Bolt Mill ID?

[Bullheaded]

I know the pics stink, but can anyone take a guess at the make of this old bolt mill? These are the best I  could get without taking the tarps completely off. Parts look factory and parts look homemade. Thanx!

[Bullheaded]

Another pic

[beenthere]

Nothing to see there. Are you thinking it is a bolter mill that has a trolley to mount/hold a log that is then hand-pushed past a saw blade? 

[Bullheaded]

I realize that the pics are less than informative but was hoping that someone might recognize the construction of the headblock advancement rack. I forgot to get a pic of the setworks when we partially uncovered it. It has a conventional Heacock belt feed with a square link chain to the carriage feed drum shaft. The light duty carriage is approx 6' long with 3 bedblocks.

[Bullheaded]

Anyone recognize the carriage, dogs, or setworks?

[Ron Wenrich]

That looks like a real antique.  I was going to say that it might be homemade, but I found one that looks similar on Pinterest.  But, the dogs don't match.  Those are unusual dogs.  If you can match the dogs, you'll probably match the mill.  But, sometimes owners made upgrades or repairs by robbing parts from other mills. 

The problem with old mills is that sometimes companies that made farm equipment also made sawmills.  Farquahr out of York, PA was one of those companies.  They made them for the local trade and there aren't a whole bunch of them like Frick.

Are you trying to restore it or just getting it to run?

[Bullheaded]

Ron, 
Thanx for the input. I think bits and pcs are homemade repairs but overall, it looks like a factory rig. Not sure why my pics post at such a low resolution and hence not good detail. My intent is to get it here and functioning as intended, then do upgrades and restoration as time allows. I talked at length with Mark at Moraska Saw yesterday. I hope to put a new 32" inserted tooth blade on at some point but know that will entail a new 2"mandrel as well. I would love to find a nice used 2" mandrel and now regret scrapping a couple rough ones last year. I have hauled (4) derelict old mills home in hopes of building a nice one. I can now see that was a waste of time and resources. This endeavor is strictly a HOBBY proposition. I intend to cut planking for buildings and flat small 8-9" Norway Pine cabin/sauna logs. I will set this up for trials and debugging with a 25hp Wisconsin V4 and a blade speed of 1200ish. The previous owner ran it, and apparently made some cuts with it belted to a Ford 9N. I am guessing blade speed with that setup was sub-400 rpms looking at the mandrel pulley......and it actually cut! I will post pics as I make progress. Right now its under 2' of snow 1/4 mile back in the bush!

[Bullheaded]

I Brought the bolt mill home today. Another pic, hoping someone may recognize a manufacturer.

[Bullheaded]

Here is a pic of the setworks and carriage.

[Nebraska]

No clue but it looks kinda fun. 

[Bullheaded]

I have several hours of cleanup, freeup, and assessment of the bolt mill. With the 33" swedged blade running at 820rpm, I will be edging and making stickers at 7000sfpm. Existing feeds then work out to 7/8" feed and 2 3/4" gig back per rev of the blade. Since its a lefthand mill, I am adding another arbor to feed the mandrel. This arbor will be 540pto driven and step up the mandrel to 820rpm. Should make a nice little edger/sticker mill.

[DanielW]

This is going to bug me, as I'm sure I've seen that make of mill before. It was one of the few other companies that offered a mandrel-through-frame design like the Belsaws, and used a better setworks than the Belsaws (more like a proper full-sized mill setworks). I remember being interested, and thinking I'd love to have one to take to shows instead of one of my Belsaws, I also like that it has an adjustable knee too - I've added one to the little M14 I take around to shows. I even remember posts about that make a few years ago on here. Will see if I can find those posts.

I wonder if it was always a LH mill, or if it's been re-configured like that. The shipping lever is certainly set up for a LH mill. But normally the headblock with the adjustable knee and the setworks lever are on the leading-end of the carriage. They're on the trailing end of the carriage in that setup, which seems unusual. Maybe if it was always set up for bolt or short sawing, it didn't really matter. But it sure seems like it's backwards.

Not that it really matters. But one thing you do want to make sure of is that the mandrel is threaded for the correct handing. A few years ago I went to help someone with their mill set up in an old marina shed. There was a 5' tall slit through the wall in-line with the saw. I asked them (already knowing the answer) if that was from a saw that came off. It sure was. When it was first set up in that new location, they had changed their mill hand but not the mandrel, so it was threaded backwards and came loose during sawing. Apparently it not only sliced through that wall, but through the corners of another shed and a pile of brush, before it came to rest in a creek bottom 200 yards away.

The way to know which way it should be threaded: If you were to hold onto the nut while it was running (not recommended - theory only), the nut should tighten. So in your case it should be right-hand threaded.

[Bullheaded]

Daniel,
I too, thought something seemed backwards when I first looked at it. That said, one of the first things I did was check the mandrel thread. It is a RH thread which is correct for a LH mill. None of the drive shafting holding the feed pulleys have ever been messed with or changed that I can see. I am really having fun bringing it back to life. With rain forecast the next several days, I will be cutting the keys in the primary drive shaft and eliminating the flat belt drive feeding the feed pulleys. I will convert to "B" vee belt but retain the carriage feed and gig back as flat belts. The feed belt is twisted to reverse rotation. The carriage is only 6' long so it is not really out of the way to work the setworks from the rear. The entire carriage is riveted construction, again suggesting factory manufacture over homebuilt.