Thread: Charlie's Bush Saw Mill

Cool

Logs to be cut are placed on a dolly which rides on a couple of rails. The dolly is winched past the saw by a cable driven by an old motorbike engine and gearbox. The cable is wound onto two spools - one spool is engaged to pull the dolly past the saw, the other brings it back.

cont...

The large saw is driven by a shaft from the tractor engine. Most of the cost involved in constructing this mill went into reconditioning the tractor, which is an old Fordson. It provides the power for both saws and the exhaust is piped into the shroud around the large saw to blow away the sawdust. Charlie sharpens the blade himself but every so often it requires hammering, which is done by hand at a saw doctors in Bairnsdale. Removing the blade for sharpening requires a rather large ring spanner.

cont...

As flitches are cut, they are rolled onto the skids. Operations then move to the small saw. The flitch is rolled onto the dolly, which also rides on a track. The flitch is balanced on the dolly which is rolled forward towards the small saw until the end of it contacts the power feed on the small bench.


cont...

The small saw is actually a small saw bench from a saw mill. There are two powered rollers, one at each end of the bench, which feed the flitch through the saw. This is driven by a hydraulic drive off a bobcat. The feed direction can be controlled to move the remaining flitch back to the infeed side so that the next plank can be cut.

The gadget at the front allows the width of the cut to be set. It engages one of the notches in the bar to set the width. The splitter at the other side of the blade does the same job as on any table saw. The small saw itself is driven from the PTO on the tractor. As planks are cut, they are lifted off the outfeed dolly and stacked on another set of skids ready to be stickered for drying.

Bloody EXCELLENT stuff Silent!!!

What type of timber does your uncle usually cut?

He had some blackwood and some pine there on the weekend. The pine came from somewhere else - he got the logs cheap - but the blackwood comes from his property. He also has alpine ash and stringybark and some other hardwood that he couldn't identify which is a golden yellow colour when dressed. Otherwise, whatever people bring up for him to cut.

Great stuff Silent. Your uncle is a man after my own heart. This reminds me of the contraptions my late Dad built, rough but they always did the job.

I notice you are training the Young SWMBO well! At that age it's fun helping dad, when a teenager Dad has no chance.

Wow! Aweseme! I would kill for one of those! (kill a cat at least). what is the largest diameter log that he can cut?

Originally Posted by gatiep

Great stuff Silent. Your uncle is a man after my own heart. This reminds me of the contraptions my late Dad built, rough but they always did the job.

I notice you are training the Young SWMBO well! At that age it's fun helping dad, when a teenager Dad has no chance.

I wish I was half as inventive as he is. There's a certain ability he has in being able to see a piece of junk and visualise how he can use it to solve a problem. I've got plenty of junk but I can rarely take it the next step to being something useful. Charlie has a heap of stuff laying about and he can walk straight out and pick something up from the heap and make it work. That's the spirit of bush mechanics, it doesn't have to be pretty to do the job.

The occasion of the visit was his 70th birthday. Little SWMBO came down with me while the real SWMBO stayed at home with the 3 year old. She had a great time with so many great Aunts and Uncles to spoil her, plus she got to see a newborn calf suckling, plenty of sheep, chickens and ducks, and she heard her first wild dingo call.

Originally Posted by silentC

and some other hardwood that he couldn't identify which is a golden yellow colour when dressed.

Yellowbox can be a golden yellow and polishes up beautifully. We used to get a lot up near our place at Beechworth, the locals used it for firewood and framing, I nearly cried.
I also thought of John Saxton when I saw this but that would be Bushmill and a 'saw' head the following day

Originally Posted by ryanarcher

Wow! Aweseme! I would kill for one of those! (kill a cat at least). what is the largest diameter log that he can cut?

To be honest, I'm not sure. The large blade is 30" I think, so I guess it would handle logs up to say 20" or so. Next time I'm talking to him, I'll ask.

He can easily cut 8"x2" planks on the small saw. By swapping the blades, he can cut wider planks but I don't think he needs to do that very often.

Originally Posted by silentC

and she heard her first wild dingo call.

All the way from WA. That kid has superb hearing.
Looks like God's own country, I'm envious.
PS Are you going to meet up with Wongo and me on Sunday in Sydney for the yearly beer or three?

Originally Posted by Ian

Yellowbox can be a golden yellow and polishes up beautifully.

I'll put that to him and see what he thinks. Actually, I believe that's a bit of it sitting on the bottom of the skids in picture 7.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

All the way from WA. That kid has superb hearing.

They do have a telephone you know, although it's a bit hard to have a conversation when the electric fence is running.