Circular Sawmill

[Charles135]

Ross,
Nice to have another S. Carolinian in here.  I am up the road from you near Okra in Dacusville.
Charlie

[Okrafarmer]

Hey, Charlie, I keep meaning to come by. I haven't forgotten, just been snowed under!

[Charles135]

No Hurry Im not moving, Well I hope I'm not moving I didn't check with the wife first....

[HPPDRoss]

My old sergeant at Laurens Police Dept. told me about a mill in Laurens that he had been getting wood from to build a fence. Being that I am in need of some white pine lap siding, I made a trip down there yesterday and spoke with the sawyer.  He appeared to be in his late 70's and was very knowledgable about his equipment.  When I told him that I had an old circle mill that I was putting together, I think he got excited and began to show me every square inch of his meadows mill and how it operated.  He gave me tips and advised of dangers to watch out for while sawing.  This old fellow was very nice and I cant wait to go pick up my order so I can chat with him again.

[Okrafarmer]

I just met another Meadows user in Dacusville / Marietta area.

[HPPDRoss]

Im over half way through with building the track for this mill.  I used 6x6 post every 4ft and 2x8's bolted together on top of them.  I had a guy within the last couple of days offer me a pair of I-beams out from under a single wide mobile home (approx. 50ft).  My question is do I continue with the wood since I'm this far along, or tear that part down and replace it with the steel?

[whiskers]

Take the steel, you can use it anytime and it'll give you reason to get a welder if you don't already have one.

[HPPDRoss]

Hadnt posted anything in a while, but finally got my mill together.  I need some help on the flat belt.  when I cranked the mill for the first time, the (short) flat belt kept running away from the engine.  I tried to level and adjust the skid, but it just kept doing it.  I know v-belts would be much better but im gonna have to work with what I got for now.  I feel like the problem is the short belt, less than 6ft.  Everyone I see on here looks to be at least 15 or 20 feet long.  The belt that was on there is shredded now, so i'll have to get another one. Any help would be appreciated.  I'll get my wife to post some picks tonight. thanks

[beenthere]

Are the pulleys for flat belts? i.e. are they (or at least one of the two) crowned a bit for the belt to seek the high spot?

[HPPDRoss]

Yeah, both pulleys are for flat belts. The Madrel pulley is flat (24") and the pulley on the engine is flat (9") with some crown. I don't see any crown on the Madrel pulley

[beenthere]

You are saying the mandrel pulley is flat, no crown. 
At least one pulley should have some crown, and that keeps (or helps) keep the belt riding up on the crown and centered on the pulley. What is the history of the drive pulley?
Here is a link to crown on flat belt pulleys.
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/scenario/crowning.htm

Maybe steamsawyer of others will have more knowledge about this and chime in, and have a helpful idea how much crown is needed.

[Ron Wenrich]

Its been a long time since I've been around any flat belts.  But, I do know that conveyor belts will run off if one side is longer than the other.  In other words, if your sheaves are not in line, they'll run in or out. 

[HPPDRoss]

The drive pulley is from a wc allis chalmers and does have some crown. It is mounted to a 4cyl Perkins

[hardtailjohn]

Check alignment of the two flat pulleys, as well as checking the squareness of the belt splice. A crooked splice will give you fits!!  Another thing that I've seen, especially with an older belt is that it may be coming apart internally in some spot. That will let it start to wander wildly. You can't always see what's the matter until it fails.

[HPPDRoss]

I did some more adjusting this morning and actually got the belt to run true.  When the blade began cutting the log, the belt pulled the engine towards the other pulley causing it to slide off. I had two come alongs attached to the engine to keep it from moving, but the post wasn't secured good enough. I'm going to mount this engine on concrete and steel, I really feel like this will take care of this problem. By the look of the cedar boards that came off of it, I think everything is working as it should.

[Ron Wenrich]

When we were running diesels as our power unit, we would take a piece of heavy angle iron and anchor that to the concrete.  Then we would drive wedges between the angle and the engine frame to give the needed tension.  If you're pouring a pad, maybe just put the angle in the pad.

[bandmiller2]

Rossy, what I did on my mill is make a screw adjuster,mount a pillow block bearing on the arbor shaft that extends beyond the flat pulley with a section of heavy threaded rod and a nut.Put that in a piece of pipe attached to the engine near the pulley.You adjust the nut to hold boath pulleys apart and keep the belt tensioned.That also takes  alot of strain off the arbor shaft.One of the reasons heavy duty mills have such large diameter arbors is to prevent flexing when a load is applied which would affect the saw running. Frank C.

[captain_crunch]

you need crown on both belt pullys to get it to run correct not much but like 1/16

[steamsawyer]

Hey HPPDRoss,

I'd say that most everyone has pretty well covered the crown and alignment issues. I think if you anchor everything down your problems will be solved.

The flywheel on my engine has the crown but the pulley on the arbor is flat. For the most part it works fairly well. I wish the saw pulley was wider though. The belt is 8" and the pulley is 8". The problem I sometimes have comes from belt slippage. If that happens the belt will run off of the edge of the arbor pulley, once it starts over the edge it's hard to keep from throwing the belt. The best thing I have found for belt dressing is cane syrup. It does not take very much, just drizzle a little on as the belt runs and you will have no more slip. Last year I put an idler on the belt to help tame down some of the flopping.

You can take a look at my gallery and some of my videos to see how I'm set up. There is one video where we are splitting some utility poles. In that case the belt was loose because I didn't have the come along hitched to the back of the engine tying it to a stump to keep the belt tight. I had to leave the chain off so the tractor could go past to off load the poles.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XQN9H9nJOE&list=TLcHrLGa-ccjs


Alan

[bandmiller2]

Alan,I'am sure you have tried reversing the engine and crossing the belt,although yours may be a little short for that.I used to have problems with my belt flapping that would cause the boiler to rock,sympathetic motion,the sloshing of the 275 gallons of water would have everything rocking.I bolted a pipe from the top of the rear wheel to the bottom of the front, rock solid, no more rocking. Frank C.

[bandmiller2]

I have seen several methods to put crown on flat pulleys.The simplest is wrap many wraps of friction tape around the center of the pulley.Anouther is to rivet a narrow piece of leather belt around the center of the pulley,which is the preferred method. Frank C.

[HPPDRoss]

I got the belt in working order and was able to saw some wood. But now, I got another problem.  When the log gets halfway into the cut, its like the cable gets slack and it quits pulling. I then have to back it out and the cable appears to be tight again. No matter how tight you get the cable, it will also slip on the drum. Just wanted to see what you guys thought.

[beenthere]

HPPD
How many wraps on the drum?

Have a pic of what it looks like?  Expect someone can give you a leg up.

[HPPDRoss]

I got 3 wraps on the drum, I don't have a recent picture, if you look at page 1 of this thread there a pic of the drum before I assembled the mill

[lyle niemi]

I think I have about 6 or 7 wraps on my drum, never  have a problem