Home made slab mill?

fmccoy63 · Sep 4, 2012

`I got this sawmill recently and want to put a 87 inch bar where the circle blade runs to slab huge logs. Anyone tried this before? If i stand the bar up will it be ok running w/o something pulling up on the tip to help it stay true? I am planning on running a duetz 3 cyl, with a jackshaft running to the largest clutch i can find with 404 carlton carbide chain. i am going to get rid of all the trolley works and run it with a hyd motor. Anyone seen this sort of set up, is it going to do the job? Any input will be welcome.

ChainsawmanXX · Sep 4, 2012

fmccoy63 said:
`I got this sawmill recently and want to put a 87 inch bar where the circle blade runs to slab huge logs. Anyone tried this before? If i stand the bar up will it be ok running w/o something pulling up on the tip to help it stay true? I am planning on running a duetz 3 cyl, with a jackshaft running to the largest clutch i can find with 404 carlton carbide chain. i am going to get rid of all the trolley works and run it with a hyd motor. Anyone seen this sort of set up, is it going to do the job? Any input will be welcome.

I dont think it would quite work. An 87incher is pretty big to be standing up in the air. And plus that would be alot of torque pushing on the bar.
Your best bet would be building a big band mill!

Denis Gionet · Sep 4, 2012

I don't know if it'll work, but you sure do get an "A" for enthusiasm, I'll give you that ! Any chance you could run the rig flipped on its side, with the chain running horizontally ? And maybe a handle rigged to the far end, attached to and running on a trolley of sorts to support the weight of the bar ? Then you'd have the bar supported at both ends.

You'd wind up with the driving axle vertical, you could run it with a 13hp Honda engine running a pulley setup on belts (or a chain & sprockets), which would give you an adjustable drive speed.

Keep us in the loop !

quercusgarryana · Sep 4, 2012

You could mount it overhead and have the bar hang down. like this splitsaw.wmv - YouTube

kpantherpro · Sep 5, 2012

quercusgarryana said:
You could mount it overhead and have the bar hang down. like this splitsaw.wmv - YouTube

I say go for it, you might have to support the bar tip and play with a few things but at least you can say you tried, just be relistic in your expectations, and man will it be cool to see it run...

mikeb1079 · Sep 5, 2012

hats off to your outside the box thinking but......

doesn't this style mill have a carriage that moves the log past the saw/bar? if so, that implies that you have the equipment to move/load 7ft diameter logs? also is the carriage even stout enough to move a 4 ton log back and forth? anyways i think it would be far far far easier to buy a couple of used 395's or 066's and run a dual powerhead portable chainsaw mill to deal with logs of that size. at least then you'd only have to move slabs.