A Different Design for a Sawmill Roof

[AlaskaLes]

 Well, it's been raining most of the last 2 months straight.
I've been running the mill to fill the kiln again, but I'm getting tired of standing in the rain and the mill is taking a good drenching.
We have plans to build a building around the mill to protect it from the weather, but I can't get to that till early Winter.  Tarping this thing sucks!...the saw head is about 10ft in the air.  My wife suggested covering the carriage for now to protect the motor, etc.

So, off I went and built a steel frame from scrap 1.5"x1" Rect. tubing.  This will be welded to 4 vertical tubes that I tapped and bolted to the heavy upright frame tubes on my head/carriage.  On top of the steel frame I bolted a wood Kingpost and ridge beam and 2 at the eaves that I had cut to 6/12 pitch to mate with the rafters.  This will be covered with scrap metal roofing and when it's all done today, I should have a solid roof that rides with the carriage and hangs over enough to keep the important stuff safe from rain and snow till it gets a proper building to live in.
The whole thing shouldn't weigh more than 150-200lbs and since the head already weighs about 1700lbs, it shouldn't hurt a thing.  We'll continue to tarp the bed for now as that's not nearly as difficult to get to.
When I get it welded up I'll try and post a few pics for your viewing pleasure.
Nice thing is I don't have to try and kill myself lifting it into place...we'll be using the boom crane for the hard part.  I'm going to put the roof metal on, swing it into place, and just run 8 little welds to anchor it to the uprights. 
 

[starmac]

Sounds like that will work so well you will never get around to building a dedicated building for it. lol

Actually sounds like it will work well.

[47sawdust]

Sounds like a good plan.A very old issue of the Sawmill and Woodlot magazine had a story about a Mighty Mite owner from Maine or N.H. who had done something similar.He is now deceased.His cover was made of painted canvas,light weight and easily removed if needed.The carriage was just tarped.He was a very creative man and the story is worth reading.

February March 1999 issue free download of article from sponsor on the left.

[Kbeitz]

I would like to see pictures of that...
I though I was the only mill with a moving roof.



 

[tgalbraith]

I too think "tarping sucks". I built a roof over my mill as soon as I had cut enough to do it.  Then I found
out that tarping the tractor wasn't any fun either.  I made this framework and stretched my tarp for good.

[AlaskaLes]

Well, it's working good.  I've got a nice overhang behind me that keeps me dry...until the carriage drives off and leaves me standing there in the rain...lol
It went up without a hitch and we're already talking about where to use it when the real mill building goes up.

I like hearing about you guys and your take on the same problem/solution.
I'll take a look at the article, thank you.

Today went well.  We got most of the load cut and stickered.  Just a few hours tomorrow and we should be filled up and running again.  Life's been crazy this past year and it has been over a year since our first load in the kiln.  We are finally getting it loaded again and we're pretty excited to be getting back to playing with the trees.

I haven't loaded pics on here for a while, but I'll try and slow down long enough to share some in the next day or so.

[AlaskaLes]

Kbeitz,
I think mine has got to be twice the size of yours...just over 8ft front to back and maybe 9ft+ side to side.  I wanted to cover my hyd-station at the rear of the bed, as well as, the blade housing in front.
My mill is semi-permanently mounted on pilings, so travelling is not a limitation for my roof.

tgalbraith, I'm planning about a 30'deep by 80'wide parking building for the tractor; boom truck; etc.
open on the long side.  Maybe next year. :-\

[DDW_OR]

great idea.

have you thought of putting it in a pole barn?
no rain or snow to deal with.
here in Oregon i have seen some adds on TV for a metal building about 30x60.
just a thought...

[AlaskaLes]

DDW,
Yes, that is the plan.  We have already driven pilings for a 40X60 bldg.
Timber frame post and beam with standard trusses.  We'll have a nice infeed deck as well as areas to
move out the lumber and the scrap.  Neat thing will be a hydraulic infeed control thumb.  The mill had a hydraulic winch circuit , but we use the Kubota for that and I reused the nice hyd winch on our boom crane.  We'll use that capped off circuit to run the infeed control.


Life has interrupted my original schedule and we are going to be building that this Winter.
This is just a temp roof and a way to protect the motor and carriage keep the mill easily accessible, without fighting the tarps.

[DDW_OR]

my planned layout


 

[AlaskaLes]

Nice drawing, I have a few like that.  Seems like it's constantly changing right now.  We buy another machine and I have to re-doodle the doodle.

Eventually we'll start the build and I'll have to finalize the plan. :D