Removing brake band on a mill saw

[J D]

I just finished cleaning out a bunch of compacted crud from around the clutch of my 390XP that couldn't have been doing it any favors. Got me thinking that for a saw on an Alaskan mill the brake band is pretty redundant & the handle just gets in the way when adjusting it... Any reason not to remove them? I don't use the saw off the mill.

 

[BobL]

I've taken the standard clutch cover and brake off my bigger milling saws (076 and 088) since I started using them for milling.
However I found you still need something to direct the sawdust down and out otherwise the sawdust spray will bounce all over the place and even get into the area under the carby and into cylinder fins etc.
For the 076 I made up this temporary cover but it works so well I have not bothered to make a more permanent one.
The transparent plastic is Polycarbonate which has now slightly yellowed with ages

On the 880 I made a more minimal custom Al cover
One issue on my setup is the modified exhaust but the original cover can still just be replaced if needed.
The real beauty of this setup is the sawdust falls out into the exhaust stream which blows it well away from the operators feet so even when milling big logs I never have walk in more than about 1/2" of sawdust.

This design is not OHSA compliant as the the exhaust is required to be kept well away from the exhaust stream ie fire risk but 99% of the milling I do is in the same location and its not like I move around from log to log in a forest

 

[J D]

Thanks Bob, very nice setups. I've been thinking about making a custom cover to let chips out better, for now I'm using one with a big chunk cracked off which helps a bit.
In my experience OHSA has zero consideration for common sense or better judgement... Just "do this" & "don't do that".
Is your exhaust just a straight pipe or is that attached to the muffler?
Cheers

 

[Mad Professor]

I've taken the standard clutch cover and brake off my bigger milling saws (076 and 088) since I started using them for milling.
However I found you still need something to direct the sawdust down and out otherwise the sawdust spray will bounce all over the place and even get into the area under the carby and into cylinder fins etc.
For the 076 I made up this temporary cover but it works so well I have not bothered to make a more permanent one.
The transparent plastic is Polycarbonate which has now slightly yellowed with ages
View attachment 868818
On the 880 I made a more minimal custom Al cover
One issue on my setup is the modified exhaust but the original cover can still just be replaced if needed.
The real beauty of this setup is the sawdust falls out into the exhaust stream which blows it well away from the operators feet so even when milling big logs I never have walk in more than about 1/2" of sawdust.
View attachment 868820
This design is not OHSA compliant as the the exhaust is required to be kept well away from the exhaust stream ie fire risk but 99% of the milling I do is in the same location and its not like I move around from log to log in a forest

At first look I didn't see the plastic cover over the clutch. Wouldn't want that to open to catch onto something.

 

[BobL]

Is your exhaust just a straight pipe or is that attached to the muffler?

Yes it is attached to the muffle and replaces the small deflector cover on the side of the muffler. The diameter of the is considerably wider that the standard opening in the deflector cover.



I made up set of bushes that could sit inside the pipe. The thickest bush would generate the same cross-sectional area of the original opening in the deflector plate.).
Then I replaced the thickest bush starting with with the next thinnest and tuned the saw.
If that worked I then went down in ring thickness (reduced restriction) and retuned each time.
The idea was to make sure the saw would never run lean - if it had I would have had to use a fatter main carby jet.
I just managed to get the saw in tune with no brush in place. This allowed the saw to breathe easier and probably helped with cooling although I could not measure this with the temp gauge.

 

[BobL]

At first look I didn't see the plastic cover over the clutch. Wouldn't want that to open to catch onto something.

That polycarbonate is about 2mm thick so its pretty tough. Its since got a bit scratched from the chain coming off a few times but otherwise its still in one piece.

 

[TimbaBlake]

I've taken the standard clutch cover and brake off my bigger milling saws (076 and 088) since I started using them for milling.
However I found you still need something to direct the sawdust down and out otherwise the sawdust spray will bounce all over the place and even get into the area under the carby and into cylinder fins etc.
For the 076 I made up this temporary cover but it works so well I have not bothered to make a more permanent one.
The transparent plastic is Polycarbonate which has now slightly yellowed with ages
View attachment 868818
On the 880 I made a more minimal custom Al cover
One issue on my setup is the modified exhaust but the original cover can still just be replaced if needed.
The real beauty of this setup is the sawdust falls out into the exhaust stream which blows it well away from the operators feet so even when milling big logs I never have walk in more than about 1/2" of sawdust.
View attachment 868820
This design is not OHSA compliant as the the exhaust is required to be kept well away from the exhaust stream ie fire risk but 99% of the milling I do is in the same location and its not like I move around from log to log in a forest

Thanks for sharing this BobL.. I love you Aussie guys and yr mods.
Myself im currently customizing my Alaskan to best accomadate my 075, and vice versa as the saw won't leave the mill, I s thinking about a mod for chip extraction and would love any more pics you have and a rundown of how it's bolted up there. I was also thinking of putting the air filter setup from a ts760 on the thing to better protect.

Thanks!

Sent from my S41 using Tapatalk

 

[BobL]

I have this photo of the 076 clutch cover.
Basically I bent up a shallow U-channel from some 30 thou galve sheet and then cut into the sides so the it could be bent into the required shape.
The 2 bronzed bolts are metric 6mm furniture socket head screws - these fit the regular screws in the saw body.
The Polycarbonate is just pop riveted on with Al rivets.