req : building plans for sawmill

As a sawmill? Pretty near "won't work" Many reasons. Most of them have been said in replies to your post; power, position, tension, design, speed, max cut.

But if you just had a little bit to do.

I am surprised you can use a 1". Most of them are so thick they are not happy around a 14" wheel. I have seen some thinner ones. I think under heavy use, the 1" band of normal thickness may start to wear, as it's bent too small to be happy.

Well, so far you have shown a great deal of energy (not) in both your OP and in your non-replies. You have had some good discussion. I for one am bowing out until you show more interest.

Not sure what you mean here....I agreed with the rest of your ideas.

I am not the original poster of this thread, I was just chiming in on the apparent bias against chainsaw mills, often being faulted for having too wide a kerf and being too work intensive.

I pointed out that a chainsaw mills kerf is not any wider than the old Bell-Saw traditional circular saw blade mill. ( I have helped run one of those and even with a tractor with a bucket it is WORK to get the logs up and possitioned on the cart and dogged in place for sawing) A chain saw mill lets you position a relatively light weight saw on the log, a much easier proposition.

Secondly in regard to the criticism of a chainsaw mill being "too much work for production work", I would suggest that setting up the small, lower end (lower price) bandsaw mills, without the automatic or remote controls for return, depth of cut, etc. is ALSO a lot of work, similar to the work required for the set up of a chainsaw mill. Thus my statement that even a lower end bandsaw mill could be called "too much work". Yes, a small bandsaw portable mill may make a board cut faster than a chainsaw mill, but the real work is the set up and dragging the saw back for a second cut. Production work, (lots of board feet) requires a high end mill, which for most folks is way beyond their budgets, I know it is for me. a good bandsaw mill for production work, will run over $5,000, and more than likly, for real production work, you are in the over $10,000 range. When you compare a chainsaw mill setup which will usually run under $1,000, less if you already have a suitable saw, I don't think that a Chainsaw mill is such a bad deal. They are highly portable, relativly easy to sharpen, replace you cutting medium (chain) and they do get the job done. I find that the major work with making your own lumber is in the handling of the trees and then the proper stacking of the lumber, not so much in the cutting. With whatever method you choose, traditional circular sawmill, bandsaw mill, Portable or stationary, or chainsaw mill, you still have the back breaking work of moving the wood. Sorry for the long reply, but logging and milling wood IS hard work no matter what saw you choose to use.

Well...I guess I at least made you make your point..

But your points are well made. Seriously.

I agree that unless you are making/paying max $/weight for your wood, a chainsaw mill is no worse than a bs mill, and a lot cheaper on bang for the buck basis.

I guess the only "work" difference might be pushing the chainsaw through the wood ( this is another aspect of wider kerf), and also the feeling I get that c/s chains take more care than BS blades to perform their job. However I base this on cutting clean wood with thye BS and bush wood with a C/S.

It's the dual-speed metal & wood Rockwell version from the 60's, and I seem to recall it was a bigger motor than that, but, ...

Gotcha.

Probably not.

Maybe _next_ summer. SWMBO informs me that a lawn in the "back yard" is the priority for this year.

Anyone ever built a successful rock picker?

I find that the major work with making your own lumber is in

Try a manually operated pit saw some day, especially the hired man's position. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

There used to be a device called a Degleman Rock Rake, much like a single row, spring tooth harrow, with the teeth made from 1/2 round stock about 1" wide, mounted convex forward and about 1 1/2" spaces between. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

In a previous life I landscaped my way through school each summer. I couldn't imagine making a rock picker for just a back yard. There are a number of different types of pickers, rakes, windrowers, basket types, agri use usually. There one made not far from here, very heavy duty 100+hp to run.

The rental yards have one mounted on a skidsteer that works ok. How rocky is your yard? If not too bad just hire some young types and hand pick/rake it.

In the real rocky stuff we didn't even try to pick rock we just hauled topsoil in and covered it up. Rock will move to the surface in the spring when the frost goes out if you live up north.

DE

So, the harrow I'm using isn't far from it. Now that the rocks are tipped out of the soil, how do I pick 'em up? I was thinking some sort of a inclined ramp, with a metal edge at the front, and expanded steel mesh or similar as a "basket". Slight angle, rocks come in, dirt drops through, that sort of thing?

googling for Degleman Rock Rake now, thanks!

Dave "Free rocks, yours for the picking. I'm serious." Hinz

Well, the "back yard" is several acres...

We're talking an area 300 feet by 100 feet initially, and it's very rocky. I had parts of it clean last fall, and this spring I can't even see where I picked. It's a glacial "esker", so it's all the rocks it picked up from north of us, at the edge of the melt.

Wisconsin. Yup, that's the thing. I can cover it with nice dirt, but they'll keep floating up. Maybe it's time to see what the rental place would charge.

Rake them into piles and pick them up with the loader bucket. This was being used on airport work where any gravel with a bit of organic staining was reserved as "topsoil". The airport was situated on one of the finest gravel deposits in the country - everything from fine, white, silica sand, to one boulder 13 x 7 x 5 feet. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Dave

Here's some specifics for a good picker if your determined go that route. They rent for $100 a day in these parts.

"ANDERSON ROCK PICKER" World's Finest Rock Removal Equipment. 40 years of field proven dependability. Free litera-ture. ARMOR METAL PRODUCTS, Box 4609-PF, Helena, MT 59604. Ph. 406/442-5560.

2500 Phoenix Avenue, Helena, MT 59601

A photo here'

A local landscape material seller uses a payloader and a vibratory screen with a conveyer. A 3/4" minus screen does a ball park quality job. I use a "stone" roller 42"x 10'

1.5 ton that I push the rocks back down every few years; works great.

DE

Boy, for $100 a day it's not worth dicking around with an inferior solution. I'll see if I can find similar in Wisconsin, thanks.

Unfortunately, the local implement dealer just closed... bought out by a larger outfit 2 or 3 years ago, and now it's empty. Funny how that works...

Why pick them? My dream machine would dig up the top 12-24" of soil,. and crush the rocks into sand, thoroughly shred any organic material, and mix in any amendments before laying it back down in a smooth, ready-to-seed layer. =20

To reply, please remove one letter from each side of "@" Spammers are VERMIN. Please kill them all.

And sterilizing the soil destroying all weed seeds....

If you'd like to try out that theory, Doug, I've got the perfect chunk of land for you to do it on.