Sawmill

[czechsonofagun]

Thank you.

3/8" ripping chain is what I am using. I heard it is more stable in the cut than crosscut chain making smoother board.

 

[TnAndy]

My first sawmilling was an 045 Stihl and a Grandberg Alaskan mill.

Several years later (1991), I died and went to sawmill heaven buying a LT40 Woodmizer, which I've cut 1/2 million bdft on and will hold on to until I die.

 

[PILOON]

My first sawmilling was an 045 Stihl and a Grandberg Alaskan mill.

Several years later (1991), I died and went to sawmill heaven buying a LT40 Woodmizer, which I've cut 1/2 million bdft on and will hold on to until I die.

Are U still going strong?
(Like not 6 ft under?)
Since you are posting I guess I answered my ?? ! LOL.

NB. lawyers get interred 7-8 ft down as deep down they are nice fellows! LOL. The rest of us live at 6 ft!

 

[TnAndy]

Yeah, one bypass surgery in 2011, and getting a new knee in couple weeks, (you have to overhaul yourself from time to time....ahahahaa), but doing fine, thanks !

I had fun with the chainsaw mill....built my first barn on the place with it. But soon realized if I was gonna get serious about milling, it was going to take more.

30' beam on a 20' sawmill:

Attacking a pile of logs like this is a couple day with a bandmill, versus a month with a chainsaw mill:

And you can do things like make lap siding that simply aren't practical due to kerf loss and time on a chainsaw mill:
(Nearly every building on my place is sided with this)

 

[czechsonofagun]

I believe you, I was considering building bandsaw, but cutting chains I dealt with before, they last long time, I have sharpening setup.

Compare to LT40 Woodmizer, this is just a jig, but just like my 20hp Kubota, it fits my space and needs.

 

[Egon]

The fellows at one of the local saw shops tell me there are some narrow kerf ripping chains that leave a pretty clean cut. I was able to look at a few of the cut boards and was impressed. Naturally I made a mental note that has long since been lost in the mental file system. But if required the fellows are still at the shop.

 

[czechsonofagun]

You are correct, there is a narrow kerf chain and ripping chain. I actually adopted my Husqvarna Rancher to run it, because I had chains and bar left from a Solo that died on me. The chain is .325 and needs special bar but since I use the cltuch/rim combo I can change it back and forth as necessary.

For the sawmill I would be limited to 20" bar, I may do that for extra oomph when cutting hard wood.

 

[TnAndy]

I believe you, I was considering building bandsaw, but cutting chains I dealt with before, they last long time, I have sharpening setup.

Compare to LT40 Woodmizer, this is just a jig, but just like my 20hp Kubota, it fits my space and needs.

Yep.....that's the key. Get what you need for what you do. The very thing that has kept me from buying huge earthmoving equipment for the occasional use

 

[Lea]

Czechsonofagun
Hey man I'll update with som new pics ASAP maybe tomorrow thanks for watching, I may need some help along the way so if you have any pointers let me know

 

[czechsonofagun]

Update, finally painted and assembled. The electrical connection is safe now - it was not before, I could feel the buzzing in my fingers when it was wet, haha.

It cuts again, but there is more work to be done. It eats V belts fast, I am going with sprockets and chain.

Also the winch is a great improvement, way to move the cutting head.

 

[Egon]

Looking good!

V belts = there are a lot v belt drive applications in use in industry that last for years.

 

[czechsonofagun]

Yes, I am aware of that, still in the process of searching.

One way to solve it would be a belt tensioner, but it would get too crowded/complicated up top.

 

[Egon]

Ahh, you have belt tension problems. Slipping belts do become useless quite quickly as they glaze over. At times dressing may help but that you will already know.

Any problems lubing the proposed chain?

 

[Lea]

Czechsonofagun
If you are eating belts up it may very well be a alignment problem. It doesn't take long to eat a belt, as far as going to sprocket and chain it doesn't lend itself to high speed as does belts and pulleys

 

[czechsonofagun]

Well, seems like I should have checked the speed limits fro chains first, dang I am way over the 800 f/minute upper limit for 40 chain. On the other hand, motorcycle chain go even faster.

I may have to look into a tensioner.

 

[czechsonofagun]

I guess I have to pee on the fence everytime. I did a test run with 40 chain and the centrifugal forces dried the oil out of the chain that it felt like a bony skeleton when I finally took it off.

Back to V-belt, time to build a tensioner.

 

[czechsonofagun]

Seems like all the little problems are resolved, time to make some serious lumber.

After the chain failure I went with real V-belt, it took only three trips to TSC to get the right size but it holds much better than the V-link.

For the tensioner I used a pulley from Subaru I had in my scrap pile.

It cuts straight as an arrow, one of the advantages of the I-beam.

I was cutting some eastern red cedar yesterday, but four logs of oak are waiting for the weekend session.

 

[Egon]

Good show! :dance1::cool2::thumbsup:

 

[czechsonofagun]

Milling pine log.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I started out with a CSM too, but I figured out real soon it was waaaay too much work/noise/running expense and hard on my body, so I spent a little more and got into a BSM...

Anyway, many years later, I'm still turning logs into lumber,

and very happy with my choice,

milling out flat lumber,

that's accurate with a thin kerf,

and I can easily mill lumber fast enough, that I can turn out some extra lumber to sell, and get paid back,

Milling logs has always been fun for me...

SR