Looking for new mill ideas

[smwwoody]

Well I built the mill I am running four years ago as a weekend Hobie mill.  I have been running it full time now for 2 years.  I didn't build it to be run this much.  It is time to start on a new higher production mill.  I want to stay with the vertical band.  and the log on a carriage like a circle mill.  it will probably use ether the mewdos or frick carriages that I have.  I built the carriage on the one I am running now and there is too much were in the set works after 4 years.

The big thing I want to here is how have you other circle guys set up your track.  I know a lot of different ways to do it as I have set up a few mills before and been in and out of a lot of them.  I just want to here all the pros and cons.  

I'm thinking of using 6" H beam for the uprights setting on jack bolts in concrete.  the footings will be pored in 24" plastic pipe 48" deep  after it is all leveled the base plates of the H beams will be grouted in.

then I will use the same 6" H beam on top with my track setting on it.

Is there any type of carriage wheel that you like better?

Woody

[Ron Wenrich]

Are you using a thin kerf blade?  Why are you even considering track?  I would think there are too many things that could go wrong by feeding a log through a thin kerf blade rather than feeding the blade through the log.  You could use a short section of track to load a log and put the carriage in position for sawing.  

I think it would be more cost effective to have a moving saw head.  Only a few guys have built any verts, but there are lots of advantages.  The biggest is you are working with gravity.  

The way our mill is set up, we have 8" H beams in a 1' concrete base.  From those H beams, we have welded 3' high piers from H beam, then put another H beam across the piers and put in braces.  This gives us some height to the mill for easier access.

We have a single unit track mounted on top.  The track is mounted on 6x12 steel and welded in place.  The carriage weighs 12,000 lb.

You can take any type of carriage and make the type of mill you want.  But, the heavier the carriage, the less movement you get.  I wouldn't use air, but stay with hydraulics if you are going with any type of automation.

[Frickman]

Woody,
Our current mill was originally put together by another local sawmill outfit. They welded the tracks and husk to a 45' flat trailer, and set another trailer beside it for the motor and a platform to walk on. The very ends of the track on each end are not on the trailer, I have them cribbed up with railroad bridge ties. The trailers are also cribbed up, and the one with the mill is tied down to a concrete slab. The fellow who did this was an expert welder and has everything lined up perfect. You could do the same and build adjusting bolts into the setup.

What I like about this setup is you don't need to build piers, just pour a slab. The track and husk move together so you have to break a weld or bend something to get it out of line. You don't even need to have things perfectly level, just close enough to look good. The very ends of the track are only used when loading logs or taking off cants so they just have to be in line enough to not throw the carriage off.

This was an often used system around here when guys setup semi-portable mills on logging jobs. They could move a mill and set it up in a couple of days. This is a handset mill, I don't know how well it would work with a heavy automatic mill like Ron's. I'm real happy with it. Before we always set mills on piers, and I was constantly checking their alignment. I've sawn on this mill for seven years now and haven't had an alignment problem yet.

[smwwoody]

Ron
The mill i have now is a thin kerf vertical band with the log moveing on a carriage.  one of the things I am looking to gain is to be able to handle bigger and longer logs

Woody

[smwwoody]

Ron

How far apart are your piers?

Woody

[Ron Wenrich]

Our piers are about 10' apart.  They are a little closer together on the log loading end.  You do a lot more banging on that end. Frickman's method would work pretty good.  

We had a Jackson Lumber Harvester portable mill for awhile.  That was a pretty slick setup.  It had no track, but had bearings every 2'.  The carriage road on top of the bearings.  It was supported with jacks about every 6-8'.  

How big of log are you aiming for?  The longest I have cut on any mill is 24'.  Lots of spring in a log like that.  Would the spring damage your blade?

[D._Frederick]

Woody,

The pawls on the manual set works is the part that generally wears, its not that big a job to file or grind new ends on them so that they will hold.

What do you have for a carriage drive  that you are using with a narrow bandsaw?  With the carriage and log you could have 2 to 3 tons of weight to control, it seems like you would be pushing the blade off of the wheels a lot. I think if I were building a bandmill using a circle saw carriage, I would take the wheel off the carriage and mount is stationary. Use the wheel and track for a moveable bandsaw head. There are 2-3 mill manufactures that use this system.

[smwwoody]

Ron

I can cut 16' now and I would like to get out to about 20'  as long as I can get it dogged down good it should saw ok

[smwwoody]

D

It is not the pawls that are worn on my set works that I am using now.  It doesn't have any it is an electric set works that I built.  I built the entire carriage my self.  it has a few problems.  that is why on my new mill I will be using a carriage from one of the circle mills I have here.  the carriage drive is a hydraulic motor hooked to a cable drum via a browning cushion coupler.  I know about the 3 to 4 tons I have been sawing with this setup for 4 years and it doesn't push the bands off any more than a wood mizer or something like that does.  If you are trying to saw that fast that you push the bands off of the wheels you should not be sawing with anything.  I like my vertical mill it works great.  I want to keep this design.  not to mention that the whole off bearing end of my operation is set up for a conventional mill setup and would not work with a wood mizer type set up.

[Frickman]

Woody,
Sounds like you're a real-life, hands on engineer. I like that.

Ron,
I can't take credit for my present setup, the mill was built this way when I bought it. I had my doubts at first, having only ever been around mills setup on piers in the conventional manner. Once I saw how easy it was to setup and how well it saws I changed my mind. The one key thing is that everything has to be lined up perfect when you weld it all together. You even have to take into account the heat generated during welding could move pieces out of line. Once it is welded together as one unit it's good to go for a long time. The fellow who built this was a brilliant hands on engineer. I could have never done anything like it.