Useful sawmill mods

[btulloh]

X2 on the more detail.  Looks like an interesting design.  What's powering you ram?  

Nice mods. 

[Remle]

caveman.I've used bar oil/diesel blade lube for 10 years and have no belt deterioration.

X2

[Outlaw]

First pic is the clamp.  TK runs a 1" all thread clamp design, and we incorporated the 1" hole through the frame for the clamp.  2x2x1/4 tube with a 1" nut welded inside of it on both sides. Ran a 1" bolt from each side through the frame to hold it.  Bottom of the tube we welded a chain end to end.  Installed a hydraulic motor and sprocket with teflon around the tube to slid the clamp side to side. Under the sawmill frame in picture 2 you can see the cylinder that raises and lowers the clamp.   I can take more pictures tomorrow if needed. 

[Bandmill Bandit]

This is NOT a mod. Its a jig to cut the dove notch on logs while milling for cabin build. This 1 will do 4 to 6 inch width logs. A very primitive proto type sitting on the bench in the shop that validated proof of concept.

I think a patent may be in order.

I would guess the build ready logs will come off the mill with an extra 5 minutes of mill time when in use.

Not sure on timing for completion as I have to fit the bulid in around the jobs scheduled but i am pretty certain that a full day in the shop and about $500 bucks of material will have it built. could be manual operated or electic. The one I put on mine will be electric controls.

I will start a new thread for the introduction of the Jig. I will try to build it so that it can be adapted to any bandmill. BUT not all band mills are created equal!

NOTE to Woodmizer; Marty, If you think the company will be interested let me know.  

[Bibbyman]

Keep up the great work!

[LeeB]

Keep up the great work!

Very nice to see you post again sir.

[Peter Drouin]

   Bibbyman

[snowsquall]

I've seen several examples of LT28 owners replacing the manual winch with an electric one with great success, but I didn't want to give up the manual winch.  I came up with a way to have both.  The winch mounts to the tongue and the cable goes under the original winch and runs parallel to its cable.  I added another sheave to the original mount so the cables don't interfere with each other.  I use the electric winch to load the logs and the manual for the turner.  The manual also works as a backup loader.  I use a power pack for the winch - just hook up the cables and use the power pack switch to control it.  Maybe someday I'll mount a battery, but I've used this for awhile and it's ok.  It mounts/unmounts in less than 5 minutes.  The winch is a 2000lb Superwinch that I got for $34 on clearance.  The setup works well.


 




 

[Peter Drouin]

Very nice.

[DR Buck]

Keep up the great work!

WoW !!!

A real Bibbyman post.      I do miss them.

[barbender]

 My WM jug finally disintegrated, shipping is getting so high it was going to be over $40 to get the jug to my door. So I bought one at the local fleet farm, had to do a little retrofitting to get the spout to work.




My ol' Mk l debarker never did have enough snot to power the regular debarker blade. I modified a regular 7 1/4" circular saw bladen as the arbor on the debarker is too big. It's not a precision instrument, so a Sharpie marker and for grinder took care of business. Then I bent some teeth out for a wider kerf. Works great, if you want a wider kerf yet you just bring the blade down on top of a log without paying attention, and bend it😁 
Along with the circle blade modification, I mentioned elsewhere how I almost gutted myself by forgetting it on, and my debarker alarm was disable or quit long before I got the mill. It made me a bit weak in the knees when I realized that blade was spinning while I changed a band blade!! So while at the fleet store, I picked up a $30 magnetic beacon and wired it into the alarm circuit, so it is flashing any time the debarker is powered.

[Cruiser_79]

My ol' Mk l debarker never did have enough snot to power the regular debarker blade. I modified a regular 7 1/4" circular saw bladen as the arbor on the debarker is too big. It's not a precision instrument, so a Sharpie marker and for grinder took care of business. Then I bent some teeth out for a wider kerf. Works great, if you want a wider kerf yet you just bring the blade down on top of a log without paying attention, and bend it😁
Along with the circle blade modification, I mentioned elsewhere how I almost gutted myself by forgetting it on, and my debarker alarm was disable or quit long before I got the mill. It made me a bit weak in the knees when I realized that blade was spinning while I changed a band blade!! So while at the fleet store, I picked up a $30 magnetic beacon and wired it into the alarm circuit, so it is flashing any time the debarker is powered.

that beacon is really a good idea, last week I was checking the sawblade height just near the debarker. Those things are running way too silent!

[LeeB]

Lock out, tag out. Gents, turn off the engine and pull the key when changing blades.

[DDW_OR]

how about installing a relay on the band blade engagement switch.
also have a solenoid for the lube.

blade on = debarker and lube on
blade off = debarker and lube off

[Ed_K]

 Barbender you will be safer if you use a solid blade. Those with the slit going towards the center break real easy. I only used one, once on my brush cutter and it blew up, now i use solid ones and haven't had a problem.

[barbender]

Ed, I think the brush cutters tend to make blades explode because they spin them way too fast. That isn't happening on the MK l 😊  
 Lee, you are 100% right I should've been following lock out/tag out. Aside from that, I still need a warning for my debarker. I think a strobe light is what WM is using now.
  DDW, it already has one, for both functions...they only run when the saw head forward travel is engaged. Unfortunately I ran the head to the tail of the mill (where it's easier to do blade changes) and neglected to put the travel back in neutral or turn the power off.

[DDW_OR]

Ed, I think the brush cutters tend to make blades explode because they spin them way too fast. That isn't happening on the MK l 😊  
Lee, you are 100% right I should've been following lock out/tag out. Aside from that, I still need a warning for my debarker. I think a strobe light is what WM is using now.
 DDW, it already has one, for both functions...they only run when the saw head forward travel is engaged. Unfortunately I ran the head to the tail of the mill (where it's easier to do blade changes) and neglected to put the travel back in neutral or turn the power off.

I was unfamiliar with the WM
still would be a good safety lock
the best one is "turn the power off"


I have a TimberKing 2000. it does not have this function.
I run the head to the middle of the mill to do maintenance
have two wooden platforms i stand on, one on either side of the head carriage
I do blade changes on either end of the mill.

[teakwood]

Can anybody post some pics of their log height adjustment device on the sawmill?  where you get the small end of the log up so the log is centered. i need to fabricate a manual device and need some ideas

Thanks 

[doc henderson]

hey Teak, I am hydraulic.  I think a few have used a scissor screw type jack.  it can be sped up using a rechargeable battery drill.  

[Ljohnsaw]

I use a small hydraulic jack and I learned to set the log down on shims so when the jack fades, it doesn't mess up the cut! :  The hydraulic jack was an improvement over this:


 

[teakwood]

hey Teak, I am hydraulic.  I think a few have used a scissor screw type jack.  it can be sped up using a rechargeable battery drill.  

let me see the hydraulic setup, i want to copy that but instead of a cylinder i'm thinking a hand lever like a handbrake in a car

[doc henderson]

mine is full hydraulic mill.  how about a car style hydraulic jack, race jack.  My comment was meant to say that I do not have first hand experience with a manual mill.  you could get a gas powered hydraulic unit.  or even a porta power style cylinder actuator.

[Brucer]

Can anybody post some pics of their log height adjustment device on the sawmill?

This is the one on my first WM mill.

Please note -- that piece of square orange tubing with the shiny metal pin has nothing to do with the toeboard. Ignore it.





Look at the side of the bed rail beneath the square orange tubing thingy ... you'll see a metal plate about an inch away from the bed rail. It's got a pivot locate about half way across the rail. Down near the bottom of the image, just left of centre, you'll see the end of a threaded rod. It's mounted through a pivoting bushing. The other end of the threaded rod goes through a nut on the bottom of the metal plate. There's a shield over the lower half of the threaded rod to keep sawdust from gumming it up.  Turn the rod (with a removable hand crank) and it pulls the near side of the metal plate upward. Very simple to use. You could turn the threaded rod with a cordless drill.

Here's a better picture of the toeboard.

[Crusarius]

I have a 1000 pound motorcycle scissor jack from ebay. I had it hanging from straps for testing purposes but one of these days I will weld in a couple cross members so I can move it to either end of the mill. 

Just set the scissor jack on the sawmill cross members then turn the screw. worked pretty good for what I was doing.

[RAYAR]

This is the manual toe board my mill has on it, one towards each end. Works great, never had a problem with them.