In this video I’ll share with you my initial experiences with chainsaw milling. I’ll be showing the mistakes I made, as well as the lessons I learnt.

I’m using chainsaw mill from a Chinese supplier (TOPQSC). It’s an affordable jig, and easy to put together and use. You can watch how easy it is to assemble on the bottomright corner. I’ll link to a video on my secondary channel of the full process.

Before milling a log, it’s best to remove all the bark and dirt you can. Neglecting either will increase wear on your saw, and dull it faster.

I’m using split firewood as wedges to prevent the log from moving sideways while milling it.
I recommend mounting the chainsaw with the jig facing down and partially supported by the log.

For this job I’m using a Husqvarna 266xp with a 20” bar, my first petrol chainsaw.

Once the chainsaw is securely attached to the milling jig, we can fasten some planks to the log to create a flat reference surface. Here is my first mistake. As you will see, I attached those too far from the top, so I couldn’t support the jig. I was on a bit of a rush, and the top of the log was flat enough to try it freehand. The results may have been better had I not pushed too far the plastic wedges during the cut. This lifts the whole slice and pushes the chain away from its natural direction. After the first cut, I had a ridge at the end of the cut, which caused issues on the second cut. I also made another mistake using a regular crosscut chain, which leaves a pretty rough surface and cuts slower.

At the end of the second cut you can see how the cut started to go crooked and how the guide stopped running by hitting the ridge from the first cut. I solved this by flattening the surface by hand with a hatchet.

On the remaining cuts the chainsaw is outfitted with a milling chain (10deg cutting edge) which makes the cut faster and leaves a better surface finish.

The third cut and beyond were pretty straight forward, without any other issues. You can see how I make a full cut, without rushing, in 76 seconds.

This log is from a European Chestnut that was felled on February of this year. Chestnut is considered a hardwood and, compared to oak, is nearly as strong but lightweight and half as hard, so it’s a really great wood to work with. The heartwood is durable but, as you may see during the footage, the sapwood is vulnerable to insect damage.

For chain sharpening on the job site I used an appropriate file size for the chain (in this case, a 7/32” or 5.5mm diameter round file) attached to a file guide to maintain the correct angle.
I got 5 90x35x4cm (35x14x2inch) chestnut boards of decent quality out of that milling job. Overall I’m very satisfied.

I hope you like this video. Leave a comment with your thoughts, I'll be glad to answer you.

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TOPQSC Chainsaw Mill: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B07F8ZWVGZ?r...