Capstan feed for mill?

[welderskelter]

 Was just wondering how a capstan would work for a sawmill feed. Anybody got one or think it might work? I thought it might be a bit more consistent than I am . Sometimes I push to hard and sometimes too little. Thought this might help. Curious. Thought I might ask the professionals. Harold

[kelLOGg]

I did a search on "capstan feed" and got several hits. That may give you a start and people to contact.

[WWDave]

Was just wondering how a capstan would work for a sawmill feed. Anybody got one or think it might work? I thought it might be a bit more consistent than I am . Sometimes I push to hard and sometimes too little. Thought this might help. Curious. Thought I might ask the professionals. Harold

A Capstan-type drive unit is used on the "Auto" Turbosawmill made by @nzjake.  In this application it works very well.  
 

[welderskelter]

I was thinking about a capstan as that is used on oilrigs to lift pipe and drill collars to stand them up. But I was looking at some of the different sawmills and I found I already have a wheel chair motor so I am looking for the rest I need to make a drive for my mill. Thanks anyway for the input. I do see some use a rope some a cable and some a roller chain. The chain would probably be the best but a cable would be the cheapest. Arope I am afraid would slip to much specially since I do live in cold wet country. Any comments? Thanks again.

[kelLOGg]

I thought a capstan relied on friction to do its job. If a rope is slip-prone in your situation then I don't think you need a capstan approach. Since you already have a wheel chair motor you're well  on your way to a chain-driven system. My gallery has many pics of my chain-driven sawhead. Best of luck.

[welderskelter]

Yeah kellog I think I have decided to go with a cable thru v belt pulleys. Figured if it gets in a bind it would just slip not break anything. You are right the capstan isnt right  for this application. Thank you.

[firefighter ontheside]

The manual feed on the WM LT15 is essentially a manual powered capstan with the rope wrapped around it twice.  I have had occasional issues with mine.  It never slipped.  The problem was that one loop would ride up on the previous and kind of get locked up.  A new rope fixed that.  Now I have the power feed.