4 stroke slabber mill

[Picky2016]

Well hello again gentlemen!

Built my first bandsaw mill here 3 years ago, tweaked it and built a second one with all the knowledge (and errors) from the first, still working great. I have a buddy who purchased a chainsaw mill that I modded to run on my track system. We were looking at retrofitting it with a vertical shaft 4 stroke (5-12hp) to make a mini slabber mill (20" logs and under). I searched on here and read the pros and cons, he's all right with them all. I already purchased a 36" bar and rip chain. I can't seem to find any photos of smaller ones. If anyone has any cluttering up their hardrives, could you post them for me please and I'll show them to him?

Build number 3 here we go!

[TKehl]

There won't be a whole lot of smaller mills using chainsaw bars like that since 36" and down has become bandsaw dominated based on speed and reduced kerf.  

The upper end of that width range used to be price prohibitive, but there are several companies offering wide mills economically now.  (There are also bigger bandsaws than that that aren't terribly expensive.)  The chainsaw mills shine if extreme portability or very large (4-5' and up) cuts are needed.  

A bigger one could be scaled down, but before you put a lot of time in, I'd recommend looking real hard at making or buying a wider band mill.  

[Picky2016]

Well, while working on the 4 stroker, I dug out my old electric chainsaw. I bolted the 36" bar up, installed rip chain and bolted her in to my chainsawmill carriage. Cut a cedar slab off a 18" to try.

Is she slow? Yes. Does she cut? Yes. Merits some effort. Not sure how long the poor little 10 amper would last, but the neighbors didn't complain about any noise. Might dig out my old compressor replacement motor. Came across the Snik mill on YouTube. Nice electric mill.