iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

Designing and building a custom trailer for my HFE-21 ( Finished Video added)

Started by 21incher, November 25, 2013, 02:26:04 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

21incher

 Hello everyone. I purchased a Hudson HFE-21 at Empire Farm Days this past Aug. The ground tracks were a little short for my needs and tough on my back so I decided to design and build a low cost trailer for it to handle a 12 ft. log plus the original tracks can be added to handle a 20 footer .I also included a manual log loader because my Compact John Deere loader will only pick up about 800 lbs. and I soon found out 12 foot logs can easily exceed that. I am in the process of learning how to post photos so I will try to post some here that I have uploaded to my gallery. Here are some pics of my first testing of the trailer to make sure everything works before I disassemble it, sandblast it and paint it along with my first stack of backyard logs that have been checked with a metal detector. This is my first mill and I have been extremely happy with it. I have been reading your posts for a couple of weeks  now and have gained enough knowledge to let me start making piles of sawdust from everyone's posts . Thanks. 


  


  

  

  

  

 
Hudson HFE-21 on a custom trailer, Deere 4100, Kubota BX 2360, Echo CS590 & CS310, home built wood splitter, home built log arch, a logrite cant hook and a bread machine. And a Kubota Sidekick with a Defective Subaru motor.

thecfarm

21incher,welcome to the forum. That is some nice what have have done to that sawmill. Looks like a great idea you have with the jack.
What's the plan for the lumber?
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

lowpolyjoe

I don't know much about mills, but i like what you've done with that farm jack  :)

Looks like a great mobil mill

Magicman

Wow, look at you go, 21incher.  Your first post, a new sawmill, awesome designing and welding skills, and you posted it all up with pictures.   smiley_thumbsup

Welcome to the Forestry Forum.   :)
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

m wood

ditto what everyone else said, nice job and use of the jack too.  Nice whack of logs you got there...but I gotta know...aint you got snow in Marion? when were those pics taken ??? :snowball:

Welcome 21incher, whats your handle refer to?  Maybe, how much snow your expecting this week!! :D
mark
I am Mark
80 acre woodlot lots of hard and soft
modified nissan 4x4/welding rig
4x4 dodge plow truck
cat 931b track loader
Norwood mark IV
4' peavy
6' peavy
stihl 034
"her" wildthing limber saw
ALL the rustic furniture  woodworking stuff
check out FB

21incher

Thanks for the welcomes. I will use the wood for my home shop tcfarm, and the pics were taken a couple of days ago before the snow m wood. We now have 4 inches and they are predicting 10 -16 Wednesday so it will be a little shy of 21. That is my mill size anyway. Here are some more pics. The trailer started as a Harbor Freight 40 x 48 trailer for all the dot approved parts. The axle was narrowed slightly. and the farm jack also came from HF. I plasma cut all the parts with a homebuilt CNC plasma table as shown in the pics below. The bends were done in a 20 ton press using a northern toolhttps://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=position"> Note:Please read the Forestry Forum's postion on this company die set. and I am just learning how to weld so there will be a lot of grinding required before paint. I hope I am not boring you with the details.


  

  

  

  

 
Hudson HFE-21 on a custom trailer, Deere 4100, Kubota BX 2360, Echo CS590 & CS310, home built wood splitter, home built log arch, a logrite cant hook and a bread machine. And a Kubota Sidekick with a Defective Subaru motor.

thecfarm

Bore us some more please.  :D  Did you just buy all them toys to make your sawmill better? Must have other projects if you had all that stuff.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

WmFritz

Nice build 21incher.  8) 8). Great job on the pictures too.
~Bill

2012 Homebuilt Bandmill
1959 Detroit built Ferguson TO35

rimshot

you are going to love backing that nice mill under a roof after using it.  What a nice trailer.  I think mills and wheels are a good combinatio  Let us know how she cuts lumber.

rim
LT 10 with a 10 h.p. and a converted boat trailer to provide mobility for a once permanent mill.

21incher

Here are some pics of the lumber I cut. It cut great most of the time, but with some ash logs the blade loaded up with a hard resin and started cutting wavy. Also in the beginning after cutting a log I got some wavy cuts but that was solved by re-tensioning the blade. It was a new blade and must have stretched. The mill has plenty of power with the 7 HP to cut through 20 inches. A couple of times the clutch slipped and the blade stopped but the engine never slowed. About the only problem I had was that the winch for raising the mill unlocked and the mill blade dropped twice on me, but the whole winch setup is not very good for getting accurate cuts at a repeatable thickness so someday I will have to fix that. Below is a 10 ft x 22" small end x 26" large end walnut log that required some chainsaw trimming to allow the mill to clear the log, but it was basically totally clear and I managed to get a couple of 10/4 x 20" and many 5/4 clear slabs. Cut a little less then 2k board feet of walnut, maple and ash in 3- 6 hour days.


  

  

  

 
Hudson HFE-21 on a custom trailer, Deere 4100, Kubota BX 2360, Echo CS590 & CS310, home built wood splitter, home built log arch, a logrite cant hook and a bread machine. And a Kubota Sidekick with a Defective Subaru motor.

Kipper

Those brackets like really good. Can you post some pics of the plasma table? Really curious about it. I have a Hypertherm 45 and my brackets look like a cave man chewed them himself...  :-\

Nice looking stack of boards too !! 8)
LT40HD, Cat Diesel
New Holland L783
Kubota BX23
Metavic 1400XL
2016 Dodge 3500
2007 Dodge 3500 (Dump)
Belsaw 802 Edger
Too many trailers to count and all Stihl Saws!!

21incher

Kipper I have a Hypertherm 45 also and get beautiful cuts with the Hypertherm feed speeds and tip volts in the manual. I use a CandCNC digital torch height controller and ohmic sensor that zeros out the metal height and keeps the tip volts within less then a volt buy automatically controlling the cut height  which keeps the cuts fairly square, clean, and dross free.
Hudson HFE-21 on a custom trailer, Deere 4100, Kubota BX 2360, Echo CS590 & CS310, home built wood splitter, home built log arch, a logrite cant hook and a bread machine. And a Kubota Sidekick with a Defective Subaru motor.

beenthere

Nice stack of wood there.
I think I'd double up the stickers to be safe, but walnut should do pretty well as is.

What are the plans to control temp where the wood is stickered?
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

WmFritz

Curious about your Ash getting wavy. I cut a lot of Ash and the only time my cuts get wavy is when I let my blade get too dull or don't pay attention to tension. I use automatic dish soap in the lube tank and use a fairly heavy drip.
~Bill

2012 Homebuilt Bandmill
1959 Detroit built Ferguson TO35

Sixacresand

Welcome 21incher.  Nice job on the trailer, especially the loading arms.  And good use for the tractor jack.
"Sometimes you can make more hay with less equipment if you just use your head."  Tom, Forestry Forum.  Tenth year with a LT40 Woodmizer,

justallan1

Welcome to the forum, 21incher.
I have the same mill and put it on a trailer, but it sure doesn't look like that! ;D
Very nice job indeed. I really like the loading arm and safety stops. How does that handyman jack feel picking up a log? Those things have always about half scared me.
Have fun.

Allan

21incher

Quote from: justallan1 on November 26, 2013, 07:12:55 AM
Welcome to the forum, 21incher.
I have the same mill and put it on a trailer, but it sure doesn't look like that! ;D
Very nice job indeed. I really like the loading arm and safety stops. How does that handyman jack feel picking up a log? Those things have always about half scared me.
Have fun.

Allan
Allen The jack works great. It is fairly easy to use with a 1000 lb log and when I was working out the bugs on the design I loaded the loader with about 2000 lbs. of steel and cement blocks just to be safe. I use a flexible chain to attach it so there is no extra stress on the jack if the arm flexes a little with a big off center log and it can follow the arm arc as it goes up. The design started with a old 1960s bumper jack I had laying around that would not go high enough and was kind of wimpy. The removable safety stops will soon have small wheels at the top of them to make rolling the logs easier. I added the stops because when I first tried the mill on the ground I had a log I was loading go off the other side of the mill and about 50 feet downhill till it stoped. The jack scared me at first, but there are 2 pins that go through the beam to lock it in place and 1 of them is always engaged.
Hudson HFE-21 on a custom trailer, Deere 4100, Kubota BX 2360, Echo CS590 & CS310, home built wood splitter, home built log arch, a logrite cant hook and a bread machine. And a Kubota Sidekick with a Defective Subaru motor.

21incher

Quote from: beenthere on November 25, 2013, 07:43:25 PM
Nice stack of wood there.
I think I'd double up the stickers to be safe, but walnut should do pretty well as is.

What are the plans to control temp where the wood is stickered?
What spacing do you recommend for the stickers? I placed them a little under 4 feet apart and the wood seemed to lay flat. I have no way to control temps. The wood is stacked in a tent shelter with 10 mill poly and 4 inches of gravel on the floor to keep ground moisture out. Both ends zip open if it gets hot and the south end is usually open for airflow.
Hudson HFE-21 on a custom trailer, Deere 4100, Kubota BX 2360, Echo CS590 & CS310, home built wood splitter, home built log arch, a logrite cant hook and a bread machine. And a Kubota Sidekick with a Defective Subaru motor.

21incher

Quote from: WmFritz on November 25, 2013, 08:09:27 PM
Curious about your Ash getting wavy. I cut a lot of Ash and the only time my cuts get wavy is when I let my blade get too dull or don't pay attention to tension. I use automatic dish soap in the lube tank and use a fairly heavy drip.
With the ash there was a buildup of what appeared to be hard resin in the tooth area of the blade that filled up the set area behind each tooth and that is what I think caused the wavy cut. I changed the blade and the cut was great but I noticed another buildup starting in the same area by the time the log was finished. I had no problem with the maple or walnut. I used 20 below windshield washer fluid from TSC for the lube because there were below freezing temps. I was afraid to put soap in because the blade rides directly on the drive belt and I thought that soap might damage the belt.
Hudson HFE-21 on a custom trailer, Deere 4100, Kubota BX 2360, Echo CS590 & CS310, home built wood splitter, home built log arch, a logrite cant hook and a bread machine. And a Kubota Sidekick with a Defective Subaru motor.

21incher

Here is a pic of the spring loaded latch I used that allows me to tilt the trailer slightly towards the rear which makes feeding much easier ,and automatically locks the saw in position for rolling the cant and moving the trailer.
 

 
Hudson HFE-21 on a custom trailer, Deere 4100, Kubota BX 2360, Echo CS590 & CS310, home built wood splitter, home built log arch, a logrite cant hook and a bread machine. And a Kubota Sidekick with a Defective Subaru motor.

TimGA

   21,  What a great job, looks like you have a good handle on running the mill. Are you going to try to mill in the snow?
                                         Tim
TK2000, Kubota L3130GST, grapple, pallet forks, 2640 Massey w/loader (The Beast) Husky saws Logrites One man operation some portable most stationary.

arnold113

Welcome to the Forum, 21incher. Nice job on the trailer fab work. It must be next to Heaven having a plasma cutter setup like that. Keep up the great work and keep making sawdust. Arnold113.
DIY band saw mill: four post, 25 HP gas engine, 32" x 18' portable, 24 vdc and hydraulic controls, pineywoods log turner, hyd log loader. RF remote controls for mill.  DIY set works.

samandothers

21incher
Thanks for the post and pictures.  You have done a great job on the fabrications and modifications.

I have been using stickers at about 18 to inches.  Seems I spend about as much time sawing stickers as I do lumber! :D

beenthere

QuoteWhat spacing do you recommend for the stickers?

As samandothers suggested, I'd suggest 18" too, or at least one more in between those you have shown.
Just is a better precaution to keep the lumber flat while drying. If high value lumber, I'd go 12" spacing.
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

lowpolyjoe

Great thread and great progress with the mill!

Wouldn't mind pics of the plasma cutter and welding rig  :)

Nice looking walnut.   Have you considered sealing the ends of your boards while drying?  I have very little experience, but a lot of the boards i cut split pretty bad at the ends and i think sealing helps prevent that.  I'm sure others will comment if i'm mistaken. 

Thank You Sponsors!