Guess I'm a Sawyer now? A 1991 Kasco "The Saw IIA" Sawmill is mine!

[civilian]

I just used cheap hour meter that wrapped a pickup wire around spark plug wire. All relative. Will have to look for pictures. Jon

 

[deezler]

Finally carved out a little time to play with the saw again last night.

Not sure if any pics showed it yet, but an interesting quirk of this sawmill is that it cuts towards the operator, not away. So you draw it towards you and walk backwards to watch your cut. It does have powered motion back and forth, but its via a weak electric motor pulling on a chain alongside the mill. So you do need to help it out a bit and pull through the more difficult cuts.

I took your advice, Jon, and bought a very affordable hour meter off amazon. Just wrap the lead around a spark plug wire, and it starts counting whenever the plug is firing (engine is running). Easy peasy.

I couldn't resist getting into a Silver Maple log to see how it cut and what the grain looked like.

Pretty gorgeous. Would love to see what it looks like once sanded, and with poly!

My step-father-in-law wants a big thick slab for bowl-turning and woodworking projects. I guess that counts as my first saw order, haha. (It'll be free)

 

[Sawyer Rob]

but an interesting quirk of this sawmill is that it cuts towards the operator, not away. So you draw it towards you and walk backwards to watch your cut.

I think you are parking the head on the wrong end of the track and running the saw from the wrong side.

You should be operating it from the side you read your setworks on.

Actually, if the head is powered, I can't imagine they designed the head to be pulled from the front.

SR

 

[deezler]

When I first saw it in my coworkers garage, I was convinced they basically just had the blade (and guides, etc) on backwards. But they bought the saw back in 1991 directly from the manufacturer, and had it set up by them as well.

There is very little info on the internet about these Kasco sawmills, but i have found some references to the odd direction of cut.

In practice, it works fine this way. Yes, the controls are on the side you see in my pics and the scales, too. I thought it was really odd at first but then instantly got used to it.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

It's also unsafe to be on the cutting side!

SR

 

[deezler]

Thats what I was worried about as well but haven't seen any indication of a specific safety risk.

Of course I am wearing eye protection (and ear because its quite loud), standing to the side of the machine, well away from the blade, which is itself well guarded. Basically you have your hands on the controls and are some 5 to 6 feet away from where the blade is cutting. Once you complete your cut, it's not like things go flying or anything. I always de-clutch the blade to a stop before I leave the operator position and go move boards, etc.

 

[deezler]

Cutting was getting a bit wavy and sluggish on my silver maple log so I decided I might as well get a fresh blade on from my inventory. Silly me, did not pay attention to the tooth direction when removing the old blade. Un-banded the new blade, popped it on, and promptly made a cloud of smoke.

But it only goes on one way? Ah ha! Gotta flip it inside-out. hahaha. Funny lesson to learn and was still back to sawing in just a few minutes overall; delightfully ease blade change.

I spent a little more time than I would have liked on making these racks for storing some cut slabs.

And then had just enough time to cut a couple more and start loading them up.

 

[fruitcakesa]

Over the years while we were building our homestead, I hired portable mills to saw the timber we harvested off our 50 acres a half dozen times. I always tailed for them and stickered and stacked lumber as it came off the mill. The sawyers were hard core and put in 8 hour days so the work was tough. And hot, noisy and dusty! After we finally finished the last round of milling I swore I would never do it again
Fast forward to a couple of years ago and I had the chance to pick up a Woodland mills trailer mounted mill.
Since then, it has become a paying hobby. I have sawn thousands of feet of hemlock and pine for beams and boards. And I really enjoy doing it.
No 8 hour days, mill in the cool of the morning or early evening. Take only jobs that I choose. And of course saw anything I may need whenever I need it.