2 plane clamp woodmizer

Coalsmoke · December 25, 2009, 12:31:33 AM

Thank you for the pricing information. I think I'll get a look at an orange one and then build my own.

backwoods sawyer · December 25, 2009, 12:45:45 AM

I still believe that an LT-40 or larger should have two of the two plane clamps on them about 6' apart along with two chain log turners. Be worth the extra $2,500 or so, to make it happen.

coastlogger · December 25, 2009, 01:57:45 AM

Fla deadheader I am interested in your 2 plane clamp. I see it in pic 7/32 is there another shot? i couldnt quite figure out what runs what. Looks like a linear actuater at top of photo? does this somehow run the in and out or?I take it the ob motor cyl is the up dn?Am designing my own and have similar components avail.
clgr

Fla._Deadheader · December 25, 2009, 08:46:06 AM

We used a gearmotor, 12VDC, from Surplus Center. Just replaced it, as, the other one dropped a Magnet from the Motor barrel, and it jammed up and broke in 3 pieces. Use a single pole, double throw momentary switch, found at NAPA. 25 Amp lasts forever. Motor is 1/5 HP and 190 RPM's I believe. Have to check with my Son. He has all the paperwork from when we just replaced the gearmotor. Price was around $125.00 for the motor. Total price for the clamping system was around $300.00. Cylinder was FREE. 8)

It runs a bicycle chain and sprocket to the acme thread that runs crossways to the mill, under the square bar. Square bar is 2".

Yes, hydraulic cylinder is from the raise and lower of an outDRIVE from a Cobra outdrive set up. We used the outBOARD cylinders on the log stops.

That set up will lift your average log, and run it in out if needed, and, with just a little practice, you can turn really big logs.

Know how tough it is to position them big gnarly logs on the bunks ??? Run the lifting part under the log and move one end in-out as needed.

AND, never get your fingers between the log and clamp. It has amazing "squeeze factor".

Here are 2 better photos. Don't know why a lot of photos are missing from my gallery ??

There is a 1" solid round bar that is paralleled with the cylinder piston rod, to help with not bending the cylinder rod. Keep a little oil on the square bar, and, it has never given us a seconds worth of trouble, even moving the waterlogged BIG logs.

Coalsmoke · December 25, 2009, 02:46:17 PM

Fla, good pictures. I also looked on your gallery but never saw those ones. It was late last night, maybe I missed them. None the less, thank you.

Fla._Deadheader · December 25, 2009, 03:45:17 PM

I put a LOT of photos in my gallery, as I was building and then, sawing. A LOT of them are not in the Gallery.

There was a meltdown of the FF a couple 3 years ago, and, maybe some of the photos that were there were not properly titled, and got placed in Jeff's Gallery, OR, are still on the original site that was salvaged to some extent.

There should be a site of the original-salvaged site, somewhere on this site. Can't remember as well as I once could. Might do some searching, or, if needed, I can put copies in my Gallery.

Ask questions and I will try to explain what we did.

Jeff · December 25, 2009, 05:26:43 PM

Quote from: Fla._Deadheader on December 25, 2009, 03:45:17 PM
I put a LOT of photos in my gallery, as I was building and then, sawing. A LOT of them are not in the Gallery.

There was a meltdown of the FF a couple 3 years ago, and, maybe some of the photos that were there were not properly titled, and got placed in Jeff's Gallery, OR, are still on the original site that was salvaged to some extent.

Prior to Feb 14, 2005 members did not have a gallery. There was no gallery program, and no individual galleries. All photos were uploaded to the same directory by everyone with a primitive upload facility. That encompassed several thousand photos from our first 4 years or so. On February 14th, 2005, a new gallery program, an earlier build of the one we have now, was installed on the Forestry Forum. On that date, all existing photos, all several thousand were imported into the gallery so they would be available in some manner within the program. There was no way in the world for me to know what photos belonged to who. I did my best sorting through those thousands of photos one by one to at least get them sorted into some sort of category by subject matter.

The only way for me to mass import that many photos was to do it underneath my login. So, they show up as being in my gallery. I suppose I should have created a user named The Forestry Forum and imported them there, but at the time, It did not occur to me and I got them into the forum the best I knew how.

No photos were ever lost in the server crash we had in Late September of 2007. 100% of our photos were recovered. Thanks To Norm and Patty's Son, we got them all back.

Coalsmoke · December 25, 2009, 07:21:29 PM

Wow, there's a lot of photos in there to look at. You've found a way to keep me entertained for days 8)

Brucer · December 28, 2009, 01:36:42 AM

Quote from: sdunston on December 24, 2009, 04:25:57 PM
how much cutting and welding is involved?
Sam

I considered putting one on my old LT40, as I found the manual clamp to be the most time consuming aspect to the manual mill.

The biggest issue (at least for me) is that you'd have to cut a chunk out of the 4x4 frame on the outboard side of the mill and weld in a "jog" to allow clearance for the clamp assembly. That killed the idea -- I wasn't about to risk skewing my frame to add a clamp.

Fla._Deadheader · December 28, 2009, 07:11:22 AM

No cutting of anything on the one we built. Our mill is similar to WM frame.

bandmiller2 · December 28, 2009, 07:14:28 AM

Brucer,you don't have to cut your frame,you can make something to fit between the existing frames.After I installed the two plain clamp/turner on my bandmill I seldom use the manual clamps only on the last board if it tends to curl.Anouther big timesaver is a linkage between the uprights at the rear of the mill and a handle to turn them on the front,your not always reaching over.Frank C.

Brucer · December 28, 2009, 10:48:04 PM

Quote from: Fla._Deadheader on December 28, 2009, 07:11:22 AM
No cutting of anything on the one we built. Our mill is similar to WM frame.

That's because your frame is similar to the hydraulic WM frame, Harold. It's already got the jog in the frame to accommodate the clamp. The frame on the manual mill runs straight at that point and the manual clamp assembly rests on top of it.

Quote from: bandmiller2 on December 28, 2009, 07:14:28 AM
Brucer,you don't have to cut your frame,you can make something to fit between the existing frames.

I expect you could. The jog in the frame provides extra room for the vertical cylinder. If you were prepared to sacrifice 3 or 4 inches of clamping width, you could probably adapt the hydraulic clamp to fit without cutting the frame.

Fortunately it's no longer a concern for me -- I traded up to a new hydraulic mill 3 years ago ;D.

Fla._Deadheader · December 29, 2009, 12:54:24 PM

I am also building a mill down here. It's been on hold for a spell, but, I'm about to get after it, again. It does have the same basic style clamp set up, only I drilled a hole through the loader side frame, so I could mount the screw drive. The cross bar is from a Honda car rear axle tube. I reversed the bracket and mounted it inside the frame, for the idle side.

sdunston · December 29, 2009, 04:41:49 PM

Quote from: Brucer on December 28, 2009, 01:36:42 AM
Quote from: sdunston on December 24, 2009, 04:25:57 PM
how much cutting and welding is involved?
Sam

I considered putting one on my old LT40, as I found the manual clamp to be the most time consuming aspect to the manual mill.

The biggest issue (at least for me) is that you'd have to cut a chunk out of the 4x4 frame on the outboard side of the mill and weld in a "jog" to allow clearance for the clamp assembly. That killed the idea -- I wasn't about to risk skewing my frame to add a clamp.

I had talked to one of the engineers at WM and that cut on the outside rail does not impress me at all without using some sort of jig. I have decided to design and build my own hyd 2-plane clamp that will mount along side the manual clamp and it will be a bolt in installision, Just in case I blow a hose or the power pack dont start I can still fall bacl on the manual setup. I plan on taking lots of photo's and will do a post. Have all ready started gathering parts so it should be within the next month
Sam

Brucer · December 29, 2009, 06:01:56 PM

If you can keep the manual clamp, then you won't need to worry about the hydraulic clamp moving out that extra 3 or 4 inches. For the vast majority of logs the reduced-width hydraulic clamp would work fine. For really big logs you can use the manual clamp until you break the log down.

bandmiller2 · December 30, 2009, 07:33:37 AM

The two plain I built for my mill has about 16" travel ,due to the curviture of logs you have no trouble clamping the big ones.Once you get down to a cant no problem clamping.Mine will clamp down to just below 1", so I can clamp the last board.Frank C.