Wyoming man restoring antique Corely circle sawmill

[beenthere]

I've been watching the restoration of this circular sawmill, and it has been interesting to see this man's progress.

Today, he is adding the belting to drive the carriage forward and back. Attempting to use ratchet load strapping instead of "leather", and plans to find out if it might work or not. Admits that it may not, but is willing to give it a try to save the cost of "leather" belting.

Thought the forum would find this interesting. May provide some insight into the routing of the belting that is often a mystery to those restoring an old mill.

[Nebraska]

Wonder why you couldn't just use round baler belting???

[Ron Wenrich]

I'm not sure that the ratchet strapping will work.  I think it will be too slippery.  You need something that has some bite, but not to much. The canvas belts that we used to use seemed to work pretty good.  But, you had to put belt dressing on the belts. 

The biggest thing that you want is a carriage that won't drift while you're turning the log, setting the dogs or doing anything while the mill is running and you're not at the handle.  You also don't want a carriage that will jump when the belts grab or slip when you're feeding the log.



 

[Bert]

Baler belting is much to grabby and can get interesting real quick. The ratchet strap seems like it could work. Interested to see how it goes. Especially over time/ and weather conditions. 

[Nebraska]

My brain was thinking about the worn out stuff on the two old Vermeer round balers I have, but why / how would belting be too grabby,???   I thought that was the purpose.  Granted I have absolutely no clue about circle mill and how they run or why canvas/ leather belting was preferred. Only belting as such that I remember was my grandpa running ear corn into a crib with an elevator that ran off of a wide belt on a John Deere A. That was 50 plus years ago.  I just remember stay back that belt will get you. 

[Ron Wenrich]

My thinking on the ratchet strap is that its made from plastic, and would get slick pretty quick.  It isn't designed as a moving belt.  Add sawdust to the mix, and it might not hold up.  The other factor may be that it would stretch, which means it would be too loose.

Canvas belting is probably the best.  The canvas doesn't move much, and it is strong and flexible.

[rusticretreater]

Canvas and leather belting was preferred in that it would get a burnished surface from use.  This would allow it to slide across a surface easier but as more pressure is applied it would also allow increased friction to begin moving things before finally grabbing the surface for full power.  Kind of like letting a clutch out slowly.

Conversely, if a lock up occurs the belt would yield enough that it would slip on the drive wheels limiting the amount of damage to the valuable metal components.  Of course the belt could burn if friction is too high.

I have seen folks use old fire fighting hoses which are heavy canvas and high quality.   

[DanielW]

It might work for a bit and when loaded lightly, but I think he might find ratchet straps too slippery and possibly too weak. But for the carriage drive he might be ok.

I have a lot of belt driven equipment - a few old circular mills, shingle mills, a threshing machine, and various buzz saws and grinders. And I often have to get new belting for it. I don't know why he'd go to the trouble of all that restoration work and not just buy proper power transmission belting - it's readily available form any industrial belt supplier.

I've used round baler belting for some equipment a few times when in a pinch. It's not bad, and I've never run into a problem with it being too grippy, but I can definitely see how it could be too grippy for a carriage drive - you need those to have a little slip to feather the carriage. Even the friction-backed aramid chord belting I use can be a little too grippy sometimes, to the point where it's dangerous as it'll grab and move the carriage even when you're not on the lever. Not a good scenario when you're moving the log around on the carriage.

The problems I've had with using old baler belting are that it simply doesn't have the carcass strength you need for transmitting decent power. It's ok for applications that might only need 20 HP at most, but nothing more substantial. There are also different covers on round baler belts, and that can make a significant difference. The 'mini rough top' friction back belts on balers like the Vermeer series G and earlier would probably be slippery enough. The chevron, full rubber cover belts that Deere balers use would, I think, be waaaay too grippy for a carriage drive.

I sure hope he plans to put a roof over that headsaw. Having the sun beat down on one side wreaks havoc with the blade hammering.