Manjisann's Chainsaw Milling Adventures

[ManjiSann]

Too many logs ...never. You can always a couple more. ;)

This will likely be on my tombstone :D
Brandon 

[ManjiSann]

I milled the last three boards off of one of the 6 foot logs. On one of the last cuts I started smelling something odd and thought it smelled like charred wood. I looked at the board but saw no charr marks so I figured one of my neighbors must be smoking some meat or something. I walked around the bench a few minutes later and found a quarter sized black spot of smoldering sawdust. I have the spark screen in the muffler of my chainsaw, as near as I can tell I didn't hit any metal, sure wish I knew what happened. In any event I think my new SOP will be a walk around the bench every couple boards to make sure there's no fire starting or other risks. I don't think a fire could reach any of the houses, the lawns are green and short, but I'd sure hate to be wrong. I think I'd better get a fire extinguisher as well just to be on the safe side. 

Brandon 

[doc henderson]

good thoughts about safety.  I like the saying, (with a German accent)! "too soon olt, too late smart.  Might not be on a stone, but poss. carved into a 2 inch thick slab of elm, and in you own back yard!!!   :D  sounds like your family supports your addiction.

[doc henderson]

any little bit of carbon could smolder in some saw dust.  I think with a gas leak, it becomes potentially more life threatening.  (gas on clothing with an ignition source).    good luck and be safe.  none of the stuff we do everyday is without risk.

[ManjiSann]

any little bit of carbon could smolder in some saw dust.  I think with a gas leak, it becomes potentially more life threatening.  (gas on clothing with an ignition source).    good luck and be safe.  none of the stuff we do everyday is without risk.

Doc thanks for pointing this out, I totally missed this risk!
I'm assuming the carbon is a routine risk with chainsaws, hence the spark screen? I'm asking as I wonder if it could be an indicator of excessive carbon build up in the cylinder?

Brandon 

[doc henderson]

I do not think so, but others may chime in, as this is an assumption on my part.  just a reminder that you are holding/standing next to a machine that explodes gas in a chamber to motivate a system that turns a chain and cuts through a large tree.  do not mean to be dramatic, but with a continued gas leak, and evidence of a spark/ember.  be careful and see if you can fix you saw.

[ManjiSann]

I do not think so, but others may chime in, as this is an assumption on my part.  just a reminder that you are holding/standing next to a machine that explodes gas in a chamber to motivate a system that turns a chain and cuts through a large tree.  do not mean to be dramatic, but with a continued gas leak, and evidence of a spark/ember.  be careful and see if you can fix you saw.

It does sound overly dramatic but only until it actually goes boom then it just seems like common sense I'm taking it as I believe you mean it, a friendly reminder of the risks from someone who cares. Getting the leak tracked down and fixed is a priority right now as while I think the odds of it going catastrophic are pretty small it's just dumb to keep risking it (or at least it seems like a risk that isn't worth taking for long.) Besides from a practical stand point, it's likely to keep getting worse and I'm sure it is affecting the saws performance.

I have a carb rebuild kit on its way and all the hoses I can see that seem like they'd have anything to do with this will be replaced as well. I'm wondering if the diaphram at the top of the carb is leaking a wee bit and so it's allowing fuel to leak into the carb sometimes when the saw is on its side. I'd rather be milling than wrenching but I'll have to remind myself that this is just another part of the adventure and in the end part of what I enjoy about DIY is the learning. I've rebuilt old motorcycle carbs so this can't be much different  At least it's not like modern vehicles, it doesn't have an IQ higher than mine and I can pretty easily reach all the parts  8)

Brandon

[ManjiSann]

Built a new pallet for the boards. This one is 10' x 4' and I figure I'll stack it about 5' tall. I'm hoping I can fit both the 6' and 4' boards on it neatly. It looked pretty nice when I started stacking the boards I'd recently cut on it, starting to look like I might know what I'm doing  8)



Brandon

[Nebraska]

Looks good, that will help you with storage a bunch.

[ManjiSann]

It seems counter intuitive to me that sitting in front of a computer can be tiring but I guess the brain is a muscle... anyhow I had planned to do some milling when I logged off work yesterday but decided I wasn't mentally there for it. Instead I cut down the weeds and raked up the sawdust around the mill and tried to tidy up a bit. I figure less stuff on the ground is safe from a tripping hazard standpoint and also from a fire risk standpoint. Also got the next log loaded and with the side up I want mill. I've figured out I can do 3 cuts an hour or there abouts when things are going good. I'm sure to those with a bandmill that sounds terribly slow and it's slow to me as well from a production standpoint but I have to keep reminding myself I'm doing this for fun and I don't actually have any quota I have to meet so no need to get worked up over the lack of speed. 

I've been through cutting (I believe that's what its called when you just start at the top and cut boards through to the bottom without turning the cant?) One thought I've had and I'll pose the question to the forum is do I need to be removing the bark on the sides to allow it to dry correctly? I know that you seal the end grain as it weeps water something like 50 times faster than the other faces, will the bark prevent the narrow sides from expelling moisture at an even rate as the two wide faces and thus cause some sort of drying defects? I haven't been edging my boards, just leaving the bark on as it allows me to mill more boards in a given time frame but I'm wondering if I'm potentially causing myself problems down the road?

Brandon 

[ManjiSann]

I was politely corrected it's called Live Sawing when you cut from top to bottom without turning the cant  :P

So I may have resolved the leak in the carb area and it looks like Nebraska wins the golden ticket. I pulled a bit of tube out of the tank, cut the end off and plugged it into the carb and so far no more leaks. The part I cut off looked fine to me so *shrug*. I'll install the new line and filter shortly.

Monday I picked up a little silver maple log about 5' long and 16" dia at the butt. Milled it yesterday and got 5 nice 6/4 boards from it.

Not much else exciting going on. Current plan is to mill the logs I have now and then let them dry while I move on to other projects. I'm sure I'll keep looking for more logs and pick them up as they become available

Brandon 

[Nebraska]

Well go figure..a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while. :D

[ManjiSann]

Saturday after work I was all ready to mill the last locust log I had. Got it all set up, took two cuts and the chainsaw was running horribly and while it wasn't leaking fuel out of the side like it had been it was somehow flooding the carb (I think.) It wouldn't idle to for nothing. So I figured now was the time to try and fix it. I have been putting it off as there's always a little part of me that is afraid I'll break it or worse and I'd figured a sorta running saw was better than a not at all running saw. Well I gave myself a pep talk, I've rebuilt motorcycle carbs before, how hard could this really be?

I blew the sawdust off as best I could (my air compressor seems to be on its last legs as well, takes longer to get to 80psi than it should and won't make it to 100psi to shut off like it should... as much as I'd love to upgrade to a much bigger unit I suspect I'll try and fix it instead.. does anyone else ever feel like all you do is fix things instead of doing what you'd really like to be doing?  ok whiny rant over) Took the carb off and put the new parts in it. The old gasket was really stuck on there so I cleaned everything off as best I could. The parts kit was OEM Walbro marked so I'm sure the parts are good but there were more parts than what the diagrams show so I'm assuming it's a one kit fits many models deal, still a bit unnerving having spare parts left over. Put it all back together and tried to start the saw... and nothing. Spent an hour trying to figure out what was wrong and why it was flooding so badly. Had to call it an evening and spend time with the family but it was eating at me. So 430am the next morning I was awakened by a thought, I'd cleaned a bunch of crud out of the carb, maybe the old settings were way to rich now. Later in the day I tried fiddling with the settings but still no dice. I checked the muffler as there was a lot of fluid building up on the cooling fins and was just trying to eliminate variables. Wasn't related I don't think but it's a good thing I did as the muffler bracket is busted and I realized I'm missing the gasket that goes between the muffler and cooling fin so while it runs and I may not be leaking anything it's still something I need to remedy... hooray more parts to order!

I finally took the carb off again and went over it again, blowing all the passages out, etc. When I took the metering side off and put it back together something clicked in my head and I realized that both sides of the arm were forked which I knew meant I had to hook the one side onto the needle but it got me wondering why the other side was forked. I turned the diaphram over and low and behold there's a little head on it just like on the needle that fits into the fork on the other side of the arm. So I hooked it up correctly (wish the mechanics manual would have told me this but they probably assume if you're smart enough to get this far you know enough to connect things  ;) ) Put it all back together and she fired up easily! I still need to fine tune her a bit but success!!!!

I'm still a bit vague on what was causing the initial fuel leak/carb flooding issue. Both diaphrams in the carb looked to be ok, no holes or rips that I could see. Perhaps the metering diaphram somehow became stretched a bit and so allowed more fuel through than it should have? At this point I think I have it all fixed but won't know for certain till I've ran a couple tanks of fuel through with no leaks.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to mill after work today.

Brandon  

[ManjiSann]

Been having problems with my smart phone not allowing headphones or chargers to connect in the port. I figured I'd dropped and damaged it. Been dealing with it for months, sometimes headphones would connect but it was getting more and more touchy. It finally dawned on me... I have it so the port is facing up in my front pocket, sawdust from milling gets in my pockets... took a toothpick and cleaned a lot of sawdust out of the port and now things connect like they should  8) 8)

Figured this forum would get a kick out of that, also something to watch out for if you start having the same issue  :P

Brandon 

[Ljohnsaw]

Ah, the benefits of an old flip phone!  I have a Samsung Rugby that has a waterproof hatch over my USB port.  The entire phone is water proof to 8'!  Not bad for a $15 phone off of eBay.

[ManjiSann]

Ah, the benefits of an old flip phone!  I have a Samsung Rugby that has a waterproof hatch over my USB port.  The entire phone is water proof to 8'!  Not bad for a $15 phone off of eBay.

I sometimes miss old flip phones... it was one thing I owned with an IQ lower than me :D
Brandon 

[ManjiSann]

Milled a few boards Wednesday and at first the saw ran great then it started leaking fuel again out of the carb area  >:(  I'll spare you the boring story but I think I've figured out what is going on. I'm pretty sure it's coming out of the air filter. I think as I mill the air filter gets plugged up with dust, reducing air flow. After a few cuts it must be enough air flow reduction that it's not sucking all of the fuel into the cylinder and eventually leaks out. I also wonder if I was running a bit rich so compounded the problem. 

With the weather heating up I'm finding my strong desire to mill isn't so strong anymore, which means it may be a bit before I can test my theory. I figure I'll have to knock the air filter off every time I refuel. If I didn't still have some nice looking logs I'd give serious consideration to calling it a season but hate to leave the logs sitting as I figure they'll break down and it just seems such a waste. 

Brandon 

[JJ]

plugged air filter while milling is like running WOT with 1/2 choke.
my thought.

At least logs grow on trees

     JJ

[doc henderson]

maybe can work on the saw in the airconditioned basement?  good luck.

[ManjiSann]

plugged air filter while milling is like running WOT with 1/2 choke.
my thought.

At least logs grow on trees

    JJ

As I understand how carbs work, I'd agree with this statement. 
The pump pumps the same amount of gas but there's less air flow to vaporize it and suck it into the cylinder so fairly quickly it'll pool and either drown the engine or dribble out the air filter if you're milling since it puts the filter parallel with the ground. At least that's how it's working in my mind, we'll see if that's what happens in the real world. The bright side is if I'm right the fix is simple, clean the air filter more often. Only costs a couple minutes of time, best price in the world
Heh, logs do grow on trees  :D :D  But my logs are hauled by man power and not always available on a whim so I hate to waste them. But as you point out, if I'm unable to get to them in time at least there's more eventually
Brandon 

[ManjiSann]

maybe can work on the saw in the airconditioned basement?  good luck.

I installed an exhaust fan in the man cave for situations like this but since the walls and door aren't installed yet I am hesitant to utilize it as I don't want to make the basement smell of gas fumes. The man cave is also my office at the moment and I doubt smelling fumes will improve my productivity any ;)
I figure I have to be close to fixing this problem, I've rebuilt the carb, replaced all but the impulse lines (not sure how to get the new one on the cylinder connector as there's not much room there.) As far as I've been able to tell there's no cracks in the boot that goes from the carb to the cylinder. I've leaned out the high and low needle, not too lean I think so hopefully they are tuned right. At this point I really do believe it's just poor maintenance on my part in that the air filter gets clogged, and as JJ pointed out, acts like the choke is on while trying to run the saw. I'd be rather surprised if cleaning the air filter each time I fuel up and maybe a bit of tuning, doesn't solve the problem. It seems a bit excessive to me to clean the air filter so often but as I've thought about it I figure milling creates a LOT of fine powdery dust and with the chainsaw on its side a lot of that dust sits on the bar and so has more time to get sucked into the air intake system. Maybe it's something else and I'm just holding onto this as it's an easy fix and I'll be proven wrong eventually but I won't know until I try  
The weather is supposed to be cooler this upcoming week so hopefully I can mill a bit and figure the saw out before it's time to pack it in for a few months. 
Brandon 

[Hilltop366]

If they are not too expensive you could pick up a couple of spare filters to swap out and clean them later.

[Hilltop366]

Also wondering if some creatively placed dust shields (being careful not to prevent good air circulation) would help in preventing the dust from being sucked in in the first place. Could experiment with some cardboard, masking tape and zip ties.

[ManjiSann]

Hilltop366, I kept the filter that came with the saw when I bought it. I'd cleaned it with soap and water but hadn't tried using it as I had the new one. 


I milled a log yesterday and had gas leaking out again when I filled up the tank. I'd also had problems with it not starting and running rough. I swapped out the filter to the old one I'd washed months ago. I also left the cover off the carb area to increase air flow and hopefully to see what is going on. Saw ran really well and it looks like the gas is coming out of the tank vent tube/filter thingy at times even when I'm not filling up. Either I'm overfilling the tank (is that even possible?) or I'm guessing the tank vent isn't functioning correctly as I'm thinking it's supposed to allow air movement but prevent liquid from coming out. At the rate I'm going I'm going to have an old saw with all new parts  :D  I guess it's time to wash the "new" filter in soap and water and have it as a spare to swap out when the "old" filter gets too gunky to be brushed off. 

I've also noticed I get a lot of bar oil under the muffler when I'm milling. It seems to be worse when I fill the tank up and subside when the tank is about half full. This leads me to wonder if the case seal in that area is compromised somehow so the bar oil leaks out of the case? Is there any other things it might be?  At this point I'm not sweating it as I can run it and only fill the oil tank half way. 

I'm down to only a few logs left and I'm hoping to finish them by the end of next week, weather and energy permitting. I restacked some of the boards I'd already cut and it's amazing how much moisture has already left them in just a week or so. 

[doc henderson]

your saw may not be functioning perfectly, but you are learning a ton, and putting the knowledgeable members through their paces. :P