

Originally Posted by Gordo78

sounds good. i actually stumbled across another of your replies to a previous thread offering similiar advice.

what about a longer bar, say 44" plus but only regularly using it for a 36" cut? I'd only have to buy one long bar for slabbing then and be able to do wide table tops and use my standard bar for cutting beams etc. my current dining table is an 1100mm wide slab, not that i plan on wearing it out anytime soon.

I've only used chainsaws conventionally before and I'm brand new to these chainsaw mills so excuse any silly questions.

if it's not too much trouble BobL, can you recommend a bar brand for the 42"?

I recommend GB bars and if you have the money Cannon bars from the US.

44" bar will be OK if you can find one but you won't be milling more than 38" or 965 mm with that on a connectional mill.

I can mill 39.5" on a 42" bar on my BIL mill because it is not a stock mill - the mill bolts to the bar bolts at the inboard end and clamps to a bolt through the nose bearing at the other end.
The other advantage of this is I don't need to remove the saw from the mill to change the chain.

A variant of this can be done by replacing the bar clamps on the mill with threaded holes and drilling the bar an bolting the bar direct to the mill - this loses 3.5" of bar cutting width.

I wouldn't be too afraid to go a little bit longer on a 395. One of mine carries a 36" all day every day as a felling saw and while it's working when she's sunk in and swinging on the dogs it's not working that hard.
In all honesty though I'd be looking at what you will regularly cut as opposed to what you might cut. Chainsaw milling is dammed hard work, and I'd not be wanting to run any longer bar then necessary. You can always buy another bar when that one off big job comes along.

Not to hijack - but John G, the 395 is a sweet saw, but draggin here around all day for felling starts to work the forearms hey , I tend to use my 372, but at the moment its out of action, so just finished a couple days on the 395 - in my setup, they both have the same bar config, but I typically use my 395 for post ripping, rather than felling. thought I'd have to add how I noticed the extra weight recently - ok back to normal viewing...

Gordo, remember you can always have skip chain to help with using a longer bar on a smaller sawhead, but like Bob said, the going might be slow

I've got the Husky 394xp with a 50" Alaskan CSM.

I run a 42" bar for slabbing and also have an auxiliary oiler fitted to the CSM. I've got an oil-feeder bolt through the bar near the sprocket nose, so I agree with BobL - the widest cut I'm getting is 35-36".

I'm a bit wary of going for a bigger bar than 42" on my 394; that length seems to allow the saw to still labour through well enough without overloading it.

But I LOVE my Husky; it's a cracker of a saw and has been great for slabbing.

BTW, if anyone's looking to offload a Husky 3120, then please let me know!

Originally Posted by Sigidi

Not to hijack - but John G, the 395 is a sweet saw, but draggin here around all day for felling starts to work the forearms hey , I tend to use my 372, but at the moment its out of action, so just finished a couple days on the 395 - in my setup, they both have the same bar config, but I typically use my 395 for post ripping, rather than felling. thought I'd have to add how I noticed the extra weight recently - ok back to normal viewing...

I'm officially in lust with the 395's... I've got two now and I'm getting a third shortly. I did the same with my old 056's: had a few then eventually just cannibalised them for spares until I'm back to one very tired old saw I keep for sentimental reasons. I actually run the XPW... my wife is from the states, so when I was buying and the AUD was down around 80 cents against the greenback I saved just under a grand each on them. She goes back and forth quite regularly, so if you ever want let us know and we'll organise you one of them "half price no warranty in oz" models. That full wrap handle is definitely useful sometimes.

all good advice thanks guys.

think i'll go with the 42" and get a mill from Baileys like bobl suggested on a different thread.

I ordered my granberg alaskan today with 24" rails. I'm going with bobs suggestion of buying the 24" and upgrading the length with locally supplied longer rails. does anyone know where to get the heavy duty channel in sydney? electrical wholesalers?

change of plans, Baileys could only ship via UPS due to recent missing packages which put the price up around the local market with the current aussie dollar, and hey, why buy overseas for the same cost as local?

I rang my local GYC store, asked if they were able to order one in for me, he laughed and replied, "mate, got em in stock". So 15 minutes later the same guy i talked to had sold me a 30" for the same size as a 24" (turns out his computer was wrong, no 24"s on teh shelf) and did me a red hot deal on a helmet/visor/muffs.

My weekend has now turned from pretty good to great.

Originally Posted by BobL

I recommend GB bars and if you have the money Cannon bars from the US.

44" bar will be OK if you can find one but you won't be milling more than 38" or 965 mm with that on a connectional mill.

I can mill 39.5" on a 42" bar on my BIL mill because it is not a stock mill - the mill bolts to the bar bolts at the inboard end and clamps to a bolt through the nose bearing at the other end.
The other advantage of this is I don't need to remove the saw from the mill to change the chain.

A variant of this can be done by replacing the bar clamps on the mill with threaded holes and drilling the bar an bolting the bar direct to the mill - this loses 3.5" of bar cutting width.

Hey Bob,

another question if you don't mind. I find myself facing a dilema. i'd like to able to cut a handful of table slabs up to a bit over a metre when the opportunity arrises, but I'm not sure a bar that big will work on my saw. i've got a shorter bar for general purpose milling and it will be used 99% of the time, and i can't justify having three different length bars at this stage, especially as a big bar is going to cost a bit. Reckon i could get away with a long GB bar, maybe if i ran an extra oiler and maybe modified the rip chain?

Thanks in advance.

trying to attach a couple pics of my first (and very rushed) cut. I ran out of time to go pick up the ladder i was going to use so i just screwed a couple 3x1's to an old dry ironbark as a practice. should be 2 pics attached hopefully.

Originally Posted by Gordo78

Hey Bob,
another question if you don't mind. I find myself facing a dilema. i'd like to able to cut a handful of table slabs . . . .

What do you mean by a handful? 2, 4, 8 or 12?
My experience in reading hundreds of posts on this and other sites is that once they start cutting, few people stop at a handful

up to a bit over a metre

What do you mean a bit over a metre?
1.1, 1.2, 1.3,1.5

maybe if i ran an extra oiler and maybe modified the rip chain?

How do you plan to modify the rip chain?

Originally Posted by BobL

What do you mean by a handful? 2, 4, 8 or 12?
My experience in reading hundreds of posts on this and other sites is that once they start cutting, few people stop at a handful


What do you mean a bit over a metre?
1.1, 1.2, 1.3,1.5


How do you plan to modify the rip chain?

lets say 5 (You're right, there's every chance it will turn into 50 over the next 20 years, but i don't see me neeeding more than 5 any time soon)
1.1m, this is the size of my current table and anything wider due to the log tapering, i will either trim the sides off first or worse case, cut the last bit of it with a jig of some sort, where there is a will, there is a way. i've got a log that is 1.9m across that is begging to be slabbed, but thats a whole new project.

as for modifying a rip chain, i know little about them as im just starting out, but if i ran less teeth like a skip tooth, i thought it would help due to less cutting teeth.

Now i think off it, I'm sure my mate said he has a 3120xp, so i may be able to borrow that for particular wide slabs

please forgive any silly questions, like i said, i'm new to chainsaw milling - CSM cuts to date = 1.