circle saw setup

[smwwoody]

I will be starting the track frame piers this week. I will be useing 50 foot of track.  How close together should I put my piers?

[Jeff]

What are you using for frame work?

[smwwoody]

concrete piers and Steel beam frame work

[Jeff]

The number and spacing of your piers depends on the substantialty of your iron work I would think.

[smwwoody]

My plan is 2 rows of 8 piers six foot apart to make 48' with 6" wide flang beams for the track frame and the colums from the pier to the frame.  then 2 1/2 X 2 1/2 X 1/4 angle X braceing betheen the colums  I may also put in 2 extra sets of piers at the end where the carriage is loaded

Woody

[Ron Wenrich]

What we did was put an I-beam in our concrete floor when we poured it.  To that, we welded 8" I-beam piers.  Since everytihing was level to beging with, there wasn't too much variance.  Everything is X braced.

We used about 5' spacing where the logs are loaded.  Beyond that it looks more like an 8-10' spacing.

We have a lot of 4x4 tube stock that supports our track.  The track is run over a 4x6.  Underneath the 4x4 is a  4x8 stock.  My carriage is probably a lot heavier than yours and part of the reason there's so much steel,

[smwwoody]

Judgeing by the lift on the loader I would guess it weighs just over a ton.  What do you think of mounting the track directly on the I beam  I always see it on square tube first then the tube mounted to the I beam.

Woody

[woodhaven]

I have my track on 10" channel with piers every 5'.

[jdunmyer]

If it were me, I would make provisions for adjusting the track to make it level. Pads, bolted together, with a shim pack would work fine.

[Jeff]

Found this picture I took of the drive cable take up on the mill. It happens to show the components of our frame and piers.

[Jeff]

Here is a view of the log loader, log turner, and frame work between the carriage and the log loader.

[smwwoody]

Great pics Jeff

Do you use your turner to load with or do the C shaped things rotate on the shaft they arre mounted on to load the log?

Woody

[Jeff]

Both if needed. The c things are called stop unloaders in the parts book. Sometimes they will roll a log clear to the carriage, but most times you will use the turner to shove it on uo and rotate it to a starting position. If yer cutting aspen shaped like pipe then lots of times you wont need the turner.

[D._Frederick]

Nobody has said anything about footings if you live in freezing part of the country. I would think that you would need footings below the frost level, unless you have a heated building. I don't know if a slap poured on soil would stay level.
Would think that you would need a lot of gravel underneath a slap to keep it from lifting.

[smwwoody]

Good reminder D.  

I will be starting my colum piers well below the frost line  each pier will start on its owne footing.

Woody

[Jeff]

I guess its taken for granted up here when you say the word pier as related to mills that they are put in below frost level. Here, that is at least four foot.

[Ron Wenrich]

It also depends on whether you're inside, and how well you have it drained.

We put ours on a 12" slab, and about 12" of gravel.  We were down to hard shale when we started.  The I-beams were put in the slab.

The building was put over top of the mill and there hasn't been any movement in the slab over the past 7 years.  We had some cold spells in there, but not as cold as woody gets.

[woodhaven]

I dug all my footings for the shop and house by hand with just a shovel. I sure don't think I could have done it in Jeff's neck of the woods. The frost line around these parts is 12". I would still be digging footings today at over 4' deep.

[smwwoody]

Yea when I said pier I ment in the ground.  I will be putting them down about 4'.  the building won't be getting heat  the heat is in the tools

Woody