Chainsaw Mill Pros and Cons - FHC Q & A 

I have a portable bandsaw mill. However I started years ago with a chainsaw mill. One of my biggest pro's for the cahinsaw mill is total portability. You can take it just about anywhere , even in a small bush plane.

I have 3 gas chainsaws but my favorite for most stuff is my little electric that was like 30 Bucks about a decade ago that I got for a Christmas present......That little guy does a hundred times better that I ever imagined it would........Rock On Pa !!

Great job Pa Mac, enjoyed this video on the chainsaw mills out there and your's was right to the point and the simplest one going . Keep up the great videos. Fred.

Hoping for a safe and happy New Year for you and your family.

I got the Haddon Lumber Maker guide. Works for me. I see videos from Mexico or South America where they make good cuts freehand. You can cut up trees that would otherwise be inaccessible. I was cutting some big pines. I sharpened every tank of gas. Just two or three strokes kept it sharp all the time. I like the Granberg G106-B File - N -Joint. I accidently filed the depth gauge of the teeth more than I was supposed to, but it didn't seem to hurt, in fact it ripped really good. My saw had the power to cut the bigger chips without bogging down. I like your channel. Good info and entertaing. And not a video every other day just for the sake of another video and more views.

Shared on my Facebook! Love your speaking videos. I can watch them clear through & catch all the visuals without needing to be distracted by reading the text. I'm dyslexic so I listen better than I read. Thanks, Pa Mac. I love the content. Keep up the good work!

This is super helpful. Thank you!

Many years ago my dad got tired of hauling logs to the Amish mill in his pick up truck. He bought one of these thing a ma bobs. He didnt mind sharpening chains or replacing the ocasional bar... but after going threw a few saws he went back to hauling logs. That operation is very hard on saws.

Biggest con I have about a chainsaw mill, to be efficient with it, you need that rip chain. Biggest pro, 100% portability. Another great video as always, cheers :)

A pro is that you will discover muscles you didn't know you had before. A con is that those muscles will be very sore! 🤣

Love the more frequent video uploads. Keep up the great work

Years ago due to economic downturns I cut firewood full time as my job. Tool maintenance while both working and at the end of the day are always time consuming. I expect more of the same when my mill and chains get here soon.

One quite big issue (for me at least) that you don't realize until you start milling is the chainsaw exhaust fumes are right up your nose and eyes, way worse than just crosscutting ( felling trees or firewood)

Merry Christmas

Excellent video pa mac. Ive enjoyed my Alaskan mill greatly. Being able to cut what ya need,when ya need is a valuable quality. Theres only so many deminsions available at the lumber stores,and their prices are high on low quality soft woods. Here in West Virginia i lack the pine and cedar you have at your place but enjoy an abundance of oak and tulip poplar. Ive milled a thousand of board feet over the last decade or so,mostly to build one off rustic furniture. It provides independence for us little folks who lack means of loading and transporting logs and not having large expanses of land. Ive milled wood on the roadside after a storm. Thanks again,happy new year

PaMac.....Rocking???? I wouldn't ever describe your activities like that. But, you are the man! Hope you and the family had a Merry Christmas. Eat lots of greens on New Years and you'll make lots of green in 24! God Bless

I’m old (73) and mill my own wood. I have gone through the different methods and found the one I do now to be best for me to do by myself. I live on the ocean and have a good supply of logs. I use a Stihl 364c with a 36” bar. You can get away with it because you don’t use that much of the bar. I freehand saw the logs using a rip chain filed at 0 degrees with no rackers. You want the long bar to help with straight, first cut is walking into the chalk line, second is walking into the cut cutting on the pull in a downhill pattern. You can feel the best cut and angle and produce the largest shavings. Third cut is through cut coming back. This produces a perfectly smooth cut that can be dressed up on the plannner by one pass. I generally cut the log in half through the heart, trim the halves, then stand it up to cut the boards I want. I have found this to be the fastest, least gas and oil and easiest on the saw. When you get old you will find no one wants to listen to you or take you seriously but I throw this out there just in case it helps someone. All you need to do is roll the log up onto two short logs and saw it into boards you can carry.

I’d like to have one of these to make log buildings milling 2 sides of the logs. Would really like to have an old circle mill

similar with haying, hire it out and you don't have the expense of buying and maintaining the equipment, but getting the job done at optimal timing for best quality may be more miss than hit. the latter grated on grandad like fingernails on a chalkboard.😖

Watch Surviving Ringworm - he builds a lot of things with his alaskan mill. He has great ideas. I have been sawing lumber since the mills had rollers instead of square stock. I hated them as the roller would ride up on the wood chips. I make my own chains and sharpen them myself. It is slow but it is portable. They are a great investment and I usually have 10 to 15 people who I sharpen chains for.

You may have failed to mention how painfully slow the milling goes with hard wood.

I was wondering , I’m not sure what the cheapest saw mill is , Harbor Freight maybe , but do you have any idea how it would compare to the chainsaw mill as far as price since you’d need several chains , files , occasional bar etc; ?

Do you use a chain like on a mill on your chainsaw? Or just a regular chainsaw chain?

Pa Mac, how did your Tailor get all of those Overall straps buckles precisely uneven and yet the bib appear correctly balanced?

I wonder if you used a rip chain (skip tooth?) if there would be less sharpening???

Thanks Pa Mac!☺️ "Munoz" is pronounced moon-yo-s. Just in case you really don't know how to pronounce it 🤷🏻‍♀️😂🤣.

A portable bandsaw mill is the right option, especially how easy it is to make them. The unfortunate truth about chainsaw milling is you lose a lot of wood per cut, which makes it really wasteful on top of being slow as a snail whenever you get to hard wood cuts. A decent bandsaw rig can be made pretty easily from even wood (Matthias Wandel - i have made three of his wooden bandsaws so far, from plans). Much better.

If you have a reliable, strong enough saw already, get the mill. Buy a decent one, and it'll pay for itself if you use it often enough. Take care of it and it will last years.