The Forestry Forum

Hi everyone, im a newbie so thanks for the add. I have been enjoying reviewing your forum and seeing all of the home builds.  Im building a 35hp diesel twin blade sawmill. I got the engine last week from and have started on the frame this week. Ive got 3 main questions that i was hoping to get some input on.

1st Does anybody have a source for a 35hp electric clutch supplier (1.75" bore)or would a belt tensioner apparatus be sufficient to engage and disengage the load for starting the engine?

2nd For the vertical blade i found a supplier for Lucas blades (16.7 5 tooth) but was wondering if anyone knows of a supplier for the arbor shafts besides just having one milled in a machine shop?

3rd For the horizontal blade i was hoping to be able to cut 10" boards so im thinking i will need a 26" blade. What would be the tooth count i would be looking for with this 26" blade? Most of the blades ive seen had a large tooth count which im thinking would require more HP than i have available, so would a 10 - 15 tooth blade be what i need? Also if anyone knows of a supplier for the horizonal blade and possibly a matching arbor i would greatly appreciate it.

Welcome to the Forestry Forum. I'm sure someone will be along soon with some good advice, sound like a interesting build.

Reviewed the forum some more and found some great news concerning getting saw blades from B.H. Payne so i gave them a call and they were a big help. They had a 5 tooth lucas style 21" edger blade and a 8 tooth peterson style 26" vertical  blade in stock and ready to ship so i ordered them. And now to get the gear box and roller chains ordered tonight. 

Gerat, I'm hoping you will to bring us along with the build.

Welcome Casey, An electric clutch for that size engine would be costly, "V" belts with a over center pulley to tighten them would be much more affordable and do the same job. Depending on the engine mechanical clutches are available but also costly. Where are you located Casey.?? Frank C.

If you want to automate the overcenter clutch get a small hydraulic cylinder . You are going to have hydraulics on your mill  ?   Electric clutches snap in fast ,jerking everything they engage to speed right now .  That is harsh on equipment.

Hi Frank, Im located in North Louisiana near a small town called Farmerville.

Don, yes, i will have hydraulics on the mill and a small hydraulic cylinder should work great for the overcenter clutch. Thats a great idea. I haven't seen that yet in the forums.

I found a great deal on a military surplus air compressor an individual had purchased a few years ago and was needing it anymore. Gave him 375.00 for a 35 HP Kubota diesel mounted on trailer with 5 piston air compressor and air tanks. Removing the air compressor took a while but she cranks right up and is hitting on all 4 cylinders.

Im going to give this picture posting a try to showw the before and after compressor pics and the start of the 10x4x8ft high frame (laying on its side).

Any lucas operators with the  21" 5 tooth blades tell me what rpm your running at?

Also any Peterson operators using the 26" 8 tooth blades tell me what rpm your running at?

Hi Casey I think Lucas runs a 1 to 1 gear box so the blade would run @3600 rpm and I think the Peterson is the same, I have a Lucas blade I run on my saw but I had Payne to hammer it for 3200 rpm Peterson has a 6 bolt pattern and Lucas 5 bolts, Payne does good work, I started on a two blade saw myself but haven't done much but gather parts I have a 22 horse Kubota for the big saw and thought about running a electric on the edger
tj

Quote from: CaseyK on September 24, 2014, 11:14:47 PM
Any lucas operators with the  21" 5 tooth blades tell me what rpm your running at?

Also any Peterson operators using the 26" 8 tooth blades tell me what rpm your running at?

B.H. Payne should be able to tell you what rpm the blades are designed to be run at.

Great score on the Kubota!

Today i got the casters, rollerchains, sprockets, gearbox, pullys, bearings, and conveyor chains ordered. Now to get some welding done this evening and go look for a car axle tomorrow for the arbors.

How big and long of log are you setting up to handle?
Will you drag back cants?

Hi Backwoods Sawer
Im probably going to build the tracks so i can do a 24ft cut and im thinking it should handle a 5 ft diameter log. It will have the ability to pull average side boards back.

I got the engine pulled last night and its on the back porch.

Just received my first shipment of pulleys and parts in just a second ago and placed an additional order for some more stuff also.

Talked to B H Payne and they were able to locate a 545 blade with the Peterson hole layout so that both of my arbor layouts will match, however the 660mm blade will have 4 additional holes that the 545 blade does not have.

The 2 truck axles should get dropped off this evening and hopefully if my buddy is home we can get the shafts turned down and cleaned up tomorrow.

I went with a design for 1900 rpm for the 660 mm blade and 2400 for the 545 mm blade so that if i did ever decide to go with inserted tooth blades the speeds would already be slow enough.

After welding tonight i still have to dig through the forum to decide how to power my carriage up and down, it has 4 post which are 10ft left and right wide and 4 ft fwd and aft), and on each end of the carriage there is 2 shafts with 2 sprockets on each shaft there will be one 10ft of 50H roller chain attaching to the top of each post coming down to the sprocket below it then going horizontal to another sprocket (4ft) then down the post and attaching to the post. there will be one 1-1/4 drive shaft connecting the left and right of the carriage. I purchased a 20:1 gear box with a 1-1/4 hollow output shaft from surplus center and am planning on driving it with a hyd motor with a 1" shaft stuck directly into the gear box.

From there i have got to settle on exactly how im going to power the travel of the frame down the tracks.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I am going to try to get some pictures posted this weekend.

Look forward to seeing it all come together.

Casey, to answer your IM questions, my mill uses a 12 volt dc motor driving a gear box hooked to a roller chain for head position. Carriage travel is a bigger 12 volt variable speed motor driving V belts and a long roller chain. The factory hydraulics uses a 12 volt dc power pac. My mill is fixed, so I get away with a 110 volt ac motor to run a small gear pump. Standard cylinders to power a log turner, log clamp, adjustable backstops, and toe roller for log leveling. No log loader, I use a tractor with homebrew hydraulics and forks to load logs. The remote uses a handheld infra-red control(looks like a tv remote) to remotely control all the electric stuff, hydraulics is all standard lever operated control valves

lets see if these pics will post.

 

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Finally got the post a pic problem solved. The above pis show the military air compressor that i drove 3-1/2 hrs to get, once i removed the top cover i was able to remove the air compressor and then pull the engine. Its a 4cyl Kubota diesel v1702 i think, around 30-35hp. Next is the frame, its 10ft wide, 8ft tall and 4ft deep. Its going to be for a twin blade.

 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/oct_2014_054.JPG) this is the frame once i got it all welded up & pulled out into the yard. Now im placing the saw carriage into the frame.



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 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/oct_2014_011.JPG)  Here is a pic of the motor frame before i mountthe right angle gear box and place it on the saw carriage. 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/oct_2014_045.JPG) this is an older pic when the frame was under the back porch, notice the new mig welder & stick welder, cant build a sawmill without the right tools.

 

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Here is my youngest of 5, Kaleb. Learning to make minor alignment adjustments to the right angle gearbox assembly.

Work has been busy this hitch but finally getting a chance to get caught up on the design problems still left and get the parts all ordered for when i get home Nov 13th i can finish my dream project.
Current status:
1. Motor has been rotated on the motor frame and mounted on the carriage.
2. Added (2) 5/8"acme rod to move the motor frame left and right on the carriage, originally i was planning on it sliding on top of 1"angle iron turned down and the motor frame sliding on uhmw blocks, but now im thinking i may have to get a back up plan ordered.
3. The blades came in and the machine shop has finished them up and are ready for pick up.
4. The carriage will raise within the frame by (4) 1"acme rod connected with 50H chain.
5. The wheelchair motors came in but they have 17mm shafts that are not very easy to cross reference in the US, finally found (2) connectors on ebay and got them delivered.
Still left to do.
1. mount up/dn motor and connect it with sprocket and chain to the acme rods.
2. mount the side to side motor and connect it to the acme rods.
3. select the feedworks motor and mount it, the  gearbox, and cross frame shaft so that there will be a drive sprocket on each side of the frame.
4. Design the frame rails so that they can be extended.
5. Design the electrical controls so that there can be manual controls for now and a more automated functions later.

Looking good casey. I'm anxious to see that thing making some lumber. Plan on some visitors when the sawdust starts flying. I'm only about 30 minutes from you, if I can help, just yell..

Last day on the rig, ready to start the trip back to America.
Got the bulk of all the parts ordered to hopefully finish the sawmill this hitch. Added a PLC and encoder feedbacks to all movements so it should be as accurate as a CNC assuming the mechanical slop is tight enough. looking forward to finally getting her put together and creating some lumber.

With Thanksgiving and christmas parties and raising 5 kids i didnt get to finish the mill before heading back to work but i got a lot closer. here is some pics:

Pics didn't show in the post, but I went to your gallery.  Impressive. I wanna come eyeball that rig. Will be next year before I can get loose, but you can't be more than 30 minutes from me. PM your schedule and location...

Hi Piney woods, can you refresh me on how to post pics in a reply. Ive got them added into my gallery, Our internet police blocks our ability to view video but i read the help thread and tried to link my gallery to my profile but when i looked at the picture in the gallery it had a 6 digit number and when i went to my profile and tried to link the gallery it would only let me put in 5 numbers so i added the last 5. But it still doesnt work. I click "click here to add photos to post"but it takes me to my computer instead of the gallery.

https://forestryforum.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=171846

 

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The first pic above is for raising and lowering the saw frame up and down. Used 50H chain and 1"acme rods on all 4 corners.

Second pic  shows the poor man clutch, over center toggle  idle wheel tension adjuster.

Third pic shows the 26"vertical saw and to the right the 21"horizontal saw blade.

Forth Pic shows a front view of the sawmill as looking from the log. I was able to get it up on the rails just a few hours before leaving to go back offshore.

I was able to run the carriage left and right and the saw frame up and down by using relays and switches giving me a low speed and high speed (12v / 24v). Now that im offshore im starting to work on the PLC program and wiring schematics and do it such a way so that if the plc has problems i wont loose any of the manual functionality but with the flip of a switch have a full range of automated movements and functions depending on if i want to cut dimensional lumber or 1xs and be able to plain saw or quarter saw with or without multiple cants. That along with all the safety interlocks and options looks like it is going to be really neat program to write and debug.
Oh and yes i am going to make some guards for the blades before anyone picks on me about it.
I get home January 8th so my goal is to have it set up in place and cutting manually by mid January.

Awesome build. I look forward to see it up and running.

Now that is interesting.  That would make dimensional lumber really fast.  Do you still have the capacity to cut wider boards ( 2x the blade cut depth) with it?

Swatson, due to being a twin blade im not going to be able to 2x horizontal blade cuts but there is a rumor that a slabber attachment and/or a band mill at the other end of the 40ft track may be my next project once this one is operational.

Still on the rig for another 5 days but my UPS delivery man is going to be wearing my driveway out between now and then. I got the bulk of all the remaining items ordered over the past 2 days:

encoder adapters, encoder flex couplings, additional photo eyes and associated cables and mounting brackets, PLC rack, PLC I/o cards, PLC motion control cards, battery disconnect switch, junction boxes, back plane for main electrical panel, Touch screen operator panel, PLC software, graphics software, estop cable pulls, extra bearings, extra acme nuts for reworking the carriage left / right fine tune adjustment, laser level, emergency fuel and air shut off solenoids,  ect.

Finalized how I was going to wire everything up interfacing the wireless remote and PLC in case the PLC or Operator develops a problem I can flip one switch and run manually. Just got to draw it up pretty for when I start laying out my panel.

Have dumped probably 20 Hours into programming the automatic log cut optimization program & Its coming along nicely. Just about when I think im done I think of another option I would like to add. So far it can:

Scan the log and automatically measure length and diameters at each end, consider if you want to reject a bad core section out of the solution, consider if you have selected  that you want a certain number of certain sized cants, then consider if you want max width, primary selection, or secondary width boards and then primary and secondary thick boards. Then you can select it you want the entire log to be cut plain sawed or quarter sawn. Then it will crunch the numbers and show you 2-3 options and total up the number of boards of each size and the % of boards that will be quarter sawn compared to rift sawn and see which option you would like to cut.

That may sound real simple at first but when you add center core rejection, cant selection, multiple boards sizes option, and then the quarter saw option it gets a little complicated to say the least since it will have to calculate the exact (x,y) location for every board and the sequence it will occur before ever starting the first cut.

After reviewing tons of the old post of what could happen I have added some unique safeties into the mill that can initiate an all stop and shut down the diesel engines air and fuel and kill power to all motors and outputs.

Now im just ready to get home and get her set in place, leveled and plummed, wired, programmed, debugged, and started up. Im going to try plain sawing first to tune out the blade alignments but im really looking forward to being to Quarter saw an entire log without ever turning the log and minimize the waste cuts.

Once she is up and running I can work on the bells and whistles part of the plc and the operator interface.

Last night on the rig and I got some more stuff ordered today to complete the feed works gear ratios.

The speed will be variable with a top speed of 6.5" per second. I am thinking this will be a nice starting point but I ordered a few spare sprockets to adjust it up and down if I need to.

Tomorrow will consist of waking up at 1AM Louisiana time on the rig, catching a chopper, getting visa processed, 4 hr car drive, 7hr wait at airport , 16hrs of flights and layover to make it back home for lunch Thursday. Then get home to start opening boxes and see what all is still left to be delivered & start welding and finishing her up.

Just curious,  where is the rig at you are working on ?

Im in the Atlantic 150 miles south of Rio De Janeiro, Brasil. Been working down here for 5 years, 28/28, as a electronics tech. Before that I was a field engineer 12 years with Rockwell Automation specializing in PLC, drives, and safety systems.

Thanks for taking the time to take us along this build. It's great that you have your 5 year old son helping you out to teach him.   

Do you feel the 2 belt powerband (that's what it appears to be, Im not sure of the proper terminology) is sufficient to transfer the 35hp. The reason I ask is I have a 37hp wisconsin on a chipper that I'm contemplating adapting to over center similar to what you have done but it came with 4 belt pulleys coming off the clutch. The clutch was for the smaller engine and the 37hp engine I believe was too much for the clutch to handle and it burned up as well.

Finally getting a few free days to work on the mill. When balancing the saw carriage frame that moves up and down discovered there was too much sag in the frame when the motor was in the middle so we added channel bracing and then had to cut the vertical side of the angle iron and through the new brace to raise up the middle and Reweld but the fix worked perfectly, with less than 1/16" deflection now in the middle. Added the battery box, reworked the side to side acme rod connections to the saw carriage, added the feed works sprockets, changed 12v alternator to a 24 volt alternator, and am now cutting out the saw carriage safety brackets to prevent possible lifting of the engine /blades carriage. Pics to follow Sunday or monday

 

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This is a stage 2 pic of the PLC panel back plane once the PWM pulse width modulators were added and the H bridge motor direction relays were added. All the relays to the left are for the speed selection, direction control, and run command of the 3 motors. All functions will be able to be initiated from one of 2 wireless remotes. One remotes inputs will be wired into the PLC where as the other will be wired in parallel to the PLC outputs to the relays which will be enabled with a selector switch in case the PLC has a problem.

this weeks punch list is:
Mount the carriage safety brackets.
Mount the photo eye brackets and reflectors. (Front log detect PE, rear log detect PE, diameter PE, rail alignment safety PE)
Mount the wire drag chain for the up/down.
Mount the wire drag chain for the left / right.
Mount the wire junction box's
Swap orientation of horizontal gear box.
Mount the wireless junction boxes and the PLC backplane in the enclosure to give manual function ability.
Add terminal strip on side of panel for encoders, photo eyes, and estop cables.

Look like you know what you are doing.

Well today i got 5 min to work on the mill, hoping tomorrow will be a little more productive
here is 2 pics of the feedworks drive system.


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Subscribing as I want to see how you put this together.  Where did you get the inspiration for the design?

One question, in the photo of the PLC I see gray, female, bridges.  My processor has these same units with a clear relay plugged into it.  What is the name of this style of relay?

Hi Southside,
My inspiration came from endless hours on you tube and google searches trying to come up with the best design to achieve the following goals:
1. Has to be able to be ran by a single person.
2. To minimize the amount of labor involved to produce a finished board.
3. To be able to cut an entire log as either rift or quarter saw without having to handle or turn the log.
4. To be able to compare the best log cut optimization solution and know the % utilization, board sizes, and board feet that can be produced for the number of saw passes, and also allow cant selections from the core along with min, max, secondary and primary board width and thickness selections.  (note this is turning out to be the most complicated)
5. Design a primary breakdown sawmill system that can be added to with additional equipment to produce a very high production system operated by a single person.
And thats how i came up with the design.

The 3 power relays on the right side of the panel is AB 700 type power relays with 4 swappable No or NC contacts for the H bridge. The relay bases in the middle and left are idec 11 pin relay bases type SR3P-06 relay bases to be used with Potter and Brumfield 11 pin 24 volt relays type KRPA-14AG-24.
Everything was purchased off of ebay.

Thanks CaseyK,

I really like what you are doing there.  Yesterday my wife gave me the OK to get a mill!!!  Been one of those additions I have wanted for years.  We were going over the list of projects and lumber costs and she looked at me and asked how much a mill would be seeing that we have the timber.  I agree on the desire to not move the logs and be able to QS. So now I need to figure out what is the best design to pursue.  Ballpark what do you think you will have into components when you are done building?  Thanks  Jim

Rough estimate of around 8K for the mechanical, 1K for basic electrical, 2k for Automation for being able to automatically position the (x,y) cutting axis for each board without having to adjust anything.

Once the build is done im going to make a list of the lessons learned so that anyone else building one can save a lot of time and money building their own.

Rained the last 2 days but getting real close on the mechanical and was able to work on the electrical today, hope to mount Plc backplane and photo eyes saturday.

Very interesting so far...look forward to seeing it run!

just read through this thread....amazing!!! 

great work casey!

Got a lot done this weekend:
Got the PE brackets welded in place,
ran the PE cables back to main panel,
mounted both drag chains,
pulled in the power wires and brake wires for each of the 3 24volt motors to the main panel,
added plastic junction box for the wireless receivers and Ethernet router,
mounted carriage safety brackets. (2 need to be adjusted)
Swapped  orientation of horizontal gear box. (still need to fine tune horizontal blade angle)
Mounted the PLC back plane and wired in the (2) wireless remotes and verified functionality of one going to plc and the other controlling the relays manually without plc control.
And the highlight of the week was when my 10 year old asked me to teach him to drive the tractor so he can move the logs around so we spent an hour or so learning to drive the tractor and moving logs around and even put one in position of the mill for testing later this week.

Mondays punchlist will be:
finalize horizontal Blade,
mount PE's
wire up all 3 motors to PWM relay system,
Wire up 24v,12v,com from battery box to main PLC panel,
relocate the wireless receivers to new plastic box,
Add plastic wire flex covering for wires,
Wire up the 3 motor brakes to the run relays.
If that all goes well then hope to make a manual cut that evening.

I don't know how I have missed reading this.  Very interesting.  Im looking forward to following this.  Nice work!

I absolutely love posts like this one on builds and watching the item come alive. I never cease to be amazed the the diverse talents on this forum. You go to some forums and all you get is mindless chatter, but on the forestry forum you actually get and education and inspiration

Well done CaseyK

Took all day but I got all 3 motors & brakes wired in to the relays and Pwm speed controller, got all the wiring in plastic raceway and relocated the wireless receivers, still got to get the horizontal blade gearbox secured and level and carriage safety brackets reworked, and estoppel wired in before trying to cut with her, hopefully Tuesday evening

Seriously - amazing work.  Can you post some more photos when you get a chance?

What sort of scanning / optimizing set up will you have?  What have you figured out for getting the cut lumber off the log before the next pass? 

Honestly trying to wrap my head around this, for me I can learn by watching and doing so maybe a trip to Louisiana will be in order one of these days to see it work if that is OK. 

CaseyK, Love the build.  I'm up in Felsenthal.  We come to Farmerville pretty regular to Walmart, hardware store, etc.  Would love to stop by and check it out once you get her up and running.  I know how you try to get stuff done in between hitches too.  I worked for Rowan offshore for about ten years.  Only did about three in the GOM.  Seven overseas.  Used to love that 4-5 weeks off.  Sucks going back though.  When do you go back?  I'm at the Eldo refinery now.  Shift work.  Not as good, but can still get a lot done.

Southside,
i will try to get some pics posted tomorrow, The only scanning i will have is a laser attached 6" below the horizontal blade that will detect the log diameter at the small end and at the large end, from there it will calculate the height that the small end will have to be raised to align the core. Centering the log left and right will have to be done manually. 
Ugly tree,
Soon as i get her up and running everyone is invited to come see her cut. I head back to Brasil next monday evening.

Today started out good and i was able to finally get the horizontal blade gearbox mounted solid and got the carriage captive braces secured.
Once i got all of the PWM controls wired in and the motors connected i took all 3 motors thru a check out at various speeds, starting and stopping, forward and reverse. I swapped from one motor to the next for 2-3 min of running before moving to the next and then returning to the same motor.
At that point after 20 min of testing i was really pleased with the controls and things were going great, but one by one the PWM (speed controls) would first loose speed control and then loose stopping ability, so i had to replace the (3) PWMs with another set of power relays for testing and everything functioned correctly.
Plan on adding a 12v/24v slow /fast power relay in front of the new relays mounted today to improve the positioning once the PLC is controlling the system.
If i get to work on it wednesday then im hoping i will finally get to saw my first log, if so i will definetly post a couple of pics.

One hell of a mill. I'm down the road from you, New Roads. I will have to make a trip to see this beast in action one day.

Finally fired up the mill and cut some wood.
It was a learning process to say the least, It was awesome to punch the button on the remote and have it make its first pass thru the log. I got a bunch of pics and video to post tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for all the ideas and encouragement, I couldnt have done it without this forumn.

Hey, I gotta eyeball this thing ! When you get back home after the next rotation, pm me an address, I'll come visit.

 

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Next project is the blade guards to redirect the wood chips away from the radiator, when I tried cutting the 4x4 the blades stalled but found the problem was the toggle over center wasn't going all the way in position because of hitting some metal so I had to torch out some spacing and then it cut the 4x4 with no problem. Added an extension support for the side to side wire drag chain but still need to add the one for up/ down, since the speed regulators went belly up and I couldn't slow the feed works & I promised I wouldn't get hurt I tied 40ft of yellow cable to the motor kill switch and all the relays are 120 volt so my buddy manned the blue extension cable as the estopp on motion and we initiated all the cuts with the wireless remotes while sitting on the porch 30ft away. Adding the wireless remote was a giant help on this project & made checkout a lot faster & safer.

Oh ye The remote control idea was found here on FF, thanks for the idea Pineywoods & yes next hitch you will have to come bye and take a look at her, once I get the positioning and speed control lined out.

Oh ye, I scored a 20ft trailer load of cypress logs today for free today,  already placed next to the concrete driveway, just had to cut to length and load with tractor. I'm waiting on a buddy now so we can go pick up a 17ft pine log about 3 ft in diameter, we will probably have to cut her in 1/2 to load her. I'm going to used the cypress for indeed decks and a base for cutting the logs on. At the first of next hitch home I will extend to tracks from 20 to 50ft and move the mill out of the back yard and get the indeed decks in place.

Looking really great!

I cant wait to see some video of this in action.  Impressive.

Fixing to load the flight to brasil, now I got 28 days to make my mill to do list for next hitch when I get back & also make a little overtime money to pay for the extras.

Goodmorning
I have some questions for all my FF sawers.

Given that my rails will be 40-50ft  long I could have 3 log bunks set up for 9-10ft logs to cut ties, my rails are 10ft apart and my cutting axis of the 2 blades starts 4ft from the left rail and goes to within 1 ft of the right rail leaving me with 5ft of cutting area. The log decks will feed logs from the right side of the mill. I am planning on starting with dead decks to start with and later upgrade to hyd feed.

I found on FF where some swing blade sawers placed multiple logs in the same bunk and spaced them apart in notches to gain production and was wondering if any of you had tried it or had any suggestions.

I will be setting up my mill in a stationary spot and will be adding a board drag back feature so most of the cutting will be done in the first bunk and the second bunk used when the 1st bunk is being loaded with new logs. There will be a tilted roller bed at the start of bunk 1 in the middle of the 5 ft wide cutting area that will move the logs to a roller bed that will move the logs to a X lift for stacking.
There will be a roller bed positioned 3-4 ft from the left rail that will travel the length of the rails with a 1" drop per 10ft to move the ties from the 2nd and 3rd bunks to the start of the rails where they can be loaded on to the xlift.

Does anybody have any ideas? I will try to post a picture of the proposed layout. 

 https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/sawmill_end_rails.jpg

https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/sawmill_rails.jpg

 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/sawmill_end_rails.jpg) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/sawmill_rails.jpg)

Only 6 more days until im back in the USA!!!
I think I mentioned before that the cheap 24v PWM that I had purchased worked but eventually lost speed control so I purchased the following yesterday:

Speed Control DC Motor 32 Amp Minarik XP32-12/24DC with manual off of ebay, they cost around $80-100 delivered, ordered a minarik heat sink $30 off ebay.
The drive has accel/decal/torque limit/and ircomp settings. The drive doesn't have reverseing ability but that will be taken care of from a AB 700 relay wired up in a H bridge configuration between the drive and motor. The drive manual states that it can accept a 0-10v isolated speed reference so im going to wire it to the motion card of the plc

Sorry for not updating sooner. Last hitch home it rained a lot and when it wasn't raining the crappie were biting so I didn't ge much done on the mill, but I did get the following items done:
1. Installed and configured the minarik 24v dc drives to control the speed of the (3) 24 volt wheelchair motors and they worked great, they have the ability to accel to a speed and decal to a stop and also have torque limiting.
2. Installed DC current shunt displays on the 3 motors so I could see what amperage they were producing.
3. Set up the 3 drives to have a slow and fast speed settings at around 20% and 80%.
4. Reworked the main frame up and down guides and the connectors from the 1"acme rods to the 1"drive shafts above them to eliminate any slipping.
5. Added check proxs on each of the acme rods so that if one of the rods get out of sync with the other rods the system will fault before the frame gets uneven and binds.
6. Purchased and painted an additional 20ft of rails for the system to run on bringing the total travel distance to 40ft. After allowing 5ft on each end for the saw assembly that will allow for up to a 30ft log to be cut or (2) 12.5 ft log infeed decks to configured with a 5 ft gap between the ends of the logs.
7. Moved the sawmill from the back porch to around 50 yds from the house so that its out of the way.
8. Was able to saw a few boards and the slow fast selection of the drives via the remote control worked great, it allowed me to move fast then creep into position super slow.

Got a call, will post more later.

So I got all of that done last hitch, now for my to do list for next hitch home:
1. Connect and level the rails and mill in its new position.
2. Rework the up down guides to minimize and mechanical slop.
3. Install the plc.
4. Add diodes to the plc circuits that are paralleled to the manual remote control relay card.
5. install the encoders to the up and down drive rod and the side to side acme rod.
6. Install the wireless Ethernet hub on the mill for the remote operator touch screen.
7. build the operator screens for the log optimization cut solutions depending upon log diameter, primary board selection, min board selection, cants selected, cant sizes, reject bad spot selection, min bark cut, plain saw and /or  quarter saw selection. 
8. Build the 2 tilted infeed decks and the bridge over the feedwork  rails for the logs to travel before landing on the cutting base platform. At first it will all be manual but hope to add hydraulics to center and align the logs and also clamp them to eliminate the chance of log movement while the log is being processed. 
9. Add a blade guard and chips chute on the vertical blade to direct the chips to the left of the log to combine with the horizontal blades chips.
10. Mount the laser photo eyes and wire them into the plc.
11. Add the estop pull cables to the front and rear of the machine.
12. Add a selectable board return flap to the horizontal blade frame.
13. Design a roller case for the lumber or cants to roll upon once pulled off of the stationary log for both of the infeed bunks.
14. Add a water drip system to help cool the blades.
15. Add stiffeners to the main frame to minimize any racking of the main frame as it travels down the feedwork rails.
16. Add a prox speed pick up on the feedworks drive shaft to calculate speed and position.
17. Buy a grinder and bracket for sharpening the blades while still on the machine.
18. Configure some type of chain or conveyor under the cutting bunks to remove the sawdust and finches.
19. Add an alignment laser line to assist in aligning the log and the mill.

Well as you can see I have got a long ways to go. And now I realize why some of these home made builds posted in this forumn took months and months to build. But I have truly enjoyed every bit of it, from getting the motor, buying the metal, doing some red neck engineering, cutting and welding, and wiring it up and sending it down the rails to cut its first log. Thanks for all the input, questions, and answers from all of the FF members that have posted or messaged me. Nex hitch home (month of May ) will be cut short with training and family events but im hoping as always to get the bulk of the 19 steps above done before having to go back to work and get to do some sawing to build a sawmill shed but that will be another thread. Thanks for reading.

Quote from: CaseyK on April 06, 2015, 04:26:04 PM
14. Add a water drip system to help cool the blades.

having never built a sawmill or seen a circular saw run, i was under the impression that most circular saws did not have cooling or lube systems....

do you expect a lot of heat buildup? on the blade?

jueston,
no I didn't expect that it should heat up a lot but an older sawmill expert was talking to me about the mill and when I asked him about it he said I should so I thought I would give it a try.

Most of the larger swing blade mills use blade coolant. Mostly to control pitch build up on the blade. Blade gets warm. that makes pitch and dust stick to it, making more friction and more heat. Eventually you have problems.

You don't need to use it all situations, and the smaller mills with less power don't seem to need it.

That is one heck of a mill you have there. I might try to come visit one day when you are back home if it's ok.

Sure thing Fishfighter, Im hoping to be cutting some wood with her the 3rd week of May if all goes well.

Hoping the daily work load on the rig will slow down so I can work on the automation part of the mill, such as the operator screens and the board cut solution and blade positioning programming. Once all this mechanical work is done that's when the fun electrical work really gets to start.

Marked the third weekend in May on my calender. I wanna see that mill run. I'm only about 30 minutes from you..

I must say your build absolutely boggles my mind.  It makes my builds look like a 2nd grader did it!  Awesome, awesome job.  I have nothing else to say to try to help or anything.  You are far ahead of me in talent and knowledge.  One thing I can add - another poster mentioned a concern about 2 belts being able to handle the engine power.  The rule of thumb I learned was one 1/2" belt will handle 20hp if tensioned properly.  Some cheapie lawn tractors out there have over 20hp and a single narrow belt running the whole deck.  So 2 B belts will handle what you have all things being equal.  Kudos to you, my friend.

Very, very impressive. 8)

CaseyK, I just finished reading your post. Just one word. AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!! You've got a real special talent. Hope I can make it in May also. Would love to see it in action.
I may have to do something different  on my speed/position controls. This Kangaroo pwm controller is giving me nothing but problems. Its supposed to autotune all the pid but it keeps giving errors instead.
Congrats on a great build...
Arnold

Thanks Arnold.
One thing you might try on the controller is to use just 2 speeds, a fast for moving and a slow for just creeping so that you don't have to tune the PID's proportional and integral gain stuff. Also verify the compatibility of the encoder, I never knew there was so many different types of feedbacks from encoders, some need specific pull up resistors and others are line drivers. If the encoder is compatible then scope its feedback signal at the controller to see if you are getting noise, adding or removing a shield ground has fixed a lot of weird PWM drive problems. Another thing is to look at is to run the unit at set speed command thru the entire range of motion at a slow speed and then a medium and fast speed while looking at the amp meter to detect possible mechanical problems.

Lasers
The last couple of days I have  been looking at the lasers that sawmills are using to assist in aligning the logs and positioning the blade cuts and most of them were limited to 30mw strength and in the past they were very very pricey. I found some on ebay that are 100mw red line type and I ordered 4. Planning on placing 2 on the same planes as the 2 circular blades and then the other 2 to the right and below the blades so I will have 2 horizontal lines and 2 vertical lines. I am planning on trying to cut some ties /cants/ post  so I thought this would really help a lot on eye balling if the core is going to be inside the tie.

Piney woods
I just got thru reviewing your post about adding hydraulics to mills and im impressed. Ive got a couple more weeks on the rig so im going to start putting a pencil to the paper and see if I can come up with a log handling system to complement the sawmill. It will be powered by an electric motor. My wish list for the system would include:
1. live infeed deck
2. unloader at end of infeed deck to transfer log over mill rails
3. log chain to position the log left and right on the cutting deck and dump bark cuts and slabs over into the trash conveyor once the log has been processed.
4. trash conveyor
5. Toe boards with built in log dogs that can raise the cant off of the log chains and clamp the log into position. Planning on having 2 toe boards, one at the large diameter end of the log what will have a short stroke of 1.5" which will typically either be fully extended or retracted, the toe board at the end of small diameter end of the log will have greater travel so that it can center the core of the log up and down to align it with the bid end.  Mobile dimension's log dogs have an option that im going to try to incorporate where they have one fixed dog then a log then a sliding log dog with a tooth on each side they a movable log dog that applies pressure to clamp both logs at the same time. This would assume both logs are relatively straight and of the same diameter. It could be usefull on a swing blade or twin blade cutting deck since we don't typically rotate the log. My cutting deck are is roughly 5 ft wide so clamping multiple logs at the same time hopefully will improve production rate.
6. hyd powered output conveyor to remove the finished lumber from the mill as the board drag back pulls the board to the operator (front of the mill)
7. Lift cylinder for the output conveyor closest to the operator.

The hyd system is just a pie dream right now but man it sure would be cool to have all of those options available & imagine the production you could get.

If anyone has added any of these hyd options and can add some input or pics please post because im an electrical guy and I would really appreciate it, I could never have gotten this far without reading all the post on this site and the generous information given by its members. Thanks




 

Well today would have been my first day back home to work on the mill but I got the opportunity to work over a week so im still in the atlantic ocean for another week. But if all goes well by the end of may she will be up and running in automatic mode.

Ill get some pics and videos uploaded as soon as she is operational.

I can't wait to see it in action!

Ready to start working on the mill in the morning, hope the weather co-operates this week.

I'm glad you're back!  I know some of us are waiting and holding our collective breath.   8)

Finally got 2 days to work on the mill and was able to get this all done:
1. Connect and level the rails and mill in its new position.
(still need to secure the tracks to some 5x5 cross timbers for better stability once i get them cut)
2. Rework the up down guides to minimize and mechanical slop.
(Added uhmw notched guides to travel up corner post and it worked great & also notched 3" of steel off angle frame on one end to allow for 3" lower travel)
3. Install the plc. (mounted the plc and ran the power to it)
4. Add diodes to the plc circuits that are paralleled to the manual remote control relay card. (will probably just remove the dual wiring to the relays)
5. install the encoders to the up and down drive rod and the side to side acme rod. (done but operation not verified yet)
6. Install the wireless Ethernet hub on the mill for the remote operator touch screen. (not yet)
7. build the operator screens for the log optimization cut solutions depending upon log diameter, primary board selection, min board selection, cants selected, cant sizes, reject bad spot selection, min bark cut, plain saw and /or  quarter saw selection. (not yet)
8. Build the 2 tilted infeed decks and the bridge over the feedwork  rails for the logs to travel before landing on the cutting base platform. At first it will all be manual but hope to add hydraulics to center and align the logs and also clamp them to eliminate the chance of log movement while the log is being processed.  (not yet)
9. Add a blade guard and chips chute on the vertical blade to direct the chips to the left of the log to combine with the horizontal blades chips. (got drawing done)
10. Mount the laser photo eyes and wire them into the plc. (Mounted and wired in the photo eyes but still need to mount their reflectors)
11. Add the estop pull cables to the front and rear of the machine. (not yet)
12. Add a selectable board return flap to the horizontal blade frame. (not yet)
13. Design a roller case for the lumber or cants to roll upon once pulled off of the stationary log for both of the infeed bunks. (not yet)
14. Add a water drip system to help cool the blades. (not yet)
15. Add stiffeners to the main frame to minimize any racking of the main frame as it travels down the feedwork rails.
16. Add a prox speed pick up on the feedworks drive shaft to calculate speed and position. (not yet)
17. Buy a grinder and bracket for sharpening the blades while still on the machine. (got it in yesterday)
18. Configure some type of chain or conveyor under the cutting bunks to remove the sawdust and finches. (not yet)
19. Add an alignment laser line to assist in aligning the log and the mill. (mounted and wired but not strong enough for direct sunlight but should work good enough once i get a shed built over it)

Still got to add guards and enable PLC program to control positioning but next weekend i should be able to get some of that done. Ive got 4 videos & am trying to add them to Youtube now.

Looks like uploading the videos to youtube is going to take a while.
There should be 4 videos: feed work and rails, engaging the over center toggle, cutting beam, left side move.
In the cutting beam video if you look close you can see that the 4 post frame is racking a little as it travels down the rails. Im going to add beams to tie the rails together better , regrease the bearings for the 4 rollers, and play with the feedworks chain positioning on one side of the track and adjust its position forward and reverse to see if that can smooth out the travel.

Link to your videos when you get them loaded and set for public view.

Guess im doing something wrong because its taking forever, got the left side move video uploaded.
Try to view it at: http://youtu.be/S3kqSBhVido
I will try to get the other 3 posted in the morning.

If you look close you can see the acme rods rotating which are moving the engine and blades assembly to the left for the next cut.

The next video shows cutting a 5x5 beam, as the frame moves down the rails you can see the slight racking motion i was talking about.

https://youtu.be/vmIrFoIaGnw

next shows engaging the overcenter toggle to takeup slack on the drive belts.

https://youtu.be/IH0r7xp2yuE

Last video shows the feedworks sprocket and rails, one motor drives a gearbox with a hollow shaft, 50 rollerchain sprockets drive secondary sprockets where 40 rollerchain sprockets drive the final chain that goes the length of the 40ft rails.

https://youtu.be/db1o33cCGp0

This is a most impressive homemade build.  Do you have any ideas what causes the jumping/racking?
I have two ideas why it may be but I want to see what you say first because I truly believe you're smarter than me!
Keep up the nice work and thanks for taking the time to post pics and videos.

Ox
I am out of town this week but hope to get back on it Saturday, as far as the problem of racking here is the possible causes:
1. rails not perfectly aligned and leveled yet causing friction and binding; so Im going to add beams to tie the rails together better.
2. roller wheels have too much friction;regrease the bearings for the 4 rollers
3. The gearing is correct on the sprockets but the positioning of the cahin ends could be out just a little so im going to adjust one side +/- 1/4" at a time to see if that helps.
4. The dc drive on the feed works 24v wheel chair motor has a load adjustment setting to compensate for changes in load while maintaining the speed; going to get the manual out and see where it was factory set at and see if the adjustments improve the smoothness of the travel.

If you or anybody else has any ideas please put them out there, i couldnt have got this far without all of the comments and messages from forumn members.
Thanks Fellas

 

Are your chains solid mounted or spring mounted on the ends?  You may have mentioned or showed it at one time but this is a long post and I get easily sidetracked.  If it's mounted on springs, it could be bouncing them.  If you have good control over the drive motor I don't see why mounting the chains solid would hurt anything.
I know I mentioned I have two ideas but I've forgotten the other idea.   :(
My memory frickin' sucks.
I'll bet your #4 on the list is a possible problem.  I can see how it would keep sensing back and forth all the while.  If you could bypass that somehow and just let it be a simple gear motor I'd bet it'll improve or fix the jerky-jerk.
I'm quite hesitant to suggest anything to you as you are clearly of a higher caliber with your skills.

The feed work chains are welded to adjustment rods and the chains are supported every 8ft down the 40ft track to minimize the dip in the chain

Out of town doing training this week but was able to get a local machine shop to cut out the steel I was needing to fab up the vertical blade guard this weekend.

Many people reading this thread!  Thanks for keeping us posted.

CaseyK
I too have had cogging problems that I first blamed flexing of the four post frame so I clamped temp cross braces to the frame. It didn't help. The only way I ever got rid of the problem was to retune the control system (change the PID settings).  You probably aren't using PID but explore what drive settings you have. Maybe that will help.
Arnold

Last 2 days have been long & productive, got the 2 saw decks cut out and welded today. One has 3 uprights, the other 2. Each runner is 6 ft apart and both decks can clamp 2 logs at the same time. Worked until 9 tonight cutting out the pipe for the 2 indeed decks, one has 3 top pipes 6 ft apart, the other 2 6' apart, matching the saw decks. The infests decks are 13ft long which should hold 8-10 logs. Also scored a 15hp hydraulic unit with heat exchanger and tank, also scored 40ft of heavy duty roller conveyors. If it doesn't rain hope to pour concrete for the saw decks so I can get them bolted down solid.

Holy crow!  You are a busy beaver.

I had intentions of stopping by yesterday, customer called, bringing a truck load of logs. He never showed. Maybe today. I'll bring a couple of saw blades that I have no use for, I run a bandmill..

Got one of the indeed decks welded out and the other unit in position to weld out tomorrow morning & then start transporting everything to the house.
Piney woods I'm hoping to be home friday

 

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Got indeed decks and saw decks in position but not leveled or bolted down. Also got the hydraulic unit and (4) roller beds to the house. Tomorrow I'm going to clear the trees off of a spot so my buddy can make me a pad for the 40x60 saw shed to be built next hitch home.

Arnold I adjusted the IR Drop pot on the feed works dc drive and it appeared to help, hope to do some testing tomorrow

That there is somethin' fierce powerful impressive for a homebuilt mill.  VERY cool.   smiley_thumbsup

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Look at the cool toys the ups guy dropped off last week.  Thank for ghe compliment OX but I haven't got to the cool stuff yet but hopefully next hitch home will be when I get to show off the cool stuff.

Can't wait!
That hookaroon looks like a different hook tip than mine.  Is it Logrite as well?
Be safe out there.  :)

Hi ox, the picaro on is a Koch brand. I got to try the log right today picking up a 16ft trailer full of tie logs today & it worked great, well worth the investment.

Logrites are the best.  I always balked at the price but you can't put a price on something that works THAT GOOD!
And made in America!  By good people! 
It's a win-win situation in my book.

Are you using 2050 chain for the feed ? That tends to jerk a little as it goes around small sprockets.  I removed all m 2040-2050 chain from my planters and replaced it with regular roller chain . Not skipping every other tooth smooths out the running .  If our other fixes don't work try the chain.

Casey's busy schedule and mine finally came together  enough for a short visit. I was very impressed with his mill. It has features borrowed from several different mills, plus a good dose of original thinking. I'll not get into details, I'll leave that to Casey. Just imagine a swing mill with diesel power, 60 ft rails, power feed in all 3 dimensions, 2 log bunks with log turner, remote wireless console and setworks. Even more mind boggling is the capability of a slabber that will handle 72 inch by 50 ft logs. Bring on them monster syp and cypress logs  ;D I'll be visiting a lot.

CaseyK, thanks for taking the time from your busy schedule and giving me a tour...

Thanks for the kind words piney woods, I enjoyed our visit. The mill rails are only 40ft, not 60, but a 30ft board will be long enough. Next hitch home I will have to come look at your log turner in action before I start on mine.

Don, I think you are right about the double space chain, I was using 2040 and think now I'm going to replace it with regular 40 roller chain and possibly some larger idle sprockets.

Tonight is the first of 28 nights on the rig, so im going to have a lot of time to engineer and re-engineer the mill on paper before i get back home with the help of all the previous FF post and gallery pics.

Hey... Lookin good.
Do you have a finished picture of your electrical box withe the new controlers ?

hi Kbeitz
Sorry I don't have any pics with me on the rig. I went with a 30x26"enclosure and its packed full. I have a 10 slot PLC rack on the top of the backplane with 12 isolation relays and 3 large AB 700 relays for direction control below it, bottom of the enclosure is for power distribution, right wall is where I mounted the 3 drives, and left wall uses a 45 degree stand off dim rail for the (2) wireless remotes to wire into and the field I/o to wire into. I added a plastic 12x12 box below the main box to house the 2 wireless remotes and a future wireless Ethernet hub to connect the plc to a 17" touch screen HMI industrial computer.

I will try to look up the dc drives part numbers for you tonight.

10 more days left on the rig. Guess its time to start ordering stuff again.
Decided to try to resolve the feed works jumping issue by replacing the 2040 roller chain with regular #40 roller chain, it should arrive before I get home. Also ordered an extra AB encoder for the Up/dn or left / right travel.
The Dozer guy has 2-3 hrs left to be thru with clearing the sawmill site and building the sawmill shed pad.
Been working on getting a drawing of the mill layout showing all the mill footings and the shed footings so that when I get home I can pour some footings. My mill will be stationary so ive been trying to figure out all the different ways to arrange and rearrange the equipment to enable me the most cutting options for now and with the addition of future equipment such as a 2 head resaw.
Im going to need to have the shed assembled before moving the sawmill in position but im still hoping to have it in position and cutting this July hitch home.

Thanks for the updates.  I love to see a go-getter going and getting it done!
I think you're right on with the switch to the 40 chain instead of the skip chain.

Last night on the rig.
My punchlist is simple this time, by the end of the hitch home I hope to get the shed up, mill installed, with infeed and sawdecks in position and be able to do some cutting so this thing can start paying for its self before I add the hydraulics and other stuff.
That sounds simple enough & if I can get around 120hrs in on the project I might reach my goal, we will see.

Good move, get the basics operational and run it as a manual setup before you comit to added features. You will likely find a few things you'll want to change anyway, although what you have accomplished so far looks mighty good to me.

x2!  I wish you luck in getting everything on your list done in time.  Be safe out there.

Been busy, got the trusses and the 8 holes bored for the 40x 75 shop,  rebard frames made and sonic tubes ready to cut and mount and adjust for elevation. Picked up the 8 weld pads with anchor bolts ready to go once the rebarb and sonic tubes are in place. Also had to spend 5 hrs reworking the driveway to make the wife happy. Hope to pour concrete by Thursday if it stops raining and dries up enough for concrete truck. Then just have trusses, perlins, and tin screwed down to be ready to move the mill. Decided to elevate the infeed side rail when I install it to speed up production. Will try to post some pics of shed build tomorrow.

Cool!  Always nice to see and follow a busy, capable man getting things done.

Wednesday night update:
Got the concrete poured Tuesday for the 8 truss support piers, 24" diam 3 ft deep in the ground with another 12" bore 2 ft deep at the bottom of that.
While waiting on concrete truck decided to bore another (26) 9" diameter holes for the twin blade rail supports, future resaw infeed, and control cab. Once we poured the 26 holes full of concrete we placed a 3-1/2 ft section of 3" drill pipe in each hole.
Once the concrete truck pulled out and we had our base plates stuck in the concrete me and my one helper called it a day.
Today i took back the 24" auger and ordered the perlins for the roof and got a take off for the tin,  going with (3) 25ft bays x 40ft building with 5ft overhang on the ends so the total building will be 40x85.
Would love to stand up the trusses but looks like we are headed to nashville for my daughters dance recital for the next 4 days. But i will get started back on it tuesday. Will try to post some picks ASAP.

Quote from: CaseyK on May 28, 2015, 10:46:08 PM
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Ox, you are correct that orange tool is a Chinese knock off.  Our points are pinned into a special collar which is welded onto the handle.  The collars function is to hold that point nice and tight.  The knock off has the point slipped into a hole drilled in the handle. 

So I'm going to say it again unless the hookaroon has a logrite or stihl sticker on it, it is not mine.   

Sorry CaseyK

Travelled all day yesterday to nashville and today my daughter did her dance stuff, now she will have classes Saturday and Sunday but we should get home Monday morning to get started on the shop build. Ordered the perlin clips today and they should be delivered Tuesday.

Its been a long  9 days, real long , with 100 + heat index every day. Got the concrete piers poured, truss beams stood up and welded off, truss tops lifted in place, 750 ft of 8" perlins placed, (8) 100 ft x 6 ft rolls of insulation installed,,  (50) 20'-2" roof tin installed, (40) 12ft side tin installed, 75ft of ridge tin installed. It took 15 hrs a day except for 2hrs for Sunday service But we finished the 40x75 shed today and moved the sawmill tracks and mill into the shed this evening. Still have to mount and align rails and then place mill on tracks. Hoping to get her placed before I leave for work overseas Sunday. Will post pics as soon as I get to a computer.

Boy, if you work that hard on your job they couldn't pay you enough!

Great job.

Look forward to seeing it all come together.

Herb

You certainly are a working sonuvagun!  Congratulations and I'm looking forward to pictures.  Thanks for the update.

 

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HO.  LY.  CRAP.  Fantastic!  I didn't realize the scope of the project you were talking about.  Pictures truly are worth a thousand words.  That's really great and you should be proud of yourself.  8)

Nice looking building

I want one.   8)

Was able to place the rails an mill in their general positions but will have to wait until next hitch to  get the in position and  set up the indeed decks.

That is indeed one nice building, but having visited Casey and seen some of his handiwork, I'm not surprised. wouldn't surprise me if it gets heat and ac.. ;D

 

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Here is a few pics with the rails and mill placed under roof.  Still got to level and mount everything but was glad I could get her placed in her new home before I had to leave To go to work to get some rest.

Thanks for taking the time to share and to post pictures.  You must have been running around "crazy like" this hitch home.
Having to go to work at a "real job" reminds me of my farming days.  I looked forward to taking a run for my "real job" driving rig and delivering to Red Lobsters and Olive Gardens.  Pretty sad when your easier job is hand delivering between 1,000 and 1350 cases of food and related products in a day or two.  Some runs had to be layovers because of hours of driving regulations.
You are doing a bang-up job there.  You'll have a top-notch operation going before too long at this rate!  Well done!

1-1/2 weeks into the work hitch with 2-1/2 more to go.
Ive got a friend needing some work so i gave him the job of fabbing up the rail to post connectors and aligning the rails and placing the machine on the rails over the next day or so.
Im sure hoping he can get it done so i can add a dozen other things to his to do list so that when i get home it will be ready to run some logs through. 

so if you still need a clutch here's one like we use for different things
Warner Custom Clutch Brake
Download a PDF of this article
Highlights
Custom clutch/brake designed to fit reduced footprint
250 ft.lb. static torque rating
Unique spring-loaded armature provides accurate engagement
Maintenance-free design not affected by dust and debris

Thanks Dblair
I will take a look at it.

Casey K

Last night (noon to midnight)shift on the rig and ready for tomorrows trip back to America. Due to the weight of my saw motor and frame I've never been happy with the speed of its up and down movement with the wheelchair motor turning the (4) 1"acme rods so I came up with a solution I'm going to try: since my 24vdc drive is big enough I'm going to add another 24v dc motor connected with the same drive chain to the acme rod effectively doubling my available power. From there I can adjust the sprocket sizes to get the required torque and adjust the speed reference of the drive to control the speed of the movement.

this hitchs punchlist is as follows
1. Level rails supports and weld angle iron on top of them to bolt the 40ft long rails in place, plum and square.
2. Mount the mill on top of the rails.
3. Replace the 2040 feedworks roller chain with the new 100ft of 40 rollerchain.
4. Add the additional up dn motor mounting frame and reconfigure the drive chain and sprocket sizes.
5. Got to field fab a flat sprocket to a 17mm wheel hub for the new up dn motor shaft.
6. Add lower hard wired limit switch for the up dn travel to prevent the acme nuts bottoming out on the bottom bearings (don't ask who did that).
7. Verify operation of the encoder for the up and down travel via the plc.
8. Rework the circuitry of the 3 drives speed control from the current relay configuration to be driven from analog output cards giving 100% speed regulation in all 3 movements.
9. Add the feedworks encoder, mounting bracket, build wiring connector, wire into encoder card, configure program scale factors and verify operation.
10. Build the control panels touch screens to control actions, provide position feedback, and show possible cut solutions created by the plc considering: the logs diameter, lumber sizes desired, whether a center can't is desired and if so what size, if quartersawing boards or plainsawing is selected.
11. Once steps 1-10 are done then verifying the accuracy of commanding the setworks to make the movements necessary to perform quartersawing solutions by placing a laser on the saw frame and stepping through the movements commands and marking the laser locations in front of the mill and verifying its accuracy before ever cutting a log.
12.Enable encoder and photo eye safety zones in the logic so that a saw head movement can not be commanded unless the carriage is clear of the log.
13. Place the infeed decks, align, level, and secure in place.
14. Place the saw decks that the log will sit on while being cut in place and once aligned, levelled, and squared then they will be secured in place.
15. Add the log clamps to the saw decks for securing the logs.
16. Add some kind of movable bridge to allow the logs to go over the right rail while moving from the infeed deck to the saw
deck.
17.Modify the 4 roller decks so they will fit between the saw decks and the left rail so that the bark slabs and the lumber can easily be moved to either end of the mills 40 ft of rails for stacking or disposal.
18. Cut a 500 bft  of 6x6 sleepers for stacking lumber piles on for air drying.
19. Cut some 3/4" thick boards for ripping stickers out of.
20. If all of that goes well then it will be time to figure out how to take care of a lot of sawdust.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of other steps along the way but it helps a lot to get it all written down and a path determined.

Thanks for all the wisdom and encouragment the FF members have given me on this project. I'll be sure to post a lot more pics of the progress this hitch home.

Casey Kennedy

No need for two motors. Watch E-bay for the bigger motors.
Check out what I just got in.... The motors are huge...
Super Torque 3 motors and brakes 11.6 MPH





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Nice find!  I find myself slightly envious looking at those motors and thinking of the possibilities.  :D

Got one of the rails aligned and leveled today and 1/2 of the second rail done. Hope to get the machine placed on the rails by noon tomorrow

Both rails done and machine lowered on to the rails. Got the new feedworks chains installed and the saw decks in their rough positions. Tomorrow I hope to have the saw decks and infeed decks elevations set up.

I can't wait to see this thing make some dust.
I also can't wait to see how you're going to scan/measure the log.

Thanks for keeping us up to date through the build.

Got to get a few hrs in this morning. Was able to adjust out the feedwork chain and run it up and down the rails and with the 40 roller chain instead of the 2040 rollerchain the travel is much smoother, and for a test I tried to  push against the machine to see if I could get it to stall but it was way to powerfull. The up and down travel however still stalls sometimes in both directions so im still planning on adding an aditional motor and  increasing the gear ratio by 50%  so I should have 3 times the power of before. I got the sprockets ordered this evening and they should be in early next week. I replaced the left right travel motor and got it mounted but not wired yet.  Since I am going to have to wait on the sprockets I went ahead and  started placing the saw decks and infeed decks in position  and hope to level them out tomorrow. Was able to finally start working on the touch screen to plc wireless comunication system and looks like the modem is going to work but will test with plc in the morning.

Board maker,  the log scanning will be just for length and diameter by using photo eyes and having encoders on all 3 movements.
(Up/dn, left/right , and feedworks) it will be a poor mans scanner and not be able to truely scann the log for sweep  and the operator will have to set where the left right center of the log is so that cut solution can be calculated depending upon thickness and width boards desired, if one or multiple center cants are to be cut and if plainsawing or quartersawing is desired. I've alread got 75% of the logic done and am looking forward to working on it once this mechanical part is over with.

Thanks for keeping us up to date.  Your mill obviously has taken a lot of work and is way, way over my head and beyond my capabilities.  You should be very proud of yourself! :)

Cut a few oak boards yesterday and everything went great but then I sprang a leak in the radiator, so I pulled it and got it ready to take to the radiator shop Tuesday. Since it will be Tuesday before I can cut again I started on the control room & scored some specialy windows from the hardware store that had got ordered incorrectly. I got both 5'x6' windows for 50 bucks each. Once the control room is framed I still need to get the updn encoder tested and the speed signals wired to the analog outputs.

Quote from: CaseyK on September 05, 2015, 10:04:25 PM
I still need to get the updn encoder tested and the speed signals wired to the analog outputs.

Do you work for NASA for your other job?  :D ;) 

Will you be posting a video of this machine when you're done building and testing it?  I think that would be wonderful.

 

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 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/image~32.jpg) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/image~33.jpg) I was able to build the floor deck of the control room this morning before church. Finally be used how I was going to mount the 5x6 windows on the front of the room by doing a 45degree nose on the front to give the best view of both saw decks.

Here are some pics of the control cab being built

 

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casey
The pics are showing up all sideways.. can you fix?

Sorry beenthere, saw your post on my iphone & the pics were correct but now tonight I looked at them on my nook and they are all sideways.

Today I added the ac unit, wiring, and insulation to the control room and cleaned up the shop. The radiator guy called and he said the radiator passed away and its replacement will be ready for pick up tomrrow evening. Still got to mount the touch screen in the control room and debug the updn encoder and add the feedworks encoder mountkng bracket and Rework the radiator mounting & blade guard.

There aren't many people in the world that can build their own professional twin blade sawmill with all the electronic modern controls.   8)

Thanks ox.
The radiator didn't come in today but should be in tomorrow. Got to work on the left right positioning control and got it consistently hitting .005 position error. The up down encoder had to be replaced but I got it rewired and working.hope to debug the positioning program tomorrow and get the radiator installed

 smiley_reading_book popcorn_smiley

Where did you learn all the electronic gadgetry stuff?  Another job, schooling,...?

Plc and drive automation is all I have done for the last 24 years. 4 yrs of college but mostly learned it in the field.
I got the radiator in today but will have to modify the mounting bracket. And for the big step I created my 1st operator screen and verified control over the wireless link. Hope to make some sawdust by lunch tomorrow if all goes well

Sounds great.  I've really enjoyed this project.  I have the same profession.  I've wanted to do the same thing except a swingblade.

By the way, what brand/model plc and hmi are you using?  You may have said, but for some reason, I've missed it.

Plc is Allen Bradley control logix 5000, hmi is industrial touch screen with Rsview32, mo2 motion cards for encoder feedback, miniark xp32 dc drives, wheelchair motors, AB photo eyes. Purchased everything except the steel off of ebay & surplus center.

 ???

*shaking my head in amazement*

:D

Did you draw up your control room with SketchUp?  Wondering why you have pink studs... :D  Nice project, been following it for a while.  Can't wait to see it in action!

Didn't draw the control room up just stopped by the hardware store and figured up a material on the fly and they had pink 2x4 studs for some reason.
Today took a lot longer to rework the new radiator mounts because it was 1-1/2" thicker which complicated everything but the silver liner was that I was able to mount the horizontal blade cover as part of the radiator frame rework. Didn't get to fill the radiator up and fire her off but I will in the morning

Oops it was the vertical blade cover not the horizontal. It's not going to have one on the horizontal blade.

Got the chance to dig the trench for the electrical with a hoe this morning so I had to swap over to that project

Not only is he very capable, he's very adaptable as well!  I appreciate your time with the updates.  It's like reading a working journal of sorts.  It's good you still have your health to be able to do these things!

I wasn't able to get the trench finished or the radiator filled with water but did get a lot closer to finishing up. Now I'm headed to Houston for a week of training then fly back to work next Sunday.

What is your job on the rig?

Electronics technician

With a week of school in Houston & family stuff the hitch flew bye but I got a few items off the list and am one hitch closer to getting it up and operational.

Since i have been on the rig this hitch i have been playing around with the remote control functions and the log cut solution programs.
I built the PLC logic to calculate from the diameter what the number of cut layers would be in the log and the open face measurement of each layer and the exact X,Y position of each cut on that layer for the selected primary board size and a secondary board size if there isn't enough room for another primary board.

The logic would solve for all cut position solutions for the entire log from just the measure of the log height (diameter), primary, and secondary board width and thickness selections.

At first this sounded great and i thought i was finished, but then i remembered that the best ability of a swing mill or twin blade vs a band mill is the ability to Quarter saw and Rift saw and that was the main reason i built a twin blade mill to start with. Also from doing automation my entire life i know that no matter how smart you make the machine the operators judgement and ability is the most valuable part of any system, you just have to give him the tools needed to succeed.

And you have to keep it simple enough anyone can operate it. 

For this twin blade the operators tools will consist of a 12 button wireless remote that will control the machine in 2 modes of operation: manual and automatic.
In manual mode the buttons functions will be:
1. define top center position of log
2. drop down so open face width will = 2 x primary board width
3. find diameter height of log
4. speed slow / fast
5. feedworks fwd
6. feedworks reverse
7.  auto / manual mode
8. move saw up
9. move saw down
10. All stop command
11. move saw left
12. move saw right

In Automatic
1. drop down one width layer and go to left bark cut position
2. drop down one width layer
3. move right one width layer
4. drop down one thickness layer and go to left bark cut position
5. drop down one thickness layer
6. move right one thickness layer
7.  auto / manual mode
8. feedworks speed toggle: slow, med, fast
9. feedworks move initiate / pause
10. All stop command
11. spare
12. Primary / Secondary/ Cant / Max : board selection toggle

Note:
1. Bark cut is position inside the outer diameter that accounts for the bark and sapwood layer. example if a pine log is 30"diameter then the wood to be cut into lumber may have a bark cut diameter of 27.5".
2. While in manual mode the machine will lower the saw head down until the log breaks a laser photo eye this will determine the log diameter, but i will have to manually move the saw left or right to align the saw to the center of the log before pushing the (define top center position of log) button.
3. The ability to move down or right by a thickness or width provides the ability to quarter saw the log.

I will have to add some indicator lamps on the front and rear of the machine to show:
Auto / manual mode selected
which board size is selected
speed selected for feedworks
all stop activated

I am sure there will still be a lot of changes between now and the finished product but at least im getting closer to putting the machine into operation when i get home next hitch. Special thanks to all of the FF members that have put their builds on here and the ones that have posted on my thread or send messages.

And yes, when i get her up and running next hitch i will post a ton of videos

Simply mind boggling.  I'm willing to bet that this may be one of the most sophisticated sawmill builds ever.

Quote from: CaseyK on October 08, 2015, 01:56:10 AM

And yes, when i get her up and running next hitch i will post a ton of videos

Video would be nice, but I wanna come watch  ;D

Quote from: pineywoods on October 08, 2015, 10:32:58 AM

Quote from: CaseyK on October 08, 2015, 01:56:10 AM

And yes, when i get her up and running next hitch i will post a ton of videos

Video would be nice, but I wanna come watch  ;D

Me too.  I'd love to make the drive once Casey has had sometime to play and learn.

Well today is the best day of the hitch offshore: Crew Change Day
I have had a whole 28 days to figure on what to do and how to do it to put the finishing touches on the sawmill and hope to get started on it the beginning of next week after getting caught up on the honey do list.

Them can get long when you are gone for a month.
When i left for work i had just replaced the radiator & mounted the vertical blade guard but didn't get to add water and try it out.

While off shore i figured out how i was going to program the remote controls for the operator & once home i will have to add that logic to the PLC.

This hitch i am planning on:
1. Adding a 2 position board drag back that can be used on 1x and 2x lumber cut vertically or positioned to drag back 4x, 6x, or 8x lumber cut laying horizontally.
2. Build a blade guard for the horizontal blade to direct the chips and protect the operator in the chance i hit metal and sling a bit. Since the blade will move across the surface of the open face cut on a large log im planning on adding chain link drops around the edge like what you would see on the discharge side of a bush hog.
3. Swap out the feedworks  final drive sprockets to a larger size to give me the desired top speed feed rate when cutting small boards and/or returning to the front position.
4. Look into adding a water cooling drip for the blades.
5. Ordered an electronic fuel shut off solenoid and i have got to figure out how to mount it for this application.
6. Get the electrical service ran from the house to the sawmill underground and connected up at the house.

Thats what i have planned for the first couple of days & once done with that im going to have to finally figure out how to saw a log up into lumber & make some videos of it to post.

Thanks again for all the information, comments, and encouragement all of the FF members have given me on this project. Its been just over a year since i started the build and am so looking forward to putting in a couple of  days of just sawing logs to figure out whats going to work and whats going to need to be modified.

CaseyK 

 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/image~40.jpg) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/image~41.jpg) got the horizontal blade guard built just got to mount it now

At first glance, I thought that you were building a bushhog.   :D

well MM its 1/2 of a bush hog, just in case i find a little metal and sling a tooth. i got the idea from one of the home built sling bladers that posted his guard build.

Got it mounted tonight and hoping to get a few more items marked off the list in the morning.

I thought the same as MagicMan.  :D  Glad to see you're back home and back to work.  Chains like that will stop many things and slow down most if not all things and it looks good!  I wonder why they went from using chains to the thick rubber like in cow mats?  Costs probably.  Thick rubber is a very good deflector as well.

Fuel shut off solenoid project didn't work out, changing feed works gear in sprocket change out didn't work out either so I got to swap it back out and order another set of sprockets.

Blade guard is mounted
Last night I got to put in 2-3 hrs on building the set up screens and debug the automatic functions of the remote control, and it went great.

I didn't get to run the feed works but did get to tune out the position loops on the x (left/right) and y (up/down) and can now position the blade intersection (cut axis) to within 1/1000 of an inch every time. And a horizontal move is taking only 5-6 seconds.
I'm having to run errands today but hope to cut this evening

The anticipation is killing me hope all goes well tomorrow .

Is this similar to the fly-by-wire aircraft I've read about?  Where the pilot has no direct control but it's all through sensors and computers and electrical gadgetry?  You know, the type of stuff where you let the magic smoke out by messing around in there and it never works right again?  ;D

I'm seriously wondering about the first part of my silliness.  ???

Quote from: Ox on October 29, 2015, 03:06:28 AM
Is this similar to the fly-by-wire aircraft I've read about?  Where the pilot has no direct control but it's all through sensors and computers and electrical gadgetry?  You know, the type of stuff where you let the magic smoke out by messing around in there and it never works right again?  ;D

I'm seriously wondering about the first part of my silliness.  ???

Even the smoke thingy can be fixed today...



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I like that "Replacement Smoke".   :D

Thanks for that Kbeitz!  Replacement wire harness smoke.  Ha!   :D

I don't smile or laugh much really but that one got me.

Today I leveled the indeed deck and fabbed up a hand off bracket to roll the logs over the rails on to the sawing deck. Once the indeed deck was loaded and a nice oak clamped down on the saw deck I swapped the feed work sprockets back out to he original ones. I was just about ready to start cutting when I noticed the 24 volts going to the drives had dipped to 21 volts even though the Diesel engine had been running for 10 min with no movements being performed. Checked the alternator and it was putting out zero volts so I pulled it and took it to the local alternator shop. The alternator guy said he would be able to let me know what the problem is by lunch tomorrow.

After seeing Ox & Kbeitz post I'm thinking that somebody forgot to put the smoke in the alternator at the factory and that the repair guy may just need to fill it up in the morning.

While I'm waiting on that to get fixed im planning on looking at adding the feed works motion detect prox and adding its logic to detect log length and display it on the touch screen. Once operational this will allow the mill to detect the log and when a cut command is given the mill will travel the length of the log then pause waiting for another cut command

Yea.... The trouble with some of the new stuff is that it comes as a sealed unit.
They don't have a place to refill the smoke.

I guess it's up to us to drill and tap a sight plug into these sealed units for maintenance of smoke levels.  ;)
Casey - I find it very interesting to read your posts on this massive project of yours even though I don't understand most of it.  I can pick out the few things I get so I can follow your progress though, so it makes it intriguing to me.  I've always been of the mindset that mechanical is better than electrical but I'm wondering now what I've been missing all this time.  Life could be easier for me if I'd grasped the new instead of hanging onto the old.

 

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Finally got to cut some lumber today. I got the alternator fixed and mounted. Then the belt tensioner that I used to engage the blades locked up and I had to replace it with a different style and it worked good. Then I added a larger dust guard on the horizontal blade guard. Added the prox and ladder logic for the feed works position indication. Once I get some more of the bugs worked out I will make a video next week.

Why are pics so hard to view when they lay sideways ?? Seems it should not be all that difficult to do.

I suspect the long awaited video will truly be something to behold.  8)

From running the mill last week i figured out that i was going to need some additional indicator lamps and selector switches on the front of the plc panel so i added 6 illuminated push buttons, 5 momentary 3 pos selector switches, and an estop button.

The illuminated buttons were 120v style so i had to add an additional 120v output card and will have to add an additional 24vdc input card tomorrow. Five of the bulbs were blown but Napa got me a dozen ordered and said they will be there in the morning.

The PLC panel got a major rewiring job this evening to help clean it up but still needs some more work to tidy it up before i post a picture of it.

Purchased some hardware cloth today to help keep the sawdust chips from getting sucked into the new radiator and got a 5" metal flex hose to try to redirect the sawdust of the vertical blade.

I had added a prox pick up on the feedworks main shaft and it worked well for running the feedworks the length of the log then stopping at the other end automatically to await the shift right or down command before making another cut but im going to add 2-3 additional pick up lugs on the shaft to get a better resolution.

The higher speed sprockets that i tried last week pulled too much load so i had to go back with the original set up but the new sprockets that are 1/2 way between the original and the high speed sprockets should arrive in the next day or so.

Im going to add some additional X bracing on the top of the frame tomorrow to stiffen the frame some more and hopefully eliminate the slight shudder the frame will experience when in slow speed. In addition to the bracing im going to double check the alignment of the frame wheels and re-grease their bearings. 

With no other plans for tomorrow besides working on the mill im hoping to get the bulk of the stuff listed above done and some pics posted of the progress and then the log awaited video of the mill in action. 

Would there be a way to have an adjustable speed motor instead of changing sprockets?  I may have missed something in previous posts and it would overload my poor brain trying to find any pertinent info by re-reading everything.  I apologize for my poor memory.

Got the indicator lamps replaced, input card wired, output card wired and the associated I/o points tested and about 1/2 of them added to the program. Jacked up one side of the frame and greased the wheels and made sure they were turning ok.

Ox, by changing the sprockets then when the drive is given a full speed reference then it's current draw will be below 35 amps.

Now to see what else I can get done today

Gotcha - thanks.

Today went well, i was able to fix a few things and get some experience cutting up a 24" pine log. Learning how to operate the controls and optimize them has been a learning experience. Added some additional programming  that once the log center and top is identified then as a row of lumber is cut and the head lowered then once commanded the head will move to the left side of the log in position to cut its bark cut.

The shavings and chips are going everywhere so i built some metal guards that i will install tomorrow to better control them and also planning on adding some rubber or plastic strip sheets hanging down to deflect some of the chips. The vertical blade guard does a pretty good job of directing the chips out the front & possibly into a future dust collector system but i haven't been able to come up with a good way to collect the chips off of the horizontal blade.

Does anybody have any ideas to collect the chips off of the horizontal blade?


UPS just delivered the 2 new feed work sprockets to hopefully increase the feedrate up from 2.8"/sec to 4.2" but to stay below the current limit i may have to adjust the drives max speed & torque limit setting, but hoping to get at least 3.5"/sec.

Made a video but im not able to edit it to shorten it up so im still working on that so i can load it to youtube and link it to a post.

 popcorn_smiley

I hope its not sideways, I'll have to lay down to view it and every time I do I end up falling asleep  :-\

The only thing my poor brain can come up with to collect chips off the horizontal blade is to build a deflector/diverter where the most chips fly out.  Aim it down to a rubber belt conveyor/elevator running full length of the mill underneath it and have that deposit outside to another elevator angling up in the air to drop the chips in a pile.  It's a very simple idea and you've probably already thought of it, but you never know, right?  I also know it's easy to spend someone else's money but unfortunately this idea is all I have.  Hopefully it'll maybe spark a better idea for you at the very least.  This idea comes from my farming days in the feed room with a TMR mixer.

What you need is a  pneumafil...

I never imagined a dust guard could take so long to fab up. Decided to make 2, one for between the blades and one for the right of the vertical blade and to deflect chips from the radiator. Got frame 1/2 way built. Hope to finish it in the morning and swap the feed work sprockets to see if the the new speed will stay below current limit.

If sucessful I promise to post the long awaited video.

With regards to fabricating things from scratch:  It always seems to take at least twice as long as what you figured.  At least for me.  Can be quite aggravating at times.  The sawmill I built from scratch took about 2 1/2 months.  I figured 3 weeks.  Of course I was quite anal about everything because I wanted as close to perfection as possible but most things don't need to be absolutely perfect.  Close is usually good enough.  Lessons learned!  Good luck to you.  May your cuts be accurate and your welds strong.

Was able to saw some timbers up for the closing in the saw deck and add some plastic flaps to direct the sawdust & also added some ductwork for the radiator infeed to cut down on chips blocking the radiator. 

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in the last photo you can see the new radiator duct work added to the right of the engine and also the plastic flaps i added to knock down the chips.

Tomorrow im hoping on decking in all the way to the other rail.

 :laugh: Coming right along!  Very cool.

Made a little more progress today.


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Just got to finish decking it in tomorrow and figure out how to incorporate the roller beds with a drag chain & figure out what a barn sweeper looks like.

I see sawdust, I see mud.. Progress....Keep on plugging away, it's looking good.

You could make your own barn cleaner type drag chain yourself.  Use 1/2" chain and every 10 to 15 links weld a piece of 2" or so angle iron for the scrapers or paddles.  Make these around 1 or 2 feet long.  Get some 1/2" link chain sprockets like what boats use for the windlass to help pull up anchors.  Put the whole thing in a gutter and you have a smaller, lighter duty barn cleaner (or sawdust cleaner!).  Most every barn cleaner I've ever seen has an inside corner which just drags around a thick metal guide.  The outside corners are large steel wheels.  The drive head is geared down usually 3 times.  Motor with belt to sprocket with #60 chain to sprocket with #120 chain type idea.  Of course in a barn the barn cleaner chain is a bit stronger and bigger than 1/2" chain.  Hopefully this may give you some ideas.

Guess it time to get back to finishing the sawmill

You can buy roller chain with paddle links.
You can buy just a box of paddle links and add to chain every so often.



 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39553/roller_chain.jpg)

Hi, Casey Here is what a barn cleaner looks like.
https://youtu.be/1LvKmPZVwEU

I got the saw decks decked in so i could get control of the sawdust. I asked around to try to find some of those sawdust eating goats but everybody at the store said that they were all purchased by the guys around marion louisiana

So with it turning colder weather & the sawdust pile getting bigger i looked up on youtube and came up with a sawdust rocket stove. The first days burn went great and lasted for 8-10hrs and burned completly but 2nd days only burned for 6hrs before blocking off the air inlet, day 3 which was today burned good for 6hrs before we messed with it and the top collapsed on to the air inlet hole. hopefully next week i will get a chance to experiment with placing a metal plate on top of the sawdust mid way of the barrel and then another at the top of the sawdust pile instead of using 1" of red clay at the top .
here is some of the pics, note once you pack in the sadust & then pack in the 1" of clay on the top just twist the pvc pipe and gently remove it and light the fire.


 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/stove_2.jpg) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/stove_1.jpg) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/stove_3.jpg) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/stove_5.jpg) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/stove_4.jpg)

Fantastic use for sawdust!  How is the heat output?  Maybe similar to a quite small wood stove?

Took 2 months off of the build to catch up on some stuff but i was able to finish decking in the saw decks and getting power and water ran from the house to the shop. In addition i wired the lights and receptacles in and around the control room. I finally fired up the mill and cut 2 white oak logs this evening  for a project. I have to add some programming tomorrow some more functions but after that im hoping to get some more oak logs cut up & make a video of the mill running.

Casey K

Looking forward to the video!

Glad to see you're back in it.

Bumping this topic, I'm new to the forum and hoping Casey is ready to put that highly sought-after video up...

Quote from: Lakehouse2012 on June 12, 2016, 10:29:38 AM
Bumping this topic, I'm new to the forum and hoping Casey is ready to put that highly sought-after video up...

Welcome to the forum, and another bump for the video.

Terry

Hello Lakehouse2012, and Welcome to the Forestry Forum.   :)

I have also been waiting to see the video. I haven't seen anything about this build in a while

Thanks Magicman, I've so much to learn and looking forward to it...

Quote from: Magicman on June 12, 2016, 01:57:09 PM
Hello Lakehouse2012, and Welcome to the Forestry Forum.   :)

CaseyK has not been on here in over a month. He works off-shore drilling, so hope he's just stuck on a rig that has no internet access.

Hi Fellas,
  Its amazing how long some things take to get done. I built my mill and shop on my inherited land that we havent subdivided yet and since it hasnt been divided yet i decided not to run my mill until i did get it all in my name for liability purposes. The surveyor only took 6 months to get his part done and the lawyer has took 2 months but hopefully when i get back from singapore this week the paperwork will be ready for signatures.
  Its only going to be 2 weeks home but im hoping to get some of the hydraulic stuff figured out and purchased while im home this hitch and run a few logs thru the mill & make that video i promised.

Good to hear from ya!  It's amazing that when you want something from these people they can take all the time in the world but if they want something from you, 2 weeks is all you have.  Good luck to you.

Welcome back Casey. I was beginning to wonder if I should drop by to check on you. Tried calling a couple of times, but nobody home..You missed a visit from arnold113. He's built a fully automated band mill..

Got home for just a few days then had to go to lafayette for a 3 day class but i did get to tach weld up my log loader to be placed in front of the infeed deck before i left. Hoping to get the cylinder lengths figured out tonight and order them, the pump, and valves from surplus center so that i can maybe get the system test ran before i go back offshore.

CaseyK, you need to slow down and enjoy life a little.   :D :laugh:

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/20160807_093857.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1470696139)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/20160807_093919.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1470696205)

CaseyK, it looks like some repurposed gas line has been incorporated into your mill build.  I am anxious to see it operate.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/20160807_093857.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1470696139)

 "I am anxious to see it operate."

X2

Tnaz, i get plenty of rest on the rig so when im home its go go go with the family and my projects.
I got the hyd cylinders, vane pump,  3 spool valve, love joy couplings, and motor to pump mounting bracket ordered today and looped by HF and picked up a 13hp predator gas engine.
Picked up the log loader frame from my buddies house and some additional metal for the additional  fabrications.

Got the pieces cut out for the infeed deck to saw deck kicker today and ordered 95% of the hydraulic hoses and adapters. I priced the exact same 2 wire 4000 psi hoses at a local hyd store and they were 3 times higher than S.C. so i ordered everything from S.C. the first order should be in tuesday and the remainder in thursday.

Got the hyd system hooked up and tbe loader and unloader positioned and welded so i had to start the engine and give it a dry run. Everything worked as expected. Just got to let the cement finish setting up and weld out the braces. Tomorrow is the last day of the short hitch home before leaving sunday but hope to give it a try

Pictures? Sounds like your kickin but...

 smiley_clapping

We need a video of this beast in action. ;D

Didnt get to work on it today, had to tie up all the loose ends and spend the rest of the day with the family. Headed over the big pond tomorrow but will get back on the project in 4 weeks.

Be safe over there; don't take any sand Dallors! ;D

https://youtu.be/NXAege0a3WU

I will get a video of it cutting this evening

Man you must be able build rockets, looks great but way beyond my abilities and brian.  Can't wait to see it cut later. Great Job 

Quote from: larrydown60 on November 21, 2016, 12:04:14 PM
Man you must be able build rockets, looks great but way beyond my abilities and brian.  Can't wait to see it cut later. Great Job

X2, Great job.  Waiting for round two. 8) 8)

Had to tighten the belts to the horizontal blade gearbox for the first time since adding the radiator dust chute & it the dust chute didnt survive the ordeal. But my first customer came bye today and said he will be dropping some logs off in the next day or so. So tomorrow i need to get 2 big pines cut up and off the decks.

HEY, I see sawdust. That has to mean you have already been making lumber...Waiting for the live video, but I still wanna see a real live demo..Right now, I'm snowed under, but sooner or later I'm coming by...

Quote from: pineywoods on November 21, 2016, 08:42:29 PM
HEY, I see sawdust. That has to mean you have already been making lumber...Waiting for the live video, but I still wanna see a real live demo..Right now, I'm snowed under, but sooner or later I'm coming by...

This. I got to see this sucker.

This is quite the thread and quite the build. I only had time to go back a few pages and took some more time to start at number one and got to page 3.
I'll be bacc.  ;D

Great job Casey!
Looking forward to the cutting video. 
I'd love to come down and see it sometime.

I knew i would jink myself by saying i would post a cutting video, lost the up down encoder and the 24v alternator. Got the encoder ordered and will take the alternator to the shop in the morning.  I did find a kubota 2203 reefer motor for cheap that im thinking of picking up and adding a k03 1.7 L vw turbo to eleminate power problems and allow for a bigger cut but it will call for a big rework.

Im offshore 1/2 way thru my hitch but wanted to give an update. I got the alternator fixed and a new encoder. Pulled the kubota v2203 out of a reefer unit myself but it took 5 days to get the flywheel adapter plate just to figure out i would need to have one machined. Just before leaving for work i got the adapter plate made and the original motor pulled. Since i had to pull the radiator i decided to rework everything to maximize my vertical cut and allow for a bigger vertical blade later. I ran out of time but hope to get her put back together next hitch then decide on whether or not to add the turbo. Merry Christmas

Thanks for the updates, there's more than a few of us following you.  You have a Merry Christmas as well!

Just 5 more days and i will be back home to mount the new motor and put everything back together.

By lowering the vertical blade shaft lower i should go from max depth cut of 8" up to 11-1/4" and with the bigger motor im hoping to be able to cut a max beam size of around 8x8 at slow speed but if not  im going to order the turbo and make the modifications to make it work. 

On the old motor i used a over center break over to position a idle wheel to tension the belts to act as a clutch but have decided to remove it and just leave the motor shaft connected to the drive shafts all the time via the belts since the saw blades add very little load for the motor to spin and start and i will have local and wireless controls to control the throttle and motor off controls.

Another thing i am looking forward to is testing out my new positioning logic for doing quarter sawing. Before i could only manually move the saw cut axis to a position then automatically command it to move down or to the right either the thickness or width of either a primary or secondary sized board. Example primary set for 2x6 and secondary set for 1x6. The problem that i came across was that when trying to quarter saw a log up i was getting into situations where i needed to remember a X,Y position (what i call a cut axis position) and then after cutting a few boards be able to go back to that position as a reference point before moving to the new cut position.
So i added another selector switch to the panel and interfaced it with the wireless remote so that up to 10 positions could be saved and then be recalled and the saw head commanded to go to the stored position.

Its cold in north Louisiana now but by the time i get back it should be back in the 70's. There is nothing like Louisiana weather.

You are right about the weather here. Give it a week and one will see all 4 seasons. ;D It's 22F here and I'm about 35 miles north of Baton Rouge. :o By mid week, we going to hit the lower 70's. 8)

April update:
Reefer motor V2203 installed and it cranks instantly. Had to have pto shaft adapter machined but for less than 500 dollars i went from a 30hp to a 50hp diesel.
Lowered the main drive shaft so that i could later upgrade to a 30" main vertical blade allowing for 12" cuts.
Found V belt calculator for HP vs pully diameter and concluded that the existing 2 groove pully set up couldnt transfer over 20hp so i replaced it with 4 groove pulleys with a lot larger diameters. Now it should be able to transfer 4x15=60hp.
4 B78 belts delivered off ebay was around 60 bucks.
Never was happy with the speed and power of the miniark dc drives controlling the 24vdc motors so i purchased a 5hp single phase vfd off ebay for 115 bucks and 2 new 3hp 1750rpm reliance 3ph motors off ebay for 200 each delivered.
Since i will never move in more than one direction at a time i added relays on the output of the vfd to swap between the travel motor and the up down axis. 
Adjustable motor mount bases were cheap at less than 30 each from an online surplus center.
New sprockets to interface the 1-1/8" motor shafts were less than 30.
Had to rework the plc program to swap from the seperate miniark drive control relays to a single vfd controlling both the feedworks and the up down motor.
The motors are mounted and wired to vfd output relays, vfd is mounted, drive interface relays are mounted but not wired yet.
ive got 3 more days to play with it before i have to ship out so hopefully i will get it operational before i leave.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/20170331_061119.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1491018989)


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/20170331_060404.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1491018963)

Good to see you back up and sharing again!  Nice pics.  Do you know a member here named Kbeitz?  Cousins?  Brothers perhaps?  ;) :D

Reworked the controls to drive interfaces for the up/dn and the feedworks and they worked perfectly before i left for work.

I leave the rig tomorrow and will only get 10 days home this hitch but i hope to get my turbo project installed this hitch. I looked up everything i could find for adding a turbo to a V2203-DI Kubota reefer engine and hopefully i will more than double my HP by turning up the fuel, the rev limiter from 1800 to 2500 and adding a small turbo. The base engine is rated for 51HP but when they install them in a reefer they turn down the fuel and decrease the rpm limiter to match the hp spec for the compressor its connected to.  So with a base line hp of 50 by adding the turbo with 16psi boost at 2500 im hoping to get my hp up to 65 or so. There are a lot of great articles written on the diesel truck sites where they modified the same engine and installed it in ford rangers and Jeeps and had them dyno tested for 98HP so i got most of my turbo selection data from their articles.

If i did my homework right then there should be 21 packages at the house waiting for me when i get home for my turbo install including all the manual guages and PLC temp and pressure monitoring stuff. I will have to do some welding for the exhaust intake and output of the turbo and fit and form all the air intake tubes but hopefully all the stepping stones will fall in place.

Ill post a ton of pics in case anybody wants to utilize a reefer mtr on a 4 post design mill.

Day one of the turbo build started at 6:30AM  and ended at 6PM, but at the end of the day:
1. the exhaust manifold to turbo fabricated and installed.
2. Turbo cartridge clocked (aligning the oil inlet and oil return to the 12 and 6 oclock positions).
3. Turbo exhaust flange fabricated and installed with new muffler and flipper lid on top.
4. Oil return line connection to turbo connected which required reclocking the turbo several times to get it right.
5. Tubing from turbo to the air infeed manifold about 1/2 way done, just waiting on silicone connectors which should be in monday.

Monday punch list is to:
1. Confirm the oil feed port i am going to connect into and install the manual and plc input sensors for oil pressure before and after the 1mm oil flow re-stricter.
2. Tap the air infeed manifold for the manual and plc sensor for the boost temp and pressure.
3. Connect the EGT sensors for the plc and manual sensors.
4. Add the RPM manual gauge sensor.
5. Drop the oil pan, clean the filter and tap the oil pan for the 10AN oil return line fitting.
6. Pull the oil filter and try to get a number off of it and see if the auto store has a cross reference.
7. Re install the oil pan and fill up with oil.
8. Wire in the electric idle / full speed solenoid controlled by the plc.
9. Add the alarm buzzer relay and buzzer.
10, Add 10 small relays to free up some cabinet room.
11. Pull the 3 ph motor for the x axis and figure out what it would take to replace the dc drive and motor for the left and right positioning.
12. Add the wiring in the cable tray to connect the new sensors into the PLC and add a local junction boxes for the transmitters.
13. See what it would take to add an external waste gate to the turbo outlet piping to the air infeed manifold. (the internal one had to be removed due to the clocking of the turbo.

Phone was dead but i will get some pics on monday night update.   

Now that is one heck of a list. ;D Better watch your wife don't burn down "the other woman". Bet that is what she is calling your mill. :D

How did you know thats what she called my sawmill? Well only got a few hrs in on the mill today. To tap the oil pan for the oil return i had to unbolt the motor and raise it 4 inches to get clearance to remove the oil pan the drill and tap went well. The oil supply line i ordered is 6 days late so i bought another one at napa today so the oil supply and return to the turbo are almost complete. I finished the turbo to air intake piping. Tomorrow i hope to bolt the engine back down & fill her back up with oil and verify the oil flow and connect the sensors and gauges.

Filename: https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/20170610_200157.jpg

www.forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/20170612_134532.jpg

https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/20170612_134526.jpg

How I know? When I used to offshore fish all the time, I was spending more time with my two offshore boats. That was what my wife always called those boats,( the other women). :D

The time flew by this hitch.I got it all mounted and ran it 5-10 min but started getting oil blow by from the turbo into the exhaust so i shut her down. It could be a bunch of different things but most common are that my restrictor orifice in the oil feed line isn't small enough and im going to change the oil return line to a larger size and also vent the oil pan and crank case. If this doesn't work then ill buy another turbo and try again. But for now ive got another 28 days at work to get thru but next hitch home should be a full hitch home so im sure i will get her up and running.

Thanks for the updates. Just maybe I will take a ride up to your place to check your mill next time you are back home.

Cool - I hope this hitch at work flies by for you and all is well.  Also hoping you get your mill up and running this next round.

Got the opportunity to work over to make some christmas money so i got another 10-12 days left on the rig. For the sawmill last hitch i finally solved the new turbo passing oil into the exhaust by installing a 90 dollar scavenger pump on the oil return line, even though it was a straight shot down to the belly pan the ones on the V2203 engines don't have hardly any space between the oil level and the top of the pan so the oil wouldnt drain good enough. Wish i would have came across the scavenger pump idea on you tube when i first installed the turbo.

Next i loaded the biggest log i had,  to saw up some garage rafters and 24ft 3ft diameter pine log was more than the infeed deck loader could handle so i redesigned it and 4 hrs later was able to load the log onto the infeed deck, unload to the saw deck went well, even clamping the monster and final positioning using the hydraulics worked well. But just before making my first cut the PLC power supply died due to spikes caused by the single phase AC drive that controls the 3ph motors on the feedworks and head raise and lower.

Found the line reactor for the drive on ebay for 35 bucks and replacement power supply for 175 so hopefully when i get home she will be good to go and start cutting some 24ft rafters before i swap over and try to get some christmas presents built.

Im hoping to get (3) hope chest built for my daughters within the 2 weeks or so im home along with the other honey-do list after being gone 5-1/2 weeks.
Now trying to decide on whether cherry or red oak or white oak or a combination for the chest.

I have been looking in the forestry forum for the chest build ideas and a big thanks to all the guys that have shared their knowledge on the subject of woodworking and sawmilling.
Thanks
Casey Kennedy

Thanks for the update and I look forward to seeing pictures of your hope chests.

I hate to tell you this but "time management" does not improve with age and job responsibilities.  You just tend to forget what you are supposed to do.   :o   :D

Man oh man, loading the plane in dallas to go across the pond. Didnt get to touch the mill but got 4 cherry hope chest built, red oak stair treads made and installed and a 1-3/4" red oak quarter sawn 90"x40" dining room  table with cypress tressles and a cherry connector beam built this hitch for the families christmas presents. It took me over 150hrs but i loved it. I will post pics when i get onboard the rig

Slept 14hrs of a 17hr flight and forgot i had posted the last post. Its been get it get it for the last 14 days on the rig but here is a pic that i had already loaded into my gallery.

Sons cherry hope chest with oak panels, the other 3 were all cherry.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/20171203_183458.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1513774368)
Sorry i cant get anything else to load because of the internet speed, will try to compress the files and try again.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/004.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1513775476)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/102.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1513776098)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/010.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1513776103)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/006.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1513776104)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/061.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1513776108)

Here is the table pics

the raw boards
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/103.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1513776652)


The finished product with only 2 coats of poly
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/056.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1513776651)

This one is of the cypress tressle and cherry connector beam but i didnt get to put poly on them yet, ran out of time
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/055.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1513776658)

the hand rails were already existing i just ripped up the carpet and installed the treads and backstops i had milled from rough lumber.

The top 1/2
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/058.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1513777087)

the landing wasnt finished in this pic  but here is the lower half
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/29590/031.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1513777087)

Ive got another 2 weeks but cant wait to get back home and but the mill back together and start cutting some oak for the next project.

Wow Sir, those are some awesome accomplishments!!  It is obvious that you manage your "home time" very well indeed.   thumbs-up

Thanks Magic Man. Its just that i had always bought presents before for the family and this year i wanted to give them something that i built instead. I ended up almost biting more than i could chew but i still made my deadline for gift night and everybody was surprised and Happy.

Still wondering if you sleep when you're at home.