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Ray's Portable Manual Mill Mods & Additions

Started by RAYAR, June 13, 2019, 03:02:36 AM

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RAYAR

Quote from: Crusarius on October 26, 2019, 09:26:18 AM
whats wrong with switching to a larger jacketed cable? That really doesn't look that extreme. The only reason I can see the cable fraying is rubbing on the sides of the pulley is that the correct size pulley?

It is fraying at the pulley? right?
The cable is not rubbing on the pulley housing. I believe it's a rope pulley actually, it's what was there when I bought this mill. The cable has also frayed at the ends. I'd say the vibrations from the drive belt and idler pulley on a tight radius on the cable fatigues it and starts breaking strands. I could install a larger pulley, but was thinking of re-engineering the system, likely without the cable.
mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

Ed_K

 Any chance in finding a larger number of strands as in 6-19 to a 8-19 same size only the wire size is smaller but stronger?
Ed K

Hilltop366

Could you change the cable and pulley for rods and a pivot point, I believe it is called a "bell crank linkage" used to change direction of pull.

Perhaps a turnbuckle added to one of the rods to make it adjustable. 

RAYAR

Quote from: Hilltop366 on October 28, 2019, 09:23:35 AM
Could you change the cable and pulley for rods and a pivot point, I believe it is called a "bell crank linkage" used to change direction of pull.

Perhaps a turnbuckle added to one of the rods to make it adjustable.

That's what I sort of had in mind.

Since I had a few more pieces of cable from my lawn tractors steering cable set-up, I ended up picking up a larger similar pulley and re-assembled it with that for now, and see how this holds up. It was a quick fix for now. I do plan on re-engineering this at some time since the current set-up does take up a little bit of throat depth.
mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

kelLOGg

Your mill shows similarities to my Cooks MP32. Nice work
I am considering adding a 2nd winch to my log arch and would like to know the brand of your winch. Does it ever freewheel? I won't use it to dead lift but to balance one end of a log. Been using a come-along but it is too bulky and gets in my way.
Cook's MP-32, 20HP, 20' (modified w/ power feed, up/down, loader/turner)
DH kiln, CatClaw setter and sharpener, tandem trailer, log arch, tractor, thumb tacks

RAYAR

Quote from: kelLOGg on October 01, 2020, 07:09:25 AM
Your mill shows similarities to my Cooks MP32. Nice work
I am considering adding a 2nd winch to my log arch and would like to know the brand of your winch. Does it ever freewheel? I won't use it to dead lift but to balance one end of a log. Been using a come-along but it is too bulky and gets in my way.
Yes, my mill has similarities to the Cooks MP32, but in a little smaller unit. It also has similarities to Enercraft & Baker 18 mills and a few others I can't recall at the moment.

My winch is a 2500 lb 2-speed (4X-8X) and has a lever to engage a ratchet or set it to free wheel. I purchased it from Princess Auto, similar to Harbour Freight.



 
mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

Gere Flewelling

 

 

kelLOGg- I added a second winch to my mill to help control the longer logs when rolling onto the mill.  I connected it to an additional toe board devise I had built.  It works pretty well but hangs down too far below the main frame.  It tends to catch on the ground when towing over uneven surfaces.  I plan to raise it up to the bottom of the rails at some point.  I started out with steel cable but switched to rope as the cable was too difficult to keep spooled evenly on the winch.  The rope works better, but I also noticed the main winch cable rolling the log and this second winch rope tend not to play together well.  I usually only put a lot of tension on the rope winch to pull the end of the log up to keep it parallel on the loading ramps and then let the main winch do the actual rolling.  Not a perfect system, but keeps me from fighting with a big log that is not wanting to load evenly with a cant hook.  The best part is that I can pull a pin and slide it out of the mill and not have to walk around it if not needed.  I would suggest you find a winch that has the most cable/rope storage capability that you can.  It takes a lot of length to reach around a log and back to the mount.
Old 🚒 Fireman and Snow Cat Repairman (retired)
Matthew 6:3-4

RAYAR

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything new here. I've recently made and installed a sawdust guard to keep sawdust from landing on the track and getting compressed onto the track and the "U" groove of the carriage wheels on the sawdust exit side. I also filed out elongated holes in the carriage wheel cover and filed a "U" groove in the bottom edge of the cover and adjusted it to just barely skim the track ahead of the wheel. So far that's working great and solved that problem.

Track cover extends to back side of carriage wheel cover






Carriage wheel cover adjusted to skim track
 


 
mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

RAYAR

I have also recently made and installed a carriage push bar that extends out more from the carriage. Should have done this long before now. Really liking it. Just needs to be painted now.

Carriage push bar



 
mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

RAYAR

Worked on my band sharpener yesterday evening. Put a grinding wheel on it and also tweaked the cam wheel follower bracket a bit for the pin to better follow more squarely on the cam. Also smoothed the surface finish on the cam wheel with my Dremel. It had a bit of a rough ground finish on it and was wearing into the brass pin that rides on it. This is also a home/shop built unit that came with my mill. Have never used it yet. It has auto feed and auto shut off. The lever for the auto shut off micro switch is missing, so need to find one or replace the switch. Also need to get a good magnet to stick on the band to activate the micro switch to auto shut down when finished. I can still use it without the auto shut down for now and get it set up. Will post pics when I get it set up as it does take up some space. The stand comes apart into two sections for storage.
mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

RAYAR

Still no pics, but I worked on the band sharpener last evening. I replaced the brass 1/2" pin with a 1/2" bolt and drilled and tapped a 1/4" NF hole through the head for a fine height adjustment. I also radiused the head of the 1/4" NF bolt that rides on the cam as it rocks back and forth as it raises and lowers the grinding wheel. I also tapped the rod that advances the band with a 1/4" NF thread and also installed a lock nut on it. I wanted to have some sort of control in making fine adjustments to the grinding of my bands. After all, this should be a precision operation in order to adjust the amount of grind taken. You only want to grind a few thousands of an inch per pass.

Hopefully will set it up and try it out soon.

Found a pic I took this spring. You can see the brass pin that I replaced and the band advance that I tapped. Will get pics of it when I set it up.



mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

Vautour

Nice piece of equipment you got there Ray,.. if ever you want to get rid of it i'm only an hour away :D 
the Gospel is WANTED by the people in 52 Countries but made illegal by their Government

RAYAR

Dug out the back part of the stand of the band sharpener. It has a single tooth setter built on the back of it. It's built rugged enough, but part of the anvil workings of it were not built to with-stand the pressure needed to set the teeth. The anvil part is a 5/16" bolt with a much too thin washer tacked on to it and a pair of vise grips welded to the frame of it to apply pressure to the washer to move the anvil. The washer was definitely a very weak point and just bent easily, no way you could set teeth with this set-up. The anvil was not built to be easily serviced besides. Ground the tack welds off of the washer to remove the the anvil and will be replacing it with an improved service-able set-up. Also need to build an indexer for this setter. Hmmmm...., gotta think this one through. I'm thinking it may be easier to build my hand-crank setter that does both sides in one pass in less than a minute. ;)
mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

RAYAR

This evening, I set up the band grinder and eventually ground two bands. Spent a lot of time in setting and adjusting things. I had two 10 degree bands from the first batch I bought and ran those through. The first one I ran it at 10 degrees, then the second one, I ran it at 9 degrees. I will likely end up getting them to 7 degrees, like the Kasco 7's I'm using and liking. I still have some adjustments and fine tuning to do as the grinding was just catching the front and back of the tooth and not getting down to the gullet. Have some cam and cam follower work to do, but will do that to fit my Kasco 7's and that will eventually be the profile it will be set up for.

Another problem I ran into was the clearance under the band advancer to set a band into place and remove. Will have to do something about that. Will also be looking at making fine adjustments easier to do.

The other 10 degree bands were here at home. Will have to bring them to the shop and run them through. I believe I still have three of those I haven't used yet.

The Kasco 7's are all at the shop, except for the one on the mill, which is at the off-grid build site. I still have 6 of these unused.


Grinding



 



 



 


Micro switch lever is missing for auto shut-off capability.
Rear of stand has a tooth setter that I'm in the process of re-building.



 
mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

Crusarius

Loks nice, how did you make the cam? what material is it?

RAYAR

Quote from: Crusarius on July 20, 2021, 11:06:24 AM
Loks nice, how did you make the cam? what material is it?
It came with my mill, which I've had for three years now. Just getting around to getting the sharpener into service. The cam is solid steel, about 3/4" thick. Looks like I have to re-profile the cam, it's not getting down into the gullet, just the front and back top portion of the tooth.
mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

Crusarius

if you can I would save that one and make a new one. probably not necessary to have a 3/4" think cam. bet 1/4" will be sufficient.

RAYAR

Quote from: Crusarius on July 20, 2021, 02:01:00 PM
if you can I would save that one and make a new one. probably not necessary to have a 3/4" think cam. bet 1/4" will be sufficient.
I believe that cam is welded onto the shaft it's mounted on.  It does have to be wide enough because the follower travels across it as the grinder raises and lowers in it's travel. I did not design this, but it was a nice piece of equipment included with my mill. At least I don't have to build one from scratch. ;) I just have to modify it to work sweetly with my bands and make it easy to use.
mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

RAYAR

Quote from: RAYAR on July 20, 2021, 02:11:47 PMI believe that cam is welded onto the shaft it's mounted on.
I looked at the cam tonight and it appears to be pressed onto the shaft, kinda looked like a splined shaft. I also scribed a line on the cam (it's painted) to get a better idea of its' profile. Also looking at and thinking of how to modify the band advancer. Also figured out a simple fix for the missing arm on the micro switch for the auto stop function.

Just did some figuring, it should take about 16 minutes to sharpen a band at about 5.5 seconds per tooth (one rpm of cam). May look at speeding this up a little in the future. I wonder how fast the cam on other sharpeners are turning?
mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

RAYAR

Another mod done to the sharpener. Raised the band advancer (indexer) mount to gain needed clearance when loading and removing bands in the sharpener. Raised it about 3/4" to 1".

I also noticed that the lever has a ball bearing inserted in the bottom for the cam rod.

The black square on the upper right of the switch box is a piece of 3/4" banding fastened with a screw and bent around over the micro switch. It's to replace the missing micro switch activation lever for the auto shut down. You can see the micro switch button in the last photo.

Before:


 


Raised:


 


Reassembled:


 


Rear view:


mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

RAYAR

Where my mill is currently set up. (Off-grid build site)

You can see the winch post setting off to the side in center left of photo.



mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

RAYAR

Responded to a marketplace ad on Wednesday evening and ended up on a road trip Thursday pm., a 3 hr. drive away. Another piece of equipment to help with mods. I have a machining back ground from high school. An oldie (1927), but in very good shape. It's tight and accurate. Also came equipped with a good assortment of accessories. 8)

Turns out it was a professors personal lathe from an engineering course at a university and it got put away and was found many many years later in a renovation project.


South Bend 84-A (1927) ... 11" swing, 4 ft bed

Edit: Turned out to actually be a 1928.


mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

JoshNZ

The gates are open now  ;D.

Just reading your older posts, did you ever try dressing a bit off the right edge of the stone to allow you to reach deeper into the gullet without dragging it too hard up the back of the next tooth?

RAYAR

Quote from: JoshNZ on August 20, 2021, 01:20:29 AM
The gates are open now  ;D.

Just reading your older posts, did you ever try dressing a bit off the right edge of the stone to allow you to reach deeper into the gullet without dragging it too hard up the back of the next tooth?
It's only a 3/16" thick grinding wheel, so not much width to work with, and if I tried to go deeper into the gullet, it would end up grinding the tooth off from the back side. I don't think this grinder set-up was fully dialed in to get a full gullet grind, thus why I'm going to finish the job and make it conform to my 7 degree Kasco Maxx bands. I also noticed that it drops down on the face of the tooth, then pauses there before following through. I want to make it so it is a continuous flow through.
mobile manual mill (custom build) (mods & additions on-going)
Custom built auto band sharpener (currently under mods)
Husqvarna 50, 61, 254XP (and others)
96 Polaris Sportsman 500
2006 Ranger 4X2 w/cap, manual trans (430,000 Km)

JoshNZ

Yeah good idea, don't want it hanging anywhere too long.

Interesting project, I'm playing with an old ltaga, I have modified it to use the same wheels and same motor as you by the looks, both from a chainsaw grinder. I managed to find 8mm wheels which is what, 5/16" or so, you could look into one of them? (Not that thatll help your backgrind problem but may give more options once you lower your cam).

I find the same problem most of the time, I just barely miss a 1/8" spot in the bottom of the gullet. Sometimes not though. My bands have been sharpened by a saw doctor here who uses old sloppy gear they're all over the place I think. I'm looking forward to killing them so I can move exclusively to kasco 4s, don't really care if I miss the gullet hah.

I think I prefer it without water, is one thing I've decided! Good luck with it anyway. Certainly nice to take the pressure of "making each band count" off yourself. I found I've gone from always worrying about being short on blades/putting off that next trip/bill at the saw doctors, to having too many and hardly using them to their full life because I'm looking forward to trying the next one I sharpened using whatever new technique, or noticing whatever etc.

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