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Circular sawmill question

Started by twenty D, October 18, 2021, 08:23:35 PM

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twenty D

Gentlemen and lady's, I've been lurking on this board for a long time, I finally joined, at the moment I'm running a Timber Harvester 30, but last year I was able to purchase a Folley Bellsaw for what I think was a great deal, ($400), the problem is that it was completely dismantled when I bought it and the previous owner never measured anything, so if there's anyone on her that could provide any info on the setup of this mill I would greatly appreciate it, and if anyone has one running in south west Pa, I'd love to take a look at your set up, thanks 

glendaler

Does it have steel or wood bed? There's manuals online that have all the original dimensions of the wood bases, that's what I built mine off.
Belsaw A10 circle mill,

twenty D

It had the wood bed, I'll see if I can find the manual online thanks

glendaler

This is the manual that I built mine off, works great. What size blade came with it? The blade is really the place to start, some of the older blades have obsolete shank/tooth styles, or if the they're in bad shape could be expensive to get up to snuff.

http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=1045
Belsaw A10 circle mill,

twenty D

It came with a 48" blade with replaceable teeth, powered by a slant six Mopar and a 4 speed trans, but I'm not going to use the power plant, just gonna run it off the PTO of my tractor, thanks for the info, greatly appreciated 

moodnacreek

Quote from: twenty D on October 20, 2021, 05:21:50 AM
It came with a 48" blade with replaceable teeth, powered by a slant six Mopar and a 4 speed trans, but I'm not going to use the power plant, just gonna run it off the PTO of my tractor, thanks for the info, greatly appreciated
Be careful when you stop the pto or tractor engine, you may unscrew the saw.  If the Bellsaw is all apart build a heaver feed and drive it 'B' belt out board. The more you modify that sawmill the better. And make sure the mandrel bearings are new or like new as they are throw away in most cases,

DMcCoy


Iwawoodwork

If the mandrel bearings are poured Babbitt change those out for ball or roller and your wood husk frame change to metal, box tube , channel or I beam.    I am a proponent of repurposing  old manufactured home frames as I can/ have get them for free or very little cost, The Belsaw I had was  set up with 10" channel iron.  

BUGGUTZ

Take note of what Moodnacreek said. Automotive engine set up spins opposite of a tractor PTO. If its run direct to shaft, see which way the nut threads.
Everyone has to be somewhere.

Ventryjr

I'm on the western ny/pa boarder and I have a belsaw setup along with lane circle mill. Feel free to message me if you want to come check it out. I have a lot of extra belsaw parts as well.  I have 1 belsaw setup and 2 in pieces. 
-2x belsaw m14s and a Lane circle mill.

Iwawoodwork

If you find that you need to reverse the saw rotation when changing from automotive power to PTO power a car differential will work .just like when a car is jacked up with both wheels free and spin one and the other side spins the other direction.

Jim1934

Quote from: moodnacreek on October 20, 2021, 08:34:16 AM
Quote from: twenty D on October 20, 2021, 05:21:50 AM
It came with a 48" blade with replaceable teeth, powered by a slant six Mopar and a 4 speed trans, but I'm not going to use the power plant, just gonna run it off the PTO of my tractor, thanks for the info, greatly appreciated
Be careful when you stop the pto or tractor engine, you may unscrew the saw.  If the Bellsaw is all apart build a heaver feed and drive it 'B' belt out board. The more you modify that sawmill the better. And make sure the mandrel bearings are new or like new as they are throw away in most cases,
I am powering a 54" Knight circle saw with a JD 870 with about a 25 hp pto.
Way underpowered. The PTO supplies power to the saw spindle and the power to move the
cable driven carriage. I suspect a 50 hp tractor would work. I now limit a depth of cut to about 12".
 I did reduce cable drum from 18" to 8" and that helped a little bit. 
Jim

moodnacreek

Quote from: Jim1934 on October 30, 2021, 08:42:18 PM
Quote from: moodnacreek on October 20, 2021, 08:34:16 AM
Quote from: twenty D on October 20, 2021, 05:21:50 AM
It came with a 48" blade with replaceable teeth, powered by a slant six Mopar and a 4 speed trans, but I'm not going to use the power plant, just gonna run it off the PTO of my tractor, thanks for the info, greatly appreciated
Be careful when you stop the pto or tractor engine, you may unscrew the saw.  If the Bellsaw is all apart build a heaver feed and drive it 'B' belt out board. The more you modify that sawmill the better. And make sure the mandrel bearings are new or like new as they are throw away in most cases,
I am powering a 54" Knight circle saw with a JD 870 with about a 25 hp pto.
Way underpowered. The PTO supplies power to the saw spindle and the power to move the
cable driven carriage. I suspect a 50 hp tractor would work. I now limit a depth of cut to about 12".
I did reduce cable drum from 18" to 8" and that helped a little bit.
Jim
Even 50 hp. is lite power. A saw with the least amount of teeth and hammered for about 300 rpm if you could find someone to do it is what is needed. And be careful around knots. 

Don P

 You changed a variable but there is another sneaky one that can crop up. Lowering the feed speed but keeping the same number of teeth reduces the bite of each tooth. The finer sized chips are more easily spilled out of the sides of the gullet rather then staying in the void through the cut. I could see a lot of fine dust spilling out of the kerf along the plate as the log was travelling, the dust coming out the blower was finer when I slowed the feed. Spilling causes friction and heat, leading to the next head scratching session. On the MF35 powered M-14, I ground every other tooth waaay back, dressed the sides clear but everything square cornered where it will cut and clear if it hits anything. That dropped the 46" blade to 15 teeth. Certainly not ideal but I didn't invent that trick, its one way to get by on light power.

handhewn

Many years ago I was sawing a log and my 60" circle saw blade kept heating on every cut. I don't remember why but I remember removing every other tooth and It cut just fine.

moodnacreek

Overall a saw with the most teeth possible does the best job but you need the power for the actual sawing and feed speed. The teeth being close together saw straight through knots and deviations in the grain as a saw with the teeth spaced out will [try to] saw around the spots that are tough like a thin bandsaw. If you replace half your teeth and leave or file back the others you will need half the power to saw for sure but you must be more careful feeding.

Ventryjr

https://youtu.be/VGolWQsxJLs

I used a Chevy 3500 to run my belsaw and it worked pretty good.  Only cost me $300 on Craigslist.

Edit: sbc 350 with a 4spd. 3rd gear about 3/4 throttle gave me about 680rpm at the rear wheels.  I put a pto stub on the rear wheel 
-2x belsaw m14s and a Lane circle mill.

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