best wood to rebuild a circular mill

[Jeff]

The way I'd look at it is that bats and handles aren't typically full of large bolt holes that shorten the grain and add stress points for failure. Handles always break, bats always break, they don't just wear out from age or decay.

[jcbrotz]

Why not locust? White Oak would be second.

[mikes47jeep]

well come monday

ill take a trip to the mill and get a quote on some oak

hopefully it wont cost me an arm and a leg but only time will tell

Mike

[bandmiller2]

Thats the kicker you need wood milled for your sawmill but you need the sawmill to cut the wood.Mayby find a local sawyer to mill some for you.Has anyone tried those glue-lam beams.??What ever you use slap on the baddest preserver you can find and put a roof over it. Frank C.

[mikes47jeep]

well a place about 10 miles away will cut odd dimention lumber for me

so he's my first choice

i have seen some lam beams used for the mill tracks

i wouldent mind two 48 footers for my mill track

[MHineman]

  I agree Ash splits easily as firewood, but I've not had problems as lumber.  White Oak will resist decay much better, but Ash will dry much quicker and therefore be stable sooner.
  It would be great to mill the beams and then remill them after drying, but I doubt you have that much time.
  If you can get beams from the cants they should be more stable than timbers from one side of a log.

[Ron Wenrich]

They use ash for tool handles and baseball bats, two very high stress applications.  Yes, it does split, but it takes an incredible amount of pressure before giving in.  If you support it well enough there's no reason ash should break.  That being said, I will agree with Jeff that if I had white oak available that's what I'd use.

They use ash for cheap handles.  Price out hickory handles and you'll see that they are more expensive than a shovel with an ash handle.  I believe Babe Ruth used a hickory bat.  Most ball players can't swing the heavier bats. 

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

I think the reason alot of mill makers used Softwoods for the frames is dimensional stability Hardwoods have alot less of that and higher shrinkage rate which would have meant alot more unstable during the changes in season but I have also heard of Oak frames but it would all have to be cut heart free the same as with the SYP frames alot of the manufactures supplied their mills with  ;)

And you also have to consider weight when alot of these mills where popular they where generally shifted arond and setup by manual labor  so setup weight was even a concern back in those days a #1 meadows tipped the scales at about 4000lbs including the Mud Sills under the Husk  which is bloody light when you consider the amount of wood you can put over them a day  ;)
I think if your going to have a timber frame mill you need to have a shed over it  ;) ;D ;D 8) Thats just my thoughts on the subject  ;)

Regards Chris

[Ron Wenrich]

A shed also keeps sunlight off the blade.  Sunlight on a blade can cause all sorts of problems.