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Crusarius’ sawmill build - started with Linn Lumber basic kit

Started by Crusarius, September 18, 2017, 01:02:23 PM

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Kbeitz

To adjust your engine just take an eye bolt and put it under one of the nuts that
holds the engine down. One by your pulley is best. Then weld a chunk of metal
on your mounting plate and drill a hole for the other end of your eye bolt. This
makes it so easy to pull your engine back.



 
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

Bigblazer

LT40 manual, peg11 single blade edger and 36" chainsaw mill

Crusarius

Quote from: Kbeitz on October 02, 2017, 03:53:48 PM
To adjust your engine just take an eye bolt and put it under one of the nuts that
holds the engine down. One by your pulley is best. Then weld a chunk of metal
on your mounting plate and drill a hole for the other end of your eye bolt. This
makes it so easy to pull your engine back.



 

That is brilliant. I like that a ton better than trying to push it. Thanks Kbeitz

Could just use a ratchett strap to tighten it then.

Crusarius

Quote from: Bigblazer on October 02, 2017, 04:00:31 PM
Quote from: Crusarius on October 02, 2017, 02:58:35 PM





Is your saw frame 2"  .250" wall with 2.5" .250" wall slides?

3/16" wall. but the other dimensions are correct. the 2.5" .250 will not slide over 2"

William1961

Quote from: Crusarius on October 02, 2017, 02:58:35 PM
I am planning on adjusting the gap behind the band wheels. I think it is a little to easy to get a blade stuck in there when changing them.





I had so much steel dust and chips on the floor it was getting to hard to walk. So I ended a little early Sunday so I could do a very needed clean on the shop. I put all my tools away swept the floor then placed the bed rails on the floor in the shop prepping for building the bed. The bed will be 48" wide x 24' long.



Hello
With your bed being 48" wide what will be the distance between the rails for the carriage to ride on.
Thanks.

Crusarius

Well since I screwed up and I thought 48 - 2 was the correct size I cut my cross pieces to 46". they should have been 44" if I took off both rails instead of only the one. By the time I realized I had already put them in so the bed is now 50" wide. With the 3/8 welded to the outside for my wheels is 50.75 to outside. so that make 50.375 center to center on my rails.

William1961

Hello
50.75" Center's on your rails is more than what I had planned.
I had 36" between rail Center's.
I am wondering if this will be too narrow.?

Crusarius

50.75 is to the outside of the roller rails. the center  to center on the frame is 48" which actually gives me a 50" wide bed.

I dunno if it will be to narrow. I am making this up as I go :)

Part of the reason I wanted 48 wide is so I can use the trailer to go pickup steel when I need to do a steel run. getting old borrowing a trailer all the time.

Crusarius

I will get you some pictures next time I am in the shop. I am done for tonight.

Crusarius

here is the picture I promised. this should clear up the width nicely. The tape measure shifted slightly in the first half of the picture. That should be 2 3/8" full width.


Crusarius

So I fixed the band wheel gap. Now it is roughly ¾". Unfortunately I also found a problem with my carriage design. If I keep the current design I would only be able to have roughly a 12" tall back stop. I think with 36" capability that is going to be a little short. So I had to change my carriage design from a vertical 2x6 cross piece to a horizontal.

This image shows the band wheel gap and my original design for the carriage cross member




This image shows the new layout. I decided I am going to steal a page from williams book. I think it was William. I dunno I read so many threads. I liked the idea of using a 6 gallon boat fuel tank on the back side of the carriage. So now the engine mount will continue under the cross piece and get a square frame on the back side for a fuel tank. Hopefully this will help offset some of the sawframe weight. Of course I already fixed the band wheel gap so now I need to cut it off again and make those rails continuous.



I made some progress on the raise lower setup this weekend as well. I am not sure how I am going to like this but for now this will have to work. I keep wondering about using some rollers for the up down guide but figure I will see how this slides for a while. I did also figure out very quickly I am going to want electric raise and lower. That is not an easy task to take it from bottom to top.



My pseudo chain tensioner.




Crusarius

I am not sure if I am doing this right but I positioned the sawframe so that the guide roller is just less than halfway across the material I will be using for the backstop. Hopefully this will work otherwise I may need to shift everything.



The sawframe will be offset to the fixed guide side.



Overall image of weekends progress. I have the raise lower kit bolted on top. Clamps and air to hold the rest. The bed still needs a lot of work. The tacks I have on everything are starting to get pretty sketchy as this unit gets heavier.

The bars going under the carriage cross member will be bolted on so I can shift as necessary.

Crusarius


Ljohnsaw

Just some general comments from your last few posts.  You said you had to rotate your cross bar so that you could have taller log stops.  I'm not sure how that makes a difference.  The log stops can only be as high as your blade!  I've tried to have them higher ::)

Are you using the cross pieces on the rails for the log bunks?

You also shifted your head off to one side - I don't see the need or benefit of that.  Your guide rollers, when opened up as far as they will go, are still quite a bit less then the distance between your rails.  I think you would be better to just center the head over the rails such that it doesn't stick way out on one side.
John Sawicky

Just North-East of Sacramento...

SkyTrak 9038, Ford 545D FEL, Davis Little Monster backhoe, Case 16+4 Trencher, Home Built 42" capacity/36" cut Bandmill up to 54' long - using it all to build a timber frame cabin.

Crusarius

heh, you know, your right about the sawblade height. I guess I wasn't thinking very clearly on that. either way I think I am going to like it better flat. I dunno time will tell.

Yes, the cross pieces are the bunks. they will get a cap welded on the end to keep unwanted items out of them.

The reason I offset the head is so I can use the main rail for the backstops. I am hoping to have them pivot on a pin below the rail and use the rail to stabilize them when they are up. That will give me a full 6" of material to help keep me from bending them to badly.

I did go back and forth about centering the head. But the other nice thing about the head being off center is it gives me a place to stack wood till I get to that level when sawing. then I can move the pile and keep going.

If I need to do edging which I am sure I will need to, that will be nice to have the boards right there instead of the log loader arms that won't exist for a while :)

Not that I will need to but this also gives me the ability to make the head quite a bit wider in the future.

Ljohnsaw

Quote from: Crusarius on October 11, 2017, 07:50:38 AM
Not that I will need to but this also gives me the ability to make the head quite a bit wider in the future.
Do it now! ;)

I think you said you were using 158" blades?  I'm using 184" 'standard' blades from WM stock.  Although they only come in on angle, IIRC 9°, but work pretty well for me on softwoods.
John Sawicky

Just North-East of Sacramento...

SkyTrak 9038, Ford 545D FEL, Davis Little Monster backhoe, Case 16+4 Trencher, Home Built 42" capacity/36" cut Bandmill up to 54' long - using it all to build a timber frame cabin.

Crusarius

Only mods I would need to do is extend the frame  and move a guide. Then add a spaced for my tensioner. Be pretty simple. I think I will wait till I get some sawing hours in. I dunno if I will ever max out my mill. We will see...

Magicman

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

Crusarius

definitely want to keep it a standard length. I wonder if any of the blade companies offer a starter/sampler pack?

Crusarius

So I am having a dilemma I can't seem to resolve in my head.

This is the column on my carriage. I am using 2.5" .188 wall with one side cut out of it and then welding a strap across the pieces. If I weld that, and then weld the carriage into 1 piece there will be no way to take anything apart without a grinder. Is this a problem? Should I make the carriage frame bolt together? Will I ever need to take that apart for any reason?


JRWoodchuck

Mine is fully welded together. Haven't had to take that apart yet.... Now everything else just about has been re-worked.
Home built bandsaw mill still trying find the owners manual!

Crusarius

So since my tacks were get kinda sketchy with all the weight I was adding, I decided it was time to commit. I full welded all the top joints on the mast. I added some diagonal corner bracing to try to stiffen up the frame.





Crusarius

I have been having a major mental block on the raise / lower setup for the last 2 weekends. This is what I had to deal with.



I needed some way to support the threaded rod. I was originally going to just put a piece of 2x6 steel tube to support the end of the threaded rod and support the mast at the same time.  It is 8" to the bottom of the threaded rod. The sawframe slides need to come down to 6". This definitely made it more challenging to get the added support I desired and support the threaded rod.

I thought about just notching the support for the rod but then I just kept thinking of the potential for sawdust accumulation and not allowing me to go all the way down or just one side not going all the way down.

I wanted to add some type of triangulation to help support the weight of the sawframe assembly and engine.

My wife finally came out and said "why don't you just put a plate there?"  You know, sometimes it's the simplest things that escape you. I did have to tweak her idea just slightly and bent the plates for a little wider support pad.

I added the diagonal plate to support the mast. I had to slot the channel to slide over the brace. That allows me adequate support for the mast and a place to support the threaded rod. With the groove cut into the channel that allows the slide to go down to 6". Unfortunately I did not get a picture of this detail.








Magicman

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

Crusarius

This is my new cross member. I changed it from vertical to horizontal. Of course after I did that the information received from all you guys I realized it was not necessary. But hey, I think it worked out better this way. Thank you everyone for your feedback. Ignore the carriage bolts it's all I had at the time.





The 2x2 connecting the sawframe to the cross member is 32" long. That gives me 10" behind the cross member for the fuel tank to sit. Hopefully the fuel tank will help to offset the weight of the sawframe. At least when it is full.

I was doing some measuring checking to see how I did on alignment.
Left to right I am off the thickness of my dummy bandsaw blade. I think the banding is 0.035"
Front to back using the 32" sawframe supports I am off 1/16".
Needless to say, I am ecstatic about this! I can't believe I managed to get it that close on my first shot.

So the overall pics look about the same as they did before. I assure you, I did do something over this past weekend. :)





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