My parents have a silver maple that is a bit oval in shape, 31" wide, 21" thick. It is about 6-7' until a crotch in the tree. The tree is healthy, but they want to take it down because it is close to the driveway and dumps copious amounts of pollen all over their cars. I'm thinking of embarking on an adventure and trying to turn this into slabs for table tops. Above the crotch, there are about 12-16' straight sections that are a bit less than 20" in diameter. I would work on those first, to at least get some practice before attacking the larger log.
My thought was that I would purchase a Granberg Alaskan MK-III. The 36" is possibly enough, but I might decide to go for the 48" just in case there are parts of the log a bit wider or there was a measurement error (my dad measured it for me) and then a powerhead to go with it. For a 36" mill, Granberg recommends a 70cc saw. If I go with a 48" mill, but am milling closer to 30-36" is there a significant draw back to using the 70cc saw instead of the 90cc they would recommend for the larger mill?
I stopped by the local lawn dealer who has Stihls and Husqvarna. His recommendation was either a MS441 which is 70ccs for $959; this in the pro line. One step down would be the rancher model MS 391 64ccs and $589. A step up would be a 661 for $1250; he says he had one customer who bought this one for milling and that he's been very happy with the power of it.
Am I asking for trouble if I go with the MS 391? The cost savings is fairly significant and I would be willing to take it a bit slow, because I'm not trying to make money on this; but I don't want to cheap out and be unable to complete the job.
Is there anything else I should be looking at or thinking about?
Thanks,
Charles