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Home made slabber

Started by Sixacresand, August 15, 2013, 05:47:06 PM

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Sixacresand

Has anyone on the Forum ever built a slabber using a long bar and a small engine other than a chainsaw engine?  I bought a new 3 ft bar at a sale a few years ago and have a couple 5 and 6 hp engines.  I was thinking I could have a jack shaft machined to fit the clutch/sprocket and put all this together to make a slabber.
"Sometimes you can make more hay with less equipment if you just use your head."  Tom, Forestry Forum.  Tenth year with a LT40 Woodmizer,

AdkStihl

I'll bet its been done before.
No reason why it cant be done again.

Should be fairly straight forward.

Clutch mechanism?
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Cut4fun

I showed a video of a homemade one on my chainsaw repair site awhile back. I dont know what was powering it but had to be bigger.

Ianab

No reason you can't make it work.

Have a look at the Peterson and Lucas dedicated slabbers. They generally have a larger bar and motor (5ft cut and 16-20+ hp) but a 3ft bar would need proportionally less to drive it.  As you say, run a jack shaft and size your pulleys to get the chain speed the same with the lower revving 4 stroke. Rig up an oil bottle, gravity feed seems to work. A centrifugal clutch for safety and ease of starting, and you should have a practical mill.

Ian
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

ladylake


Good idea but I'd run more than 6 hp, find a used 20-25 hp  vertical shaft lawn mower motor, should be cheap.   Steve
Timberking B20  18000  hours +  Case75xt grapple + forks+8" snow bucket + dirt bucket   770 Oliver   Lots(too many) of chainsaws, Like the Echo saws and the Stihl and Husky     W5  Case loader   1  trailers  Wright sharpener     Suffolk  setter Volvo MCT125c skid loader

Sixacresand

Thanks for the replies.  I see it can be done.  I will keep the forum posted on my progress. 
"Sometimes you can make more hay with less equipment if you just use your head."  Tom, Forestry Forum.  Tenth year with a LT40 Woodmizer,

lowpolyjoe

I would love to see some details if you go forward.

Good luck


Hilltop366

A jack shaft with a harvester sprocket and a belt clutch would do the trick, The sprockets are available with different round bore sizes with a keyway. The chainsaw mill I had made used a 16 hp, less would work with proper gearing. Of course if I was making another things would be different.



maple flats

6HP would be pitifully under powered on a 3' bar. A chainsaw in 6HP is  running far more feet/minute (FPM) than you could run ever gear a 6 HP 4 cycle motor to pull a chain. You should really have 15 HP minimum, and over 20 is suggested. I think  6hp would just stall as soon as the chain hit the log.
You could build a slabber but a chain should not be geared too slow to cut. A small engine would need to be geared pitifully slow.
logging small time for years but just learning how,  2012 36 HP Mahindra tractor, 3point log arch, 8000# class excavator, lifts 2500# and sets logs on mill precisely where needed, Woodland Mills HM130Max , maple syrup a hobby that consumes my time. looking to learn blacksmithing.

fuzzybear

11 hp Honda motor with direct drive to the chain will cut through a 26" dry spruce with little effort. I've never run the engine down or stalled it with everything I've put it through.
   When I built mine I had no budget, so it started as a direct drive. When I found that it worked fine I left it.  It would be nice to have the chain spinning faster, but I have smoother boards than a friend that runs the same style head frame but with a 2100 husky.
   If you are running it as a manual feed it will be slow and hard work, no where near as hard as an Alaskan Mill, but harder than a band mill. You are removing 1/4" of material with every pass so your recovery will be far less.
   The nice thing is you are only limited to the track you have.  I used v-groove wheels on the head and run these on old bed frame rails.  I have enough that I could cut up to 48' at the current time.
FB
I never met a tree I didn't like!!

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