longer rails for mill

Haywire Haywood · Jan 23, 2008

Anyone know where I can get the rails that the Alaskan uses? Not the ones for the log, but rather the extrusion that makes the body of the mill itself. They don't list them as spare parts on their web site that I have found and I have a project in mind for them. I need some 28 or 30" long.

Ian

woodshop · Jan 23, 2008

I think I read in a post here where Granberg is a family run business... you might try just contacting them directly via email or phone and asking. Heck I'm sure somebody had driven their car/truck/ATV into their csm at one point and needed to replace their bent rail.

Haywire Haywood · Jan 23, 2008

I sent them an email. I just heard that they were really proud of their extrusion and kinda hoped for another source.

Ian

ELITER · Jan 23, 2008

I don't have a firm answer but have some experience with universal extrusion.

It's probably 80-20 or bosch extrusion, you can buy either of those from many online sources.

Best if you have a high tech place nearby and can ask to compare with their scraps, they use them for one off testing tools in high tech stuff often.

Haywire Haywood · Jan 23, 2008

I'll take some pictures of the profile tomorrow. I hoped the "detailed pics of mkIII" thread would show it but it doesn't.

Ian

poleframer · Jan 24, 2008

I made longer rails for mine with some aluminum 1" box tube I had. I just measured for bolt holes to match my 32" bar and bolted everything back together.
It's not adjustable, ...so?

BlueRider · Jan 24, 2008

$60US for 48" rails

My MKII is so old that the cross brackets have Pat.pending cast on them rather then the patent#. somewhere during its travels one of the cross brackets got broken and the extrusions were bent. I welded the bracket and straightend and shimmed the rails as best I could and used it to mill several 1000bf. Over the years things just got a bit more wonky so last summer when I was milling a lot I decided to check into refurbing my mill.

I called up Grandberg and ordered 1 cross bracket($15) one of those little wedges that fit in the clamp between the down post($1.25) and two 48" rails($60 for the pair) with tax and freight it cam to $95.29. A little spendy, but still cheaper than a new mill and now it is every bit as acurate as a new mill. Grandbergs customer service was great and I was told every single part is available seperately and priced such that it is the same price to buy a mill one piece at a time or as a total package. The only diference is the shipping. Pretty cool policy if you ask me.

The mill itself has not changed one bit other than my original brackets were black powdercoated and the new ones are raw aluminum. One minor change is in the post clamps. they are diminsionaly the same, but where they meet the down post they are angled which allows each end of the mill to be adjusted independently. With the old style the two ends have to move up or down at more or less the same time or they bind. for only $1.25 I wish I had ordered two as it is a very worth while up grade over the original design.

flyinghunter · Jan 30, 2008

I built myself a csm and used an extrusion for the rails that looks like the alaskan mills. its 23mm square with a slot in one side and a web through the middle.
Maybe do a search for extrusions? thats what I did and found my rails they are from ullrich aluminium and the die number is 3006. If I managed to find them here in NZ I'm sure there will be something similar not too far away from you.
hope that helps.

Haywire Haywood · Jan 30, 2008

thanks for the info. I did a search before I posted but all I found were bulk suppliers that wanted something like 1000ft for a minimum order and never did find the right shape.

Ian

BobL · Jan 30, 2008

BIL mill uses this profile rails - all numbers are in mm.

It's 44 mm high by 40 mm wide (~ 1 5/8" x 1 3/4") high strength ally Highway sign T-Track Strut and a 6 m (~20 ft) length cost me about US$90.

I cut the 20 ft in half and sold one half to Martrix for his mill.

I then cut 1 ft off the remaining 10 ft to use as a cross piece and then cut the remaining 9 ft in half to make the two rails ~54" long.

If (or maybe I should say when) I make another I'm going to use the exact same stuff again - strong and lightweight.

For more pic's of BIL follow the link in my sig below.

longer rails for mill

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longer rails for mill

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