Painting and fine tuning my mill.

Joe Hillmann · October 28, 2014, 12:09:30 PM

I built my mill this spring and got it running in June or so. I have been running it ever since. When ever a small issue would come up I would either figure out a way to work around it or do a hasty repair figuring I would get to it when I had time to do a proper fix.

The mill was a mess of wires and hoses running all over the place. The wires were just twisted together and taped at joints. And there were many joints that would short out with the vibration of the mill. The bunks that the logs sat on were not all the same height. The adjustment on the dogs either took a wrench or a hammer to adjust. The blade guard was "sketchy" to say the least. And the mill was ugly. It was mostly rust with a bit of red, black and blue paint on it and grease, lots of grease and oil.

All that I could put up with until last week one of the blade guides failed due to a weld not holding. Once that broke it absolutely stopped all sawing. I had to move the mill to repair the weld and I decided I would go through and fix everything on the mill while I was at it.

Here is a before picture. This was the most resent picture I could find, since it was taken a blade guard was made and it was mounted on a trailer. Notice the tangle of wire.

I pretty much stripped the entire mill down bolt by bolt. I didn't take apart the engine but did remove it, I also didn't take off the rollers from the carraige. Other than that if it wasn't welded together it came off. Here is where I am now.

I have a much better blade guard build. It still needs some reinforcement ,one more small piece of plywood (I ran out) and a couple coats of paint. I had planned to build something a little less bulky but once I got started on it I gave up on that dream. I ran it a bit with this guard on it. It doesn't affect visibility and makes the operators position much safer than it was before.

Here is a front view of the gaurd.

I scrubbed the entire mill with acetone to remove the oil and greese then painted it with an electric paint sprayer and rustolium. It has what I call a 20 foot paint job. It looks good from 20 feet away. Now that it is all painted it looks a lot less like a pile of scrap metal in the back yard.

I modified my dogs by putting a t handle on bolts and welding in a nut to hold the pipe in place. Now the dogs can be raised or lowered with no tools.

My clamp was made of cast iron before and broke off when a log got loose and hit it. I tried welding it and the weld didn't hold so this is what I came up with. I don't know if it will hold up over time. On large logs I never really used the clamp. It couldn't hold tight enough. I relied more on wedges and plan to still do it that way so this clamp should hold up to the light use it will get.

The clamp

I took the shrouds off the engine and painted them as well as the boxes that hold the electronics. I painted them and the trailer axle black. I think it looks pretty sharp. (at least compared to what it was)

I also cleaned up the wiring. Soldering the joints and taping the bundle of wires together to create a nice wiring harness.

I still need to remount the blade guides. I have plans to make them stiffer. I also need to mount a blade lube tank and hoses. I need to mount all the bunks so they are at the same height. I need to fabricate a way to mount a muffler and finish up the blade guard.

It took almost two full days to get the mill to this point, almost as long as it took to build it in the first place. I figure two more days and I should have it buttoned up.

drobertson · October 28, 2014, 12:25:52 PM

Nice work Joe! can hardly wait to see the dust fly!

Wisconsintimber · October 28, 2014, 01:29:52 PM

Yeah, lookin good! I too need to get paint on my mill. I thought I would have to redo a bunch of things and didn't want to have to cut and weld a new painted piece, but now just want to get it painted.

Magicman · October 28, 2014, 01:39:03 PM

Looks nice. That surely was a little bitty log that you were sawing in the first picture. ;D

Joe Hillmann · October 28, 2014, 01:43:09 PM

Quote from: Magicman on October 28, 2014, 01:39:03 PM
Looks nice. That surely was a little bitty log that you were sawing in the first picture. ;D

That log, or that tree became my ramps and some of the blocking I use to level the mill.

Ga Mtn Man · October 28, 2014, 04:55:39 PM

That is quite a transformation! I bet it'll saw better too.

That plywood blade guard will save you a lot in damaged blades. A very good idea.

Nomad · October 28, 2014, 06:16:09 PM

Now THAT looks like a sawmill! 8)

thecfarm · October 28, 2014, 08:45:22 PM

Once you spend a couple more days on it,you'll be able to saw for weeks without stopping to fix something. ;D

jaygtree · October 28, 2014, 09:16:38 PM

looks great. what a metamorphosis.

Swatson · October 28, 2014, 10:24:05 PM

Looks great...I went with black...only because the farm store I went to had it on sale. Orange sure does look professional though.

Ljohnsaw · October 28, 2014, 10:48:21 PM

I like the lattice/truss that you used for the track - what's it from? Looks light weight but pretty strong.

My mill went the other route :

Each 16' section of track (I have two 16' and one 8') weighs 500-600 pounds and I still need to attach the 4 jack to each and will probably add another 75. The adjustable log bunks (x3) each weigh about 50 pounds but are removed for "easy" transport. The BOL on my steel said I purchased 1,632 pounds!

Joe Hillmann · October 28, 2014, 10:55:31 PM

Quote from: Swatson on October 28, 2014, 10:24:05 PM
Looks great...I went with black...only because the farm store I went to had it on sale. Orange sure does look professional though.

I was going to go with black but for safety and to prevent theft I went with the orange. When operating other equipment around it (tractors, loaders, trucks & trailers) the higher visibility of the orange may prevent a careless operator from bumping into it.

I also think if I leave it in the woods the high visibility of it may prevent theft because it would be more visible from nearby houses. Also if it is stolen a bright orange machine is bound to get more attention than a black one.

I don't know if the color will make any difference but those were my thoughts when I picked out the paint.

Joe Hillmann · October 28, 2014, 11:05:48 PM

Quote from: ljohnsaw on October 28, 2014, 10:48:21 PM
I like the lattice/truss that you used for the track - what's it from? Looks light weight but pretty strong.

My mill went the other route : Each 16' section of track (I have two 16' and one 8') weighs 500-600 pounds and I still need to attach the 4 jack to each and will probably add another 75. The adjustable log bunks (x3) each weigh about 50 pounds but are removed for "easy" transport. The BOL on my steel said I purchased 1,632 pounds!

Those are roof trusses from a hallway in a school. They were placed every four feet across the hall way. Corrugated metal was spot welded to them and I think cement was poured over the metal. The trailer probably weighs less than 300 lbs and more than half of that is the axle and springs. When it is just sitting on the axle the trailer frame is pretty wobbly. But in use I put cribbing and shims under the front and back of the trailer to level the entire mill and then when a log is on it it has no flex.

The mill is so light I don't have to use a jack to put the cribbing under it. I lower the hitch to the ground. Put the cribbing under the back of the trailer. Move the carriage as far to the back as I can then lift the front of the trailer by hand and put the cribbing in. I then remove the wheels and pull out one course of cribbing by just moving the carriage to the opposite end that I am trying to lift and lifting it by hand. I can have it all set up in about 15 minutes.

Although being so lightweight can be troublesome when it comes to winching logs on to the mill sometimes the mill wants to go to the log rather than the log going to the mill. When that happens I have to chain the mill to something that won't move when I start cranking on the winch.

Joe Hillmann · October 31, 2014, 12:35:50 PM

I got the muffle mounted on the mill last night. What a difference that makes. Up until now all it ever had since I have had the engine on the mill is a little 2inch long piece of pipe.

I tried to order a proper muffler for it several times this summer. The John Deer dealership said it was a Cub Cadet engine so they couldn't get a muffler for it and the IH dealer said it was a John Deer engine so they couldn't get a muffler for it. An auto parts store in town could order one that would have fit but it would have required me to cut up some of the sheet metal on the engine to give it clearance.

I ended up mounting a ford tractor muffler to the engine with the use of some water pipe fittings I had laying around. The muffler on its own made a big difference but piping the exhaust to the opposite side of the mill probably did more than the muffler. Now when it is running you can't here the exhaust at all. It still isn't "quiet" because the moving parts in the engine make a lot of noise that used to be covered up by the noise of the exhaust. I will still be wearing ear protection when running it but it is much better than it was.

I pointed the exhaust down to keep it from blowing in my face when I walk around the mill to clamp a log as well as to get the sound farther away from the operator and so water wouldn't collect in the pipe after the muffler that wouldn't get hot enough to boil off.