Rebuilding sawmill

[Joe Hillmann]

I built a homemade tire mill two or three years ago.  When I built it I got it finished good enough that it worked but it always had lots of room for improvement.  Since then I have done very little maintenance to it and it has slowly been going down hill. 

This weekend we planned to put a proper set of cooks blade guides on it but pretty much ended up stripping it down to the bare frame and fixed many other things on it.

I'll try and get pictures of the new blade guide set up sometime this week. 

In addition to the glade guides we fixed the wiring, the lube system, pulled the head from the engine to scrape the carbon, cleaned and re set the points, fixed and stiffened up the blade guards, and fixed the exhaust.

We just did our first cuts with it a couple hours ago.  We put on a log that we were unable to cut last week because the blade wondered so bad.  The cut ended up never wondering by more than 1/32 in the entire length so I am very happy with how it turned out.  On building the blade guides we probably had more time in finding out where to measure from that was parallel to the blade both up and down and front to back than we had in building and installing the guides.

So far the only down sides are, I lost about 3-4 inches of width between the guides from what I had before and the guides and steel nearly doubled the cost of the mill.

[gww]

Can't wait for the pictures. 
gww

[Joe Hillmann]

I finally got some pictures.  Unfortunately I think the lens fogged up on the camera when brought it outsides so some are blurry.

Originally when I built the mill I had planned to remove the guard and rebuild it with rounded corners to more closely follow the blade so put it together very quicky and over time it sagged a lot and the front door would no longer stay closed so I pulled it all apart and put it back together with lots of screws and bracing.


 



 
I put a 45 degree brace in each corner


  
I used one of the old blade guide arms to stiffen up the back of the blade guard



  

 
This is the simplest way I have found to keep the blade guard closed I've tried draw latches and rubber hood closers and they all eventually failed.  This doesn't pull it as tightly closed but shouldn't fail


Also welded on a bracket to hold the exhaust better.  The old way caused a lot of stress where it mounts to the engine when the blade guard started to sag and I removed it and for the last year the exhaust was held in place with a bungie coard.

[Kbeitz]

I've had good luck with these...



 

[Joe Hillmann]

On to the blade guides.  I used blade guides from cooks.



 
This is a front view of the moveable blade guide.  You can see the lube system on the left.  It is a piece of steel, a piece of felt from a boot liner, and another piece of steel bolted to the side of the guide with the felt rubbing on the blade.  The diesel supply line is wedged into the felt and the felt soaks it up and rubs it on the top of the blade.  At the moment there is no way of putting lube on the bottom of the blade.





 
This is the back of the moveable blade guide  it shows the adjustment in and out.  It can also be removed completely for cutting down logs that are too large.  It is simply slid into the place and the three bolts get tightened down to clamp it solid.

The only place it is attached to the mill is it is welded to the two inch upright.  We had planned to put several 45 degree braces to it but after we had it in place we felt it was strong enough as it is.



 
Another view of the entire moveable blade guide.



 
This is the operator side blade guide it can be adjusted the same as the other but should only be adjusted when something is wrong or if cutting a very large log and it needs to be removed for the first cut.  You can see it can be adjusted up/down at the very front with the cooks adjustment. Tilt up/down & left/right are behind that with the square head bolts, also part of the cooks blade guide.  The next bolt back from that is the front/back adjustment there is also another bolt on the side you cant see.  And the four bolts on the larger tubing is the left/right adjustment.  This one is attached to the mill the same as the moveable blade guide and appears to be solid enough.



 
A front view of the operator side blade guide.



 
This shows the clearance between the blade guide and the belt/tire.  I plan to cut off the head of the bolt and grind away a bit of the top right corner of the blade guide to be able to move the guard over a bit farther.  I also plan to cut of all the bolt heads that stick down so I can cut lower to the deck.



 
Back side of the operator side blade guide showing how it is attached to the mill

[Joe Hillmann]

We also fixed some of the wiring.


 
I need to come up with a slightly better diesel set up.  This one leaks all over your hands when you use it.



 
Also put on a fuel filter.  Even with using plastic gas cans, a plastic fuel tank and new fuel line the carburetor float bowl would  fill up with rusty sludge.  I haven't been able to figure out where it came from so hopefully this will reduce that.

We also had the head off and scraped the carbon.  The bore is in nearly perfect shape but there is a defect on the top of the block that appears to be in the original casting that makes it burn out head gaskets.  I may look into having it ground down to fix that.  When we scraped the carbon it was 1/2 thick around the exhaust valve and the plug was very fouled but it still ran quite well before we took it apart. (The reason we took it apart was I suspected it had a blown head gasket)

I also cleaned and re adjusted the points.  I still need to get a new air filter and spark plug for it.



 

And a picture of where it is currently set up.

I sawed with it for a few hours yesterday and I think the investment in the blade guides was worth it.  It probably sawed the straightest lumber it has ever made last night.  And I was able to saw faster because I didn't need to slow down for knots. 

The one thing I don't like about it is the loss of clearance.  But I can always remove the new guides and put on one of the old ones to gain about 7 inches of clearance to get a log started then switch back to the new ones once they will fit. 

There are still 5 or 6 small things I want to work on yet.

    I want to remove the heads of all the bolts that point down to get more clearance.
    I want to cut the dogs at a 45 degree angle to get a bit more clearance.
    I want to mount a couple tool mounts on the blade guard so I'm not always looking for the hammer or wrench.
    I need to do something about the diesel set up.
    New plug and air filter. 
    Possibly get new rings and valve seats for engine.(It burns a quart of oil in 8 hours,  I don't know it that is considered excessive considering it is 35+ years old.
    I am thinking about a power feed for it
    I need to figure out how to hook up the stator so it will charge the battery.
    A coat of paint at least on the wood parts wouldn't hurt.

[Joe Hillmann]

I've had good luck with these...



 

Is that something you can find at a local hardware store?  Or is it something that you had to order?

[Czech_Made]

I've had good luck with these...



 

Is that something you can find at a local hardware store?  Or is it something that you had to order?

I would guess it is from junkyard - CJ jeeps and wranglers up to 1995 used it hold the hood down.  But you can buy them on ebay and 4WD internet stores.

[gww]

Joe
I love all your pictures.  Very nice.
gww

[Kbeitz]

I've had good luck with these...



 

Is that something you can find at a local hardware store?  Or is it something that you had to order?

Jeep hood hold downs... All over E-bay, Search for "hood catch jeep",

[Clover]

Nice work on the improvements Joe. I built my mill 2007 redid somethings in 2008 and just fired it back up after sitting for six years. Now I want to redo some things again. I hate catching this bug allover lol

[ChugiakTinkerer]

Welcome to the forum Clover!

[Joe Hillmann]

Joe
I love all your pictures.  Very nice.
gww

Every time I see pictures of yours I have to look twice because it looks a lot like mine did before I put the guards on and painted it.

[gww]

Joe
My friend, I am quite sure your mill is put together better then mine.  I will say that I have got some boards out of mine and so for me am happy enough.

I am afraid to put gaurds on mine.  The tire is like 27+ bucks and the blade is metal and I am cheap and I see blade break, metal in tire and money out of pocket.  I do get nervous when the dog walks by it when it is running but I always cut alone with no people around.


I do love seeing your pictures and I am an ideal theif and even if I don't use those ideal now, I pile them away for later.
 
If you didn't share, my brain would be worse then it is and so thank you. 
gww

[Joe Hillmann]

Joe
My friend, I am quite sure your mill is put together better then mine.  I will say that I have got some boards out of mine and so for me am happy enough.

I am afraid to put gaurds on mine.  The tire is like 27+ bucks and the blade is metal and I am cheap and I see blade break, metal in tire and money out of pocket.  I do get nervous when the dog walks by it when it is running but I always cut alone with no people around.


I do love seeing your pictures and I am an ideal theif and even if I don't use those ideal now, I pile them away for later.
 
If you didn't share, my brain would be worse then it is and so thank you. 
gww

Well of course mine is put together better than yours :laugh:

I originally ran mine without a guard until once I backed up the head without raising it and the back of the blade hit the end of the log with the blade still spinning.  The blade came off the tires rolled across the yard at a pretty good speed hit my log pile and bounced at least ten feet in the air.

At the same time on the other side of the log pile there was a person walking their dog on the side walk who had no idea how close he was to getting hit by it. 

After that I shut it down and started building the guard right away.

[gww]

Joe
Where I live, nobody is going to be walking by even by accident unless they are tresspassing or my wife some how sneaks around me.  I have broke some blades that go a little ways and since I open my blades by throwing them on the ground, I can get them to bounce pretty good some times.  My closest to disaster is my stupid chickens finding out that there are buggs in the bark that fall down below the log when cutting.  The chickens have no fear of the running motor and can sneak up on you.

I like watching my blade go through the log.  My origanal plan was to do as everyone and put gaurds on it but I finally got it to where I liked it pretty good and now I don't like the ideal of change.  I do kill the motor on every cut though and if I ever made something differrent then direct drive (Motor on, blade on) or loaned it out to some one else, I will probly put a gaurd on.

I will have your pictures and a few others to copy if I ever go that far.  I am thankful for that.

Cheers
gww

[Kbeitz]

Like to watch.... Make your covers out of lexan.

[gww]

K
lexan is expensive, I do keep my eyes out for stuff that is getting thrown away and so maby someday :D.
Cheers
gww

[Kbeitz]

K
lexan is expensive, I do keep my eyes out for stuff that is getting thrown away and so maby someday :D.
Cheers
gww

Not as expensive as getting a blade extracted from your bones...

[Iwawoodwork]

What about making an enclosure for the band blade out of old used rubber conveyor belting. use a metal or wood frame. Lately, I have been using it for trailer fenders as it does not get all bent up, and saw it used for guards on planers and molders in several different wood processing facilities. I have been given several old worn conveyor belts at rock quarries and sawmills around here.

[gww]

K
I worry more about using my table saw then standing behind the head of the mill and pushing it through a log.  I do not believe a blade that is going round and round is going to jump backwards through a motor and two inch square pipe.  It could go 200 yards sideways and not hurt anything.  I am not discounting the need for gaurds when the posibility of misfortunes are possible but I know where I am working and I know no matter what funny thing happens the blade is not coming through the motor backward and the saw is not running at any time I am not behind it.  If I ever put it on a trailer and move to a differrent spot, I would have to consider something.  If I ever automated where I can stand to the side like you can with your mill, I would have to consider something.

It is a non-issue.
gww

Ps joe, I will quit taking your thread sideways now, love what you are doing.

[thecfarm]

Not to sound like I am the FF safety guy,  ;D
but chaps cost about as much as a co pay for an emergency room visit.

[Rougespear]

Re guards: last year part of the sidewall one of my bandwheels figured it would detach itself from the main wheel and try to go through the guarding... 14ga steel just barely stopped it.  That piece of sharp cast iron could have ricocheted just about anywhere!  At that moment I was very happy having spent the week I did fabricating the guards - you only get one chance at this game of life. 

PS I am not the safety police, just telling a short story.

[JRWoodchuck]

My mill kept throwing bands so I had the guards off knowing it would throw it. So I engaged the blade got it to running speed and just watched. My mill is set up about 25' from our house that we are remodeling. When the band came off it took off toward the house hit the wall ran up the wall and proceeded to go another 20' vertical in the air before coming down and trying to do it again. It was quite impressive!