Adjustable feet for the sawmill

Rougespear · August 09, 2015, 12:24:44 PM

I see some mills have threaded adjustable feet. I was considering using 1" threaded rod to allow +/- 2" of adjustment (in addition to the leg itself moving up and down) to my mill's 8 leveling feet. Is 1" rod too whimpy for a mill? What are others using?

deadfall · August 09, 2015, 01:04:30 PM

If you are only talking one to two inches of rod, one inch should be plenty of strength. That would be very strong under a compression load. I doubt you will be loading them laterally enough to cause trouble if that's all the rise your using them for. How many threads will be in the nuts they will run in. For the nuts, the thicker the better.

fishfighter · August 09, 2015, 02:57:18 PM

My Woodland mill has I think 3/4" x 5". They are spaced out about every 4'. The feet for each one is about 4" wide. Let me know if you need a picture. Those adjustable feet make things easy.

Kbeitz · August 09, 2015, 03:04:04 PM

My whole food slides up and down. I raise one end with the trailer jack and drop the feet and lower the jack.
Rods are 1-1/2" solid stock cold roll round with 1/2" thick wall pipe selves. locked down with 1/2" bolts.

kelLOGg · August 09, 2015, 06:42:30 PM

I added 1" adjustable legs to my MP32 but I don't think it was necessary. I don't adjust them any more but they are there if I need to.
Bob

Rougespear · August 09, 2015, 07:14:51 PM

Kellogg: could you elaborate a little more... how do you adjust the middle to be level when moving it from site to site?

Brad_bb · August 10, 2015, 12:22:39 AM

When it comes to threaded rod, keep in mind that there are different grades (strengths) of steel threaded rod. If the diameter is large enough compared to the loads, you may get away with the softer. If you have more load and more stress on the threads, you may want to consider a stronger grade. McMaster Carr is a good catalog/online resource to see what is readily available.

Additionally, you might want to consider buying the feed directly from Woodmizer, the ones used on all of their manual non trailer mounted mills as shown in the pic below. Just the part on the right. You get the benefit of the foot with it, and the adjusting nuts might come with it.

bandmiller2 · August 10, 2015, 07:37:12 AM

Any town of any size has a guy that takes care of street signs, behind his shop you will find a metal dumpster full of handy stuff. There should be square box section with punched holes the whole length. Weld a square nut on the bottom. Be sure the bolt or threaded rod you use has a swivel plate on the bottom not welded solid to the rod. You want this square tube to be retractable or removable for transport. !" should be fine unless your into redwoods. Jamb nuts and tightening bolts on the corners of square tubes make things more ridged. Frank C.

Rougespear · August 10, 2015, 10:17:34 AM

Thanks for the replies all... looks like 1" should be fine.

Bandmiller2: I'm fabbing pretty much what you describe only beefier - legs are 3" 1/8"-wall square tubing, into receivers that are 3.5" 3/16" wall square tubing... the feet will be 6" 1/4"-plate discs with a 4" threaded stub welded to them which will thread into a nut welded to the bottom of the leg. I have eight legs over the mill's 25'... hopefully this is all rigid enough.

Ox · August 10, 2015, 10:26:51 AM

It sounds to me like your plan will work perfectly for this application.

fishfighter · August 10, 2015, 12:17:30 PM

Quote from: Rougespear on August 10, 2015, 10:17:34 AM
Thanks for the replies all... looks like 1" should be fine.

Bandmiller2: I'm fabbing pretty much what you describe only beefier - legs are 3" 1/8"-wall square tubing, into receivers that are 3.5" 3/16" wall square tubing... the feet will be 6" 1/4"-plate discs with a 4" threaded stub welded to them which will thread into a nut welded to the bottom of the leg. I have eight legs over the mill's 25'... hopefully this is all rigid enough.

I though you were talking about installing adjustable feet in between your track and trailer. ;D
Best, Brent

bandmiller2 · August 10, 2015, 08:43:39 PM

Brent yours should be plenty heavy. Frank C.

kelLOGg · August 11, 2015, 06:44:45 AM

Quote from: Rougespear on August 09, 2015, 07:14:51 PM
Kellogg: could you elaborate a little more... how do you adjust the middle to be level when moving it from site to site?

OK. Here's a pic. first.

My mill has 10 legs; I put adjustable feet on the middle 8. They are captive nuts in a "cage" welded to the original leg and are adjusted by turning the nut seen in the pic. The idea is to adjust them as the supporting ground settles during sawing. I found that a wrench to turn the nut was unnecessary and could easily over-adjust upsetting the level, so finger turning until making ground contact is sufficient.

The MP32 frame is built with a small arc in it - higher in the middle by ~1" and built in jacks at front and rear are cranked to make it straight. I check the straightness with a taut string and maintain the straightness during sawing by finger tightening the added leveling feet as needed. In most, if any, cases I found the levelling feet to be unnecessary and since I now have the mill on buried RR ties and under a permanent shelter, I never use them.
Does this help?

Bob