home made alaskan saw mill ?

[muddstopper]

Local dealer has the husky 395xp, with 36in bar, on sale for $1100 right now. Debateing buying one for a chainsaw mill. My question is about the actual mill. I have seen tons of videos of home made mills and just wondering about a design modification. It seems all the mills just slide across the top of the log. I am thinking of building one using rollers. Is there some reason nobody uses rollers when they build their mills. Seems to me it would be easier to push the mill across the log using rollers than it would to try and slide it across. Other than that, the design seems to be fairly easy to duplicate.

 

[BobL]

I rarely slide my mills directly across the top of the log.
Sliding the mill across a previous cut duplicates and even amplifies any defects generated by the previous cut - this includes small dents and cuts as well as any twist in the previous cut.
If rollers are used and ride on the top of the log this will generate the same problems.
Instead I use unistrut rails and the undersides of the mills are lined with slippery 1/4" thick layer of HDPE. I put the log on a bit of a slope and the mill will slide down by itself.
The log rails also enable any twist to be removed
I have thought about using rollers on the rails BUT this places the counteracting cutting forces in the wrong place which can rack the mill - i.e. not good.
The optimum location for counteracting forces is level with the bar.
Locating rollers so they ride on the side of the log along the line of the cut is ideally the best place for them.
However, to maximize cut width and because of the shape of the log, to stop the mill jamming against the side of the log the rollers need to be below the bar when cutting the top half of the log and VV/
This has been discussed numerous time on this forum.

 

[muddstopper]

I will probably have to study this whole alaskan mill thing some more before I attempt to build one. I always kind of figured I would build a bandmill. Growing up, I was always around circle mills. Grandpaw used to do custom sawing and dad always cut logs. The house I live in now is all cut, hauled, sawed, and nailed together, so no telling how many times I have handled the lumber. Not many old timey sawmills left around here, a few folks own bandmills. They sit around growing rust, but you cant get them to sell them. I only want to cut out one more house pattern for a retirement house. Not do custom sawing for anyone else.

 

[DonnerParty]

A CSM is great for cutting big, wide slabs, and working in areas that don't have flat, easy access for a truck/trailer. If you are planning on making a bunch of dimensional lumber for a house, a bandsaw mill will be much, much faster, use less gas, and produce more lumber from your logs.

 

[muddstopper]

Sort of my same way of thinking, but wanting a chainsaw mill has more to do with portability than sawing out a complete house plan. Its a lot easier to load lumber on a truck than it is saw logs. Any lumber sawed with the chainsaw mill will go thru a planer before it is nailed up. I can pickup a tree here and there and a chainsaw mill is a lot easier to setup for one or two logs than dragging around a bandmill. I'm still on the fence about the chainsaw mill, but it looks like a cheap short term fix to making lumber out of logs that would otherwise be turned into firewood.

 

[kimosawboy]

You might want to do some homework on saw prices as I can get the same saw and bar for $850 , even shipping form coast to coast its still way under your price..

G Vavra

 

[muddstopper]

You might want to do some homework on saw prices as I can get the same saw and bar for $850 , even shipping form coast to coast its still way under your price..

G Vavra

Not fair, you didnt provide any contact info.

 

[skindaddy]

hey bob can you post a pic of your unistrut rails, I was thinking the same thing. did you weld your cross members? I was wondering if they make a fitting to join cross pcs but still be adjustable,but have to be flush to.
finding a coupler to make them longer would be sweet too.

 

[BobL]

hey bob can you post a pic of your unistrut rails, I was thinking the same thing. did you weld your cross members? I was wondering if they make a fitting to join cross pcs but still be adjustable,but have to be flush to. finding a coupler to make them longer would be sweet too.

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