Concept Log Turner for Horizontal Band Mill

[Okrafarmer]

Stefan - I can't see your picture. Please repost.

It's a video, not a picture. For some reason you must not be set up to be able to watch it. In case it helps, here is the direct link to the video on You-tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxir7ucToZA

[Okrafarmer]

Here is one of the mills that uses this type of turner.
Not to mention a "few" other options aswell.

Holy crumbunnies! I feel really insignificant now. I dare not ask how much that sawmill costs, but it looks bigger, tougher, and more productive than any portable mill we have in the states. On par with many indoor models.

[Alligator]

All that mill needs is an off bearing belt to move the slabs and lumber away some where else to be sorted, trimmed and stacked. 

[Okrafarmer]

I looked at their website and there is an off-bearing accessory available.

It was hard to find, but I also found a price for the mobile model of $188,500 Euros new, before Value Added Tax. (They are made in Austria). Not sure what the exchange rate is right now, but that puts it costing in the neighborhood of 3 X the price of an LT-70.

[Magicman]

Plus he has a golly-whopping umbrella !!!   

[Alligator]

Real fancy piece of machinery. It still looks to take about the same amount of time to saw a line. Maybe a little faster turning logs. I count a line from the time the saw hits the log until the next time it hits the log. You start timing from the first cut until the first cut on the next log. Divide number of lines by number of seconds you get seconds per line SPL. You get seconds per line. Take your bdft from the log divide by seconds you get seconds per bdft. SPBF. Kind of like some of those wired baseball stats. But, it gives a index of production in a short time span. I bet that mill doesn't have a high enough SPL to justify the increased cost of the mill over say a LT40HD.

[Okrafarmer]

I bet that mill doesn't have a high enough SPL to justify the increased cost of the mill over say a LT40HD.

Well that's comforting! But it did look to me like it mills faster than an LT-70. Some of the 70 owners could comment on that.

[Ljohnsaw]

does anyone here dress like that to saw lumber?

+1  :D

Also, tough hands - taking that blade off without gloves?  How many of you would make use of the cross-cut feature?  Neat but is that a time saver?

[Okrafarmer]

does anyone here dress like that to saw lumber?

+1  :D

Also, tough hands - taking that blade off without gloves?  How many of you would make use of the cross-cut feature?  Neat but is that a time saver?

I would frequently use the crosscut feature if I had it.

I don't dress like that, but maybe if I lived in Sweden I would.

I never wear gloves. I always handle Woodmizer blades without gloves. I get little prickles sometimes, but never anything that still shows the next day. I--hates--gloveses. Times when I do cut myself is every once in a while when sharpening a chainsaw.

[Magicman]

Log/lumber/blade handling, sawing, whatever, I always wear gloves. 

[stefan]

All that mill needs is an off bearing belt to move the slabs and lumber away some where else to be sorted, trimmed and stacked.

I watched some of the other videos they have, and it seems like they have solutions for that to.
What can you say, other than that this is a pretty impressive piece of machinery??

Alligator - Thank You!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy6L-2ZD_6Y&list=UUcXLiSa7FRJ6aliiqf7JIKA&feature=player_detailpage

[Alligator]

I should, but I have trouble getting one on my right hand.

[starbits]

If my hand was pregnant I don't think I would wear a glove either.   

Starbits

[Alligator]

I shot it with a 12ga. shotgun when I was 16. I'm 60 now. They cut 3 sides of a square from my lower  abdomen folded it back and sewed it to my hand, so the blood would feed from the flap.  When I shot it I weighed 175, played football, lifted weights, an athlete. That pregnant hand was pretty flat. Because the skin came from my stomach, as I worked my way to 325 lbs my hand got fat along with my stomach. Gloves don't fit well any more neither do my pants. :D

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

If the glove don't fit you have to acquit. 

[Delawhere Jack]

I laughed out loud at 5:00 minutes into that first video.

"Off bearers? We don't need no stinkin' off bearers!!!!"  :D

Very cool machine........ But lets see him coil one of those bands .....  ;D

[Delawhere Jack]

If the glove don't fit you have to acquit. 

You are just wrong, in so many ways... :D

[backwoods sawyer]

Very cool machine........ But lets see him coil one of those bands .....  ;D

Sure would not mind giving it a test drive to see if the SPL work out ;)
as far as coiling saws, It still folds up, we would fold and invert 12" double cut 42' saws, just got to learn the dance 8) kinda like changing saws on a set of quads, took 7 min to change one or all four, it was like a ballet from shut down, to lock out, all the way  thru taking saws off the wheels onto yokes taking them out the top, placing them on carts and sending them to the filing room while fresh saws are placed on the yoke and lowered into place, slipped onto the saws (three sets of hands on each saws) to spinning the saw unlocking and firing up all four mills and sending the first log thru to verify all saws were running true.
Sure I would like fold one of the saws for the mill after a day sawing ;D bells and whistles do help production :P

As to the turners the Cooks mill would be a good candidate to test them out on as it has plenty of hydraulic flow, and since it already has two turners just add a third and fourth turner mounted 180* from the original two, could even be mounted in seperate holes close to the oposite one.

I like the V turners, we had a set of fixed vees that picked the log up spun it around to where you wanted it chucked it in the carrige, next, but that takes about 6' 5' (lot of head banging in that hole) of space under the deck to operate and a good many tempo wires to snag. 

[Alligator]

As to the turners the Cooks mill would be a good candidate to test them out on as it has plenty of hydraulic flow, and since it already has two turners just add a third and fourth turner mounted 180* from the original two, could even be mounted in seperate holes close to the oposite one.

I am hesitant about approaching The Cooks. I live less than 10 miles from them. They did our trim saws in the late 70s and 80s. Nice people, just kind of a local thing. Their operation is right on the edge of 400 acres that was our family farm, until my Grand Ma died in 1986. Our operation was winding down as theirs started winding up.

[backwoods sawyer]

Got ya.
Was out looking at the open frame and straight turner arm on the AC-36 that spits big logs off the back side : It would be a big improvment in its log handling. Sure like the curve style of the WM turner over the straight style for handling big logs, but it could stand to be 6"-8" longer along with taller dogs when it comes to spinning them big logs.
The double V style turner just does not spin out and get stuck like a single arm does either, we ran a sharp chain in loop with a hydraulic motor below the center of the V with an idler below it, the chain ran on a rail around the rest of it. Got away with a sharp chain rather then a lug chain because the blocks were debarker.

[bandmiller2]

That mill does everything but pack your lunch, has to be very costly. Gator. have you looked into the piney woods turner/clamp on this forum.?? On my homebuilt bandmill I used a two plain clamp/turner that has worked fine for years. Frank C.

[Alligator]

That mill does everything but pack your lunch, has to be very costly. Gator. have you looked into the piney woods turner/clamp on this forum.?? On my homebuilt bandmill I used a two plain clamp/turner that has worked fine for years. Frank C.

No, that's the first time I had seen Pineywoods turner. It looks good. I like tinkering with ideas. I grew up with a whole pile of it. When we went on vacation we had to stop at every mill along the way and see how they did things. Dad always had a scratch pad to make little notes, and drawings. He didn't need much, maybe a couple of dimensions and a sketch.

He looked at a couple of lumber stacker designs and got with a local machine shop and they took his sketches and built and installed it. There wasn't much complicated about it, just a machine to allow 3 men to sticker about 10 times as much lumber in a day.

[bandmiller2]

I think Rube Goldberg used to be a sawyer. Its hard to come up with anything new most has been tried many years ago. Before I set up my mills I visited every mill I could find no two were alike and I learned a little from each, some what not to do. Frank C.

[Alligator]

I think Rube Goldberg used to be a sawyer. Its hard to come up with anything new most has been tried many years ago. Before I set up my mills I visited every mill I could find no two were alike and I learned a little from each, some what not to do. Frank C.

Yea, Frank I agree. I know most everything has been tried in one way or another. When I was looking at Pineywoods Turner, I was thinking about his small pipe hydraulic tank. When  for Windham Equipment Co.
Mr. Paul went absolutely in the opposite direction. He made the frame of the carriage track from rectangular tubing and the whole frame was the hydraulic tank. When I ask why? (at the time I didn't know much about hydraulics) He said it was for cooling the oil. Since looking at the band mill world, I was thinking that might not be a bad idea for a band mill track and put 1/2 inch plugs along in pairs. That would like having 110 plugs in a house. just add a solenoid valve and add an implement.