Another build thread... JoshNZ

[Vautour]

@ JoshNZ are you talking about raising and lowering your head assembly??... my father has a WM lt15 and added a 4wheeler winch motor to raise it but it's very slow.. and when i told him i was building a sawmill .. first thing he said was make sure you make it go up and down fast..so i did.. i'm about 6 sec. per foot now with electric and eventually add hydraulic lift and double that speed. 

[JoshNZ]

Yep that's what I'm talking about. That sounds awfully quick! My screws turn at ~180RPM and they are 3mm pitch. Gives 540mm/min and that is pretty good for working cuts, just not so good after finishing a log and resetting. Seems like it'd be hard hitting your mark at 1ft/6sec which is what 3m/min nearly 6x the speed of mine.

That sounds like it's hurtling =[]. What's everyone else's raise/lower speed? I have a 500w 12v motor here that does about 6000RPM with no load I think. Say 5000 under load. And I have a 16T pinion and a 78T spur gear to match which would give about what you have, 3m/min. A bit less if it loaded more.

Is that really the speed commercially available machines work at? The other thing I was wondering about is doing away with a spur gear and running a timing belt around timing pulleys instead. To smooth/quieten it down. Would they handle the torque?

[RAYAR]

.. i'm about 6 sec. per foot now with electric

I have a manual crank that goes 1" per revolution and I figure I'm crankin' about that speed. Not bad for manual as I see videos of some sawyers cranking about 4X per inch of travel on their manual mills ... WoW!

[JoshNZ]

Bit different when you can slow down winding as you come up on your target. Id like to try it now! If it's functional I'd be super glad to be able to use the hardware I have already

[Jack S]

just  add a dc speed controller. I recently bought one good for 12-24-36 volts and 60 amps full load for less than $20 free shipping.  forward reverse and center off, and a potentiometer for speed control, digital readout showing 0- 100 percent. I just installed it to run a geared mobilty cart motor that I installed on my Lm 29 norwood  mill to run the carriage. so far the speeds are ok but the true test will be when I put a log on the mill.
I also used a harbor freight 12 volt winch to power the head up and down and it works very well.

 

  

[charles mann]

just  add a dc speed controller. I recently bought one good for 12-24-36 volts and 60 amps full load for less than $20 free shipping.  forward reverse and center off, and a potentiometer for speed control, digital readout showing 0- 100 percent. I just installed it to run a geared mobilty cart motor that I installed on my Lm 29 norwood  mill to run the carriage. so far the speeds are ok but the true test will be when I put a log on the mill.
I also used a harbor freight 12 volt winch to power the head up and down and it works very well.
(Image hidden from quote, click to view.)
 
(Image hidden from quote, click to view.)
  

Can you put up the links to the speed controller? Iv been looking for 1 that is good for fwd/rev and when id ask the question of if it can be used in a fwd/rev setup, i got an answer of, im not sure, we dont have that info. 
I took am thinking of a winch. Its way over kill, but iv got a 12k hf winch that i burned the brake up when i operated in line in mode bc my cable got rat nested and i didnt want to uncouple my tck and drag the cable out. I learned afterwards, that continuous line out under a heavy load will in fact burn the brake out. 

[Jack S]

EBAY LINKS NOT ALLOWED 

they are also on amazon.   the only downside that I can see is it is recommended that you also do a dead start which means always return the pot back to zero before  activating the forward or reverse I"ve been playing around with old treadmill motors and speed controllers also. they have to be dead start also. we can't easily use them on our mills tho as they are all 110 volt in then converted to 0-90 volts dcto themotor. I have one on my wood lathe and it works really well. Just bought another one today $5

[Jack S]

will never happen again  sorry

[charles mann]

@JoshNZ 
Hows the build coming? Out of the 2.5 wks home, waited 2 wks for some machining and still waiting. Hopefully my 5” backside idler pulley will be finished in the next 3 wks while im at work. Took 5 days to get the output shaft milled for 2 key ways. Im so close to being able to put a belt on it, i can taste it. But gotta have the idler pulley first and build the bracketry for it, then i can figure out how long of a belt i need. Initially, i needed a 150” 3/5v, but now, im thinking 160”+. 
I was productive at least on another mill helper and wood gatherer. Will post a vid when i get back to the states. It’ll make lite work for lifting/loading and yarding 3000-7000 lb logs. 

[JoshNZ]

Is this an attachment for your tractor?

You really need to get a lathe and mill in your shop huh!

Not a great deal going on in my workshop, been away on holiday a week. I did get the little stand for the extension done, it lays on the beam that makes the draw bar when not in use from memory. Then props the extension with a 1/4" gap or so before the tracks collide. Sits on a little ledge on the post then secured with same 20mm bolt as carriage lockers.



 


 

It's actually been great for working on the top of the carriage. Good solid place to stand.

I started messing with this other motor and gears today. I turned an adapter for the pinion, bored out the gear and welded in a new hub and turned to size. I think I buggered my vice pressing the pinion this time, I really should get a press. I had to re-machine the faceplate and cut the old bracket off so there's no going back now. If the math is right the carriage is going to haul butt. I've spent way too long scouring the internet for the right fit, I'm just gonna try this and go from there.
That winch has spent hours groaning away trying to pull our boat to the bottom of the ocean, I'm sure it's up to it regardless.












.

One photo there shows the old gear, the new setup will be much heavier duty anyway.

Getting a bit beyond a mill build and repetitive now =[]. This is something on it I'd like to get right

[Crusarius]

Looking good. how did you build the hinge bar that looks like 2 pieces of flat plate with a spacer in the center? How bout a closer pic?

[charles mann]

Nah, no tractor attachment, just another type of tractor. I get hm in early mar and ill post a vid. Iv gotta move my logs anyways, get the set up on some RR cross ties, then do some clean up and bring in a couple loads of rock and asphalt millings for a base where im going to initially set up the mill.


And yes, a mill and lathe is becoming a must, or find another machine shop. 

[JoshNZ]

Looking good. how did you build the hinge bar that looks like 2 pieces of flat plate with a spacer in the center? How bout a closer pic?

Exactly as you said, nothing special about it. I thought the 12mm I had was thicker than necessary so decided to buy some 5mm flat. Decided that wasn't thick enough once I had it and that's where I ended up hah. A sandwich of 5mm bar with beads along each spacer. There's slots in the extension end to allow the tracks to square up and close the gaps (hidden under washers in that photo), and I welded a sleeve in the pivot end then machined it flat, which slides over the trunnion which has a threaded hole. Just a bolt to retain it.










The trunnion has a shoulder holding the arm 5mm off the mills side, and there's a 5mm doubler welded to the extension which gave extra meat for thread. Then there is a bevelled doubler at the end of the mill frame which I have greased (you can see it in the top left of last photo there), and the arms slide over them and centre everything really snugly. The extra rigid sandwich arms actually ended up being really good for this. I'm pretty happy with it.

I got the motor bracket made and installed today. I'll leave it tacked this time in case I want to change it. I'll put a video below, what do you guys think? It's definitely honking... I seem to be able to hit marks alright though, and it's not too difficult to jog 1mm at a time.
It comes down at 3320mm/min and up at 2240mm/min. 131"/min down and 88"/min up. 1foot in 5.5sec coming down, to compare it to vautours. Certainly going to make resetting easier.

[Crusarius]

perfect solution. thanx for the added info. I may have to do something similar for my extensions but I still like the idea of hinging them from the corners of the bed to fold in. all I want them for is to support the head so they do not need to be that strong,

[JoshNZ]

Well 200kg of head with its CoG a meter off the end of the hinge is 980Nm or 720ft.lbs on each hinge so don't go too light =[]. I don't think you'd get away without supporting it at the other end which will mean it has to be adjustable for unlevel ground etc. I like the foldaway idea too more elegant in terms of packing down but I'd rather slam it open and be done with it.

[Crusarius]

yea, my head is only about 160 pounds 75 kg. Mine will not need to be nearly as strong.

[JoshNZ]

I finally got around to putting a jockey wheel on the front. I picked it up for $80, and thought it would help with a bit of extra stabilising and setup/pack up.






 

I've decided to install lights permanently on the rear of the bed too. I'm pretty sure this is as long as I want it, and after designing the extension at the front I can see this wouldn't make an extension on the rear impossible either. I definitely went the long way around for the light guards, that is a strip of the 50mm flat bar split down the middle then wrapped into a square. It's all I had...



 

I'm going to tap the tension cylinder and put the gauge right on it. I looked around for a T connector and they wanted $50 for it so it just seemed stupid. I'm going to bail on the RPM gauge idea, for now at least. I have a job for it later in the week, if all goes well, I'll get it back to the shed and start tearing it down for its cleanup and paint job. I really am dreading it haha. Really considering sending it away for galv or even paying to have it blasted and primed.

[frazman]

I've been following your thread on the build. I've worked in metal fabrication for 35 years and find you have done an excellent job. After all that nice work on the frame , prepping the metal for painting would be a must. Do you have the option on having it powder coated ? Having it plated might be a challenge and would require alot of drain holes. Again, excellent work.

[Crusarius]

Really considering sending it away for galv or even paying to have it blasted and primed.

Wish I had done that, but I knew I wasn't done tinkering with it. Nothing is ever done

[JoshNZ]

I could have it powder coated or galved but like crusarius said, who knows what else will need to be done to it, or repaired... I'll do the prep and get it painted. Thanks for the encouragement.

The list of little things to finish seems to be never ending I think I've been at it 2 days now.

I ended up finding a tee fitting for the gauge so went that way. I had to machine a dowel and press it into the tee for the pumps check valve spring, would be an easy trap to miss that in case anyone uses the same system.
I charged it to 800psi at night and it was 500psi in the morning. I scoured the thing for drops of oil including removing the shaft guide and dipping the seal with paper, dry as a bone so don't know where my 300psi went. Maybe the blade stretches or things just creep into place.

Will get a couple of logs sawn then hopefully a pic up of a new coat of paint next week xD.