The Advantages of Timber-frame Building
(Page 3 of 5)
August/September 2004
By Rob Roy
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Safety first!
“Making timbers with a chain saw,” above, assumes that you are handy in the woods with the tool, as the first task will be felling the trees and maneuvering them to a clearing where you can work on the trunks. If you are not already an expert at wood crafts, have someone who is teach you how to operate the saw safely and how to take down trees, and avoid working alone. Even better, take a course in chain saw operation and safety. I learned by necessity, but after about 10 years of experience, I cut through a log and the tip of the saw kicked back on some hard object below. The bar, with the chain still moving, kicked back, too, and bounced off my nose. It took a skilled plastic surgeon to make me into the good-looking guy I am today.
You should always wear safety chaps to protect your legs and body, and safety helmets for eye, ear and head protection. My son and I share a set of chaps, and, yes, they have been grazed on occasion. The reality is that chain saws, handled incorrectly, can maim or kill, and so they must be treated with respect and vigilant concentration.
Having said all that, people comfortable with a chain saw can use these chain saw mills to provide all the lumber they need, if they’ve got the trees. In a wooded building site, just clearing the house site itself, and a driveway to it, will often yield enough material to build a house. Just be careful out there!
2 Low-cost Chain Saw Mills Put to the Test
I tested the Beam Machine and the Granberg Mini-Mill, both inexpensive chain saw milling guides, and can offer the following comments:
I already owned a Beam Machine, and friend Bruce Kilgore owned a Granberg Mini-Mill. On the advice of the inventor of the Beam Machine, Ted Mather, I used an ordinary crosscut chain, not the special ripping chain recommended by most other chain saw mill manufacturers, to test the Beam. The regular chain, Mather says, gives a much smoother cut.
According to Granberg International, the regular stock chain on a saw works well when it is sharpened correctly. All top angles must be the same uniform angle (choose from 25, 30 or 35 degrees) and depth gauges must be at the same height, (no more than thirty-five-thousandths of an inch below the cutting edge of the tooth).
For better ripping results, the company advises that you resharpen your stock chain to a zero-degree top plate angle from the 25-, 30- or 35-degree angle mentioned above.
The zero-degree top plate angle reduces the power needed to rip and produces smoother lumber than a regular stock chain, although an ordinary chain, even with the specialty sharpening, does not work as well as a Granberg Ripping Chain.
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