Useful sawmill mods

[4x4American]

As per a tip I took delivery of in GA, on the Yanmars, the exhaust isn't far enough above the intake and will clog the filter.  The exhaust need to be approximately 6" above the intake.

[Chuck White]

Nice, just have to watch you overhead clearance when moving the mill.

Second option would be to put a 45° or 90° elbow on the exhaust pipe in order to get the exhaust away from the intake!

[4x4American]

It's well below the mast when the headrig is at 1".  The stainless steel bandclamp I used I've found likes to blind me when the sun is behind me lol


Ya try to be fancy and that's what happens...I might just take a crayola crayon to it, that oughta fix it

[DR Buck]

 

Made hook to connect the MM chain to when I need to adjust a log on the mill.

OK  I'm confuised.       What is this all about?    What's MM chain?

[4x4American]

Magicman chain, he has a cant hook or half a log tong at the end of the chain and uses the side supports to move the cant fore or aft

[OneWithWood]

C'mon, David, do try and keep up  :D :D ;D

[petefrom bearswamp]

I use my roller toe boards and my tail man.

[Bandmill Bandit]

I use my roller toe boards and my tail man.

My tail man is in his 70s and he is good. But moving heavy logs is just a PITA. This just make life so much easier. 

I still have some finishing touches to put on my chain and I am re doing my FAO's.

The spare tire change jacks work good but they are not designed for every day use. And i have had to replace 2 of them already.

I found a manufacturer that builds custom jacks and the owner of the company hooked me up with his Alberta distributor.  I got em for same price as OEMs pay for them and about 20 minutes per jack of modification work and they are installed in about 5 more minutes.

The 2 middle ones will take a bit more work. Gross combined jack weight capacity will be 15 tons. I think that should be sufficient   

YES I will get pics up but may be the week end before they show up.


   

[Bandmill Bandit]

New jack out of the box


 


Disassembled wit hthe 2 holes driled ready to instal on the mill


 

More pics tomorrow.
Can I upload a short video of my junior apprentice? I did try and it wouldn't load.

[Magicman]

Oooooo, nice.   ;)

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

New jack out of the box


 


Disassembled wit hthe 2 holes driled ready to instal on the mill


 

More pics tomorrow.
Can I upload a short video of my junior apprentice? I did try and it wouldn't load.

You can't upload videos directly to the Forestry Forum.

You have to upload them to YouTube and then post a link to the video on the forum page.

Perhaps someone can provide more info about how to do the link so the video will show on the Forum page instead of just looking like a link.

Herb

[Magicman]

This is not an actual modification but an addition.

 
See it?  It's the little blue thing on the lid.


 
Yup a stick-on moisture resistant analog "clock".  Clock  This should be handy when sawing hourly rate, plus I could even check it to know when to eat lunch.   ;D

[grouch]

I'm really pleased to see so many useful mods posted on this thread.  Some I never thought of.   (where's that wacky guy that put sled runners under his LT15?)

But I never intended this thread to be mods exclusively for and on Wood-Mizer mills.  Surely some of you Timber-King,  Baker, Peterson, Double Cut, etc. owners have made some mods to your mills also. Tell us about them..

The above is quoted from page 4 of this thread. (Check the date). A bit later on someone suggested that maybe other mills were perfect when they came from the factory. This may come as a shock to some people, but my Harbor Freight mill came from the factory in a state just a tad shy of perfection.

The clamp screw is too long when you get near the capacity of the mill.



Laying it down low enough to stop interfering with the carriage leaves you with not much holding an 18 -20 in. diameter log.

So...









Same log. Same clamp position. No more interference.

Bibbyman also suggested that if anyone posted mods elsewhere to try to recreate the posts in this thread. The above info was mixed in with a bunch of other non-mod stuff in this thread . Will distill some more out of that for here tomorrow.

[barbender]

You guys with lathes at your disposal are cheating ;)

[Chuck White]

You guys with lathes at your disposal are cheating ;)

Yup, it sure does.

Nice job there Grouch, thanks for posting.

[grouch]

Thanks for the kind comments, guys.

Hey, the only thing I did with that lathe was put a point on the rod. The threading was done by die and elbow grease.

Czech_Made, need more photos of that setup!

[Czech_Made]

1" shafting from garage door opener was used to slide dogs on, 1" apart 1/4" holes allow to pin the dog in place.  The idea was to have more dog sets - that i did not make yet - and use what fits the log/cut better.



The 1-5  ACME threaded rod moves the log up and down:



The right dog on this picture is right angle, but I have to make a long bracket for cants, the dog is too short to hold it well.



There is suprisingly strong force pushing the log to the side when cutting.

[Czech_Made]

Oh, and the dogs are piece of 1" DOM tubing - that was for my sidecar :( -  with a tube or square tube welded to it at right angle with 1/2"-13 nut welded to the end.


I also thought about using lag screws to hold the log to the cross beam - from the bottom, two at each end.  With some vedges, it could work.

[grouch]

That log lifting mechanism is what really caught my eye. Thanks for the info!

I'm still puzzling over a good all-around clamping system. Obviously the old dogs that you hammer into the log and into wooden bunks are not the best or they'd still be used a lot. All non-hydraulic clamping means that I've seen are variations on screws or cams.

[grouch]

The HF mill comes with enough track to cut a 9 ft 2 inch log. There are rumors that owners of other sawmills can call up the manufacturer or dealer and just order extra track. Might just be internet myth, though.

I acquired some W beams some years ago in anticipation of making a bandsaw sawmill from scratch. They weren't my first choice for a track, but they were cheap.

Have to join a pair together, so... brackets!











Original track spacing, outside to outside
Extension to match:



Bolt it together



Fiddle with strings and blocks and levels and a grinder for a while



Then roll beyond the green tracks (don't forget to reposition the carriage stops!)



Since the 9'-2" maximum includes space for the carriage before and after the cut, anything added to the existing tracks is all usable cutting distance.

I added 13'-6" so my length of cut is now 22'-8". Now I just have to find and move some logs that long.

[Czech_Made]

We are of one blood, you and I, grouch  ;D

I can just see myself coming up with similar solutions to your needs. ;D

[4x4American]

The drivers side cover busted off the handle and the dust shield collector unit mabobber..I welded the chute thingy, nothing special, but I wasn't sure if the handles were weldable with my wire feeder and solid wire and argon/c02...so I tried it, and it worked...really noting special but I figured that if someone had same problem it might be good to know u can weld it.

[Peter Drouin]

Had to fix mine too. :D :D

[Magicman]

Obviously something happened that was not supposed to happen ??   ???

[Ga Mtn Man]

I can't see why you would need to do this.  Please explain. ???