Homemade saw mill#2

JRWoodchuck · January 17, 2021, 11:26:42 AM

Vautour do you know what your head weighs? I'm using a wheelchair motor to lift my mill head and have never been happy with the lift speed. I've only got a 19hp diesel so I would guess my head weighs less than yours but I'm only running it on 12v. Also using acme rod for lift. But Im no where near 8 sec per foot.

Vautour · January 17, 2021, 03:23:20 PM

@ JRWoodchuck... haven't got a clue what my head weights,.. at least 250lbs to 300lbs, if you read my reply#71 i'm down to 3sec per foot and the motor doesn't seem to grunt at all, 24 volt will double your speed as i found out on my trials on this, changing your sprockets will give you more speed, the options are there.

JoshNZ · January 17, 2021, 05:30:07 PM

If you guys are running 24v motors on 12v power sources you are woefully under utilising the motors potential, it will only produce something like 1/4 of its rated power, if you do the math it makes sense.

If you've got a 500watt motor it's worth matching the power source with the rated voltage, or vice versa whatever is easier. And then gearing for speed from there.

mike_belben · January 17, 2021, 08:42:07 PM

[Edit] New sketch.. I made a few too many mistakes on the first one.

The alligator leads are just chopped jumper cables for you to plug it into the other battery while milling .. And youve got to remember plus plus minus minus or bad juju. You cant push the button while in charge mode either, more bad juju. Id mount the clips to a piece of wood when not in charge mode. Amazon sells stupid cheap bright multicolored LCD volt displays that will help you remember when the deep cycle is getting low.

You flip the toggle to up or down, and hold the momentary button to make it go. The 2nd battery is in series with the first and you get 24v to the toggle which controls the switching contactor. Thats just a relay that can swap terminals internally. But your motor needs to have individual positive and negative wires. It cant use the chassis for the negative circuit.

When not raising the head, chomp the jumpers to your primary battery in parallel so it charges.

Vautour · January 18, 2021, 04:39:49 AM

@ JoshNZ I am no electrical engineer but if you look in the industries many application switch from AC to DC for the reason of reducing motor speed like tread mills which are probably half of capacity most of the time and the same thing with wheel chairs, so i believe DC motor can handle the reduced voltage.

JoshNZ · January 18, 2021, 01:56:00 PM

Yeah it can handle it no problem I was only getting at the loss in power. My 24v motor didn't cut it running on 12v I ended up swapping it out

Vautour · January 19, 2021, 06:41:36 AM

@JoshNZ . at the very first i had used tread mill motors which was rated for 90volts and running them at 12 and 24 volts, and like you say the power drops considerably, so keeping motor close to factory specs is best for max hp.

mike_belben · January 19, 2021, 10:20:34 AM

Dayton makes 110vac varispeed reversible controllers for 90vdc motors. And have for probably 40 gears so there should be some on ebay.

Penta-drive is another brand i have used. Nema4x/ IP-65

Vautour · January 22, 2021, 06:49:02 PM

bought a wheel chair today for $40 for the motors and a few sprockets, i've always preferred the chain roller for it's speed compared to other systems... i might have to add a third smaller sprocket because the speed using 12 volts was one revolution per second and will be way faster on 24 volts, the actuator in the pic is waaay too slow to bring it upright so i'll use a simple winch.

Crusarius · January 23, 2021, 10:47:04 AM

This should be good. I been thinking about that on my mill but will definitely do something on new one.

Vautour · February 06, 2021, 06:32:06 PM

just about finished only thing left is to attache it to the frame, from what i can tell the pivot point is about 2/3 going towards the log stops, time will tell. tks for wishes Ray

,.. just saw it tonight ha

Crusarius · February 06, 2021, 10:08:26 PM

wonder if your going to want some UHMW under the chain on top of the arm. Definitely be helpful against wear. And alot less friction.

Excited to see this in action.

ladylake · February 07, 2021, 05:50:45 AM

Quote from: Vautour on February 06, 2021, 06:32:06 PM

just about finished only thing left is to attache it to the frame, from what i can tell the pivot point is about 2/3 going towards the log stops, time will tell. tks for wishes Ray ,.. just saw it tonight ha

Nice looking chain turner, those u shaped metal pieces welded to the chain is the same as I do. Cost about $15 a chain vs $100 for a factory chain. If that's a electric motor hooked direct to the chain I don't think it will have any where enough power. Mine uses a good sized hyd motor with a chain geared down some. The new TK mills use a direct to the turner like your but have a hugh hyd motor. Steve

mike_belben · February 07, 2021, 12:58:25 PM

Its pretty slick but i agree with ladylake .. Itll probably need a jackshaft and gearing for that motor to flip a good log.

What the motor hp and rpm output?

Vautour · February 07, 2021, 02:55:00 PM

@Crusarius... the chain will be tight enough as to not ride on steel at all so UHMW is not necessary, but that idea is still in the back of my mind if needed. @mike_belben & ladylake,this is a 24 volt wheelchair motor and geared down at about 60 RPM i'm betting that it will be sufficient for most logs,..but if it doesn't, plan B come into play as Mike mentioned, a jack shaft and sprockets will be added.

ladylake · February 07, 2021, 03:25:01 PM

The hyd motor on my chain turner has around 30 foot pounds of torque. Steve

mike_belben · February 07, 2021, 07:03:22 PM

let us know what it does. would like to have that info under my cap.

Vautour · February 11, 2021, 02:29:21 PM

Bracket on the bottom of last picture is where the winch cable will be pulling it from the other side to raise the chain roller... back stops are next.

farmfromkansas · February 11, 2021, 04:41:57 PM

I like the mount, like the turner, sure hope you will post some pics when you get it running, as well as keeping with the details. A chain turner add-on would be a great thing for all of us with manual mills.

Vautour · February 12, 2021, 06:41:15 PM

will be starting my log clamp tomorrow, powering up and down, and side to side..hmmm

Vautour · February 19, 2021, 06:32:04 PM

just about finished... missing a few sprockets to make it go from side to side... there is UHMV around the tubing and behind the chain opposite the sprocket...

mike_belben · February 19, 2021, 06:39:39 PM

Barge's mill has chain drive clamps like that. Pretty cool.

Vautour · February 20, 2021, 08:36:19 PM

@mike_belben... never heard of Barge mills before... ill check em out... did a test today standing on my log dog using 12 volts and lifted me up no problem so hopefully 24 volts will be a lot stronger because i do plan on using the log dog to rotate a cant and the chain log roller for turning the logs.