more Pictures of my Mill and log arch

[Gideon_70]

I have had some questions about my mill, so here it is!  I don't have the track addition pictures yet, but this is it while I was limited to 9' logs. (wow, that was, like two days ago, lol)


 

These are my logs.  I'll add a picture of my log arch tomorrow.  The arch is hauled behind my Cub Cadet mower.  Nice setup.


 

This is my little trailer.  It's 4' wide, and 8' long.  My log arch straddles it, and lets me drop the wood onto the deck with no problems.


  

Lastly, some of the wood I'm making for a shed project.  Tomorrow I get to start making 2x4's.


 

[beenthere]

Gideon
Is that stack in air drying mode, or do you plan to sticker it for air drying later?

[YellowHammer]

Pretty lumber 8).  Your off bearer in the last picture looks a little green.  ;D
YH

[opticsguy]

Looks great, keep us up to date.  Always exciting when you get a new mill!!!!

[giant splinter]

Nice job,
Looks like you are off to a good start, I agree that your off bearer does look a little green ....... and his tail is too long to be a gator  ;D

[thecfarm]

Gideon_70,congrats on the mill. Like to see pictures of the shed too.

[Magicman]

It's always nice to see a plan work.  You are doing OK.   8)

[Jemclimber]

Looks nice!!!  That must be one large log arch to straddle the trailer, I can't wait to see it. Before I had a tractor, I used my log arch to load logs onto the mill the same way you're putting them on the trailer.    Word of advise passed on from Customsawyer,  you might want to trim the felling cut/stump pull off your logs before putting the logs on the mill.    And BTW, your felling cut and hinge on the log with the survey tape around it look excellent. 

[Raider Bill]

Where about in coastal central florida are you?

[Joe Hillmann]

Any chance of getting you to take a bunch of up close pictures of it?  I built my own mill so I always like to see how others deigned things like raising and lowering the blade, the clutch set up, blade guides and the slides.

[Sixacresand]

Congratulations on your new mill, Gideon_70

[richhiway]

looks great. keep posting as your project moves along.

[fat olde elf]

That little green guy is the Geico geco.....ya think ?

[DMcCoy]

Save 15% by sawing your own lumber.

[slider]

I'm with Beenthere on this one Gideon.Down south this time of year you need air flow or you are going to have a mold problem you don't want.

[Gideon_70]

Pretty lumber 8).  Your off bearer in the last picture looks a little green.  ;D
YH

I put his little rear-end to work and he was able to get a lot of sawdust swept off the stack.  He works for flies, too.

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Pretty lumber 8).  Your off bearer in the last picture looks a little green.  ;D
YH

I put his little rear-end to work and he was able to get a lot of sawdust swept off the stack.  He works for flies, too.

Looks like he'd be helpful getting the bugs out of the system...

[glassman_48]

congratulations gideon,
Please keep posting pictures and let us know how your mill is working out.

[Gideon_70]

I took some more pictures, and it only took me most of the day to figure out how to get them off the stupid phone!



 

This is my little shed.  I use a tarp on it, and it works great.  It also lets me take it off when we have really bad storms.



 

This is my log arch.  Sorry, I wanted to put pics up as I built it, but the weather was bad that day and I just wanted to get it done.  The arch is made out of 2 1/2 steel tubing, with 5/8 bolts holding the little harbor freight wheels on.  It has two winches, the crank style is the one I use mostly as it's fast, but the second one is a screw type that I've used to lift logs that scared me.  I can haul the log two ways... I can straddle it and pick it up, or, I push it to the log and pull it up on the outside.  It balances both ways. 



    

 

It has a hitch for the mower, and I can pull anything shy of water oak with it this way.



 

This is my little cub cadet I picked up for 150.00, and then I put a 12hp engine on it, and it will still pop a wheelie if I'm not careful.

 





 

My second job, making signs.


Now, questions about the mill....

Here's the center centrifugal clutch.


 

Left bandwheel.  It uses an off the shelf fan belt to keep the blade off the sheave.  The center is a bearing.  Left and right both use bearings in the center hub.  The bandwheels are cast aluminum and so far they've been pretty good.



 



 

Tensioning system.  It's actually easy to use when you get blades from the same place, but I switched from WM to Cooks, and the cooks were 1/2 inch longer.  Took me a while to get it aligned, but it's not hard. 



 

This is my track extension.  The steel I used was off the shelf 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" angle.  Matched up beautifully.  The center support tubing is also off the self 6" x 3" square tube.  I welded this one up, and bolting it on was a piece of cake.  Instead of paying the money to pour an entire pad, I made railroad tracks and added support at the stress points.  I did come to the conclusion that sawdust would be a problem fairly quickly, so I put a piece of coroplast corrugated plastic down.

 


 

The lift system sucks.  It will not drop the head closer than 3" to the deck, and is hard to initially set up.  The cables were the same size, but the routing requires that they be a little different, so I had to add a couple of links to get them to work right.  They are also not strong enough to support the head if you were traveling with it.  You would need a block to put under the head when you are moving on the road, that would support the carriage while moving.  A good bump and you would hear breakage.



  

 

This is the head lock, and it sort of works.  It has one on each side, and I did use them both, then just gave up after a few boards.


 



Anyone need more pics of the mill?

[biggkidd]

  Thanks for the pics. Always nice to see how mills are put together.

  Larry

[thecfarm]

Thanks for the way you saw and move logs.

[goose63]

Now that is a good looking set up 8)

[DMcCoy]

I reread the thread and you mentioned having questions.

[Joe Hillmann]

Can I ask for just a couple more pictures? I would like to see how they handled the blade guides.  Is one of the guides moveable?  Or are they both stationary?  The reason I ask is both of mine are stationary and I would like to figure out a simple way to make the right one adjustable for cutting wider or narrow lumber.

[Gideon_70]

Can I ask for just a couple more pictures? I would like to see how they handled the blade guides.  Is one of the guides moveable?  Or are they both stationary?  The reason I ask is both of mine are stationary and I would like to figure out a simple way to make the right one adjustable for cutting wider or narrow lumber.

I might be sawing tomorrow and I'll try to get some pics for you.  As for the guides... they are two blocks with a bearing behind them.  They are not adjustable, and I also want to make them adjust because I could get faster speeds with less wave.