take away belt

[NMFP]

As I am rebuilding the 01 frick handset, I am progressing on the carriage and converting everything to steel.  I am planning out the husk right now and wondered what others opinions are on a take away belt?  I have always sawed on mills with takeaway belts on the husk and don't know if I should plan on building the husk with one or not?  Also, I have thought about not having take away rolls instead of a decline that would drop all material to a take away green chain and then have the lumber sorted from there.  Any suggestions?  I like the simplicity of Little Jims belsaw photo with a transfer drop down and no rollers.  I can see that being easier with only 2 people.

Any suggestions?  I will have pictures shortly of the new rebuilt carriage as soon as I get more completed making it look like a carriage again.

[Possum Creek]

I have a fall away table on my belsaw but working alone I handle the slabs and lumber after they pile up. I don't know what you need but any way of moving slabs and lumber without a lot of labor would be great. It seems the takeaway belt to rollers might be the simplest though. Good luck.         PC

[Ron Wenrich]

I've always had an offbearing belt.  I'd suggest not going with rolls unless you have someone there to pick up after all the pieces that fall through.   That happens especially with pieces of bark and slabs that fall apart.  Slabs that have big bumps or knots also get stuck on rolls.  Run the belt all the way to the green chain. 

The problem ends up being where you want to have your even end.  If its the far side of the chain, then you'll need rolls and some sort of transfer.  Is there a chipper in the plans?  If so, you can use a drop belt going to a vibrating conveyor for the slabs.  Or you can use rolls with a slab dump.  This puts something between the rolls, and eliminates the pieces falling through.  Then you would use either a transfer chain or spiral rolls to move the lumber.

If your even end is going to the near side, then you run stuff off the belt to green chain.  You can still use a drop belt if you're doing a chipper, or a slab dump.  But, you need to have rolls for the slab dump.  If you're running your slabs onto the green chain, I would use this route.  You'll still have a mess.

At the husk, I've seen a couple of different ways of doing it.  The traditional way is to have your offbearing belt run back to just about the saw guides.  The problem with this method is pieces get stuck between the offbearer and the saw.  Depending on the log, you might be out there getting things off the saw quite a bit.  Your saw heats up instantly, and sometimes it takes awhile to get it cleaned up.

I ran a Jackson mill that had a metal plate instead of a belt.  It did have a roll that was powered at the board splitter.  The metal plate was on a hinge.  Underneath was a hydraulic cylinder that would lift the plate.  Anything that got stuck would be cleared when you lifted the plate.  It worked really slick.  The Jackson had a short husk, but I believe it can be engineered for a longer one.

Little Jim's setup is similar to what we had by using spiral rolls and slab dump for transfers.  It dropped our lumber onto the green chain. We had our mill elevated, so that brought things down to a good working height for stacking.  We had our belts go past our tracks before we dumped our material.  That way you can transfer from both sides of the belts.  It ended up being a better use of space. 

Do you have a mill flow chart drawn out?  Figuring out how to handle slabs is the worst part.

[NMFP]

I have started building a diagram of the layout but alot depends on a transfer table or take away rolls and belt.  I think a take away belt at the husk will help move things away better.  Like I said, I have never sawn on one without so didnt know of any pro's or con's of not having one. 

I would like to have it set up that I could as much as possible saw with as few people as possible.  A friend of mine had a conveyor that transfered everything away but it unfortunately dumped everything together which isnt necessaryly a problem if your sawing by yourself.

I deally, I would like to be able to saw and let everything drop down onto a green chain and then sort everything out from there myself.  I know from the mills I have run, the take away belt turns fairly fast but does anyone have a recomendation of length or speed that would be ideal working either by myself or with an off bearer?

Thanks Ron for all the help so far!

[drobertson]

You might incorporate an idler, so you can engage when you need too,  as to speed, just gear it down to the speed you need.    david

[NMFP]

I am considering using hydraulic drive and putting a flow control valve in the line to speed up and slow down when needed.  Need to make sure I have enough flow so that I can run the motor there continuously along with the motor for the hydraulic carriage drive.  I think I can but need to consider the rpms and gpm needed at each motor along with intermitent usage of other hydraulic controls.

If I had a pile of money, I would be buying something already set up but since I am buildign as I have the money, everything I need to buy needs to be correct so that i am not buying something twice just to find out.  I am hoping to have a very nice mill when i am done but who knows how long that will take.   

[Ron Wenrich]

Your key to success is what you're going to do with the slabs.  If you run them out onto the green chain, you'll have problems.  I had a slab dump that was activated by a trip switch.  I would hit a button whenever I wanted it to dump.  It would run cycle, then reset to neutral.  I don't know how much you are planning to produce.  But, if you have decent production, you'll end up paying someone to stack slabs.  A chipper or hog is a better way to handle slabs.

We run our belts from one hydraulic motor.  We had a flow control, but we never fooled with it too much.  We also had 3 separate belts with a cant dump on it.  They were all connected together.  I could start and stop them from the cab with a switch.  The rolls were controlled from the guys at the green chain.  We had a guy that would rough grade the lumber, mark for trimming, and take out the edging strips.  Also tended the chipper.  He could start and stop his rolls, but not my belts.  It was a pretty good setup.  Like I said, a drop belt also works well for slabs.  Or you could use it to drop your lumber onto the green chain and run the slabs off the end of the mill.

Building your own belts isn't too hard.  The belt is the expensive part.  You might be able to find some used stuff that you can convert from over in the mining area.