Old Circular Sawmill Conversion

[AEM]

I am wanting to set up an old circular sawmill converted to have a hydraulic driven carriage with no belts.  It would really help me out if anyone has pictures or information on this process.  Thanks 

[rusticretreater]

Sounds like a lotta long hoses and stuff.  Prob better to go with chain drive.

[AEM]

What I'm wanting to do is drive the cable drum with a hydraulic motor.  Either being chain sprocketed or direct coupled.  I have found a hydraulic motor as low as 140 rpm's. 

[Gearbox]

The drawback to hydraulic drive is that your speed will be the same both ways . With belts the return speed is very fast . I just ran a hydraulic done with a cheep Greesen valve with a long handle . it was hard to control the feed speed and the return was slower than I would have liked  

[Mooseherder]

I have pictures of my hydraulic deck in my sawmill gallery.  It's also for sale in the commerce section.  

[old-man-on-the-mountain]

I worked on a mill many years back that used a hydrostatic transmission that originally came from a lawn and garden tractor. The carriage speed on that unit was infinitely adjustable, both ways.

[Gearbox]

now thats a good  idea

[Ron Wenrich]

I've run several mills that have hydraulic feed.  I'm far from being an expert on hydraulics.  But, sawing with them is no different than using belts.  Probably better.  As long as the motor speed can be controlled and can be reversed to give dynamic braking.

I had a hand mill that we converted over to hydraulics. We had a pump, a 5 gal tank, and a motor with a sprocket.  The pump was run off the mandrel.  We used a chain to another sprocket.  We got the speed we wanted by driving from a smaller sprocket to a larger one.  Worked great.