PJT wheels

I got the basis of this idea from a guy called pjt on another forum so I'm calling these - PJT wheels. The idea doesn't suit my BIL mill so I thought I would try it on my small mill.

I originally made this small mill in the beginning of 2007 to run with a 50cc saw and haven't used it much, mainly because I don't get hold of a lot of small stuff but I have some small stuff coming up so I thought I would give it a little upgrade. The mill is designed to handle 16 to 24" bars but with the chain brake getting in the way on the 441 I had to hang the powerhead out a little further which meant I could use this spare 25" bar.


The naked bar means the chain can be changed with the saw staying on the mill. The intention is for that bar to more or less stay on the mill and if I want to use that saw to cut something else I pull off the powerhead and attach a different bar. Eventually I want to get a 24" 050 chain and run 3/8 LP chain on it.

Here you can see I've dumped the original inboard bar clamp for the bolt on bar method. The inboard vertical is the same 3/4" SHS as before but the horizontal is 3/4" solid steel so I can tap an 8mm thread into it to firmly attach the bar.

The wheel position is fully adjustable vertically (up and down) via the 1/2" stainless steel rods to cope with whereabouts on the log I am milling. This setup would be for the top half of the log.


This would be for be for the bottom half.

Here is some detail.

The wheel position can also be rotated around the SS rod axis to provide a bit of offset to gain back some cutting width caused by the fact that the wheel protrudes out into cutting space - it's not as much as I had hoped for. I can also rotate the wheels forward and can do what I call a reverse positioning, ie use the wheels in the position I would use for cutting the top half of the log to cut the bottom but offseting the wheels out towards the nose. To make the offset system more effective I need to make those short 3/4" offset bars a bit longer.

The original mill was a nose clamp for hard nose bars only, but as this is a roller nose bar I used a 1/4" bolt thru the nose bar clamp method.

PJT wheels part 2

Here you can see the 8 mm bar bolt - it threads right through the 1/4" thick bar/chain spacer and the 3/4" square solid bar behind that.



And just to top things off I made a pair of stubby SS rods as well.


Thanks to Aussie pjt - a source of many good ideas.

Nice design Bob. I can see that is very flexible. You can use a short shaft or a long shaft, you can have two wheels or four, you can move the wheels from below to above the bar easily...
And best of all, I think this would be easily adapted to a factory MK3.
Starts the wheels turning again....
Thanks for posting. (and thanks to PJT as well).

I like your bar attachment system. I keep saying I'm going to mod my Alaskan like that.

"The original mill was a nose clamp for hard nose bars only, but as this is a roller nose bar I used a 1/4" bolt thru the nose bar clamp method."

BobL,
Are you saying that you drill a 1/4" hole through the nose?
There are 4 rivets fairley close together in the center of my nosesprocket. It would be a great place to drill a hole to run an attachment bolt but I am afraid I might ruin the nose sprocket. My bar is old and I changed it from .404 to 3/8" and had a real tough time finding the 3/8" tip. Allen at Madsens had a used bar in the store that he robbed the tip from and sent to me--have no clue as to the brand????

billstuewe said:

"The original mill was a nose clamp for hard nose bars only, but as this is a roller nose bar I used a 1/4" bolt thru the nose bar clamp method."

BobL,
Are you saying that you drill a 1/4" hole through the nose?

Click to expand...

Yep, I have drilled Stihl and GB bars through the middle of their noses without any problems. I experimented with old stihl bars first. Now most of my bars have holes through the middle of them.

Nice!

Good to see your still tinkering.

aggiewoodbutchr said:

Nice!

Good to see your still tinkering.

Click to expand...

Cheers Aggie, I'd rather be milling. SWMBO has dragged me away camping. At least I have internet connectivity this time

And just for a completed record of events - the finished Wheels.

Mind if I ask a couple of questions??


Drilling holes in the bar, I have never tried it, I definately like it as an attachment idea, I would have thought that bars were made out of some hard stuff that would destroy drill bits. Oh and drilling a laminated bar would not be advisable I would assume??



With the wheels, the need for adjustment would only be nessacary if you were needing to be full depth in something, is that right?


Or should I have kept looking and researching before sprouting off with questions??

Thanks, Bob.