For the carriage, I don't think you need to add any weight to it. By the time it is all built it will be heavy enough (I assume my carriage weighs about 300-400 lbs, two men can lift it with difficulty). I would suggest doing what you can to keep the weight as low as you can (height wise) When mine is raised all the way up just about half the weight of the entire mill (trailer included) is 6 feet off the ground and it can get a bit top heavy. The parts have to be put where they belong to make it work so you can't do much to keep the weight low (height wise).
I would recommend going out of your way to make the carriage a rigid as you can. Mine was originally a two post head with a plan to make it a four post head if necessary. The two post design flexed quite a bit, on small logs it didn't matter much but on large logs with a wide cut and the head way up it became a concern. I changed it to a four post and it helped. I still plan to add 6 45 degree braces to stiffen it up even more.
My casters are 5 or 6 inch, not really sure, I don't think size matters much there, for the way mine is laid out I would have been better with smaller casters to keep the height of the mill shorter.
I am not sure what you mean by using 1/4 steel for the back of the saw head? If you are talking about the blade guard that is way thicker than necessary, if you are talking about the structural part that the band wheels and engine mount to, that wouldn't be stiff enough without bracing, I went with box tubing to mount everything to. It was 1/8" thick and 4"x 4"
Most companies will make the blade any length you want. But they will usually cut them so the teeth are evenly spaced, that means if you have a 7/8 tooth the blade you get may be 3/8" longer or shorter than you asked for. Most mills have enough adjustment in the tensioner so it doesn't matter. My mill has no tension adjustment, I have to wedge the blades onto the wheels to get them on so they had to be the exact length (151 1/4") that I asked for. I got blades from three companies and all were able to do what I wanted but I had to specify that I needed them that exact length and the toot spacing at the weld didn't matter. It also causes a slight issue when sharpening, they have to start sharpening at the weld and at least one tooth and sometimes two teeth don't get sharpened due to the uneven tooth spacing.
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February 07, 2012, 05:46:22 PM
