that looks like some very dense, very strong wood. I'm about to try this on a mesquite tree - about 30" trunk maybe 6 ft. long. The local mill wants to charge $75 an hour to mill it, and another $75-150 to pick it up. Pretty sure I can do it for less than that
You really should rename this video "have a look at this stump, and then WATCH ME cut boards & planks with a chainsaw freehand" It would be a mouth full but it would be more accurate:)good job though.
I don’t know. I’ve been cutting 20 years, own 3 chainsaws. I tried this method with 4 cuts. I had the fear of cutting my feet when I got to the bottom. I tried extra hard to watch my positioning and my foot placement but fatigue led to unconscious risky placement. If I could straddle the log so my feet don’t wander underneath the log, I may try it again. Otherwise my Alaskan mill chainsaw attachment will continue to be my main go to because it’s much safer. With an attached winch it’s much easier and produces smooth cuts.
Odd that people vote, especially in the negative, but do not comment why. This cutting of slabs is a difficult task, it takes a ripping chain, and the technique used, just leading with the tip, is about the best way to keep a true line. Trying to use the whole bar like with a guide really increases friction and slows down the time to cut a board, and it is hard on the saw.
You're wrong. I've been using chainsaws and other potentially lethal equipment (pole saws, excavators, etc.) for 20+ years, and I can tell you these guys are clowns with no regard for the safety of themselves or each other. They may be very handy with the saw, but they have no idea about safety whatsoever. That's my reason for disliking this video.
2008, a law was passed by Costa Rica's Sala IV the constitutional court, which prohibits the cutting of the almendro tree, specifically in a sprawling region of northern Costa Rica. This protection is due in part to the fact the highly endangered great green macaw uses the tree almost exclusively as a nesting site.
by ripping chain do you mean skip tooth? i was under the impression you just needed to sharpen the teeth at a 10 degree angle as opposed to a 30 or so when crosscutting...
Yes, you need to buy a "ripping chain." You can find them on eBay or BaileysOnline.com. You can also find "mini-mills" that will turn your chainsaw into a sawmill with better precision than this freehand method... although these guys are pretty amazing.
I noticed so far that most of the people who with the best freehand skills with chainsaws come from poor countries amazing what people are capable of to survive. A bandsaw lucas mill second hand cost $11 000 in Australia so I guess this is a much cheaper method.
man the lack of hearing protection etc is astonishing lol. (am a tree climber). there is a lot of stability in the timber of central and south america as well of the rest of the world at that latitude.
I get how the boards are cut. Highly skilled. But they don't show how the critical first cuts are made, the ones that were done in order to get a surface to mark off the chalk lines.
At your own risk, modify your chain. Change the angle from 35* to about 10* (it will kick more), remove the top side of every two alternating cutters. That is approximately what Granby calls a ripping chain, I think.
Very hard work, but just working with what they have. nice work , and I hope your being paid appropriately, cause yes safety gear, at least ear plugs an safety glasses ahhh....chainsaw pants.
nice by hand and everything but why wouldn't they just make a guide/sawmill (Alaskan mill style) that would be faster, would produce less sawdust (waste) and would make straighter boards? What am I missing?
Pretty sure you don't know what I'm actually suggesting. All they would need to make an Alaskan style mill (not to buy it) is some 2x4's, some all thread, washers and hex-nuts. The boards are right there so if they can get hold of a chainsaw, they can get the other much smaller/cheaper items. A guy I know made one for himself after seeing my Alaskan Mill. He did it in an afternoon for less than $10 and it works great. So, back to the point, after making this, it would produce less waste (therefore more boards) and do it faster (again, more boards). It could also be done by less trained people resulting in, you guessed it, more boards.
+johnsobj my guess is with the set up time needed for a saw mill this guy can knock it out faster without and in custom sizes without a change of setup.....Ive thought about making my own saw mill as you have but I have a small 18inch bar and can use this method with what I have and have more freedom. I would think also that these guys have to haul their saws by hand and every little savings in weight could be part of it.. and then again I might not know anything and could be wrong on everything Im sure someone will point out my flaws Ive only givin my 2 cents cus you asked.
Thanks. I appreciate that point as I could also be totally wrong as I'm not actually there. However, bringing in the guide would be a fraction on the saw's weight and really doesn't take much time. Also, the skilled people that could turn out the boards quickly without the guide wouldn't be required to use it. My point was that it would turn an unskilled person from a set of hands that's inactive most of the time into a sawmill themselves. However, I'm not there and they are. Given that I'm assuming they are very intelligent people who would prefer to do more with less time and earn more money, I'm sure they would have thought of this already. Therefore, good chance I'm missing something. Thanks for the reasonable commentary and counter points.
I tried what he did recently.. Oh my., Let's just say mine didn't come out near as nice as his did. I have to go back to the drawing board for the next few trees.
Did Ya notice, ? these ain't Young guys. There's No substitute for Wisdom and Experience, They don't bother with Ear Muffs, or any of the Things the Younger guys wouldn't work without.. These Guys have well Seasoned Ears, They listen to their Saws, they know where it's at just by the sound. I'll bet their Saws are the sharpest and best tuned in town, They've probably had the same Saw for Years, it last forever, Cuz they know how to use it right .. They treat their Saws better than they treat their women.
Not a how to, change the tittle to dude films a stump while saw runs in background then pans to a guy cutting boards..didnt make it past 2 mins before moving one
+Ryan Brand don't be silly, why would they be cutting that kind of tree for anything but value? construction? you can't buy a plank of almendro anywhere for 6 bucks and they know it, almendro is one of the heaviest woods around and is valuable for a lot of things including instruments. lack of a mill does not preclude them from selling the lumber, it's probably Costa Rica, in accessible locations, they are using portable equipment and cutting the slabs to the largest size they can carry out of the jungle by hand
+Zareth DeTullio have u even watch the video, how time consuming it is...............they are probably in a third world country and only way to get wood to build anything. if it was to sell they would have a better production method stfk
+Ryan Brand yes it's Costa rica, they have access to cheaper lumber and easier to cut trees as well but they chose a valuable tree and cut it very thick. duh
these guys are good but it seems pretty inefficient. 5-6 minutes a plank. this is how they build homes in Costa Rico too, seems like it would cost less in the long run to use a bandsaw mill. much less waste also. Props though, I tried this once, not as easy as it looks.
Lot of work just getting remote trees to a bandsaw mill, or a mill to the log. If the damage to the ecosystem done by heavy transport is figured in and the saw dust is going directly onto the land for mulch, this starts to look a lot better.
Brisbane Foodie ARE YOU SURE? I THINK HE SAID DEER SLUGS. SO MAYBE WANTS TO... oh the chainsaw guys are done... so maybe Mortie just wants to go hunting?
What truly sucks about this type of thing, is how they're turning more wood into sawdust, and every damn board they produce is gonna be an odd-ball thickness. This species is typically used for FLOORING - imagine laying all those boards down next to each other, how much fun it's gonna be getting all that to lay down smooth! What's gonna happen, is every one of these boards he's made is gonna have to go through ANOTHER mill, where they're planed to a MARKETABLE dimension, and then that dimension is already accounting for the waste material involved in sanding down a floor! Ridiculous. In the end, due to not having a proper portable mill in the field, half of the useable wood is going to waste! And he's probably using the same chain to cut the tree down, so even if he COULD "eye-ball it" perfectly straight, the damn KERF is wider than it needs to be! It's all about owning one chain-saw and blasting through an ass-load of fuel with some people! Then the ONE guy out of a hundred who's got the brains to bother with a BAND-SAW has to own a huge yard and a fleet of trucks and be responsible for the employment of the other 99! Then the money comes and goes in waves so a man's gotta drink his ass off just to catch it in his own mouth before it hits the floor, and the mill's gotta sneak through a shit-load of illegally "harvested" (aka STOLEN) logs from protected areas, protected species, and all just to keep enough cash flowing to keep all of the mouths fed. Because every time anybody gets laid, his wife gets pregnant - and how do I know THAT??? Not ONLY that they're in South-America and they're all a bunch of Fundamentalists and Catholics - It's 'cause of the healthy respect this guy has for PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT!!!! Now don't get me wrong - I wouldn't suggest they do it like the Scandinavian loggers, who lift everything six feel off the ground which is only possible 'cause their trees only GROW to a foot thick because they cut 'em all down by then and they're working over micro-managed wood-farms - YEAH the logs heavy and you can't move it around. But there are still plenty of reasonable ways of setting up a decent slicer! What in the hell is wrong with trying to be EFFICIENT? Rather than SHOWING OFF your prowess with another "mine's bigger" power tool? Fucking idiotic. Wood's a valuable commodity, yet half of it winds up as sawdust on a GOOD day - the other half gets burned off as fuel, and that burned off fuel half of IT'S wasted due to poorly thought out furnaces and poorly insulated buildings and inefficient use of which. The fact of all that waste makes me feel better that the flooring being produced from this log is probably all gonna be LAMINATE ha-ha. Which means even more waste from kerfs being cut etc, sure - but if the whole point of the wood is to look at it, then WTF does it help that nine tenths of it stays inside the board never to be seen? Ha-ha - Gimme a polished concrete floor ANY DAY. As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather just know the damn tree's still ALIVE out there somewhere, soaking up my Carbon-Footprint! I don't need to walk around on a floor that looks like an old ship's deck or a collection of guitar bodies or something like that. Just to think of some smug asshole bragging to his guests ... what am I saying? His WIFE - his Martha Stewart wannabe wife just has to name-drop the type of wood to whomever they can shanghai into a tour of their McMansion - it makes me sick that all of this work and headache boils down to THAT result....
SoyBoySigh Good points well made. The man shows skills in the video, no doubt. You opened my eyes to the terrible waste and destruction this activity actually represents. This is no safe for him personally (his kids will starve if he blinds himself) , nor sustainable for the planet.
Oliver Handy They're probably wasting less wood than a typical mill. Their kerf is twice as big, but they're using the entire log. There's nothing unsustainable about what they're doing, either.
