Now we're building a mill...

[windyacres207]

a good two cents... I make prosthetic limbs for a living... I tend to over think some  things.... and not think about other things...

[roghair]

I think the big key in being able to do that would be that the head itself took all the force from the wheels and bands, then the carriage is only responsible to lifting the head and moving it down the log, if the stance is wide enough - I'm planning 36" right now, then the torque stress should be distributed to a minimal degree on each bearing....

I think that could work well. Realize that the final result depends for a big part on the alignment of the blade which is done with the blade guides. I also made the wheels and whole head adjustable in a lot of directions which turned out to be less important then the blade guides. Here's how I did the up-down rollers for the head, they work fine.

[windyacres207]

I think the big key in being able to do that would be that the head itself took all the force from the wheels and bands, then the carriage is only responsible to lifting the head and moving it down the log, if the stance is wide enough - I'm planning 36" right now, then the torque stress should be distributed to a minimal degree on each bearing....

I think that could work well. Realize that the final result depends for a big part on the alignment of the blade which is done with the blade guides. I also made the wheels and whole head adjustable in a lot of directions which turned out to be less important then the blade guides. Here's how I did the up-down rollers for the head, they work fine.

What are you using for rollers?
Your build looks fantastic!

[roghair]

I think you call it pallet pump? I mean the wheels from a pallet pump. Bought a box full of them on an auction and someone machined them for me on a lathe.