Lift that log

Here small something I whipped up a couple of weeks back to lift logs and only got a chance to try it out today. I usually use a smaller forklift loader to place the logs on some blocks to get them off the ground and on a bit of a slope. After milling a couple of slabs I like to lift one or both ends of the log further. I could use the loader but often it is being used for something else, and besides I wanted something mobile that I could take with me up bush. I have used a conventional hydraulic car jack but you have to get the logs a reasonable way above the ground first and they generally have a limited range of lift.

The "thing" is an adapter that loosely bolts onto the lifting claw of a hi-lift jack and goes underneath the end of a log allowing it to be lifted while addition blocks are added.



The adapter is made from a couple of scraps of 1/4" angle iron welded into a box shape together with two main main cross pieces. The two short side pieces can be adjusted using wingnuts along the length of the cross pieces to suit the log diameter.



The adapter slides onto the main jack claw and if required can be held in place by a bolt, or the adapter can be screwed onto the end of a log.



This shows the typical milling angle and extent of lift I like to used. It looks a little silly on this little log but it should be able to lift one end of a 30" hardwood without any trouble.



I only milled this short boxtree today as I was sorting out and stacking stuff into the Seatainer. After the second slab I noticed that a couple of the cutters had been badly dulled and I thought I must have hit something but couldn't see anthing till I squirted water onto the first slab and found a 4" nail that the chain had cut right through. It's strange that it didn't really affect the cutting speed that much so I finished the log with the dull chain.

Nice jack Bob! It looks a lot like the old jacks that my father in law used to use to press his tobacco bales.

Great idea... this is one of those "hey why didn't I think of that" things. I use a floor jack to get my logs onto horses, but as you say, there are limitations on how high they lift at a time, so I built some extensions to fit on the jack that will lift the log high enough. I still usually have to do it in several stages temporarily blocking as I get higher. I solve the problem of getting the log high enough to get the jack under initially by rolling it onto a contraption I designed that get it 5 inches off the ground using the cant hook. For very large logs I dig a small hole under the end of the log to get the jack under. However, I like your method better, if only because it gets the log way higher in one shot.

Lots of good ideas on this forum. What I need is a welder... and then need to learn how to use it!!

woodshop said:

. . . . I still usually have to do it in several stages temporarily blocking as I get higher. I solve the problem of getting the log high enough to get the jack under initially by rolling it onto a contraption I designed that get it 5 inches off the ground using the cant hook. . . . . . .

Click to expand...

Yep - you got it - that's primarily why I made it. I also need to get the ends of the logs 5" off the ground to get this thing started. I wouldn't mind seeing your "contraption".

BobL said:

Yep - you got it - that's primarily why I made it. I also need to get the ends of the logs 5" off the ground to get this thing started. I wouldn't mind seeing your "contraption".

Click to expand...

It's just a 2x6 I cut out the top a bit from and put a T on the end to keep it upright. I put lag bolts on the "ramp" to facilitate the log going up when working it with the cant hook as sometimes the log slips instead of climbing. Rolling the log up onto this gets it off the ground enough that I can slip my floor jack under.

Looks good, Will be storing that one away and maybe use it on my next contraption - I'm thinking of making a large scissor type jack out of 4 x 2 rectangular hollow steel section but I will need to get the logs 8" up onto it so some kind of ramp will be needed.

That is a good idea. I was just looking at one of those farm jacks on sale and wondering what my "Need" to buy one was.

There are quite a few ways you can use those jacks! A few times when I've worked on beams over my head I've used 2" pipe sections slid over the post of the jack. A lot more stable than a jack on blocks.

You seem to have endless time on your hands to play with your toys, Bob. I'm jealous!

Nice rig!

aggiewoodbutchr said:

You seem to have endless time on your hands to play with your toys, Bob. I'm jealous!

Nice rig!

Click to expand...

Ya know... I was thinking the same thing

I envy you Bob for having the time to invent and play as much as you seem to have. Don't you ever have a toilet to fix, roof that leaks or wife with a to-do list a mile long?????? Maybe I should move to Australia... think?

woodshop said:

Ya know... I was thinking the same thing

I envy you Bob for having the time to invent and play as much as you seem to have. Don't you ever have a toilet to fix, roof that leaks or wife with a to-do list a mile long?????? Maybe I should move to Australia... think?

Click to expand...

Guy's - if only you knew what I have to deal with at work you would understand why I do what I do but let's not go there or I will just get . . . .. One way for me to stay sane in this environment is to make stuff - I spend a lot of time at work at pointless meetings during which I design stuff - that's where BIL mill was largely designed - I find it saves a lot of time in the shed if plans are well formed in my head.

Yep - wife has a todo list a mile long (including a leaking toilet and leaking roof ) but is very understanding as I am of her work problems which she deals with by a far less productive hobby than woodworking. She is also very handy herself, she does most of the garden and got so tired of looking at the undercoated back windows that she painted them herself during here last holidays.

To some extent I'm still living off the kudos from the loft rennovation I did during 2005 - I spent nearly every Saturday and Sunday up there for ~5 months creating a 15 x 12 ft space for mainly her stuff! Time is running out though and will have to get back to the mounting chores real soon.

BobL said:

Guy's - if only you knew what I have to deal with at work you would understand why I do what I do but let's not go there or I will just get . . . .. One way for me to stay sane in this environment is to make stuff - I spend a lot of time at work at pointless meetings during which I design stuff - that's where BIL mill was largely designed - I find it saves a lot of time in the shed if plans are well formed in my head.

Yep - wife has a todo list a mile long (including a leaking toilet and leaking roof ) but is very understanding as I am of her work problems which she deals with by a far less productive hobby than woodworking. She is also very handy herself, she does most of the garden and got so tired of looking at the undercoated back windows that she painted them herself during here last holidays.

To some extent I'm still living off the kudos from the loft renovation I did during 2005 - I spent nearly every Saturday and Sunday up there for ~5 months creating a 15 x 12 ft space for mainly her stuff! Time is running out though and will have to get back to the mounting chores real soon.

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Bob,

I just retired this past September and I know about Honey-Do lists. Once the list gets started it never gets smaller. I just finished remodeling a bathroom and since I did such a good job, she said I should do our second bathroom. Arrrggg...I'm building a mill for something I want to do along with my hunting-reloading/fishing/playing in a band and working on my cabin. So for you working guys, us retired guys don't have much extra time to spare.
jerry-

good idea!

Is that an Original Hi Lift Jack?

If so it is cool to see that a "Bloomfield jack" as we call em here makes it all the way down under. That factory is less that 50 miles from me..
You know you can get a longer beam for them. I called down there and talked to Dallas and he shipped me the 48 inch beam. It is more suitable for offroad rigs..
If you get stuck in a set of ruts. you jack one end or the other up high enough to clear the ruts then just push the vehicle sideways off the jack.
Always watch the handle on a Bloomfield jack.. They have knocked many a teeth out over the years.

ericjeeper said:

If so it is cool to see that a "Bloomfield jack" as we call em here makes it all the way down under. That factory is less that 50 miles from me..
You know you can get a longer beam for them. I called down there and talked to Dallas and he shipped me the 48 inch beam. It is more suitable for offroad rigs..
If you get stuck in a set of ruts. you jack one end or the other up high enough to clear the ruts then just push the vehicle sideways off the jack.
Always watch the handle on a Bloomfield jack.. They have knocked many a teeth out over the years.

Click to expand...

Cheers guys! I've been looking around for such a jack for a while but finding an original in the sea of cheap chinese knock-offs was not that easy. The original ones (even used) also command a premium price but I managed to find this one through an Aussie woodworking forum. It was rusted solid and I spent a couple of hours freeing it up.

I've amazed myself what you can do with a big cant hook and a jack like this. At one stage I had to untangle a pile of logs and I used the jack to lift one end of a log above another (that was well and truly stuck) and then the cant hook to roll the top log over the log underneath it.

I use my farm jack with this hook from Northern:



works real well.

peter nap said:

I use my farm jack with this hook from Northern:

works real well.

Click to expand...

I have that very same pair of tongs from Northern, but I use them to pull logs from a tangled pile or drag them short distance to easier place to mill with a chain hooked to the bumper of my van. So add a 20ft chain and a pair of tongs to that list in that other thread of what to bring with you milling.

woodshop said:

I have that very same pair of tongs from Northern, but I use them to pull logs from a tangled pile or drag them short distance to easier place to mill with a chain hooked to the bumper of my van. So add a 20ft chain and a pair of tongs to that list in that other thread of what to bring with you milling.

Click to expand...

I use them for the same thing but one day I was trying to figure out how to lift a Big log, and it dawned on me that I could just shackle it to my jack. So they get to do double duty.

BobL said:

Here small something I whipped up a couple of weeks back to lift logs and only got a chance to try it out today. I usually use a smaller forklift loader to place the logs on some blocks to get them off the ground and on a bit of a slope. After milling a couple of slabs I like to lift one or both ends of the log further. I could use the loader but often it is being used for something else, and besides I wanted something mobile that I could take with me up bush. I have used a conventional hydraulic car jack but you have to get the logs a reasonable way above the ground first and they generally have a limited range of lift.

The "thing" is an adapter that loosely bolts onto the lifting claw of a hi-lift jack and goes underneath the end of a log allowing it to be lifted while addition blocks are added.

The adapter is made from a couple of scraps of 1/4" angle iron welded into a box shape together with two main main cross pieces. The two short side pieces can be adjusted using wingnuts along the length of the cross pieces to suit the log diameter.

The adapter slides onto the main jack claw and if required can be held in place by a bolt, or the adapter can be screwed onto the end of a log.

This shows the typical milling angle and extent of lift I like to used. It looks a little silly on this little log but it should be able to lift one end of a 30" hardwood without any trouble.

I only milled this short boxtree today as I was sorting out and stacking stuff into the Seatainer. After the second slab I noticed that a couple of the cutters had been badly dulled and I thought I must have hit something but couldn't see anthing till I squirted water onto the first slab and found a 4" nail that the chain had cut right through. It's strange that it didn't really affect the cutting speed that much so I finished the log with the dull chain.

Click to expand...

Bob,
From the looks of that pile of wood behind your milled slab, it looks like you have about five years of milling ahead of you.
jerry-

820wards said:

Bob,
From the looks of that pile of wood behind your milled slab, it looks like you have about five years of milling ahead of you.
jerry-

Click to expand...

The piles right at the back is just firewood pile - see the log splitter right at the back. There are still some choice short bits to picked up of those piles which I do occasionally because its all pretty well bone dry although a lot of it is split but they still suit many of my small projects. eg this
Of the pile on the right I have milled all bar that bigger curved mother Redgum - still trying to work out what to do with it.

The trunk marked X was a beautiful sheoak log the loppers used for CS training - absolute tragedy!

I haven't been back to the yard for 2 months as it has been too hot to mill. I'm told there is a big pile awaiting me when I do return! The tree loppers can always generate logs faster than I can mill em!

CHeers