cirle sawmill sawiing?

[woodpeckerlips]

Where's the circle mill sawyer's at? I don't saw with rubber bands! I saw straight up! Not side ways!   I want to hear about some carriages running off the end.  Teeth going through the roof or in the pit. Blades being hammered. Dogs getting cut into. Are all circle millers using B/F bits now? Seems like everyone wants to talk about these little briggs and stratton toys they are draging around!          Where's my detroit 71 and 53 series boys at? Don't let these rubber bands take over the site! All in fun, guys. I really enjoy the forum. I would like to see more old fricks,meadows,american,and others mills  talked about though.

[Jeff]

I would suggest using the search function then, there are thousands of posts here covering everything you said you want to see.  Any of those topics you can find can be made current, simply by posting on them.

[paul case]

heres a thought for ya,
maybe at this time all the circle sawyers are too busy cutting wood and us bandmillers are the only ones haveing problems!!!! :D   pc

[sealark37]

 :)Hello peckerlips-  I too, long to hear more about the older mills.  Part of the problem is age of the members.  The circle mill guys are getting pretty old, heck even the band millers are no spring chickens.  I am waiting for the snow to melt to put up a saw shed for my 00 Frick.  It is sitting in the open since I moved it, and I need to put it under cover before I dig into the husk to replace some bearings and belts.  The International UD-14 is running fine, but want to repair some sheet metal on it's cover and upgrade the charging system.  Some older edgers have piqued my interest on fleabay and craig'slist, but I have been out-bid by other codgers.  The old Clark lift truck I have will not lift a log without some serious repair and refurb.  Lately I have been forced to take my logs to other geezers who run circle mills to make lumber.  This works fine except that geezers won't work every day or even every month, so it sometimes takes a while.  As you and I know, the band mill is only a way stop for a serious sawyer who will eventually own a circle mill.  My own experience with the older mills ruined me for my first foray with a band mill.  I was helping an elderly gentleman saw three pecan logs.  The job took over two hours.  A circle mill would have finished in 15 minutes.  For all this, I will eventually own a band mill, as it can do things my Frick would turn into missiles.  Don't despair,  it is still fun to read about the band guys and the logs they attack.  There will always be some circle guys around.  If we could just get them to share more of their experiences.  Regards, Clark  

[woodpeckerlips]

Sealark,
I also run a 00frick, 3-71 detroit. Skid steer with forks. A grain elevator removes the sawdust!  I too need to put a building up over mine. I moved it and set it up this past year! I ran it so much I haven't had time to put a bldg up over it! Soon as it warms up though, I'm putting one up. I have already gotten me a I-beam to span the log deck. I converted from old flat belt to V-belts in the move. Cleared the whole off bearing end up! It takes 2 plus men to keep up at the off bearing end. Carbide teeth cutting popular like it was styrofoam.  I wouldn't trade my old mill for the latest and greatest band mill!     

[Bibbyman]

I just figure circle millers didn't have enough fingers left to type!  ;D

Here is an old circle mill story I post almost 10 years ago.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,155.msg4863.html#msg4863

[Jeff]

I just figure circle millers didn't have enough fingers left to type!  ;D

I got enough left to make two big fists there Bibbyman!  ;) :D

[Jeff]

Here is an old one for ya.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,7893.0.html

[Autocar]

So you want circle saw storys ! Ive had circle mills almost all my life. I started out with a Champion Pony then a American and a Frick. Once I had a belt feed jump and tightened up and I couldn't stop the carriage and it went right though the siding and out on the grass on the north end of the building . Turning a big log I flipped the carriage backwards off the track landing it between the I beams and back wall with the log on top. If I remember I did learn some new words that day  ;D Hammered a 54 inch saw once, it looked like a million bucks with the straight edge on it. I hung it on the mandrel there were a few guys hanging aroud the mill that day and I wound it up to 550 rpm and they scattered like a bomb was about to go off.  ;D It flopped around like a peace of bologna,I took it to my saw doctor and he looks at the saw then me and says if you ever try to hammer a saw again don't bring it here  ;D All the time he was trying to hold back from laughing. Ive sawed the dogs a few times had slab wood catch the saw and whiz past my head,sawed my knuckles getting a peace of bark from under a running saw. Throwed teeth though the tin siding and always tell guys never stand in line with a running saw. As years past I changed friction out for hydrawlic motors but always wanted to put a twenty foot cylinder between the track then feed the carriage with it and a high volume pump. The old steam feed carriages were like rocket ships, thats what sawmills are all about to me gears and carriages that rip back and fourth like a rocket  ;D

[Bibbyman]

I just figure circle millers didn't have enough fingers left to type!  ;D

I got enough left to make two big fists there Bibbyman!  ;) :D

Yea, but you retired young. ;)

[Jeff]

Yea, well, that's true.   


But I started young. I made it 25 years.  Sometimes I think I'd trade a finger or two for new shoulders.

[Woodchuck53]

We are all still here. Just busy. The other day I was asked when would I have something new on my rebuild. My answer was as soon as life quit getting the the way I would. I moved mine from my old place to the barn that I wasn't using much any more and started setting up and up grading for the next phase of my life. We're here just busy. Stay safe.

[captain_crunch]

Beings there are 5 times more baand saws than circle mills it makes sence there are more topics about em ;D ;D. I perfur my belsaw but that could be because it is all I know.But in my situation with bigger rougher logs and dirt from skiding em proably better off. Could go thru life and not have problems you mentioned and not feel deprived for it
Brian

[red oaks lumber]

jeff
you got bad shoulders from trying to fly or what?

[Jeff]

No, From doing this 10 hours a day for 25 years:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3PftuULqdk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VPJ-Ojha-s

[mad murdock]

Jeff, you ever try to calculate how many bf you milled from that seat?  I bet it is a staggering amount at that pace! 8)

[Jeff]

Between 3-5 million feet a year.  Between 20 thousand and 30 thousand feet a day most days.

So, maybe 100 million board feet, give or take.

[tyb525]

They are too busy trying to make up for the lower production per log by sawing more logs, while the bandmillers are finished for the day 'cause they got the most out of their logs ;D

Just kidding, I've never ran a circle mill but they have always intrigued me. I think if I was going for real high production, and I had a good supply of logs, I'd pick a circle mill any day.

[Bibbyman]

I guess another question I have besides lack of circle sawmill guys on the Forum is where is the LARGE and MEGA mill guys?

Who on the Forum represents the largest mill operation?

[tyb525]

Yeah, most of us are little'uns! where's the bigguns!

[sandhills]

Jeff those are neat videos, how much horsepower did that mill have?  That carriage is moving scary fast, think I'd be a little intimidated sitting behind those controls

[Jeff]

The headsaw had 150 hp electric, the vertical edger had 75hp and the hydraulics had 75 hp, so 300 HP all told.

[Troublermaker]

Looking at Duck and run! A circle sawyer initiation. That remind me of when I was doing maintenance work for a local mill like the one in Jeff videos. The sawyer hit a railroad spike in a log. It was most likely put there to hang nets on to dry and the tree gtew around it. You had to be careful sawing timber that came from around the river shore. Anyway the saw hit the spike just right and strip about half the teeth off of the saw. Shrapnel knot one of the windows out of the sawyer box. One of the teeth end up in the edger man shoulder. He was lucky. 6 inches more it would have kill him. That same year the sawyer was coming back with the carriage when the cable broke. It wipe out the bumper and end up in yard. It wouldn't have been so bad but mill was 15 feet or so in the air.

[Bibbyman]

Sometimes I feel some nostalgia coming on and think maybe someday I'll get a circle mill and fart around with it. 

I've had two real good opportunities and kept my hand (and fingers) in my pockets.  One was at a local farmer's auction where they had a dandy little circle mill – maybe a Bellsaw – with about a 40"-48" blade.  It had a gas International industrial engine.  They fired it up and the old engine ran perfect.  They ran the carriage back and forth and spun up the blade (but didn't saw a log) to show the mechanics worked on the mill.   It was under roof.  I think they got the bid up to about $1,100.00.  I thought it sold but I found out later that they didn't let it go.  A grandson took it and set it up but the last time I saw him, he said he sold it.

Then the logger I do business with also deals in any kind of rolling stock that he can patch up and put out on his lot for sale.  He came across a Bellsaw B14 I think, mill that had been put on a mobile home frame so it was somewhat portable.   It was PTO powered.  He bought it for scrap prices.  He got the instruction manual and extra inserts, tools, etc.  He had it about 6 moths and traded it for something. I never asked him how much he was asking. 

[hobbytrucker1966]

here in eastern canada  where im from there called rotary mills and we have had three of them two were oxford and a lloyds i grew up playing around my dads mills spinning the saw by hand just to see it go around and watchin the teeth, my dad taught me how to setup mills after and hes probably forgot more than ill ever know, i can take a bunch of old rusty mill gear and make a mill out of it to saw lumber actually i have done it last year to get a friend of mines mill going and now hes sawing like a pro, we only saw for fun and when someone needs some lumber far from full time , we only had one accident when my dad rolled a log over his finger and lost the end of it, hes now 85 yrs old and helps me out some with my little mill my dad used to saw when he was younger for years my grandfather was a sawyer and my great grandfather was into sawing lumber to make sailing ships so i guess sawing is in my blood and there s nothing like the smell of freshly cut lumber