New CSM Build Complete

[OldMontanaPhart]

...The new mill got a good run this weekend on a 3.9m length of 1m diameter redgum - nothing fell off! I was really happy with the mill with the exception of the adjustable rollers. The 25mm x 2mm SHS that clamps around the 12mm round bar just didn't give enough clamping force/friction to hold the wheel arms in place. They'd hold for a while but slowly splay out under pressure from the saw pulling into the cut. I think the best solution at this point is to follow BobL's lead and use some solid square bar and up the bolt size from M6 to M8 to give a bit more surface area and clamping force - that should do it.

Here are a couple of pics of the roller setup...

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and the mill in action:

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Great photos and also repping you for the Ryobi.

My friends with Milwaukee/DeWalts kinda look down their noses at my Ryobi tools, but I notice they have no issues with benefiting from borrowing the Ryobis I have which are either not available at all in their chosen "Pro" lines or too expensive.
My 1/2" impact snapped a number of 3/8" galvanized lag screws I attempted to drive into treated 4x4 without pilot holes [granted, they WERE Chinese screws], but the ones that didn't snap bottomed out, can't say the same for the neighbor's DeWalt, and my 4.0 Ah batteries if bought on sale are just about half the price of theirs-

 

[Down Home Dave]

Hi All,

I promised in another thread a while ago that I'd report back on a CSM re-build project I was undertaking....It's taken a lot longer than I'd hoped (day-job, kids, bushfires, pandemics etc), but I finished it a few weeks ago and so below are a few pics of the build.

I had been struggling with a cheap Alaskan mill for a while before I realised some aluminium castings were out of square, making it frustratingly difficult to clamp the bar flat. Hence the rebuild. For this build I replaced everything except the main 't-slot' aluminium rails and the handle. It's a lot easier to set-up and adjust than the cheap-original and feels a lot more solid. It's also slightly heavier.

Features of note include:

• MS660 clone power head
• 50" 3/8 GB 'Extra Long' bar
• Carlton skip-tooth semi-chisel 0.63 ripping chain (10 degree top plate filing angle and progressive raker-angle filing)
• 1170mm max cut capacity
• 350mm max slab depth
• Heavy-duty T-slot aluminium thickness adjustment carriages
• Steel thickness adjustment risers (bolted to T-slot ali carriages)
• Through-bar bolted mounting (2 x 6mm bolts at power-head end 1 x 6mm bolt through sprocket bearing centre)
• UHMW strips under the rails for low friction sliding
• Tach and Cylinder-head temperature gauges
• Simple auxiliary oiler with 1/4 turn valve
• Adjustable nylon roller guides (can be positioned above or below the bar and also adjustable relative angle)

The only other things I'm considering doing with it are adding some scale tapes down the side of the thickness adjustment risers and/or some indexing plungers (indexed at maybe 25mm increments) to make thickness adjustment a bit quicker/easier.

Finally, a nod of acknowledgement to BobL, whose mill builds gave me some ideas for my own.

Drilling the bar
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(I broke about 5 bits drilling the sprocket bearing, including a rather expensive solid carbide end mill - in the end a relatively cheap tungsten-carbide-tipped multi-purpose bit did the job)

Building the thickness adjustment/bar-mount/roller guide assemblies
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Finished Mill
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(testing on a little eucalyptus log I had lying around)
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where do you attach the thermocouple in the saw to monitor temp? on the jug somewhere?

 

[BobL]

Beautiful timber! Nice work.

I like the bike bits Bob - good idea. Funny you should mention lifting logs...my next project is a "log lifter" setup to go on my hi-lift jack - similar to the one you've posted about around here somewhere. I'll post a few pics when it's done (could take a while)

Bob - what is the purpose of the occy-strap running between your riser posts?

Te occy-strap reduces/stops the height adjustment handles on the verticals from rattling.