# Pictures of home made mills



## Railomatic (Jan 12, 2007)

Check this out, this is where ideas begin, do you have any to share.


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## Adkpk (Jan 12, 2007)

Is that a 3 speed or an automatic?:biggrinbounce2:


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## woodshop (Jan 12, 2007)

I would love to see a mill like this up close and in person. Picture is one thing... watching how the contraption moves down the log is the real deal. I agree rail... thats how ideas get started, by seeing how somebody else does it, and try and improve on that.


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## irishcountry (Jan 13, 2007)

*Cool*

Now thats ingenuity!! Just goes to show you that all of us are capable of engineering whatever we can picture in our heads to do whatever job we need to do. Macgyver x10!! Nice pic!!


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## Marco (Jan 13, 2007)

*circular mill and Minne Mo*

The teeth aren't carbide, feed is powered, setworks are manual and sawdust elevator is the remnants of a Rosenthal 40 corn shredder cob elevator. Arbor is 3" next to blade 2 15/16" on the other 2 bearings. It is powered by a 8" flat belt and the blade turns at 450 rpm. 
Put an 090 at each end of a bar and I'll beat you and have to be careful I don't foul the plugs at the same time. :hmm3grin2orange:


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## woodshop (Jan 13, 2007)

thanks marco... very interesting. Some folks really know how to make space shuttles from old washing machines don't they? Looks functional and I bet it cranks out some lumber. I'd like to see it first hand in action.


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## Railomatic (Jan 13, 2007)

*homemade mills*

As professor Potts in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang said, up from the ashes comes the roses of sucsess, keep em coming guys, and we will all build ourselves something worth using.

Raily.


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## FJH (Feb 28, 2007)

*Thought Id post this here as well!*

Pictures of my chainsaw and band mills 


http://photoshare.shaw.ca/messages/viewshow/7685528731-1172719178-38857/preview/page/


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## SmokinDodge (Mar 1, 2007)

FJH said:


> Pictures of my chainsaw and band mills
> http://photoshare.shaw.ca/messages/viewshow/7685528731-1172719178-38857/preview/page/[/URL




Do you run the mill of the David Brown (guess) hydraulics?

I hope you were able to find the hyd line second hand! That stuff adds up in a hurry.


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## FJH (Mar 1, 2007)

SmokinDodge said:


> Do you run the mill of the David Brown (guess) hydraulics?
> 
> I hope you were able to find the hyd line second hand! That stuff adds up in a hurry.


Tractor yup back up to the power pack hook up the pto and go!

Hose !Nope I got the stuff new cost me 600 bucks for the fittings ,the flow control, and the hose!I got the hundred ft of hose for $125 garage saleing  the flow control was new 300 bucks  the fittings were the rest of the cost. and all other componants were all scronged. :hmm3grin2orange: 
I will post some beter pics of the chain mill and some working pics later on if I can borrow the camera again! The chain mill is odd it cuts with the top of the blade saw dust exits the bottom and is pulled thru the log with a boat winch.


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## infomet (Mar 1, 2007)

MORE, everybody, I love these. Especially the vertical!
I think Rail uses the PTO to drive a separate hyd pump...not running on hyd pressure.


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## Stevensam (Mar 1, 2007)

More pictures of a homebuilt set up. If interested I have a few other pictures I can post early next week. 

The first photo is of my Procut sawmill, pretty standard except I made the carriage wider and have made improvements to the log bed. The second and third shots are of my Simplesaw that runs on the same log bed. Half the fun is to add small changes/improvements to the design to make it operate better, certainly the Simplesaw has gone through a few upgrades.


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## scottr (Mar 1, 2007)

*Bandwheel*



FJH said:


> Pictures of my chainsaw and band mills
> 
> 
> http://photoshare.shaw.ca/messages/viewshow/7685528731-1172719178-38857/preview/page/



FJH , I see your bandwheel made from a truck wheel , do you run the band on a bandwheel belt , v belt , or on the steel ?


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## FJH (Mar 2, 2007)

scottr said:


> FJH , I see your bandwheel made from a truck wheel , do you run the band on a bandwheel belt , v belt , or on the steel ?



Nope It runs directly on the aluminum alloy!What ever it is.No sign of wear yet but time will tell.


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## Railomatic (Mar 2, 2007)

FJH said:


> Nope It runs directly on the aluminum alloy!What ever it is.No sign of wear yet but time will tell.



Please could you tell us which truck the wheels come off of and did you have to machine the band running surface, and are the centre hubs from the same vehicle.

Have you worked out the packs oil flow rate and band running speed feet per minute.


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## Railomatic (Mar 2, 2007)

*Cannon Superbars*



FJH said:


> Pictures of my chainsaw and band mills
> 
> 
> http://photoshare.shaw.ca/messages/viewshow/7685528731-1172719178-38857/preview/page/



I see you are using a Cannon Superbar, what do you think about these, I use them and have converted my 50 inch 404 down to a 325 pitch, which runs very smooth and a lot faster.


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## FJH (Mar 2, 2007)

Railomatic said:


> I see you are using a Cannon Superbar, what do you think about these, I use them and have converted my 50 inch 404 down to a 325 pitch, which runs very smooth and a lot faster.



Rail
I find no diffrence between it and the oregon bar on my other saw!42 inch bars
Useing the the saw on the top edge tends to be hard on the bars anyway 
specialy when making 1 and 2 inch slab cuts.the chain mill is wonderful for making cants very acuate.(the chain beats the bar on narrow cuts)cant cuts are much easier on everything.
I have two power heads for the mill both 2100's I once mounted my 394xp on the mill but it dosent have the lugging power the 2100s have ,so I hunted down a spare 2100 I run 20 to one mix on both mill saws and when cutting thru a 24+ peice of wood the saws run clean no smoke at all but when doing slabs it tends to smoke sum as your not working the saw as hard,thats why i decided to build the band.


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## FJH (Mar 2, 2007)

Railomatic said:


> Please could you tell us which truck the wheels come off of and did you have to machine the band running surface, and are the centre hubs from the same vehicle.
> 
> Have you worked out the packs oil flow rate and band running speed feet per minute.



The rims are off a standard hyw truck rig 24 inch machined flat on the outer edge of the rim the rim is adapted to a 3/4 ton ford p/u axle the pack flow New is 30 @ full tractor rpm I run the tractor at 1200-1600 rpms depending on how warm the oil is and how much preasure I see on the gauge open spool(nothing running)because the flow control valve is only a 20 gpm valve.The band wheels are running at 800 rpms according to how I figured it the bfpm aprox be 4200 - 4500 but as you see there is a flow control on there I worked it out so the flow is just about maxed out at 800 I need just a little extra to run the height control.Tim at Cooks saws gave me a fair amount of info on the speeds to be running.4000 to 5000 range seems to be the norm!I read some where that a guy was running at 5200 but was having issues of some sort so reduced the speed to 4800 and his issues went away so I decided that 42- 4500 would be my target speed.but i can adjust via flo or tractor rpm.It all depends on how I feel its cutting!Thats one of the reasonsI'm using the manual feed it provides another feel for how hard your pushing as well as watching the peasure gauge like a hawk!I had my share of wavy boards when I first fired up the mill due to pushing too fast Let the saw do its job.
Like I said before It takes NO MORE than 300 psi to move thru wood at a resonable speed or you got somthing happening a dull blade
tension in the wood or somthings a miss! Slow and steady wins the race!


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## Railomatic (Mar 2, 2007)

Many thanks for all the advise, this will help me get things done when I'm making my hydro set-up, most modern tractors give around 60 litres a minute or about 16 gallons, I have worked out that my wheel speed will be around a 1000 feet per minute.
I have bought a new energy saving hydro motor with a run down valve which protects the motor once the feed is cut off, the hydro guy says it will run as good as the older slightly larger capacity pumps, so time will tell if its any good, it was real cheap new, so I won't loose much if it don't work out.

Great idea using those truck wheels, I was racking my brain for ages trying to think of where to find something suitable.


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## FJH (Mar 2, 2007)

Railomatic said:


> Many thanks for all the advise, this will help me get things done when I'm making my hydro set-up, most modern tractors give around 60 litres a minute or about 16 gallons, I have worked out that my wheel speed will be around a 1000 feet per minute.
> I have bought a new energy saving hydro motor with a run down valve which protects the motor once the feed is cut off, the hydro guy says it will run as good as the older slightly larger capacity pumps, so time will tell if its any good, it was real cheap new, so I won't loose much if it don't work out.
> 
> Great idea using those truck wheels, I was racking my brain for ages trying to think of where to find something suitable.



We'll see how great the idea of the wheels is after its run for a few months/ years But even if i get say 7-10 thousand ft out of them before resurfacing it will be worth it!The rims where worn out for there origanal purpose only good for weight .So far they are standing up well.
16 gals per minute is fine BUT you also have the heat to deal with ,bare that in mind when pottering about with things a tractor sump only holds so much oil and it is only working minamal hydralics A loader the 3pt hitch ect.this Milling is a a volume thing!
I tried runing the hyd motor direct to the shaft on the wheel but had to run 2000 rpm on the wheel to get power from the saw.You don't want 10000 bfpm! Its scary to watch.
Thinking I have a flow control to control speed, that didn't work !you need the flow lots of it!
If what your wanting to do was to work ,(I beleive it will )but You would think the tractor this set up was from ,would have been set up the way your discribing to run the road side mower but instead it was run off the pto!You need to ask your self Why?My answer is volume the tractor sump (Trany oil) most cases there is 20- 30 litre of oil you'll have it pretty warm pretty fast .
just keep that in the back of your mind while designing.Thats all I'm saying!
When I talked about doing this at work the guys didn't think it would work but it does .It may not be prety and refined looking but it gets the job done and it didnt cost me to much to build and definatly is cheap to operate aside from the blade and sharpening costs.


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## Railomatic (Mar 3, 2007)

*hydro set up*

I have done some more searching since reading your advise and you are right about the tractor hydro set-up, not having a vast amount in their sump, so I have been hunting around for a second PTO driven hedge cutter/flailer pack, there are various makes around including Vicon and Ransomes.

They are all PTO driven and have a 30 gallon tank with an oil cooler, all on the 3PL, the power cutter head has a motor which is way too fast for the mill, so I will use the new one I have.
There are also hydro power packs for powering small jack hammers which would do the job, its just which one can be bought the cheapest.

I looked into a small two man Kubota ATV, the local agri engineers said this could be modified to do the job but the cost was way to high, Ok if you already have one I suppose.

A question, how long does your mill take to stop after cutting the power, reason why I ask is, over here health and safety is ripe, all new machinery for sale to the general public, must come to a stand still in less than 10 seconds, if not the safety guys won't certify things.


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## FJH (Mar 3, 2007)

Rail
This was a Bedford Mower.I beleive also built in the UK.
An opinion 
Your working the system a lot lighter than you would be if it were a mower I beleive the cooler
is not nessary if you have lots of oil!But if its there and it can be intagrated into the system then more power to ya. and Don't forget your stationary now no air movement you'd need a fan.

>the power cutter head has a motor which is way too fast for the mill<
This is why I have the belt drive on the back side of the head rig the motor cranks at way over 2000 rpm I had it direct coupled to the axle shaft at first and 2200 + rpm makes that band look real scary.I was under the ilusion that I could control the speed with the flow control that is NOT so you need that flow to keep the band speed up,The hydralic motor needs speed as well to operate properly even in a mill app ,so the only way to reduce wheel speed and keep motor speed is to mechanicly reduce it via belts gears or what ever.That mower head depends on speed for power ,in the sawmill app we don't need the speed.Just the power.
It winds down in way less than 10 seconds ,Im guessing more like 5 seconds.
The nice part about having the flow control is you can turn the wheels real slow good for setting up the tracking and to scrape the wheels and blade if you get any sawdust or pitch build up which does happen from time to time,and my wheels being flat build up tends to track the blade off some, I plan on putting some permanent scrapers on the wheels as time goes on as well as on the blade near the wheels.Plastic oil pails work well for this! Lots of nice heavy plastic in those.   Right now Im in the middle of cutting lumber to build a house and don't really want
to take the time for the scrapers Some day thou! 
I also plan on a log turner mounted on the center of the ibeam of the head rig' a hanging hyd ram with a pevy hook on it
Do You think that will work?I don't know my self but am going to give it a go! right now I use a jackall or peavy to turn the logs! 
More work  

I beleive you are wise to be search out a mower the tractor hydralics are borderline at best for this project!As was mentioned hydarlic line is another bug bear its 5-6 bucks a foot #16 line aint cheap you need to find someone whos parting out an excavator or the like.You could get away with 50 feet if you have the pack centered at the back of the mill but I wanted that area open and clear to remove saw dust.


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## infomet (Mar 3, 2007)

FJH, those rims look great. Did you have them, or go to a truck shop?
I suppose some are replaced regularly due to fatigue considerations?
It looks like you might have drilled the calipers of the old hub for mounting?
If so, was it done in a machine shop? Did you turn the running surface on the spindle, or pick up the center some other way? 
What fun!


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## FJH (Mar 3, 2007)

infomet said:


> FJH, those rims look great. Did you have them, or go to a truck shop?
> I suppose some are replaced regularly due to fatigue considerations?
> It looks like you might have drilled the calipers of the old hub for mounting?
> If so, was it done in a machine shop? Did you turn the running surface on the spindle, or pick up the center some other way?
> What fun!



I had adpters made to adapt the PU hubs to the truck Wheels!I work for a truck shop the wheels were being tossed out!so they got tossed in my direction! 
The PU axle was just laying around so I used it. the whole thing is just jumble of scronged parts ,I did buy the metal for the frame I removed the axle and wheels to operate as they get in the way the mill does move but it is an ordeal I did'nt plan on moving it to much.
One of the harder things to do is finding someone with a gap bed lathe to turn the wheels down. 
Balancing is a snap thou any tire shop can do it for 10 bucks or a box of donuts!


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## Railomatic (Mar 4, 2007)

FJH said:


> Rail
> 
> I beleive you are wise to be search out a mower the tractor hydralics are borderline at best for this project!As was mentioned hydarlic line is another bug bear its 5-6 bucks a foot #16 line aint cheap you need to find someone whos parting out an excavator or the like.You could get away with 50 feet if you have the pack centered at the back of the mill but I wanted that area open and clear to remove saw dust.



Here is a picture of how the Forester band mill log turnrer works, its real sim ple in the form of two 18 inch harverstor bars fixed in the middle at the bottom.
They both move together so that the tips move appart, they both have chains fited without cutters, and on the chains are some raised catchers which grab and turn the log, they are not sharp but like a flat plate with pieces of tube welded onto the top of the flate plate, the plate fits into the bar groove, everything is turned by a slow hyraulic motors. 

You could also use a hand wynch to turn the logs, I use a 600 kg wynch to do this, I unroll the 2" strap place it over the log one turn, knock in a peg, when you wynch in the strap pulls and turns and loads the log real easy, the wynch is fitted to the side of the bed, using two box sections, which I can slot the wynch pole into, you can see her in situ near the back of the frame.

I now have a wealth of information with which to go out there and start the ball rolling, I have also see a Vicon hedge cutter for sale, (fingers crossed).

Many thanks FJH you are a Gent.


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## FJH (Mar 4, 2007)

Thanks for the pics I'm trying to keep the hydralics on the head rig if I can thou i'm going to give the hydralic ram a try first as the valving is aleady there!and it will be quick and easy.


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## Railomatic (Mar 9, 2007)

*Log turner*

Here is the log turning system of the drawing I posted, it has two normal chains with the lugs fitted, one hydro motor turns them a single ram pull up and down to lift them in and out, the mill is a Forester Pilious.


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## FJH (Mar 9, 2007)

Nice set up!
Hey rail and the rest of you with bands ! I'm still pretty green at this.I'd like to know how fast you travel cutting 18 + inches of wood?It takes me about 3 minutes to go down a log 16 ft x 18 inches threw is this normal when I built this thing I was expecting to just fly down the log Althou I ve been bruned several times and tend to take my time in an effort to keep the wood straight!
I find that the wheel speed deminishes some as the wood gets bigger!???


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## redprospector (Mar 9, 2007)

FJH, you cutting hardwood, or softwood?
3 min. seems like a long time. I haven't ran my mill in a while, but seems like I was taking about 1 min. 40 sec. on one that size (if my memory is as good as I think it is.).
We don't have much millable hardwood around here, but I find that our oak mills faster than the pine.

Andy


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## FJH (Mar 9, 2007)

the wood Im cutting at the moment is Fir Soft wood !The other wood I cut is cedar also a soft wood cuts much faster in that!The blade speed is what i question on my mill as the pump and motor are old and posibly are not putting out the flow and volume as new I feel the blade speed demishes as the saw loads up! As I said it takes 300 psi to cut wood ,you can go at it harder but run the risk of wavy wood if you push it! Hence Slow and steady!
I'm not a production outfit so it doesent mater to me but Was curious to compare the feed rates as the fir althou softwood catigory is fairly hard!


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## redprospector (Mar 9, 2007)

Yeah, the fir definately cuts faster than pine. We have Douglas, and White Fir and either cut faster.
I couldn't say for sure, since my mill is belt drive off a VW engine, but your drive motor may have some wear. I assume it is a gear motor, and with age they can get quite a bit of bypass. Your mill is pretty cool, and you did a lot of thinking on it. Wish I'd used something like you did for band wheels, would have saved a lot of money.

Andy


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## FJH (Mar 9, 2007)

redprospector said:


> Yeah, the fir definately cuts faster than pine. We have Douglas, and White Fir and either cut faster.
> I couldn't say for sure, since my mill is belt drive off a VW engine, but your drive motor may have some wear. I assume it is a gear motor, and with age they can get quite a bit of bypass. Your mill is pretty cool, and you did a lot of thinking on it. Wish I'd used something like you did for band wheels, would have saved a lot of money.
> 
> Andy


I would have thought pine would saw easier ?It seems softer than fir!
ive sawin grand fir ( Balsam) easy to saw!
What did you use for wheels?
The wheels would likly be a hard find? if your not in the business Don't know?


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## redprospector (Mar 10, 2007)

I used 20" shivs for wheels, I used B series belts for band tires when I started, but Suffolk Machinery has a polly tire that fits them now and they work great.
The grain on our Ponderosa Pine is a lot "stringier" than the Fir, and makes it tougher to cut. That's my theory anyway, it could be in my sharpening but I don't think so. The Western White Pine cuts better, but still not as fast as Fir.
Any bearing supply can get the shivs for you, just a big pulley.
Andy


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## FJH (Mar 11, 2007)

*Wheel speed*

So what I,m tring to get at here now ,is i beleive I'm going to have to replace my flo control valve with the correct valve as I have a 20 gpm valve in there now and have been keeping my pump rpms down to limit the flow/power to the drive motor!, (Its sposed to be a 30 gpm flow valve )as my open spool preasure is aprox 250 psi when not opreating !(It should be less )In my mind I beleive Im not useing the full potential of the blades!


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## redprospector (Mar 11, 2007)

You'd probably be better off finding a motor that will turn the rpm you want at full flow. A flow control is great for controling speed, but you do loose power as you limit the flow. Surplus center probably has what you need.

Andy


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## FJH (Mar 12, 2007)

I beleive your right to a point!What i'm saying Is I'm seeing 250 to three hunderd psi when the machine is static!Not knowin the origanal setups static preasure makes it hard to desifer,In my mind I have a restriction causeing that preasure ,if I have a restriction I have my flow limited!The flow control valve is maxed out Wide open at the speed I need now give or take even when cutting I detect some wheel speed loss!I may try an eperiment or two by passing the flow control and see if the preasure drops with out the control in the curcit!


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## Railomatic (Mar 16, 2007)

FJH said:


> I beleive your right to a point!What i'm saying Is I'm seeing 250 to three hunderd psi when the machine is static!Not knowin the origanal setups static preasure makes it hard to desifer,In my mind I have a restriction causeing that preasure ,if I have a restriction I have my flow limited!The flow control valve is maxed out Wide open at the speed I need now give or take even when cutting I detect some wheel speed loss!I may try an eperiment or two by passing the flow control and see if the preasure drops with out the control in the curcit!




To find out what the original specs were for what you have there, send these guys an e-mail and they will probably know what was what when the pump etc was brand new, www.hydraulics-uk.com.


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