Building an Alaskan mill

So today I started building my Alaskan as it rained all day. I'm wondering if there are any pitfalls I need to be aware of? seems like the vertical bar mounts on the main frame need to be pretty sturdy and to keep the vertical very perpendicular to the main frame.

Here is a pic of the pieces cut to length.



Here is a pic of the main frame welded up.

Looks like a good start!!!

Yep - looks like a good start!

While you are at it I would recommend adding wheels, or at least a wheel - like this.


I see you have already welded it to suit a specific length bar. It would have been more flexible if it had made it so that it could be adjusted to suit a range of bar lengths. That way you could use another saw on it etc.

Are you going to add a tube handle that runs parallel to the full length of the mill. If so (and I think they are a good idea) make it at least 6" higher than the rails so you can file the chain on the mill. Most tubular rails are too low and the CS has to be removed from the mill OR depth of cut has to be adjusted to file the chain on the mill.

What sort of a saw/bar are you intending on using?

BobL said:

Yep - looks like a good start!

While you are at it I would recommend adding wheels, or at least a wheel - like this.

I see you have already welded it to suit a specific length bar. It would have been more flexible if it had made it so that it could be adjusted to suit a range of bar lengths. That way you could use another saw on it etc.

Are you going to add a tube handle that runs parallel to the full length of the mill. If so (and I think they are a good idea) make it at least 6" higher than the rails so you can file the chain on the mill. Most tubular rails are too low and the CS has to be removed from the mill OR depth of cut has to be adjusted to file the chain on the mill.

What sort of a saw/bar are you intending on using?

Click to expand...

It really mills that much easier with a wheel?

Nice mill, did you make that one Bob? I like the way the verticals are supported for such a long length and the top handles for adjustment. I'm planning to use a v block and a u-bolt.

I made it for a 36" bar (which by my math will only cut 27"). If I decide to use a different bar, I'll just weld on another piece of angle iron at the location that the vertical needs to drop down to the bar. I only have 20" bars and the 36" I just ordered, I don't plan on buying another bar anytime soon, so for now this mill should do just fine. I was planning on adding a horizontal tube rail and then if I don't like just a horizontal, I'll weld on a vertical handle, your red mill has both I see . Thanks for the advice about making it 6" high, I had not thought of sharpening on the mill.

I'm going to run my Solo 681 w/36" bar and full comp chisel .375. It should pull it unless I mill over 20" in the wood, then we will see .

I also just got an old Pioneer 650 (103cc about 5 horse, 5500 rpm, torque monster, weighs 29 lbs wet w/b/c) running with a 22" bar (I ordered a new chain for it also, as it has the original pioneer marked chain on it that is just about filed out and cuts like crap) that I could run on this mill, but its so heavy, I think I might try it on my mini mill, as the weight of the saw won't be as much of a problem when its over the top of the mini mill.

Silver,

Keeps us posted on your progress.
I'm thinking of building one also.
Frank

As a bloke who used to work as a welder and weld inspector (although now a self employed carpenter) but wants an Alaskan sawmill I will be following this thread with interest to see how easy a project it is or if its just simpler to buy one.

Any measurements or cutting list to go off?

Regards Scott.

SilverBox said:

It really mills that much easier with a wheel?

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Yep, the saw will constantly drive the left hand side of the mill into the log and you will have to constantly have to keep unbogging the saw. Clamp skids (which you should add) don't help as much as a wheel. I have 4 wheels (soon to be 5 on my mill)

Nice mill, did you make that one Bob? I like the way the verticals are supported for such a long length and the top handles for adjustment. I'm planning to use a v block and a u-bolt.

Click to expand...

Yep, this was my first mill I made - it accepts a 16 to 24" bar.

I made it for a 36" bar (which by my math will only cut 27"). If I decide to use a different bar, I'll just weld on another piece of angle iron at the location that the vertical needs to drop down to the bar. I only have 20" bars and the 36" I just ordered, I don't plan on buying another bar anytime soon, so for now this mill should do just fine.

Click to expand...

From a 36" bar you should be able to get a 30" minimum cut, if you are getting less than this something is wrong. You can also drill the bar right through the middle of the nose sprocket and bolt the mill onto that hole or insert a small bolt through the hole and clamp onto that. Using this method you should be able to get another couple of inches of cutting length. I get 39.5 inches from a 42" bar this way.

Just adding angles is not a good solution because all you are adding is extra weight. What if you unexpectedly pick or obtain access to another saw or bar or loan the mill to someone. Adjustable means you can really optimise the cutting length to suit small changes you can make later on - like using the nose bolt idea. No matter really, in all probability after you make one mill and after finding all the bugs you will make another

I was planning on adding a horizontal tube rail and then if I don't like just a horizontal, I'll weld on a vertical handle, your red mill has both I see . Thanks for the advice about making it 6" high, I had not thought of sharpening on the mill. I'm going to run my Solo 681 w/36" bar and full comp chisel .375. It should pull it unless I mill over 20" in the wood, then we will see .

Click to expand...

The Solo should be fine. Rather than weld a vertical handle just get yourself an old bicycle handle bar stem which will bolt onto the horizontal tube - this can then be adjusted position wise to suit - this is what I use on all my mills (see my BIL mill in my sig below). You might want to add mountain bike grip to reduce vibes.

[/QUOTE]I also just got an old Pioneer 650 (103cc about 5 horse, 5500 rpm, torque monster, weighs 29 lbs wet w/b/c) running with a 22" bar (I ordered a new chain for it also, as it has the original pioneer marked chain on it that is just about filed out and cuts like crap) that I could run on this mill, but its so heavy, I think I might try it on my mini mill, as the weight of the saw won't be as much of a problem when its over the top of the mini mill.[/QUOTE]
The 22" bar is pretty limiting but should be fun. Weight is not a problem on alaskans if you use wheels and plastic lining on your mill rails (see my BIL mill in my sig below). My 60" mill with 076 weighs 72 lbs, but once it's on the log rails or log its the same amount of effort as my 50cc Homelite on my small mill.

BobL said:

From a 36" bar you should be able to get a 30" minimum cut, if you are getting less than this something is wrong.

Click to expand...

Well my dogs stick out about 1.5" and I left a lil fudge room on the end, because I don't have the bar yet. I can always reweld it if I need to. My angle grinder works pretty fast . So I set it at 27".

Just adding angles is not a good solution because all you are adding is extra weight. What if you unexpectedly pick or obtain access to another saw or bar or loan the mill to someone. Adjustable means you can really optimise the cutting length to suit small changes you can make later on - like using the nose bolt idea. No matter really, in all probability after you make one mill and after finding all the bugs you will make another

Click to expand...

Yeah but one piece of angle iron isn't adding much weight, maybe a pound.. When the whole rig is looking to weigh in at 40 lbs or so (includin saw), I can handle 3-5% extra weight for a couple extra bar length mounts. As you say I can always build another one .

Rather than weld a vertical handle just get yourself an old bicycle handle bar stem which will bolt onto the horizontal tube - this can then be adjusted position wise to suit - this is what I use on all my mills (see my BIL mill in my sig below). You might want to add mountain bike grip to reduce vibes.

Click to expand...

Good Idea!

My 60" mill with 076 weighs 72 lbs, but once it's on the log rails or log its the same amount of effort as my 50cc Homelite on my small mill.

Click to expand...

50cc homelite!! I just traded a 2.1CI top handle eager beaver in so so shape for a Homelite 330 (53cc) with what appears to have the classic air boot leak. ($10 dollar fix). It has a 20" bar. I was thinking about milling with it in my mini mill, once its fixed up.

I remove the dogs when using the saw for milling. Your Solo should do ok for you but if you're only thinking if 20" wood why bother with the 36" bar? Opps sorry I see that answer. You only have the 20" and 36". Gotchya. 24" is a handy size (for me) as I'm not often milling large stuff. Saw pulls it easier too.

Well it rained all day again, so I did a lil work on the mill till I came to a stopping point. I need some U bolts to finish up, I was at HD yesterday but the bin with the right size was empty of course. The downriggers came out pretty good, I just welded the nuts right to the 1" tube and used 5/16" bolts 2" long, it slips right onto the bar and tightens up just fine. My 36" bar came also, so I mounted er up on the Solo, its awfully bar heavy now .

Looking good. When are we gonna see some dust flying?

Doh! . . . . . you put the clamping bolts right where the wheel should go.

Those clamps also means you will need wider skids than usual.

Here's a no skid design that uses 2 wheels (the black rectangles are wheels).

A minor advantage with this is if the bar slips the chain contacts rubber and not steel.

Well I tried out the alaskan today, it did ok, but it sure seems like I'm having to push to hard. Its almost like I'm having a bit of blade bind, like the blade is angling away from the plane of the platform sitting on the log ever so slightly causing the blade to move at a tiny downward angle.. But I could be wrong. Maybe I need to file the rakers down a lil or something.. I did put a lil wheel on it btw bobL, but you can't see it in the pics, a small 1" diameter swivel wheel mounted right next to the blade grabbing bolts.

The Pioneer 650 did great on the mini mill, its like that slow rpm torque of it pulls it right thru the wood, you don't have to push at all, it even pulls itself thru the wood uphill!!

Pics:

SilverBox said:

Well I tried out the alaskan today, it did ok, but it sure seems like I'm having to push to hard. Its almost like I'm having a bit of blade bind, like the blade is angling away from the plane of the platform sitting on the log ever so slightly causing the blade to move at a tiny downward angle.. But I could be wrong.

Click to expand...

It should not be that hard especially on such a small log. To check the parallel between the bar and the mill rails, clamp a straight piece of wood onto the rails between the rails and the bar and decrease the cutting height so the rails and the bar touch the wood. Then check for gaps between the bar and the wood. It's likely the V-seats welded to the mill are not perpendicular to the rails. The V-seats only need to be a couple of degrees out to make things difficult. as you experienced with the pioneer, if its working right it should want to pull its way through.

The other possibility is the chain cutters are working better on one side than the other. You need to make sure the cutters are all the same length and rakers are set properly

Maybe I need to file the rakers down a lil or something.. I did put a lil wheel on it btw bobL, but you can't see it in the pics, a small 1" diameter swivel wheel mounted right next to the blade grabbing bolts.

Click to expand...

OK - cool

A couple of other tips. With such a small log it should be easy to lift it off the ground so you don't have to mill on your knees. Also get the start end higher than the finish end so you are milling downhill. getting the chain fully sharp and rakers set right will also make a difference.

Cheers

BobL said:

To check the parallel between the bar and the mill rails, clamp a straight piece of wood onto the rails between the rails and the bar and decrease the cutting height so the rails and the bar touch the wood.

Click to expand...

I used a piece of 1"x1" square tube steel to check. Yup its off, kinda figured it was, it sure seemed like it when I was watching from the side, had someone else push it thru for a few cuts.




It looks like about 1/8" of gap in about 3". around 1 in 24, or 2.3 degrees off. Thats whats causing the problem, gotta reweld it. I think I'm just gonna cut the base of the downrigger vertical most of the way and open up a very small gap (about 3/64") and reweld them. That should fix it.

SilverBox said:

It looks like about 1/8" of gap in about 3". around 1 in 24, or 2.3 degrees off. Thats whats causing the problem, gotta reweld it. I think I'm just gonna cut the base of the downrigger vertical most of the way and open up a very small gap (about 3/64") and reweld them. That should fix it.

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That will be more than enough to explain what you see.

If you had made the bar clamps in the conventional manner ie bolts that clamp down steel faces onto the outside of the bar, then you could have just ground down the steel faces to the right angle, or better still tapped some threads into the steel faces and added 2 bolts per face which would make the bar clamp to bar angle adjustable. That way if the mill gets a little bent (which can happen!) the cutting angle can be readjusted.

I fixed it to near perfect maybe 1/4 degree upwards bias. But I didn't cut the base of the vertical. What I did was weld a bead across one end of the 1/4" plate welded into the verticals that the bar clamping bolts clamp the bar to, then I filed the bead down several times and put the bar back in each time, until I got it just right. I didn't get a pic of it, but its just about perfect right now, I'll get it in some wood just to verify that its just right in the next week or so. I'm thinking that I might actually want a bigger upward bias, but I'll have to play around with it.

SilverBox said:

I fixed it to near perfect maybe 1/4 degree upwards bias. But I didn't cut the base of the vertical. What I did was weld a bead across one end of the 1/4" plate welded into the verticals that the bar clamping bolts clamp the bar to, then I filed the bead down several times and put the bar back in each time, until I got it just right. I didn't get a pic of it, but its just about perfect right now, I'll get it in some wood just to verify that its just right in the next week or so. I'm thinking that I might actually want a bigger upward bias, but I'll have to play around with it.

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Well done!!!

A small upward bias is not such a big issue as the weight of the mill keeps pushing it back down

After seeing this thread and others I decided to do my own mill.
Made out of unistrut and folded steel along with Kee Klamps on the riser posts.
Thanks Silverbox for giving me the kick I needed to do it !

dave k said:

After seeing this thread and others I decided to do my own mill.
Made out of unistrut and folded steel along with Kee Klamps on the riser posts.
Thanks Silverbox for giving me the kick I needed to do it !

Click to expand...

That's a really nice saw you got there!!!!
Mill looks good too!

BTW you'll find some dedicated handles and wheels will make a noticeable difference. Then you can add aux throttle and oiler, longer rails, bar, screw height adjustment and a partridge in a pear tree! Feet are good since it keeps the bar and saw off the ground.