Double ended chop saw

[Stuart Caruk]

Well, Looks like my LX450 is further delayed, so I found some time to whip out a few sawmill projects since I got off track last year. Before I got really sick I had cut and dead stacked  the purlins and girts for my sawmill shed. Life intervened and I spent way to much time in the hospital, but they finally let me out after swapping out my Liver and Kidney.

My cousin Mike and his son Steven came to help me put the roof on the sawmill shed, which was great. It's hard to accomplish that task with a 5 pound lifting restriction, and no feeling in your feet. Not being able to climb a ladder made it tougher. Once I could clamber up into my trusty old bucket truck though, it was a simple task to set the purlins and girts.

One thing that annoys me about rough sawn lumber is that the ends are never square. I sort of solved that last year by taking a roller table and welding on a flat area to mount a 10" Makita sliding compound miter saw. It worked O/K, but it couldn't handle anything over 3" thick or 8" or so deep. It forced me to trim an end, then flip the board to trim it to length and square the other end. What a pain in the rear when it's hard to lift things.... so

I wandered into Home Depot, and they have a sale on a Ryobi 12" Sliding Compound Miter saw with a laser for about $250. I picked up 2 of them and headed home. I found a 10' roller table for $20 in a scrap yard and I was set. A couple hours with my CNC plasma table and a welder and I fabbed up this masterpiece.  I doesn't look like much (I'll paint it when I paint the extension I'm building for the new mill) but it works great.





Now I just slide a board on from the forklift, trim and end, and slide the other end to length. It's exactly 12' between the saws since that's the biggest seller for me from board and bats.

I found that a magsquare magnet fits perfectly inside my 3" channel backstop, so I'll whip up a flip stop to attach to it that I can slide to any length for repetitive shorter cuts.



Oh, and a quick shot of the roof for the mill and forklift shed where I'm running the edger. It's finally out of the rain and undercover.



Woohooo. Now if my mill would just get here before the rains hit in earnest. I have a tree fort to finish for my daughter and I'm out of wood.

[Crusarius]

That is a great idea. Now you just need slave labor to run the other saw

[Weekend_Sawyer]

That's a nice setup.

I'm glad to hear your new parts are working out for you.

Jon

[ButchC]

Thanks a lot,,

Now every time I am doing that job the hard way I will be thinking of how much quicker and easier it would be if I had that set up.

[Kbeitz]

What's the s[an on that roof ?

[nativewolf]

That is a great idea. Now you just need slave labor to run the other saw

Slave labor, What?  You haven't seen the pictures of him having his 6 year old run the welding robots?  He'll have her design up a robot to cut both, then have her make the robot, then program it.  If she is lucky she gets an ice cream, if not he straps her to a harness and dumps her off a tree (ok, so the harness is attached to a zip line).  Or maybe if she's lucky she gets to go ziplining...I guess either way.  ( the real answer is that they are both lucky)

Seriously nice to see progress again.  Very good to hear you and the liver and kidney are doing well.  Take care of them.  You've certainly had an interesting life, look forward to more pictures and hearing about whatever happened down in central america, haven't heard anything about that in quite some time.

[grouch]

That is a slick setup.

Hmm. With 2 slave laborers and making one of the saws slide along a rail, you could crank out cut to length pieces by the truckload.

[Stuart Caruk]

So far my daughter is running the other saw and matching the ends. We're putting up the second floor of her tree fort, so she has to help build it. I'm actually thinking of adding a couple small pneumatic cylinders to one of the saws. A simple pneumatic delay circuit would allow me to press a foot pedal and the saw would come down and slide forward, retracting when the air pressure is removed.

The sawmill shed has a 55' opening between the 10" uprights on the ends. Should be good enough for the 52' travel I'm planning for my new saw.

Our island project got delayed. I sold the lot and the mill last year when they told me I'd be dead in a couple days. One less thing for my wife to deal with. I'll be headed back in Feb when my meds are (hopefully) a bit more stable. This time I'll try a lot on the South side of the island, closer to the log supply from La Cieba. And use a bigger mill.

[muggs]

I used a saw like this in my door building business. One saw was stationary and one moved on a track to cut what ever length you wanted. It used a air over hydraulic system operated by a foot pedal. It was very fast. The brand was CTD. Google it and take a look.      Muggs

[nativewolf]

So far my daughter is running the other saw and matching the ends. We're putting up the second floor of her tree fort, so she has to help build it. I'm actually thinking of adding a couple small pneumatic cylinders to one of the saws. A simple pneumatic delay circuit would allow me to press a foot pedal and the saw would come down and slide forward, retracting when the air pressure is removed.

The sawmill shed has a 55' opening between the 10" uprights on the ends. Should be good enough for the 52' travel I'm planning for my new saw.

Our island project got delayed. I sold the lot and the mill last year when they told me I'd be dead in a couple days. One less thing for my wife to deal with. I'll be headed back in Feb when my meds are (hopefully) a bit more stable. This time I'll try a lot on the South side of the island, closer to the log supply from La Cieba. And use a bigger mill.

On the Island, maybe just go fishing .  I like the pneumatic switch idea for the saws.  Careful careful with the meds/travel.  Last thing you need now is some hepatitis (worked overseas for many many a year).

[Stuart Caruk]

Probably my least favorite activity is fishing. I have no patience waiting for them to come to me. I'd rather jump in and go shoot them. Yes, diseases will be an issue for the rest of my life because of the imunosupressents I have to take. But still, I refuse to sit in a chair and grow old. There are plenty of tasks I'd like to accomplish before I croak.

[Kbeitz]

Don't forget to put a dash-pot on that thing...

[Trapper John]

What is the size of the I beams?  Is there much sag over a 55' span?  How did you fasten the rafters to the I beam?