Thread: re procut style mill

I don't use one but I have seen a couple and they both had the rails on top of the trailer frame.

Chainsaw mills on a rolling frame have the advantage of not needing to be lifted on/off logs but I find this advantage is outweighed by the limits on the size of logs you can cut up both in width and length.
AND worse,
you have to be able to lift the logs onto the mill frame rails - this is a lot harder than lifting the saw onto the log.

Either way you have to be able to move the slabs - and this is where the real effort os required.

With a conventional/Alaskan chainsaw mill you can leave big logs on the ground and get a long bar and chain and a few bits of unistrut and to enlarge the width cutting ability of the mill.
880bigBILMill.jpg

thanks for your reply bob but in my case i think that style of mill will suit my needs . i will only be milling on my block ( i think ) and my iron bark trees will fit on that mill , i wont have to set up a guide rail for the first cut the carriage takes car of that , and i have old nuffy my tractor with a jib crane to take care of any heavy lifting . i dont really think i would want to cut anything that is to big for that mill and if i did want to go to my mates place and cut some of his big river red gums i could then use an alaskan mill for that .

Originally Posted by texx

thanks for your reply bob but in my case i think that style of mill will suit my needs . i will only be milling on my block ( i think ) and my iron bark trees will fit on that mill ,

The day after you finish making it you'll find a tree that's too big for it.

i wont have to set up a guide rail for the first cut the carriage takes car of that , and i have old nuffy my tractor with a jib crane to take care of any heavy lifting .

It sounds like you don't need to have it on a trailer then, which will make things a lot easier. If that is the case and you have the time I would set it up on a concrete pad. That way it stays level when you knock it with Nuffy or a log etc.

Nuffy Sounds good!

i dont really think i would want to cut anything that is to big for that mill and if i did want to go to my mates place and cut some of his big river red gums i could then use an alaskan mill for that .

An alternative to a carriage rail chainsaw mill is this style which uses an Alaskan in a collapsible frame. If you already have an alaskan it requires relatively little additional construction

I made this as a temporary arrangement in 2007 to use on short weird shaped logs but its been so useful I haven't modified and just keep using it.
Either way you might get some useful ideas from the pics.
I use it with any Stihl 441 (72cc) with 25" bar and Lopro chain.
Milling1.jpg

Here's a close up of the Log grippers - It can hold burls and root balls and pretty much anything
Closeup.jpg

It comes apart and folds up so it can fit inside my van
Bits.jpg

i built an alaskan mill many years ago . i dont do aluminium welding never tried to actually so i built it all out of steel to take a 48" bar and 10kg of stihl powerhead and the thing weighed more than some logs i have seen people mill . i did use it for an hour or 2 on a massive old redgum log .i do have a couple of brand new bars i bought from laurie (saw chain ) years ago a 36"and a 48" also have a couple of new chains for them also from laurie . maybe i could look at fabricating an aluminium one to take the 36" . and yeah i would not be moving the mill if i built the one i posted the pic of it would live behind the shed would maybe even put a roof over it .

texx

I looked at the website, but the video did not allow close ups of the mill. Then I went to google images, clicked on the first pic and scrolled through using the arrows. I saw the rails mounted well inboard as well as on the rails in other shots:

procut sawmill - Bing images

As these mills are all owner built from plans, there is probably quite a bit of leeway to customise to suit requirements. For example you may have a slightly lower powered saw and don't wish to use an extremely long bar. In that case the rails mounted well inboard would suit better. Also if you reckon you will never cut large diameter logs, you might opt for the inboard rails and a shorter bar. This could be a little short sighted as you will inevitably come across something that is bigger than you can cope with.

If you intend using the mill in one place you may not need the trailer and it will certainly be easier loading bigger heavier logs onto a 150mm bed than one sitting 600mm in the air. It looks as though the transporters are removeable. The subject of beds brings me to another issue, which I hope Bob will support as he has the use of a bed-mounted bandsaw, and it is that the log can be rotated without losing reference (that's a fancy term for keeping the log aligned). Rotating the log is important when milling small logs as they can contain significant spring growth. This is even more of an issue with Aussie eucalypts as spring growth can render the timber unuseable except for firewood.

Which brings me to your ironbark logs. They are not going to cut nearly as easily as the cedar (WRC?) in the website:

Sawmill Photos of PROCUT Portable Sawmills built by our customers

You will require a pretty good saw for your ironbark. Bob is best qualified to give recommendation on that, but for your purposes I would suggest nothing less than 90cc.

Having said all that I quite like the look of the concept and it looks like you can build it to any strength you like, although you may be looking at something ready built.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by texx

i built an alaskan mill many years ago . i dont do aluminium welding never tried to actually so i built it all out of steel to take a 48" bar and 10kg of stihl powerhead and the thing weighed more than some logs i have seen people mill . i did use it for an hour or 2 on a massive old redgum log .i do have a couple of brand new bars i bought from laurie (saw chain ) years ago a 36"and a 48" also have a couple of new chains for them also from laurie . maybe i could look at fabricating an aluminium one to take the 36" . and yeah i would not be moving the mill if i built the one i posted the pic of it would live behind the shed would maybe even put a roof over it .

Good idea about a roof over the mill - then you could mill rain-hail or shine. At the tree loppers yard we have a 36" bandsaw mill outside under some Spotted gums that are nice and shady but I won't mill in the rain. The new 30" bandsaw mill is under a high veranda so we can use it while its raining.

I've bought a fair bit of stuff from Laurie - pity he's no longer in the game.

The Al mill in the photo with the 880 plus fuel and oil in the saw and the aux oiler weighs ~33kg. I use bolt on pump up wheels on the outboard end so I can move it around like a sack trolley so the only lifting is on and off the log. My 20ft long milling rails weight close to 37kg. But I'm not milling logs under a couple of hundred kgs with this gear, that's what the small alaskan and 441 are used for.

Just about all my milling these days is with teh BSMs at the tree loppers yard but he also has fork lifts and crane etc to go with them.

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

texx

I looked at the website, but the video did not allow close ups of the mill. Then I went to google images, clicked on the first pic and scrolled through using the arrows. I saw the rails mounted well inboard as well as on the rails in other shots:

procut sawmill - Bing images

As these mills are all owner built from plans, there is probably quite a bit of leeway to customise to suit requirements. For example you may have a slightly lower powered saw and don't wish to use an extremely long bar. In that case the rails mounted well inboard would suit better. Also if you reckon you will never cut large diameter logs, you might opt for the inboard rails and a shorter bar. This could be a little short sighted as you will inevitably come across something that is bigger than you can cope with.

If you intend using the mill in one place you may not need the trailer and it will certainly be easier loading bigger heavier logs onto a 150mm bed than one sitting 600mm in the air. It looks as though the transporters are removeable. The subject of beds brings me to another issue, which I hope Bob will support as he has the use of a bed-mounted bandsaw, and it is that the log can be rotated without losing reference (that's a fancy term for keeping the log aligned). Rotating the log is important when milling small logs as they can contain significant spring growth. This is even more of an issue with Aussie eucalypts as spring growth can render the timber unuseable except for firewood.

Which brings me to your ironbark logs. They are not going to cut nearly as easily as the cedar (WRC?) in the website:

Sawmill Photos of PROCUT Portable Sawmills built by our customers

You will require a pretty good saw for your ironbark. Bob is best qualified to give recommendation on that, but for your purposes I would suggest nothing less than 90cc.

Having said all that I quite like the look of the concept and it looks like you can build it to any strength you like, although you may be looking at something ready built.

Regards
Paul

i know about the saw requirements i have done some milling before though not much river red gum and iron bark . i have a few bigger old saws 076. 07s and a few others but i cant think what they are . also worked in the bonshaw saw mill many many years ago we only cut pine there though .and that was a 4 foot circular saw bench

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

The subject of beds brings me to another issue, which I hope Bob will support as he has the use of a bed-mounted bandsaw, and it is that the log can be rotated without losing reference (that's a fancy term for keeping the log aligned). Rotating the log is important when milling small logs as they can contain significant spring growth. This is even more of an issue with Aussie eucalypts as spring growth can render the timber unuseable except for firewood.

When using an Alaskan I rotated very few logs, what I tended to do was just cut slabs and transferred these to a pair of saw horses and cut boards or posts using a second chainsaw or circular saw. We threw away lots of wood because we had it coming out of our ears.

Once we got the bandsaw mill about 7 years ago we started rotating logs a bit more often.
Small logs can be easily rotated using cant hooks up against a set of adjustable height/position vertical grippers on both/ether sides of the mill.
The uprights fold over flat so the logs can be put onto the cross beams with a forklift.
The screw gripper point threads are (5/8" tensile) and are are strong enough to further tilt logs so they can be oriented square to the mill frame.
Loggrippers.jpg

Recently we have needed to rotate big logs which is not possible with cant hooks and using the forklifts has become problematic as it is all too easy to knock the mill rails and push then off the concrete pad. Fixing the mill rails is a right PITA.

So we both initially place/locate and also rotate the logs using a HIAB.

The log is rotated using the HIAB off the mill on gluts and once we have teh right orientation is is lifted back onto the mill.

Jarrah3.jpg

The reason we do this is so the big logs fit on the smaller bandsaw mill which cuts much more accurately than the big mill.
MAXCUT1.jpg

very handy having all that gear . i would love a band mill but dont really think i could justify the outlay . only way for me would be to build one which i may still do yet , have to wait and see if i still have the urge when summer is over and my workshop is cooler.i already snagged a couple of bandwheels would need to buy a motor and some bearings the rest i can make .

Originally Posted by texx

very handy having all that gear . i would love a band mill but dont really think i could justify the outlay . only way for me would be to build one which i may still do yet , have to wait and see if i still have the urge when summer is over and my workshop is cooler.i already snagged a couple of bandwheels would need to buy a motor and some bearings the rest i can make .

Yes it's very nice.
Its not my gear though.
I get access through assisting with maintenance.
And I get to see some very interesting bits and pieces.
But I need to start thinking about stopping as I already have WAAAAY more wood than you can poke a stick at.

i want the timber for some building i want to do at home . mainly 4x2 4x4 5x3 type stuff and if i build a band mill also could mill floor boards for the verandah