Unconventional Sawmill Build

Look'n good , Oh Master Fabricator
Can You get to Kyle's land & haul & mill a buncha 16' 2X6 's outta lodgepole Pine like this ? We need it for our Cottage build . Don't need delivery until 1st of May 2022. That will give you plenty of time. Thanks.....Richie

 

I ordered these grooved Chinesium 2” casters off Amazon for $23. They arrived a day early (love that). I carved some mounting brackets out of tubing scraps.



They got bolted to a 12 x 18 x 1/4” plate.
This is sideways, but you get the idea. The saw will get mounted to this trolley via a tower that will control the height.

 

This morning, I got the base plate for the engine cut out and fit…



I squared up the tubing for the tower and got that welded onto the trolley, and I cut a hole in the center for the shaft to pass through when it’s set low…



If you’re still trying to figure out how this is all going to come together, it’s something like this. I’ll probably need a longer bar in the end, but I’ll try it with this cheapy first. The whole bar and chain assembly was $35 at the local tractor store. I’ll re-sharpen the cutters at 10° for ripping.

 

Omg, I love this..... I may have to copy you! I was looking at the Logisol F2, but at almost $3k, it's a steep jump over my granberg alaskan mill. I'm running a Stihl ms391 for my alaskan, and it cuts, but it's SLOOOOOW. I was actually thinking about switching to an electric push mower next year, as the only thing I use it for is edging around the house, so I'd have a spare 6.5hp engine

 

So....A 4 stroke Vertical Chain saw. I thought you might have mounted something like a 24" circular blade at low idle RPM's ? Like This :

 

The only issue I’m running into is a sprocket for the engine. The shaft is 25mm and has a keyway. I can get a 25mm keyed sprocket that’s made for a harvester ($70!!), but the chain pitch is .404”, and those bars and chains are massive. And expensive. Id have close to $400 into just the sprocket, bar, and rip chain. I’d hate to lose more material to sawdust than I already will be.

I’m ordering a ($10) 3/8” rim sprocket that I’ll be able to machine out to 25mm and file a keyway into. If this works well enough to want to invest more into it, maybe then I’ll go big.

I’m curious how the power will stack up against a chainsaw. A 50-60cc saw is rated at 3-4hp, but they run at ~10,000 rpm with generally a 7-tooth sprocket. This engine is rated at 6.75hp, but only runs at 3500rpm. I’ll be running a 10-tooth sprocket, which will speed it up some, and rob some power, but it should still be equivalent to/better than a chainsaw.

 

Any concern about the bar twisting / flexing?

 

Nope. There won’t be any pressure on the bar aside from square on the chain. It *should* follow a perfectly horizontal plane. If it’s working correctly, the bar will never touch the wood; the chain’s kerf is wider than the bar.

 

Unconventional Sawmill Build 2.0 -- when the lawnmower engine isn't enough.

 

You know you can do the same thing with a chainsaw and 2x6 nailed to the log, right?

 

Can you though…

 

You might want to test if that engine runs ok without the blade. They use the blade weight for flywheel on most mower engines. id use a jackshaft to get it down to the sprocket size you want. and you can play with the gear ratio afterwords for little cost

 

Yes. Tend to get pretty ornery without that.

 

I'm curious how well this is going to work. My more conventional small (30" max) band mill has an 11 hp Kolher and that really isn't big enough for anything over maybe 12" diameter. The cutting gets very slow. You will be sawing into the end grain which tends to be a tough cut even with a big chainsaw and a very sharp chain. But I've never used a "rip" chain.

 

We’ll find out soon enough!

I considered building a bandsaw-style saw, but the cost of replacement blades vs chains, and the monotony of sharpening 300 teeth vs 40, it was a no-brainer. I know this isn’t going to be a speed demon, but I have time. I’m more interested in repeatability and ease of use, and putting the hours in on a $20 junk engine rather than my $800 chainsaw is a nice feature.

 

Just use an Fhead... Doesn't everyone have one laying around?

 

Big factor in that choice is the amount of waste/sawdust from the kerf thickness. Significant difference.

 

How about An old ' Hit & Miss ' ?

 

Harbor Freight ATV winch and a whisker switch could make a pretty simple power feed......