Handy things around the mill

[D._Frederick]

gboucher

You don't need any down force on the blade if your pads under the rollers are correctly adjusted, they should have about 0.015 clearance.

[edsaws]

Welcome GB I don't have any downward pressure, not yet anyway. My homebrewed mill is still fairly new and when I set the tracking on it I made sure everything was lined up just right. I'm kinda anal when it comes to things like that but it cuts straight without any wavyness.
Can't wait to se some pics of your set up.

[Tom_in_Mo.]

Bibbyman that long tool looks like " hang on a minute there, honey and help me.
 ;)

[Bibbyman]

You mean this thing...



Just last weekend I was sawing away and noted Mary crossing the sawshed with a purpose in mind.  She returned directly with the blue reach extender.  I hadn't seen it for a while but she knew where it was when she needed it.

[ScottAR]

Great minds think alike I guess.    At my job we use a garden hoe to downstack the lumber bundles.  Saves climbing into the racks and helps keep the pressure treatment "slime" off.  
 I don't think the upper management thinks much of it but they aren't doin' the stackin' and if someone fell out of the rack it would cost 'em way more than a garden hoe.  

[Tom_in_Mo.]

yep thats the one, that kinda looks to fit the back belt loops maybe.  :D  

[Bibbyman]

I came home from the office one evening four or five years back and found that Mary had decided she needed a big box to put cut off ends and other items in.  She had hacked up some off-all lumber we had around and came up with this design.  We later made two more.  We've use them almost daily.  This time of year we use them to pitch cut off ends from trimming boards.  Later in the fall and winter we use them to haul firewood – either cut up slabs and cull boards from the processor or cut off ends.  We can set three of the boxes under our back porch. (Not elegant but what the heck – it works!)




The boxes are 60" length by 40" wide by 36" tall.  We made the older ones with 4x6 runners set on edge – one on each end and a 2x6 in the center.  We made these with three 3x4s set on edge because that's what we had and we found that the 2x6 didn't last too well.  The side boards and deck on the older ones were all 4/4 oak.  After a couple of years of hard use,  we were starting to loose bottom boards to rot and handling damage. 




This time we had some cull oak we'd sawed for a trailer deck 1-1/2" thick. They were 16' long and all had some major bad spot – thus not usable for a trailer deck.  But they produced enough 60" stuff for the deck boards on four boxes.   We cut the side boards out of cull 1x6 oak fencing lumber.  The four upright pieces are 2x4. On the new boxes,  we added an additional 2x4 in the center of the back and front to compensate for the thinner lumber.



We worked as a team on this project.  Mary manned the radial arm saw cutting pieces to length,  I scrounged around for material and delivered the cut pieces to Gabe who nailed them up.

Note that we left one side lower than the back side.  This just makes it easier to get stuff out of them.  Brooke and Alex are usually involved in loading and unloading these boxes as they are the ones that gather up the loose ends and carry in the firewood each evening.

[Frickman]

Bibbyman,

Those boxes that Mary made are just like those that used by most of the mills around here. They're great for catching scrap wood and carrying it around with the high lift. Also, when selling firewood the customer has to take what's in the box and can't pick the cream off a big pile.

[Bro. Noble]

Frickman,

I think it was Mary and the girls that Bibb was pointing out as 'handy things around the mill'  :D :D

[Bibbyman]

Bro. Noble,  I don't know if you're wise beyond your years or in spite of you're years.

But they are handy.  Mary either inspires or makes the girls handy.  They're not going to turn out to be useless people or someone just trained to do one thing in life.

[Gilman]

Here's plans for Bibby's and Mary's sawhorses.  They correct Bibby?



A pdf is attached below.

[Jeff]

HEY! Thats great!

[jrokusek]

Just curious - what is the backstop used for?   ???

Jim

[Bibbyman]

Just curious - what is the backstop used for?   ???

Jim

Looks great Gilman!   8)  What CAD system did you use to draw it up.



The back stops are Mary's idea.  She likes to make her stacks with one side and one end neat and square.  I tell people she's an accountant by birth!

The only change I could recomend is to use a wider board on the bottom runner brace.  We've had a little problem with them racking when you run into a stack a little too hard with the loader when picking the bundle up.  Guess who's REAL CAREFUL and never bumps the stack and who's not.   :

[WH_Conley]

I made a couple of sets of them back in the spring, HANDY, HANDY, HANDY.

[Gilman]

Solidworks, spendy but worth it if you need to use CAD for a living.  It's a great software, I just don't like the $1500 annual maintenance.

Bibby, I'm guessing you might need two more boards added.  Heck, I bet Mary doesn't even need to nail hers together.

Below is a forklift friendlier version.

[Kevin_H.]

Hey that pdf is pretty cool.

[Riles]

Hey Gilman, can I have permission to print it out?

[Bibbyman]

I like the angled board added to help fight racking.  I'd probably put one on one side going low to high and then high to low on the other.  Don't know if it'd really make any difference strength wise,  just thought it may.

I printed out a copy and showed Mary.  She caught a deviation from her design right off.  The lower 1x4s and the end plates are raised 2" up from the ground on her design.  If they are all the way down as drawn,  they won't set well on uneven ground.  The six legs tend to find their own level.



It's hard to see the legs sticking below the brace boards while it's setting here in the grass - but they do.

[Gilman]

Riles, thanks for asking, but anyone can print em out if they want.  It's Jeff's drawing now.

Thanks Bibby,  Third time's the charm?



I mounted both of the braces in the same direction to give the most support if pushed on from the front. Clear as mud?  If it was going to be pushing on it from both ends, I'd cross the braces like you mentioned.

Below is version 3.01

[Bibbyman]

AaaH!  That'll work. 

But we lift from the support side.  I'll run this one by the boss (in the morning) and get her to sighn off on the project.   :D

[Larry]

Sawhorse...couldn't get along without em in the shop.  Yet for eleven years been messing around with make shift messes at the mill.  Musta wasted zillion hours moving lumber around and restacking. :-[

Going to make me a set of Pro-Sawyer Mary's sawhorses.  Might have to get her autograph on one. 8)

Really like the back support idea...got to thinking with my loader might be easier for me if I made the back support swivel 90 degrees after I get the stack built.  Just put one 1/2" lag bolt in with a washer.  Would that work? :-\

And thanks to Gilman with the cool set of plans...now I don't even have to think to build it. 8)

[wiam]

Question for the computer litterate.   Acrobat has a pop up that says "unable to create the font 'WQBJOPO+TTEB279DOtOO'  Some characters may not display or print correctly."

Huh ???


Will

[Gilman]

Can you still view the document?  Or will it just give the error and not open?

Either way, I really couldn't help.  I have no idea how to fix that problem.  Try calling Jeff at home, say 11:00 pm'ish ;D

[rbarshaw]

YOU NEED TO DOWNLOAD THE LATEST VERSION OF ACROBAT, THE PDF READER.
Sorry about yelling, just too lazy to retype it ;)