what would YOU do?

[Andrew96]

Mike....well I like it. Can you not put the 'square' on the other way around so that bit of pipe sticking up is your handle? Any design can be made better, more versitile..but yours has some speed to it. Though I don't have the time on a mill that everyone else has (only 25 hrs maybe), I spent more time goofing around setting bar heights than I'd like (threaded rod height adjustment). Though your setup may not have fine adjustment..it's fast..very fast. No wrenches required. Much better than the first revision of a mill that I'm goofing with. R2 is on the drawing board. I like your quick change setup. I pretty much just cut 8/4 rough cut slabs. Without much thought...too bad your uprights are drilled already. You look like you had enough room to make multiple holes on 2 faces (drilled as a set). It looks like two holes per side could fit (maybe more). Say X" up the bar..then X+3/8, then X+ 3/4", then 2X etc. You could then just move your pin up a bit..but not a full inch or whatever your pin hole spacing is. I like that.
I agree with BobL though....Point #4 down under. Some cross brace in the middle so you are not just hanging on the ends.
Look at mine. It's very crude compared to yours...It's got wheels though (new power head already in house), cross braces, and a stupid fixed handle tacked on just to see if I liked it's location. For this small setup...the handle worked fine but I end up putting my hand on top of the square scrap stock and yes...it vibrates my hand until I stop. I'd rather have a long cross bar though I'm scared to use a zip tie on the throttle.

 

[BobL]

i wanted something to help alleviate the weight of the powerhead hanging off the back end because without that it bows the bar up pretty well.

This is why some folks go for a mill design that bolts the inboard end to the bar bolts.

Anyway, if the bar is bowing up then you can try fudging the bar clamps by welding wedges to the faces of the bar clamps like this. Experiment with unwelded wedges first and then weld the wedges on. DO not just clamp them into place - the saw vibe will shake them out in no time and your chain will be cutting bar clamp bolts!

I have never done this myself but I heard from someone that it does work, You should also do it on both clamps.

If that fails you can try the reverse of the anti-bar-sag device.

Is that an anti-erectile-bar device?

 

[mikeb1079]

good advice

thanks for the feedback guys. the point about tube on the engine side not having tapered ends or rollers is excellent. this i meant to do but forgot about until you guys mentioned it. the square stock i used was pre drilled, i didn't have to drill any of that, which is why i liked it. the downside of course, as noted, is that i lose any fine adjustment ability. i'm hoping that will be ok however as i'm planning to resaw (or at least plane) down any stock that i cut.
i have two questions for ya though: 1. how do you get those large uploaded pics? i had to resize mine to thumbnail size 2. how do you use quotes in your response? i checked the forum faq but it says nothing about it.
thanks again
mb

 

[Brmorgan]

I use a program called ACDSee as an image viewer and for basic editing tasks such as resizing and cropping. Anything more serious and I move up to Photoshop. ACDSee isn't free though and might not be worth paying for if you don't work with photos a lot like I do, but there are free programs that will do the same job, such as IrfanView. I've used it a few times and it does the job fine, just not quite as polished as a commercial product. There are also some online image resizing services but I can't recommend any simply because I haven't used them.

The secret to getting higher resolution JPEGs in under the 300KB limit is to raise the compression level. This does of course decrease the image quality accordingly, but I've found that most of the time if I set the compression to about 70-75% I can get a 1024X768 image under 300KB while maintaining decent quality.

If you want to quote an entire post, that's easy - just click the "quote" button at the bottom-right of the post itself, instead of the "post reply" button at the bottom of the page. This will open a "post reply" window with the text already quoted for you in the message box.

If you want to quote individual bits of text, you'll have to copy & paste them into the message box. Once there, highlight the text you want to quote, and hit the little "thought bubble" icon at the top, to the left of the "#" button. This will wrap HTML quote tags around the text, which look like this: [ QUOTE ] <insert text here> [ /QUOTE ]. Note that I left spaces between the brackets there, otherwise the browser would have actually quoted the <insert text here> section. These tags can of course also be typed in manually, which can be faster once you get used to doing it. If you want to include the username of the person being quoted, it will have to be included in the first tag behind an = sign, like this: [ QUOTE=brmorgan ]

Hope that helps!

 

[mikeb1079]

thank yew, thank yew

yep, i wanted to quote bits of text, and now i know how. thanks! also, nice work on the photo resize/compression tip.

 

[BobL]

Andrew is right, move the powerhead to the other end - like this.

Doh, now why didn't I think of that?

I know it was that strap from the wrap handle to the mill that threw me.

 

[mikeb1079]

Andrew is right, move the powerhead to the other end - like this

in my limited experience, i've had better luck (and was more comfortable) pulling the mill thru the wood, rather than pushing it. maybe i was doing something wrong? seems like you guys prefer the push. thoughts?

 

[BobL]

in my limited experience, i've had better luck (and was more comfortable) pulling the mill thru the wood, rather than pushing it. maybe i was doing something wrong? seems like you guys prefer the push. thoughts?

It should not be necessary to push or pull. If the log is sloping downhill it should cut by itself, or at most with a light pressure.

Anyway - you guys must be sick of me saying this - if you haven't heard this before look here.

 

[Andrew96]

Geez....BobL can build some pretty cool looking milling setups with photoshop. That's funny looking..you could invite a friend who likes to push..and you can pull.
It's funny BobL...at my old job I was the guy going on and on about ergonomics in design. I appreciate your input..and constantly pointing other readers (future millers) to good setups. Build it once...build it right.
Yesterday was my first time posting a photo so it shows up as a picture rather than an attachment. It easier than you think (looks better too). I read about it here http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=90494&highlight=insert+photo (that btw was my first link)

Mike...I have limited experience as well but I cannot see how pulling would be easy. With a small mill (not the super lightweight trick ones you see here all the time), I have to "push" with maybe 2-3lbs of pressure on the saw+mill (I have wheels though). I use slightly more pressure actually cutting than it would take to slide my setup across the board I used (2X12) as a top starter board without cutting. I just let the saw eat it's way through. I don't wiggle it back and forth or anything (seems to cut with a smoother finish if I don't). I just apply some pressure...and follow along. If you're going to weld some other stuff on this setup..put another 2 uprights (short stubs) on either end, span the whole thing with a tube (as a cross handle), light thinwall stuff though, stick something rubbery on the pipe like a bicycle grip or foam pipe wrap or something. You'll have a nice handle to move the whole thing around with (pick it up by the handle near the balance point). Add 1 or 2 cross flats to the square...again thin stuff. When cutting, you'll be able to straight arm it (like in Bob's previous posts), put your hand on the bar as far apart as feels good for that height of log, and sort of lean into it a bit without vibrating your hand off like mine does. I haven't tried down hill milling yet but since I know how much pressure I used milling on the flat...I could see it would pretty much go itself. As of yet...I don't think I'd lift a log up just to cut downhill...but you never know.

 

[BobL]

OK - no more funny stuff.