Logosol owners (and CSM users in general)

Jimbob · September 14, 2009, 12:07:47 AM

This is a rather long post and is geared somewhat toward those who mill with a chainsaw, but more specifically to those who use a Logosol M7 or a Logosol woodworkers mill.

Although, many years ago, I did log for about a year and cut pulpwood for another 2 years, I don't consider myself an authority on logging or milling by any stretch of the imagination. So this post is not meant to be a 'how to' in logging or milling, but rather just some tips, techniques, and modifications that have worked for me, and that I thought might be helpful to share with other Logosol owners or chainsaw millers.

I have a Logosol M7 chain saw mill and a Husqvarna 395XP chainsaw that I have been using for the past year to mill Shortleaf Pine into lumber for my retirement house in Arkansas.
The logs come from trees on my property, and I log them using a Yamaha ATV and a log arch that I built. Pic of the ATV and some of the lumber piles.

I need lumber from 8' to 16' long for the house, so I built a log arch capable of hauling logs up to 16'. The arch is extendable so as to make it more maneuverable when hauling shorter logs, but will extend to accommodate logs up to 16'+. The arch picks the entire log off the ground; this not only keeps the dirt out of the bark but also makes it easier to pull. Here is the arch with a 9' log and another extended with a 16'6" log.

My trees are rather small (about 20" BH max. dia.), crooked, relatively short and usually have a significant taper in the first 4-6 feet. They only yield about 20 to 32 feet of logs each, so I cut them low to the ground to get as much log as possible. A couple of things I learned from this forum; one is, after notching, to cut each side a little to prevent 'root pull' from the log. Another is to plunge cut the leaners to prevent the trunk from splitting.

I built the log arch light enough so that I just unhook the ball coupling and push it by hand over the log; this saves a lot of hassle trying to back it up in close quarters with the ATV. The largest log I have hauled with the arch was 22"x16"x16'6" long, about 1660 lbs. by the Woodweb calculator. I have a hand winch on the arch; after winching the log in position, I chain it in place and then relieve the tension on the winch cable. Getting it completely suspended makes it easy for the ATV to pull; actually, on smooth level ground, I could even pull it by hand if I have the balance just right.
Pic of arch winch setup.

After depositing the logs parallel to the mill, I take a few minutes to mark out on the ends the way I'm going to make the cuts. Since the logs are fairly crooked and there are only a limited number of trees, I do this to get the maximum amount of lumber from the log; it also seems to make it go faster and easier after I begin to mill. I use a cant hook to roll the log upon two poles to the side of the mill. I then use the log loader that I built to winch the log onto the bed of the mill. Here is a log ready to load and then after it is loaded.

Now some Logosol tips:

Since the two log beds are still about 2" above the top of the frame on the mill when all the way down, I bolted on two bars of steel to top frame to raise it to the same level as the beds; this makes for an easy roll of the log onto the beds.
As to the entire mill, I have it bolted onto a frame of treated 4x6's which are pinned about 18" into the ground with 5/8" rebar. This makes for a much more solid setup as compared to just setting the mill on the ground. I have also bolted on diagonal braces on the side of the mill that the logs roll onto; it seemed to need additional bracing here.
Pic of the mill showing the bars bolted to the frame, and another showing the treated base, and the extra bracing.

By the way, if your plastic rollers on the bed lifts haven't cracked yet, they will. I replaced them with brass rollers garnered from rope pulleys from Ace hardware. Also, you might want to replace the rope with a solid braided nylon rope before it breaks on you. And speaking of breaking rope, when you are ratcheting up a heavy log, you might want to keep the ratchet on; that way, if the rope were to break, the log bed would not slam down on the frame.

Speaking of slamming down, if you let a heavy log jar the beds when they are all the way down, it will actually jar the log scale indicators out of position, even if they are tightened, because the bottom of the indicators contact the frame when the beds are down. If you are not aware of this and it happens to you, before you know it, you will be cutting a board thicker on one end than the other. To solve this, I removed the indicators and cut off about 1/8" from their bottoms.

Because there is significant vertical play between saw guide and the guide rail, it permits the end of the chainsaw bar to move vertically. To remedy this, I cut strips from a steel strapping band and forced them between the guide and the plastic guide inserts. This makes just the right thickness shims to remove the play.
You can also use shims from the strapping band in a like manner to remove the lateral play in the log beds where the bed supports ride in their slots by forcing the shims behind their plastic inserts.

Here's a tip for cutting long logs. Since there is no support for the logs except the two beds, which are 6'6" apart, on your last cuts of a long cant, the ends will droop. To prevent this, after I get the cant down to where it begins to droop on the ends, I support each end with 2 sticks clamped together the right length with a welding vise grip. (Another thing that would probably work, but I haven't tried yet, would be to put a 14' or so length of 2x4 channel iron under the cant for the last few cuts.)

Early on, I modded the muffler on the Husqvarna; this gave it noticeably more power but also made it quite loud. I recommend both ear plugs and over them, ear muffs. I know that I need both or it hurts my ears. I made a water feed reservoir from a length of 4" sewer pipe and rubber strapped it onto the saw guide. A small brass valve controls water flow through a tube to the end of the bar. This greatly helps to control dust (especially if you're cutting something dry like red heart cedar) and also helps to keep the chain clean.
I add a few drops of dish soap to the water to help on the sappy pine.

I started with .050 gage chain, but after breaking several (that muffler modded 395 is a hoss), I switched to .063 gage; I use the Woodland Pro from Baileys. (Only broke one of those so far). I sharpen my chain by hand to a 10 degree top plate angle using a Carlton file-o-plate. I also use the Carlton plate to keep the raker clearance at about .030.

One thing that I've done differently that has significantly increased the cutting speed is to use one size smaller file than is called for. What this does is put a more acute cutting angle on the top plate of the tooth, something like 25 or 30 degrees instead of the normal 60 degrees. When milling, since you are actually scraping the end of the grain, it's the top edge that actually does the cutting, and the more acute angle digs in and cuts quite a bit better. This is somewhat analogous to chopping perpendicular to the wood grain with a sharp axe versus a sharp splitting maul.

As to fuel for the Husky, I used Stihl full synthetic with no ethanol, 91 octane gas at 36:1 and run the high speed adjustment a little on the rich side. The 395 is indeed a powerhouse, but I would hate to use anything smaller.

Keeping your chainsaw bar level in the cut:
Even if your Logosol is perfectly tuned, every thing level and square and the chainsaw bar level and parallel with the guide rail, the bar is still free to be pushed up or down by knots, tension, an unevenly sharpened chain, etc. What I have done to prevent this is to remove the guard from the end of the 1" square guard bar. Then turn the guard bar 90 degrees so that the end points to the rear instead of down. Then, using a ceramic tile drill, I drilled a ¼" hole right in the center of the ring of rivets on the bar roller nose. Then position the guard bar above that hole and drill another ¼" hole in the guard bar directly above the hole in the roller nose. Then bolt the two together using a length of ¼" allthread with polynuts. Besides keeping all flex out of the chainsaw bar, the allthread gives you fine tuning on making the chainsaw bar exactly level. You will need this fine tuning because you will find that you cannot count on just measuring from the base of the bar to the bed and then from the tip of the bar to the bed. In other words, when actually cutting, there are forces at work that alter the levelness on the bar, especially if you have not eliminated the play in the saw guide. The most accurate way I've found to adjusting the ¼" allthread to making the cut level is to actually measure the thickness of both sides of a wide (12" or more) cut board. An extra plus to this is that the guard bar and allthread give a convenient path to route the water tube to the end of the chainsaw bar.
Pic of the Husky showing the guard bar and connecting allthread. (did not have the water feed installed at this time)

One of the first things I did on the Logosol was remove the pulley and string feed from the saw guide. Others may prefer it, but I find that I have greater control of the cutting speed if I just push the saw by hand. Another thing I did was toss the end clamp and the two ridiculous log dogs. I made two dogs that adjust 6" vertically and really dig into the log via a ½" threaded bolt that is pointed on one end with a tee handle welded on the other end. Pic of log dog.

If you get a log that is large enough that the first cut is greater than 16.75" from the bed, you can cut a notch so that it will set lower on the bed, as I had to do with this one.

Lubing the guide rail edges and the bed support edges with WD40 occasionally helps things go a lot smoother.

I hope these tips and pictures have been helpful to you. Happy milling!

htpd43 · September 14, 2009, 08:59:24 AM

Wow!
thanks for taking the time to post your setup. nice pics too!
Lou

thedeeredude · September 14, 2009, 05:18:11 PM

That is a nice arch! Thanks for posting the pics. Are you stick framing the house or timber framing?

Kelvin · September 14, 2009, 06:31:49 PM

Howdy,
Thanks for the pictures. What do you think your total cost of equipment is? That looks to be the most efficient setup i've seen for small scale sawmilling. How does the mill work on hardwoods? I've noticed that their videos demoing the mill are usually on pine, so it seems quite fast. Nice mods Good luck with the house project.
Kelvin

James P. · September 14, 2009, 06:50:50 PM

Nice setup , I am sure your post will help alot of people using chainsaw mills. Also inspire alot of them too. I wish I had the internet back when I first got into woodworking and thinking about sawmills. People sharing there knowledge can sure save you alot of time, thanks and Good job .
James P