Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

Same as my tree colour. Look nice when they are split.



Noel

Glad it all worked out safely for you Eugen! That's a classic saw, probably the most produced (and copied) saw of its time.

When we moved to our place 5 years ago I too took down the dead stuff around the house. Smaller pieces became firewood, larger ones I milled. I bought an Alaskan style mill like the one you are looking at from a guy who builds his own and did the oak, ash and some elm. Also saved a bit of $ and have some beautiful pieces for some future projects (will be doing a live edge heirloom table from the oak) I built this toddler tower for my kids from the ash, a prototype but has been used quite a bit!

Your xl12 should be okay with that mill if you decide to go for it. Bigger is always better for milling of course, but then that's $$. I actually didn't bother using a ripping chain, but if you have a spare in good shape you can make your own. Just go slow, insert wedges to support your pieces and not pinch the bar, and make sure your oiler is always working. The bar can get very hot.

Good results can be had with portable mills. Bandsaw mills are more accurate and the thinner blade kerf means less waste too. But can't beat the portability of the chainsaw mills.

Full disclosure I'm no Sawyer but wanted to learn a bit about it. In addition to some nice pieces you'll have heirloom lumber!


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I hate seeing all the ash coming down, but there's no way to stop it. Better to take it now, before it rots from the top down, and drops something on you...

A couple years ago now, I took down a 5 way ash. Old, old, old... Took every bit of the 32" bar on my big saw, and had to work both sides on one of the trunks. It went 5 ways right at the ground pretty much.

The tops gave me a load of firewood, and the bottoms I had cut in to 4x6's. I wanted it for cribbing for my crane. Crane is kinda sick, so it's all just sitting in one of the out buildings. Stack is about 4' x 4' and 12' - 14' long. Guy at the mill charged me $200 to cut it. Best deal I've gotten in a long time.

There's another 6 way, just the other side of the field. I let it go too long, so now the tops are coming down on their own. I have to get my neighbor up with his bucket truck and take off the widowmakers before I figure out how to drop the trunks. Probably every bit as old as the first. Unfortunately, the split is probably 6-7' up on a couple of the trunks.

My father's early XL-12 is still running just fine. They made that saw for 30 years or so. Excellent design. I semi-recently picked up a Super XL, cleaned it up and put a 24" bar on it. That's really more bar than it should run, but it pulls it fine if I keep it sharp, and I'm not racing. Plus I can run it for a while unlike my big McCulloch 795L. The 795 was bought primarily for my Alaskan Mill. You can certainly make some very nice lumber, slabs, and beams with an Alaskan. Don't be in a hurry, and plan to spend a lot of time surfacing when you go to use the material. I only got mine to slab out root balls. There's gorgeous grain in the ball, but no miller in their right mind would run it through their rig, 'cause there's lots of mud, and rocks in that ball too, regardless of how long you pressure wash it...

@Chad that's amazing, exactly what I'd like to be able to do, but I doubted my XL-12 could do it, and it has a 16" bar. To test it I tried one run along a bigger ash trunk that fell in the storm. The chain was not new but I had sharpened it before this. After about 6 feet my hand just about fell of my shoulder. I'm thinking a saw with some sort of vibration reduction mechanism, and automatic oiler. I also thought that the ripping chain would be a must, but you definitely proved that's not the case.

@Toolslinger one of the ash trees was two way, and one trunk was hanging over the house. For that I hired the arborist and he climbed up and did it piecewise. If I had trees as large as yours I probably wouldn't be able to do anything about it with my 16" bar saw.

I do drool over the Stihl saws I see on the second hand market, but the prices are very discouraging.

Eugen wrote: ↑Wed Mar 09, 2022 12:18 pm Whatever he charges is more than I can afford right now There are several folks in the area that come over with a mobile mill and they charge something like $75 per hour plus some other stuff.


I don't have the right chain on my chainsaw but I've been thinking of getting one of these and a ripping chain and do it myself.



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I dought he is that much $$, Give me an idea what you would like and I will give him a call . It doesn't cost anything to ask , then you know . The only thing is you have to take him the logs and it has to be after syrup season is over .

Dave

DavidBarkey wrote: ↑Wed Mar 09, 2022 4:47 pm

I dought he is that much $$, Give me an idea what you would like and I will give him a call . It doesn't cost anything to ask , then you know . The only thing is you have to take him the logs and it has to be after syrup season is over .

Dave

You're right Dave, can't hurt asking. Maybe he charges per cut, or per hour? I think I'd rather get boards made out of it, more useful than beams. I can probably have a few 12 ft logs for that.

BTW, I have one ash log that's more than 16" across, but has been sitting outside for a year and a half. I wonder if that can still be useful or is good only for fire. It's so heavy I can't lift it with the 644

Eugen wrote: ↑Wed Mar 09, 2022 5:26 pm BTW, I have one ash log that's more than 16" across, but has been sitting outside for a year and a half. I wonder if that can still be useful or is good only for fire. It's so heavy I can't lift it with the 644

Well, my father put a big black walnut trunk under the barn after it came over during Sandy. Probably 22" at the base. Sat there until I took the Ash in for cutting. I let the sawyer know I didn't really have high hopes, but to get what he could, working with the splits that had developed. I ended up with some really nice 4" thick slabs, and some 2" stock as well. You might be surprised at what you get from your trunk. Hopefully it is sitting off the ground, I could see ground contact causing issues possibly.

The 16" bar is fine for most work, and is what we ran on our XL-12 when it was the primary firewood saw. Once he got a new Husky in the mid 80's, we put a 20" on the Homelite, and used it when we needed more bar, or got the Husky stuck in a cut. I think 20" is the sweet spot for the XL's.

Once you get an anti-vibe saw, it's hard to imagine running the old school saws all day. Still I love the sound of the old machines running at lower RPM, with more torque than the newer units. I've got one really modern Husky that my uncle gave me as he really can't handle the gas saw any more at 78. It's sweet to run, but finicky since I don't run it often. Probably due to all the emissions stuff, and crap fuel... This likely isn't unique. That old Husky, and other "new" saws I have from the 90's still start and run dependably with infrequent use. The really old saws seem to be able to sit on the shelf for years, and then grumble to life happily with a little starting fluid. The really new things really hate sitting around, so I have to dump the fuel, and run them dry. Even then they're malcontented next time I need one.

Toolslinger ,

I know what you mean about the old saws. I got a beautiful Homelite XL cheap, no spark, but Stens had a coil. I wonder how old this saw is, as it has a aluminum tag riveted to the chassis that reads Manufactured by Textron Corp, Texas.

Another oldy but goody is a Mac 10-10. The only problem with it is the need for ear plugs and muffs at the same time. I am sure everybody within 5 miles knows when the Mac is running The muffler is a box with 2 louvres in the cover, and NO baffles.

Dad gave me his then new Craftsman chainsaw, he said it cut 3 pickup load and had been in 4 times for warranty work on the carb. Long story short, After many attempts to get that 2 barreled EPA EGR carb to run reliably, the chain and bar are hanging on the wall, the rest is on the scrap pile.


Gordy

Toolslinger wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 4:56 am
Well, my father put a big black walnut trunk under the barn after it came over during Sandy. Probably 22" at the base. Sat there until I took the Ash in for cutting. I let the sawyer know I didn't really have high hopes, but to get what he could, working with the splits that had developed. I ended up with some really nice 4" thick slabs, and some 2" stock as well. You might be surprised at what you get from your trunk. Hopefully it is sitting off the ground, I could see ground contact causing issues possibly.

This is encouraging though. It's sitting off the ground, on a couple of log cuts.

The 16" bar is fine for most work, and is what we ran on our XL-12 when it was the primary firewood saw. Once he got a new Husky in the mid 80's, we put a 20" on the Homelite, and used it when we needed more bar, or got the Husky stuck in a cut. I think 20" is the sweet spot for the XL's.

Once you get an anti-vibe saw, it's hard to imagine running the old school saws all day. Still I love the sound of the old machines running at lower RPM, with more torque than the newer units. I've got one really modern Husky that my uncle gave me as he really can't handle the gas saw any more at 78. It's sweet to run, but finicky since I don't run it often. Probably due to all the emissions stuff, and crap fuel... This likely isn't unique. That old Husky, and other "new" saws I have from the 90's still start and run dependably with infrequent use. The really old saws seem to be able to sit on the shelf for years, and then grumble to life happily with a little starting fluid. The really new things really hate sitting around, so I have to dump the fuel, and run them dry. Even then they're malcontented next time I need one.

Wish I could find an older Husky or Stihl with at least a 20" bar. Thanks for all this insight, it's very helpful!

Plenty of other oldies but goodies out there... Poulan, Partner, Dolmar... Sure there are others.
My first new in the box saw was a Poulan 2900. Home Depot special on sale in 97... I still have that, and honestly, it's one of my favorites. Came with a 20" bar. I did add a kickback brake years down the road just because I could. That saw was run hard at times. Way harder than it was intended, but it still does what I ask. It's my primary saw here in NJ, which generally means it sits around, and cuts a christmas tree every year. Every 5 years a friend asks me to take a tree down...
Chainsaws are worse than Case tractors... You can guy them by the pickup truck load, and they don't take up much space... Easy to look down one day, and find 20 saws sitting there, and not know why...