Slabbing wood with Alaska Chansaw Mill

woodlandfarms · Apr 27, 2013

After having it on the shelf for 2 years the inlaws showed up and busted on me for not slabbing up some cherry and walnut we had sitting around. Given everything it wasn't to big of a deal. I need to learn a bit about how to set up the logs itself to accomodate the rig, weight of the log an such. Cutting on plastic pallets wasn't the most effective way I could have conceived. Advice is always taken.

tractchores · Apr 27, 2013

woodlandfarms said:
After having it on the shelf for 2 years the inlaws showed up and busted on me for not slabbing up some cherry and walnut we had sitting around. Given everything it wasn't to big of a deal. I need to learn a bit about how to set up the logs itself to accomodate the rig, weight of the log an such. Cutting on plastic pallets wasn't the most effective way I could have conceived. Advice is always taken.

Do you run that with a regular chain, or do you need a special ripping chain? Seems pretty cool!

pnhd65 · Apr 27, 2013

Advice? Wood Mizer!

woodlandfarms · Apr 27, 2013

Well, the wood is not for me. I bought the mill to make a few outdoor benches out of maple and cedars we have. Woodmizer would be great, but at the end of the day we have very little useable timber. Woodmizer would be cool. Yes, I do have a "special" ripping chain. My local Stihl shop ground a normal chain to a straight cut. Said it was cheap and easy way to do it.

s219 · Apr 27, 2013

I have cut beams with the Alaskan vertical Mini-Mill, but have yet to break out my horizontal Alaskan rig (like yours) to make slabs. I will need to do that in the next week or so, however.

When using the vertical mill, I found it was best to notch a short log to serve as a cradle to hold the saw log, putting a cradle on each end. I always have a bunch of shims and chunks of wood around to wedge things into place.