BobL's next CS mill

I started working on my next CS mill today. There's nothing to show so far except some pieces of cut up steel. My left hand is still weak and sore so I have to go slowly and not stress it to much.

I'm making the mill out of material I already have laying around my shed and stuff I have found in the dumpster at work.

Because it's mainly gonna be made out of steel and it will be heavy I'm treating it as a prototype and if it works I may reconstruct the steel bit's out of ally with BILs help or I may just plonk it on rails (see below)

There's no plan on paper like I had for the BIL mill, I just have a bunch of related ideas rolling around in my head, the rest I will be pretty much making it up as I go along.

Some features I have settled on are:
1) It will use 4 x 39" long C-channel galv steel uprights.
2) It's all bolted together so it completely collapses down to one dimension bars or rods
3) I will use my existing HMWPE lined spare 54" ally mill rails, since I have 64" on the BIL mill and have only swapped them back to the 54" a couple of times and not at all in the last 12 months
4) It uses all thread vertical adjustment like the BIL mill but being a 4 poster this has some complications.
5) Like the BIL Mill, the new mill will bolt to the bar bolts but the saw will sit much more inside the mill than a conventional alaskan - a bit more like a rail mill - in fact one possibility will be to convert this mill into a mill that runs on rails.

One idea I'm working on is to fix the saw to the bar and mill, and adjust the chain tension at the nose end using a floating nose. The reason for this is so the chain can be adjusted without undoing the bar bolts and even while the mill is in the cut!

Like I said, unfortunately this will be slow progress - I'll post some pics once I have something worth showing.

BobL said:

I started working on my next CS mill today. There's nothing to show so far except some pieces of cut up steel. My left hand is still weak and sore so I have to go slowly and not stress it to much.

I'm making the mill out of material I already have laying around my shed and stuff I have found in the dumpster at work.

Because it's mainly gonna be made out of steel and it will be heavy I'm treating it as a prototype and if it works I may reconstruct the steel bit's out of ally with BILs help or I may just plonk it on rails (see below)

There's no plan on paper like I had for the BIL mill, I just have a bunch of related ideas rolling around in my head, the rest I will be pretty much making it up as I go along.

Some features I have settled on are:
1) It will use 4 x 39" long C-channel galv steel uprights.
2) It's all bolted together so it completely collapses down to one dimension bars or rods
3) I will use my existing HMWPE lined spare 54" ally mill rails, since I have 64" on the BIL mill and have only swapped them back to the 54" a couple of times and not at all in the last 12 months
4) It uses all thread vertical adjustment like the BIL mill but being a 4 poster this has some complications.
5) Like the BIL Mill, the new mill will bolt to the bar bolts but the saw will sit much more inside the mill than a conventional alaskan - a bit more like a rail mill - in fact one possibility will be to convert this mill into a mill that runs on rails.

One idea I'm working on is to fix the saw to the bar and mill, and adjust the chain tension at the nose end using a floating nose. The reason for this is so the chain can be adjusted without undoing the bar bolts and even while the mill is in the cut!

Like I said, unfortunately this will be slow progress - I'll post some pics once I have something worth showing.

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Felt sorry for ya Bob, No one responding! lol Rep coming your way!
Have you ever used Acme rod in place of your thread rod? Iv never had much luck with thread rod but love Acme!

ChainsawmanXX said:

Felt sorry for ya Bob, No one responding! lol Rep coming your way!
Have you ever used Acme rod in place of your thread rod? Iv never had much luck with thread rod but love Acme!

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I really like this idea!> One idea I'm working on is to fix the saw to the bar and mill, and adjust the chain tension at the nose end using a floating nose. The reason for this is so the chain can be adjusted without undoing the bar bolts and even while the mill is in the cut!
Post pics when you get it built!

will you keep the BIL mill ?

I agree acme rod is more sensitive to fine adj , four sprockets and a chain, but you need a aux feed attachment where near power you can use a drill or small motor to raise and lower. with rails and 20 hp should weigh under 800 kilo

ChainsawmanXX said:

Felt sorry for ya Bob, No one responding! lol Rep coming your way!

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No worries CSMXX , without pics I probably wouldn't have responded either.

Have you ever used Acme rod in place of your thread rod? Iv never had much luck with thread rod but love Acme!

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I love Acme rod as well but I will need 3 lengths of 39" so that means buying a 12 ft length which in Australia costs about AUS$100 or US$97 and I am supposed to be making this mill out of scraps. Also the space width I have to locate the rod is just enough to use a 3/8" diam rod and as I already have a 1m x 8 mm length of all thread in my shed for $10 I can buy another two lengths.

All thread works OK on the BIL mill although it's a little too flexible over long lengths. On the new mill it will probably rattle like crazy as it is inside the C-Section uprights. It will probably need some kind of spacer or holder to reduce the rattling.

john taliaferro said:

will you keep the BIL mill ?

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Yep even though it's also heavy it will remain the working mill. This new one is a prototype to try out some ideas.

lI agree acme rod is more sensitive to fine adj , four sprockets and a chain, but you need a aux feed attachment where near power you can use a drill or small motor to raise and lower. with rails and 20 hp should weigh under 800 kilo

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Yeah - I'm not sure I want 54" long chains draped along the full length of the mill. The other thing about driving all four uprights at once is this fixes the bar length which I'm not planing to do just yet. However, this will change if the mill becomes a rail mill.

After spending almost all day working slowly on it yesterday I realised a rail mill would be easier to make if it was just welded together instead of being bolted together because bolting requires strong complex joining pieces to be made that hold the mill square. My shed is so small and crowded I cannot weld the whole thing together which is another reason the new mill is bolted together.

I might use a chain loop at either end to drive the allthread rods in pairs. The BIL mill is adjusted by hand cranking the alternate ends and it works OK

opcorn:

Keep the camera handy!

TAG for updates! opcorn:

Had a slow but good day in the shed today and have something to show.

Here's as far as I have got. The right hand side is the inboard side of the mill


There will be no inboard cross member along the red line. The reason for this is so the mill can sit more inside the mill and so the log will not make contact with the uprights.

The first cross member will be about where the short piece of ally rail is resting on the main rails. There will be another cross member about 18" further down towards the outboard end from there so the cross bracing should be more than string enough.


To get away with this the connections between the uprights and inboard end of the rails need to be strong and slideable/adjustable. Here is a close up of how this works.


The bolts thru to the mill rail remain tight but the ones through to the C-channel are loosened and the the all thread is turned - same as the BIL mill.

To prevent the bolt heads turning in the mill rail channel they need to be 12 mm bolts which is overkill so I have used 10 mm tensiles and a twin-hole bolt-head-lock-plate that slides in the channel and stops the bolt heads from turning. I also had a bunch of 10 mm bolts left over from another job


8 mm bolts would have been strong enough but they would come through the slot and I don't want to weld them if I can avoid it. The two bolt heads that ride in the C-channel slot are welded to steel plate to stop them turning.

Here is another view showing where the other all-thread adjustment rods will go.


Here is where a crank will go.


Yes it is already heavy but it's only a prototype made from bits and pieces laying around my shed.
The only things I've had to buy so far are some 6 mm bolts, a piece of steel strap, and 2 of the all thread rods.

I need a new name for this mill (it can't be BIL2 because no BIL is involved) - any ideas?

Looking good.

The Log Slayer
The Chipper

BobL said:

I need a new name for this mill (it can't be BIL2 because no BIL is involved) - any ideas?

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Bob's Big Boy Mill - BBBM or B(cubed)M
/edit - or (Triple)BM - 'cuz that look as heavy as a lot of you know what. Good, but heavy. Need to fix some wheels, an axle, some gears and drive it with an 880 engine.

gemniii said:

Bob's Big Boy Mill - BBBM or B(cubed)M
/edit - or (Triple)BM - 'cuz that look as heavy as a lot of you know what. Good, but heavy. Need to fix some wheels, an axle, some gears and drive it with an 880 engine.

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I like the name "B3m" or B5m (Big Bad Bobs Big Boy Mill), maybe leave that one .

Yep - it will have pump up wheels - found them by the side of the road attached to a mangled cement mixer.

Bob's Back Breaking Mill.

mtngun said:

Bob's Back Breaking Mill.

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It most definitely won't need a winch

Switching it to ~80% ally will be quite easy. The C-Channel is a standard size and it can be swapped out without any welding. The straps between the tops of the uprights are also standard size and can be swapped with a bit of welding. The more difficult bits will be the nose and saw holding - not impossible to switch to ally but will be a bit more work. If I do that it will be about as heavy than than the BIL mill.

mtngun said:

Bob's Back Breaking Mill.

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+1

:jawdrop:

Looking good Bob!!!

Hope you get healed up soon!!!
Good to see your enjoying this project...A person can get pretty down in the dumps being layed up and not being able to do anything...
Keep up the great work friend!!!!

Just getting onto the thread for the updates, making it from steel would be far simpler for most people to weld than aluminium as most don't have the kit.

Mine is made of steel and couldn't be any easier to operate/adjust. This is before I installed a pressurized aux oiler.
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The main idea with this mill is that it is a flexible prototyping mill, one that I can mess about with - swap things on and off, cut things off, weld things back on and try out some different ideas on it. I'd prefer not to do that with the BIL mill because being ally I'd be running back and forth to my BIL to get things welded up, and I don't want to mess up a perfectly good working mill.

I'm mainly using 3/16" thick steel strap and angle because this is what I already have lots of pieces of in my shed, scrounged from dumpsters and left over from other projects. Where possible I'm also using bolts to hold things together. I know this also adds weight but this also makes it much easier to change things than cutting and welding. It also has the added advantage that it can be flat packed since I have very little space to make stuff (did you notice assembly is taking place on a bench on the back lawn).

I know using ally or with thin wall SHS tube would be far lighter but I would have to lay out hard $ for that. The other thing about using solid steel strap is it much better for prototyping because it survives having stuff cut off and welded back on again far better that thin wall SHS. I'm not that good a welder so I do end up blowing the odd hole in SHS.

Like I said, all I look like having to buy for this project is some 6 mm bolts, a 6 ft length of 3/4" wide steel strap, and 2 all thread rods. I'd say that is a pretty cheap for a prototype.

If I come away with a couple of useful ideas from it that I can implement in any future designs then I reckon it will have been worth it. I may even keep it as a prototyper

If it works I can also then decide to buy some ally, or lightweight SHS or steel strap and swap out the heavier steel pieces and either decide to either stay with bolts or weld as much of it up as I can at that point. I can also lose a fair bit of weight by just getting the angle grinder out and cutting off excess weight, Like halving the length of the vertical C-Channels - being a bolted on item this is easy to do.

If it comes to naught I can just undo all the bolts and put all the steel and ally back onto my supplies piles and put the bolts back in my bolts drawer.

Timberframed said:

Mine is made of steel and couldn't be any easier to operate/adjust.

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I have to disagree, there are always some improvement that could be made to any tool or machine.

What's the black pipe thingo across the top of the saw?

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