Alaskan mill winch lifting mill

[AlaskanMillWinch4Life]

Mounted a winch to the mill and have tried it in Cedar and some old second growth spruce today. All were good size, at least over 36 inches. Spruce was just over 4'. Set up is a 56 inch blade, Oregon ripping chain and 3120. When I put tension on the 1/8" wire, it pulls up the backside of the mill. I have scoured Youtube videos and the Internet seeing if anyone else has had this issue and cannot find anything. Seems like everyone is mounting the winch and it is all good.

Just wondering if anyone has run into this and if so, how did you fix it? Any ideas on what could be causing this? I have a 16' ladder I use for the runners. I feel as though my sharpening is on point. Bars are good and true. Was thinking of trying to figure out a bearing setup so it would hold the mill to the ladder at least on the backside.

Thanks Jimmy

 

[TOlsen]

I have no personal experience with a Wich yet, but I believe winch placement makes a big difference. the thicker the slab your cutting, the worse the tipping would be if the winch is attached to the top of the mill. preferably it would pull in the same place as the bar and chain.

http://www.arboristsite.com/communi...berg-mill-need-some-info.295399/#post-5809559

 

[kimosawboy]

If you can toss up a picture of your set up , it might help...

 

[BobL]

If you look in Will Mallof's book on "Chainsaw lumbermaking" it shows the optimum location for a winch so it simply cannot tip the mill over.
As Tolsen says, the hook up points to the mill should be level with the bar clamps and the rope/cable should go down to pulleys located level with the cut at the "yet to be cut" end of the log.
The rope/cable should then go up and over the top of the log and trough another pulley to the winch located not on the mill but on the log end that gets cut first.
This method places ZERO rotation on the mill so it will not tip over.

Each to their own of course, I've used a winch a few times but find it unnecessary if the log is and can be sufficiently sloped. I found it much quicker to spend the time initially sloping the log once that to have to set the winch up for every cut.

 

[RajElectric]

I put amsteel on my winch. When it pulls the back up I can redirect the winch line around the handle.

 

[djones]

I find that by keeping the line low to the front rail that I do not have any lifting problem. To insure that the line stays low, I installed an eye bolt on the front rail and run the line through that. That also keeps the line from winding up too high or too low on the winch. I have my winch spun up with 200 lb. test rope. So far no problems.
.
The eye bolt isn't in this photo but it is positioned just left of the rope on the right side and centered on the spool.

 

[AlaskanMillWinch4Life]

Thank you very much for all the replies. When I first mounted the winch I thought it would be much better to use some 1/8" steel line. More pull I thought. Did not think about the "give" nylon para cord would have. The nylon cord works way better. Allows the stretch so the teeth can work through the wood. I do change pulley orientation depending on how wide and thick the slabs are gonna be. Generally I go with the v set up. But in these photos I wanted to throttle the power head my self so I ran the pulley at the end of the mill. These were surprisingly solid 350 year old Sitka Spruce my boss had fallen on his property.