Sawdust conveyers

[bandmiller2]

You don't hear much talk about sawdust drags.Blowers work well but require alot of power and are noisy.My old circle mill used a legnth of 21/2 fire hose ends laced with clipper laceing.the sawdust was carried out on the bottom of the belt and dumped as it went around the pulley [old car rim]on the pole.Under the saw the dust just built up and formed its own chute and droped on the belt. Bandmills such as the woodmizer spread the dust in a row behind the mill.Make a flat bottom vee out of 1" boards run a belt along the bottom so the dust gets blown in and carried out to the pile.Cheap,quiet,and requires zilch for power.Any outher ideas?? Frank C.

[Dave Shepard]

I like simple solutions like that. We use a blower, but it's in a room, and you can hardly hear it run, but it is also a requirement for the planer. A friend of mine has a blower on his circle mill, but it plogs immediately. Fortunately there is an old barn cleaner underneath the whole length of the mill. I always thought a conveyor of gutter cleaner in a cast in trough in the floor that runs beside the mill, and under the edger would be a good way to get rid of the dust. We keep the mill swept clean of dust, worried about fire.


Dave

[beav39]

i like your idea band miller always looking for a beetter way to get rid of sawdust without shoveling.

[StorminN]

I use two farm-style conveyors. They came with my mill when I bought it, but they had never been set up... in fact, someone had torched one of them into five big chunks and that's how it came to me. I welded it back together and made belts for both of them out of old snowboard base material (roll polyethylene)... I think rubber would work better, but what can I say... I work in a snowboard factory and they were throwing the polyethylene out, so the price was right.

I've got the trailer my MD mill sits on temporarily sheeted in plywood, and one conveyor set up horizontal on one side of the trailer, so after I mill a couple of logs, I sweep off the deck and the sawdust is carried to the end of the mill, where it dumps on the other conveyor, which is set up at about a 45 degree angle, so this then dumps into a truck or trailer bed. Someday I'll get around to making metal scoops for the belt on this one, but for now they are just small chunks of cedar that I had laying nearby the day I got it running.

The power up/down on my mill is 24VDC, so I chose to power both conveyors with 24VDC gear motors that I scrapped from an electric wheelchair. Total cost for this setup? About $15 in Surplus Center sprockets and chain links, and some scrap wire.

-Norm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MxB8I0ZL1s&feature=related

[Dave Shepard]

Cool, I just love somethin' made outta nothin'! ;) "Never throw anything away"-old farmers motto. :


Dave

[Brucer]

DanG, Frank, now you got me thinking (and that's a dangerous thing ;D).

Fer now, I've got a good system. There's a "pit" running the length of the mill, about 10' wide and a foot deep. I just tie up the sawdust chute and let the sawdust blow sideways across the pit. I spreads itself out nicely. When the pile gets to the point where it's intercepting the sawdust, the contractor across the street lets me use his 910 Cat loader to dig out the pit and "mulch" the log yard.

But if I ever have to move (or if someone around here buys a bio-mizer), I think I'll be looking at your belt conveyor idea.

[bandmiller2]

Seems sawyers hate slabs and dust and want to get them as far away and as fast as possible.Friend of mine grew up around Round Pond Harbor Maine spent his youth in a mill.  The old yankee that owned it welded horseshoe caulks on a fast rotating drum the slabs would kinda bump along the top until a caulk cought the end would launch it 40yds.Today OSHA would fudge their rompers over that.Frank C.

[Dave Shepard]

I'd like to have seen that! 8) Must have been on heck of a messy slab pile.


Dave

[bandmiller2]

Your right Dave he said it was pure #ell getting the slabs out all jambed togather.

[Woodchuck53]

Evening guys, its me again. Wondered if I would find some ideas on getting rid of the sawdust. At the old location we would take a tractor and blade and pull it away. I bought 3 1963 Case combines for parts. About 400.00  Salvaged all the augers and elevator chains. Kept all the shafts and axles, sprockets  and fuel tanks, well actually about all of it I guess. Anyway am hoping to rig the augers side by side under the blade and counter rotate them to a drop point an then connect all the elavator chains together and drag/sweep the stuff out to a old fertilizer spreader I salvaged to broadcast out on the property. I think this will work just haven't got there yet. Should finished welding the steel ways together this trip home and set the track. Then actually start on the sawdust evac. stuff. Have poured concrete and set the motor, edger and mandrel. So have some elevations to work with. I'm the chief eng. labor welder and rigger so it goes slow. Any thoughts on how is the best way to drive the augers? Chuck

[Dave Shepard]

Do you have a hydrualic pump on the mill? Hydraulic motors would solve some of the headaches of driving stuff. Do you have a vertical edger on the mill?


Dave

[sawguyver]

I run a modified hay elavator and it runs good ;D  The occaisional wedge or piece of bark that falls thru the husk doesn't bother it a bit.

I'm wondering how the augers handle bigger pieces?

[Woodchuck53]

Not sure yet, a freind of my who owned a WM had rigged  up a real primitive set on electric. Now he just used one auger in a wood trough so a lot just fell across the boards. We'll see I like to tinker or piddle as my wife says and will let everyone know. I also am curious to see how the sump I put in under my husk and base will keep the water out. My mill is 60' from my pond and during the winter and spring the water table is high. Can't have that so sunk a pc. of  12" pvc and poured the bottom concrete so it's slope to run any water into the sump. Installed a sump pump to remove any water. We'll see. I don't have the conventional gear drive from my friction feed so had to do something to keep the moisture out. Got to go. Chuck

[bandmiller2]

Wouldn't it be nice if we all lived a short drive from eachouther[most of the time]and could drop in on these great engineering projects.Its great if you have 110/220v elect around the mill,electric motors and those spiffy little gear boxes are handy to run conveyers.Chuck what are you using for your main power plant??The great thing about conveyers is they are so simple.Frank C.

[Woodchuck53]

Hey Frank, my primary power is a International propane UV-549 V-8 with twin disc. pto. My back up is the Case 1030 tractor I own coupled up with a tumbler shaft. They both do  good job but the V-8 is a lot easier on fuel. What are you running?

[solidwoods]

IRS auctions . com.
Conveyors are cheap.
Blowers are cheap.
Trucking it to you is expensive so find an auction close and get it yourself.
jim

[Woodchuck53]

Hey Jim, I checked out your link, Big yellow looks like it will get the job done. Nice to meet a fellow wood worker. Does the wife help or is it a one man band? I've thought about blowers and even built on for the planer and tablesaw in the shop. Just a 14" so not sure I could build one big enough for the whole mill. Maybe find one used someday to tinker with. Later Chuck

[Firebass]

You don't hear much talk about sawdust drags.Blowers work well but require alot of power and are noisy.My old circle mill used a legnth of 21/2 fire hose ends laced with clipper laceing.the sawdust was carried out on the bottom of the belt and dumped as it went around the pulley [old car rim]on the pole.Under the saw the dust just built up and formed its own chute and droped on the belt. Bandmills such as the woodmizer spread the dust in a row behind the mill.Make a flat bottom vee out of 1" boards run a belt along the bottom so the dust gets blown in and carried out to the pile.Cheap,quiet,and requires zilch for power.Any outher ideas?? Frank C.

My thoughts on sawdust removal are with a swingmill and differ greatly to what your describing.  Hope I'm not too far off topic. ;) 
I've been giving some thought to a bagging system similar to that of a lawn mower.  The problem with a swinger is the blade is never in the same place so you throw chips all around .   I think it could be made fairly easy and might take two bag's one for horizontal blade cuts and one to catch the chips coming out of the top guard chute. 

[bandmiller2]

Firebass, I've been thinking about sawdust removal on a swinger thats a tough nut to crack.What if you set the mill on grateing like they use on bridges or fire escapes,with a pit under it.Suppose every so often you could fire up a leaf blower. Frank C.

[Firebass]

One of the manufactures "I won't mention" claimed to have a method for the swinger sawdust removal but that's been quite awhile ago.  I guess it was not profitable enough to keep with it.  Some day someone will come up something.  Grates like you say would work good when your blade is dull but when it's sharp those ribbons that you get might get trapped.  I use a pitch fork and was thinking about getting one of those that is the size of a large scoop shovel.   Anyone tried one?  As for the leaf blower do they work good or just ok on circle blade chips?  Like to hear what everyone else thinks before buying one ;D

Firebass

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

The site we are on now has the equivalent of a tandem dump truck load
of chips and those "ribbons."  Of course the ribbons usually get launched
out a good distance from the mill, unless they are blocked by a sheet of
mesh or silt screen or something similar.  We had the customer pull back
about six or eight cubic yards of the stuff, just to keep from burying our
redneck log deck!  Good that he has good control of his loader!

It seems to me that a combination of corrrectly sized grating over some
vibrating panels would work.  You could feed/angle the panels toward troughs
with drags and/or conveyors down in them.