Thread: Small Bandsaw Milling

For those who don't have a forklift...

A little log arch can be a very useful tool. We use this one for getting urban logs out through paths & suburban side gates, as well as moving moderate sized pieces from the log dump to the saw. This was a 2m piece of silky oak being moved by our replica Catweazel. Cut slabs can be put on the flat top of the arch to be moved around the yard

Originally Posted by T91

A little log arch can be a very useful tool. We use this one for getting urban logs out through paths & suburban side gates, as well as moving moderate sized pieces from the log dump to the saw. This was a 2m piece of silky oak being moved by our replica Catweazel. Cut slabs can be put on the flat top of the arch to be moved around the yard

Stuff the size you show in the photo I can usually move with a tall (fridge height) sack trolley but an arch would be a lot less stretching of my arm and shoulder tendons and would also work better on longer logs. A sack trolley is handy for where you need to go around tightish corners,

For single small logs I usually ratchet strap the log to the trolley. To load these logs into my van I attach a long wooden ramp onto the back of my van and roll the trolley+log up the ramp. If its the only log I just strap down the whole shebang to the van floor so it's ready to take out the other end ie loading and unloading.

That little Log Arch comfortably handles logs up around 3m and about 200Kg, with 500mm between the axles. Basically you put the crossbar on the balance point of the log, run the chain under the log and attach it to the pins on the bar with a couple of wraps. You then use your weight on the handle to lever the handle horizontal (& the log into the towing position). With the trailer you can simply back the log in. With my flat bed ute we generally use an engine hoist. We also have a ute crane on a tow hitch frame for swinging logs in through the rear or side gates of my ute (pictured). The benefit of the arch is that it is much safer for our older guys as nothing will fall very far, or dangerously.

I have thought about welding a bigger model arch up, with a boat winch above the arch to raise the log, but the existing model is just so convenient for getting trees out of backyards and across uneven ground, & I can pretty easily throw it in the trailer or ute.

Anything bigger than the the little arch can handle, I just snig with a chain or 1000Kg webbing attached to the ute's towbar.

Originally Posted by T91

That little Log Arch comfortably handles logs up around 3m and about 200Kg,

That pretty decent.

I do very little log gathering these days.
I just turn up at the tree loppers yards and am greeted by an ever increasing pile of logs.
Yesterday I noticed a truck load of camphor Laurels.

Today I milled up 4 short lengths of English Oak for a forum member.

This wood is super nice to cut mainly because it was still green and relatively soft compared other stuff I have been cutting up.

There were two pieces of trunk and two largish branches.
These boards were from the narrower of the trunk pieces.
All boards were milled at about 30mm.
EOAK1.jpg
EOAK2.jpg

These were from the largest part of the trunk.
The smaller cracks in the top section look like there were causes by the felling process which appears to have partially torn apart at the Chainsaw cut.
Special care needs to be taken if this is to be minimized
Bole1.jpg

The large crack at the point shown by the red arrow was where I encountered a stub of rusty metal - probably a nail.
This is why I eventually pulled out.
Nail.jpg
There were lots of flakey pieces of rust all along that large crack. I'd say that piece of metal has been in there from when the tree was a tiddler.

When I hit the metal the bandsaw gave a jerk but the bimetal blade cut straight through the metal. No teeth were broken. However I did not have my metal detector with me so just in case there was more metal I flipped the log and started cutting from the other side. The band still cut ,albeit only about half as fast. I continued to cut slabs from the other side until I could see a black stain appearing in the wood near the crack so I did not cut any more slabs off that piece. By then the remainder of the trunk was only 50mm thick anyway so customer will just have to work with that.

The large crack was then visible right through that piece and probing it with a metal rod pushed out lots of rust metal flakes. Looks like that band will need to be sharpened.
Nail2.jpg

Originally Posted by BobL

That pretty decent.

I do very little log gathering these days.
I just turn up at the tree loppers yards and am greeted by an ever increasing pile of logs.
Yesterday I noticed a truck load of camphor Laurels.

Willi wants Pics - OK tomorrow I'll get pics.

UPDATE: Sorry too hot for the next 4 days I'm not going back there till next week.

Originally Posted by BobL

Willi wants Pics - OK tomorrow I'll get pics.

UPDATE: Sorry too hot for the next 4 days I'm not going back there till next week.

Yes, Willy does want pics, please

AH = Araucaria cunninghami = Norfolk Island Pine - The top most one features in the next post.
These ones came from a demolished High School and as they are all the same size must were probably planted all at the same time - probably in the 1960s.
E. Rogb = Eucalyptus Robusta
There's also some Spotted Gum under there as well.

Logs1.jpg

That's the Camphor Laurel in the foreground.
The big stump labelled "C Cit" is Corymbia Citriodora (Lemon Scented Gum
Logs2.jpg

Some Spotted gum and Lemon scented gum amongst this lot
Logs3.jpg

As I left I noticed one of the trucks was full of Tuart.

As I said above, the next cab/log of the rank was a Norfolk Island Pine (NIP) log.

The reason for this is I have been tasked with making a drawing table for my 6 year old grandson who likes to draw (he's Autistic and practically does nothing else) on big sheets of butchers paper and he takes over the dining table with his stuff - so I said to his parents I would make him something.

Ordinarily I would not use something like NIP for this purposed as its too knotty and soft although it is used occasionally for furniture. The designs I have in mind I'm not quite decided but all all somewhat semi rustic, so its going to be slightly chunkier than usual. And I don't care if it gets beat up in the process of it being used.

Fortunately for me Tree Lopper Jeff had already take that NIP log off the top of the pile, stuck it on the mill and taken 4 thick face cuts off the log to create a square cant, and then broken the cant up into mostly 65mm thick slabs, see picture below. He used just one of the slab to cut some demonstration pieces for a client.

I thought I would first try to extract something useful from a face cut.
The slab standing on its edge with the large bow is the result - ie firkin useless but also not unexpected.

NIPfacecut.jpg

I called Jeff and asked what he was planning for the other slabs - he said "nothing - help yourself"
So I selected the two slabs from the middle of the log which were the closest to being "quarter sawn" and popped these onto the mill.

NIPmilling1.jpg

This stuff is Sooooooooo . . . . .Easy to cut.
Its tempting to go fast - fast - fast BUT when it strikes a knot the blade can take a bit ion a dive so you just have to take it steady.
Some Bandsaw millers refuse to cut knotty pine because of this.
I thought there would be some smell but I could not detect anything.

NIPmilling2.jpg

As well as being soft, it's also very light.
These boards are 32 mm thick x ~400 wide and 2.5m long, and still very easy to pick up by hand
NIPmilling3.jpg

Here you can see a board standing on edge and how straight the cut is.
NIPmilling4.jpg

Anyway broke these up into ~28m of 32 x 95mm and left one of the 375mm wide boards to be cut in half for the top.
NIPmilling5.jpg
The cleaning up took longer than the milling.

Will dress these down tomorrow.

Bob

They came up well (straight in other words) after a dubious start.

I think pine can be quite useable for furniture for youngsters. I am looking at a work bench for a friend's 6 year old son: It will be pine if I get around to it.

Regards
Paul

I thought I'd add a picture of how to add a movable "toe jack" to a mill. It is a 500Kg motorbike jack (about $70 on ebay) in a DIY cradle made of 5mm thick 2" angle, that fits between the rails. works excellently & can double as a short length bunk for (members) logs which do not span the full length between bunks. The sharp eyed will notice 2 cradles... because when you put pair of them "over the side" straddling 2x adjacent bunks, they become loading ramps (for logs which do span 2 bunks).

That looks like a well thought out arrangement T91.

This is what I usually use for short logs.

I have several lengths (~1.2m long) of thick (1.5") multiply beams which I use or both chainsaw and bandsaw milling of short logs.
Both have cleats underneath which butt up against either a saw horse in the case of chainsaw milling, or a bunk in the case of bandsaw milling.
Both have a cleat or Al angle on top at the end to prevent the log being pushed off the end.

The one with the round Al "flowers" is used for logs. The flowers rotate off centre up snug against the log just enough to stop it rolling around or being pulled sideways by the chainsaw or the bandsaw.
Once a couple of slabs are removed the log is flipped over (cut face down)
Assorted clamps and wooden blocks are sometimes used to hold things.
This pic shows the rig when I first made it - since then the flowers have been moved many times and new holes drilled to accomodate various log lengths.


IMG_3432.jpg

This is another rig I use for holding awkward shapes like burls and roots and sections of logs.
It fully collapses down and easily fits into the back of my van
All2.jpg

HerE you can see close up of how the claws work.
Everything is adjustable every which way and then cranking the handles drives the claw into the wood
Grippercloseup.jpg
The base if the whole rig could also be easily transferred to the BSM but I haven't done this yet.

We have not used the chainsaw mill for a while, but that looks to be a very practical setup at a good working height.

For our band sawmill, I have it setup so that the height of the bunks is knee height on the unloading (dogs) side of the rails. This makes it easier on my back to slide slabs off and into the back of a flat bed ute, which is how we transport fresh green (heavy) slabs round to the drying racks.

I do have a specific arrangement for short logs, & logs which do not support very well on the standard dogs of the bandsaw mill.

I made up a little false bed which can slide along the bunks between the rails. The log sits inside the gap, We place a 1.4m piece of galvanized angle on the top of the square topped dogs with the angle hanging down, then slide the cradle up to the "fence", then pin it with the screw dog which you can see (lying in the grass) on the round pivot bar. Because the fence is 50mm angle, it stays within the line of the standard dogs, and offers convenient side support when needed.

I did think of making the fence "plug in" to the top of the standard dogs, using a round head bolt thru the upper surface, but we have had no issues with just hanging it on, so I have left well enough alone, till we have a reason to add complexity.

My mate Zippy who runs a bigger Norwood mill down at Binalong, has cloned the short log false bed, and adapted the fence idea to his own specific setup. He says he is quite pleased at how well it worked out for him

The 3rd photo is a removable cradle which slots onto the rails from the dog side, which then creates a mount for the parbuckling winch to drop into (pic 4 & 5). It clips under the rails at both ends, which helps keep it stable and square to the bed. Having a 2x part setup makes it easier to to store the components next to the mill's toolbox with quick drop in, no tool assembly as required. The winch is 3:1 reduction, has 1000Kg webbing on it which is cheap & easy on the operators hands. The webbing simply goes over the log back around and under. The hook end can be attached to the winch mount, or more conveniently, to a separate short webbing loop around the either the dog side rail,or the dogs themselves. The parbuckle is used in conjunction with the steel loading ramps, and for bigger logs we use 2x men each with a cant hook, one bloke at either end to maintain good control of the log.

Photo 6 is John demonstrating one of the novel methods of pinning down narrow slabs on the bed while they are sawn up the middle. It looks a lot more dangerous in the photo than it is in practice. The blade is always "in the wood:and as it gets closer to John, I would step on from the operators side, and he would retire to a safer location.

Photo 7 shows how we use the ute as an out feed table on the down hill side of the mill

Some good ideas there. Thanks for the info.

I like the frame you're using between the bunks, I have some nice piece of 5mm thick stainless angle I got free looking for a job - should be just the thing.