Chainsaw milling lumber - anyone try it?

I

inairam

501 Club
I have a large diameter oak ~45" diameter that fell. I can not move it as logs of any length. A timber calculator I found on line estimated it was about 700-800 pounds a foot.

Before I cut it for firewood I have been thinking of milling it in place for lumber. I have 2 hay wagons I need 14-16 foot main beams for.
Has anyone used those chainsaw mills?
 
I haven’t, but plan on it at some point. I acquired a Stihl 090 with a 48” bar. Got to get it running. I’d advise getting a chain that’s made for milling. I’m sure you’ve already looked, but there are plenty of videos on YouTube. I’m thinking of going with the Granberg Alaskan. Hardwood lumber is too expensive for me to buy much at a time. Another consideration is drying time. Takes quite awhile.
 
I’m not sure how you would go about finding them, but there may be someone in your area with a portable sawmill who would be interested in milling the logs for a portion of the lumber.
 
A number of years ago I found a guy with a portable mill that came to my place and did some custom sawing and charged around $50 / hr. The mill was limited to the size of the log and the largest log of the pile was a butt log 30 inch in diameter 14 ft long(cherry). It was a full day and ended up with over 5K board ft (birch, maple, walnut and cherry)
Wm
 
I have a 36" Alaskan mill on my Echo cs 8000 saw and a 20" on a wild thing. All chainsaw mills are SLOW as molassas but get the job done. I only use mine to skin down bigger logs so they fit on my bandmill.
 
Chainsawn lumber can be a bit rough to plane down. TMays - Drying time is generally given as an inch a year. Heat of course shortens that. I can dry in 30 days in July using the greenhouse. Easily in a summer using the top of the barn. I'm speaking here of 1 inch boards. Never tried anything thicker. Vern
 
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