Stihl 090 Chainsaw Milling - Granberg - First Post

[homestead090]

Wow, seeing the Stihl 090 at work is pretty impressive.   I looked into the prices for one of these and it is a pretty penny.   Good work.   :laugh:

It is a great saw, where a lot of saws bog down as soon as the chain speed drops, when you slow down the chain on these it just keeps going and cutting. It also sounds great when idling but it is the loudest saw i've ever heard. Any saw is loud, but when milling I wear ear plugs and ear muffs. They are expensive. But if you are milling big stuff, you have to have power or you are truly wasting time. So whether you get this or an MS880 you are still spending a lot for a chainsaw. When it comes to capacity of cut, a chainsaw mill is super cheap compared to a wide cut bandmill but that doesn't mean it's cheap. You have the cost of the saw, the mill package was about $1300, then I have a bunch of other stuff, come alongs, axes, another saw for various tasks, chains, ropes, etc, etc. I also have a portable winch $1500. Not to mention having a truck and trailer. I don't mind the cost of stuff like this though, I get a lot out of it and it makes me money. I'm fortunate enough that much of what I do for income is something I'd do regardless of getting paid. I was lucky, someone gave me the 090 in the video, but I sort of recently bought another one. Got it on Ebay for about $600 somthing, said it was running but needed work, it was a lie. There's no way it was running, I took it apart and it probably hasn't ran in years. I've bought all the parts to get it up and running, it will be nice because it will be a fresh saw when done, new cylinder, seals, gaskets, and a bunch of other stuff. I'll have about $900-$1000 in it when done. It will be nice to be this familiar with the saw. My large bar is double ended, meaning I can run two powerheads on it. I think two 090's will be strong enough for most logs!

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Man, looking at that solid mounted handle I'm sure my hands couldn't hold up to that saw.

[bwstout]

Welcome lots of info here, have some of your sechamic for the kitchen island building for my daughter for Christmas this year.

Cool, thanks. I enjoyed making the island. I'd love to see how yours comes/came out.

Well finally finished the kitchen island from your plans, as you can see not did not follow them too close ;D but they were the base starting point.  I have never learned tenon joints so I used dowels. the wood is from a lighting struck pecan from my friends plantation. The top is 36x48 I added a drawer in one end of the base.

That really came out nice, I have not logged in in a while so it was a nice thing to find. Thanks for posting it. I like the changes that you made, much more interesting than my original. It's been a while since you posted, but I'd be curious about the milling and how you went about it. Great job.

I tried the chain saw mill just more work that I wanted so I built a band saw mill that is what I used to saw the slabs and lumber to build the table you can look in my gallery and  there is a few pics of the mill. thanks for your drawings I used your plans and built a farm house table out of the rest of the slabs there is a pic in my gallery of it.

[homestead090]

Welcome lots of info here, have some of your sechamic for the kitchen island building for my daughter for Christmas this year.

Cool, thanks. I enjoyed making the island. I'd love to see how yours comes/came out.

Well finally finished the kitchen island from your plans, as you can see not did not follow them too close ;D but they were the base starting point.  I have never learned tenon joints so I used dowels. the wood is from a lighting struck pecan from my friends plantation. The top is 36x48 I added a drawer in one end of the base.

That really came out nice, I have not logged in in a while so it was a nice thing to find. Thanks for posting it. I like the changes that you made, much more interesting than my original. It's been a while since you posted, but I'd be curious about the milling and how you went about it. Great job.

I tried the chain saw mill just more work that I wanted so I built a band saw mill that is what I used to saw the slabs and lumber to build the table you can look in my gallery and  there is a few pics of the mill. thanks for your drawings I used your plans and built a farm house table out of the rest of the slabs there is a pic in my gallery of it.

Thanks, I'll have a look. Chainsaw milling is a very specific thing in my opinion. When I see someone with a 10 inch log and a chainsaw mill in their back yard I think it's a hard way to go to just get some 1 inch boards, especially how much the saw chews up.  I think of them as highly mobile, large capacity mills. I wouldn't mind milling up something smaller on occasion if I had a reason, but for me I have it to mill stuff you can't mill with any normal bandmill. Also, you may have seen the video of the walnut I milled, a lot of the logs I find are in peoples yards or in a place you can't get the log other than to mill it where it lays and carry out slabs. My mill can do up to 56 inches wide...your looking at an expensive bandsaw mill that has that capacity, even if you could get the log to the mill. Down the road, once I'm settled, I'd like to buy a bandmill. My current mill of choice is one of the Timberking 1600 or 2000 series. I like the traditional style and hydraulics. But then you need the other equipment to make it all worth fooling around with. Thanks for the message. 

[homestead090]

Man, looking at that solid mounted handle I'm sure my hands couldn't hold up to that saw.

A lot of people say that, people just seeing the saw and others that have used them. I don't find it all that bad and I usually don't even wear gloves. Normally you are not using a saw like this for an extended time. Even when used for cutting your tree into sections, I'm just holding the saw and letting the weight do the cut. When milling, the vibration makes no difference at all, I'm just holding the trigger and cranking the winch. With that said, I don't have a huge, modern, anti-vibe saw to compare it to. I do have a Stihl MS390, much smaller but strong saw for it's size. I've always felt like the saw has to much flex. That's one thing that I really like about older saws, nothing on them flexes. I also really like all metal saws, newer saws look rough quick, older saws, even when they get some age just look "distinguished"