Ripping Floor Joists

[jander3]

I spent Sunday out in the sun ripping floor joists.  Temperature was about 40 degrees and most of the snow is gone...so things are looking up.  After reading up on the use of skip chain on this forum, I purchased a couple of them from my saw shop.   I ended up with square ground skip chain (I didn't realize I was ordering square ground).  I matched this new chain up with a used  Husky 394 XP that I recently purchased; I was amazed at how quickly the square ground skip chain with the 94 cc saw was able to rip my timbers. 

I am new believer in square ground for my Alaskan Mill, especially since I need to cut all the dimensional lumber for the flooring in the next few weekends.   However, I'm going to have to figure out how to keep this chain sharp, looks like the grinder for square chain is pretty spendy.


 


Ripping a joist with the Alaskan Mill.

 


Floor joists nearly completed, I have about another day to finish them up.




Tractor and log arches...just sitting in the sun.

[thecfarm]

What kind of wood you sawing?Looks like hardwood in the back ground.What are the floor joists being used for?

[timber tramp]

  Madsen's has good information on hand filing square ground chain.        TT

[jander3]

I'm cutting whatever is available. Everything has to move 1.5 miles through the woods, so I want to make use of the materials on our property.   The chainsaw mill is set up on Red Oak, I've also cut plenty of Red Pine and Quaking Aspen.

On our property I have mix of oak, maple, and aspen.   

The floor joists will be used for 20' x 22' hand scribed cabin.  I built the walls in a building yard off-site and hauled them in last fall via 4 wheeler.  The plan was to stack them directly on the foundation.  However, I ran out of time and couldn't get the foundation finished before winter.  So the walls are laid out on skids and spent the winter covered in snow. 

Jon

[Al_Smith]

Looks like a lot of work to me . Red oak though should last about a couple hundred years  .

You can file square ground but it's time consuming and not the easiest thing in the world to do . Some have it down to a science .Mine is just half-fast .

[bandmiller2]

Jander,square chisel cuts like a beaver on steroids when its sharp.If you find you can't master square filing by hand,you can always sharpen with a round file you'll loose a little but not much.square chisel is pretty much a west coast logger thing tough to find back east.You can also convert round chisel to square if you have a grinder,it will look strange for a couple of sharpenings but will cut.Their are ways to sharpen chain for ripping I never have and don't know.Frank C.

[Al_Smith]

Ripping chain will cut smoother but it won't cut faster .