Transforming Frankenmizer

[jwoods]

Nice work on the mill.  I can appreciate the homesteader attitude. -did the same thing.  House is done.  Barns are next.

I worked my way through college in a scrap yard.  I've been burnt just about everywhere one could imagine.  -The best thing was they had those cheap uniform pants that were some kind of synthetic material.  Looked like blue jeans, but wore like cardboard.  I think they were rated at 120 degree flash point. 

Been burnt by the welder a time or two, but smarter with age.  Worse one was my retinas, and woke up at 2 a.m., and thought a hot log chain was in the back of my head.

Let us know when it's sawin'.

Joe

[tomboysawyer]

I took a bunch more pictures of the construction process and will probably blog about it eventually.

Relocated support posts, modified a couple things. I had bought some leather from my local shoe manufacturer, but it stretched too much. We had a couple tires kicking around and this is my new band brake. It works awesome.



This is me (Tom Boy Sawyer) cutting a 4x4x14 piece of Ash. It was really nice to have the mill cut straight for the full length. Small board, but sweet cutting.

Made me wonder how swingers deal with tension in hardwoods...



And me cutting up a 15" diameter (about 12' long) EWP.

I should probably get a picture showing my lavendar stripes. I painted the rail so that you could quickly read the length of a log with white a purple stripes.

Anyway, I'm happy now. Making lumber and sawdust.

[JimY]

That looks really great.  I'll be happy if my mill turns out to be somewhere even close to that good.

[tomboysawyer]

That looks really great.  I'll be happy if my mill turns out to be somewhere even close to that good.

Whatchya building for a mill?

[Grawulf]

Wow tbs! That's pretty cool.............da green machine - kinda does lool like Frankenmizer- careful not to loose it in the woods!

[Tom]

The mill is looking greatt!!

I look forward to the reports of it's production abilities. 

MJ must've done a good job on the welding to get it back together so quickly.

The tire for a brake is a good Idea.  I never had thought of doing that.  I did think of using a piece of flat-belt.  It worked good too, but, it's a lot harder to get hold of than an old tire.  :D

[tomboysawyer]

The tire for a brake is a good Idea.  I never had thought of doing that.  I did think of using a piece of flat-belt.  It worked good too, but, it's a lot harder to get hold of than an old tire.  :D

I think its the redneck in us - when you need something, you look around to see what you can canabalize from the trash heap. Since we had just taken that old axle, tires, and wheels off the machine, I looked at the tires and thought... hmmm... sawzall... tire... sticky rubber stuff... metal reinforcement. That'd make a good band brake. I had saved some tires from my truck for the same purpose (popped one on a small stump and the brand has changed styles), but this one was worn good.

I was gonna go to WalMart and buy a weight lifting belt as someone had recommended. But I have lots of spares should this ever go. Stops that bad instantly. Holds good. I did have to scrounge for longer bolts to clamp the bottom in.

[tomboysawyer]

I look forward to the reports of it's production abilities. 

In four hours I did 300 bf of EWP cut from a variety of small stuff. A lot of 2/4 x 4" siding, 3/4 x 6", 2"x4", 2"x6" and a few 4x6.

For me, that was my third best day of milling ever. The two best days were many more hours on the Norwood with hubby tailing.

I know that's not smokin' production numbers, but since I can do it alone, it is very convenient. Cuts are great - no waves, no discrepancies. Not breaking my back turning and clamping. So I have to tail and move my slabwood about 25' from the mill. I have a trailer for my ATV for making offloading faster now, but I'm coming to the end of my pine for a while.

Never could figure how people could to advertised numbers. But then I've got muddy stuff averaging 9" in diameter for that work.

[Tom]

Quantity of production means nothing if the lumber is trash.  That you have good lumber is the sign of a good job.  300 feet of miscellaneous sizes from small logs is nothing to be concerned about either.   I've had days with a bigger mill when I didn't do that good.

Your priorities are in order.  Make good product first.  Brag about how much, later.  :D

If it is cutting straight andd true, y'all must have done a good job putting her together.

[woodbeard]

I'll second the miscellaneous sizes bit. I have cut 1600bf in a day by myself when I had a pile of good sized straight logs and an order for as many 2x6 as I could cut, but when I have a list of 20 different sizes of boards to get out of a bunch of odd sized logs, the production rate goes down drastically. Gets more interesting, though. :D