My Third Mini-Mill, it's getting bad! Post 1

I just finished my third mini-mill build today and it worked great. Only had one nut come loose that I told my friend I was going to tighten after I adjusted the mill to the rail board.

I built this mill from my friend. He is planning to use it for making post and beams for when he builds his new home up North.

The saw is a used Husky 365 Special with a 24" bar and it had plenty of power.

Husky 365 Special mounted on mill.


Throttle linkage mounted on saw.


View of throttle control handle. The bars came from a set of chrome bike handle bars. Woo Hoo! Chrome!


Linkage uses only two thumb screw nuts to hold it to the handle. Sorry for the blurry picture.


Ready to make it's first cut on a oak stump.


Will post more pictures.

jerry-

My Third Mini-Mill, it's getting bad! Post 2

Making cut on test oak log. Check out the new brim my friend bought...


Simon having fun with his new mill.


The chip/dust deflector was working good, nothing flying into his face.


Havin some millin fun in the CA sun!


We even milled a piece of redwood I had laying around.


jerry-

Looks great Jerry.
I'd love to see a vid of the last one pulling noodles in that orientation!

Well done guys i like it,ideal for milling posts and rails.

Geez I need to learn to weld!

Unless you feel like making me one of your fine mini mills?:hmm3grin2orange:
Looking good, love the bike pieces and parts.:msp_thumbsup:

Nice work. I see some one got a bailey's order.

Say man, can you send me some of that anti gravity wood you got there?:msp_huh:

BobL said:

Looks great Jerry.
I'd love to see a vid of the last one pulling noodles in that orientation!

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Bob,

I should have videoed that one, it was making some nice noodles. It was a piece of redwood a friend gave me. We were just testing the saw with the mill. We had to tear down the saw, clean it and do some minor repairs before we could do any milling.

I've been watching your progress on your shop build, your going to love the extra space.

jerry-

Stihlman441 said:

Well done guys i like it,ideal for milling posts and rails.

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I'm using a 2x6 for mounting the 3/4 x 3/4 angle iron rails on. When I have st my cut on one side I make the cut, then set the mill up on the opposite side and made the second cut and it makes it 6" wide. I then flush the rail on the second side of the log and make another 6" wide cut. I just keep rotating until I have a 6" square piece of wood. With 6" I can cut it down with my bandsaw later or use the wood for posts.

jerry-

Nice job on the mill.
The Stang in the garage is nice too!

betterbuilt said:

Nice work. I see some one got a bailey's order.

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Yes, we did get the chain from Baileys and the 25' piece came with a packet of connector links for a 100 ft. roll. Don't know if they made a mistake or they were just being nice. At any rate, their chain works great.

jerry-

Hillbilly3995 said:

Say man, can you send me some of that anti gravity wood you got there?:msp_huh:

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Yea Hillbilly,

Anti-gravity wood is great. You just move it to where you want it and mill. My back likes it...

I just use 3-1/2" deck screws through the rail board and into both ends of the wood to be milled. If I have a weird shaped piece I just trim it with another saw to get a couple of flat spots on the wood, then drive screw the rail to the log. It the log is heavy I just support it from below with scrap pieces of wood and wedges. I've attached some pretty heavy pieces of wet oak to the rail and it has held up pretty good.

jerry-

PineFever said:

Nice job on the mill.
The Stang in the garage is nice too!

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Thanks, the mill is fun to use. Working from the opposite side of the bar makes it pretty safe to use.

The car is my 1966 GT-350H, not a clone.

jerry-

820wards said:

Thanks, the mill is fun to use. Working from the opposite side of the bar makes it pretty safe to use.

The car is my 1966 GT-350H, not a clone.

jerry-

Click to expand...

All the GT-350H's were black and gold, did you paint it?

Hillbilly3995 said:

All the GT-350H's were black and gold, did you paint it?

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My bad, only 80% were black and gold

Hillbilly3995 said:

My bad, only 80% were black and gold

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Hillbilly,

My car was originally red/gold and came from the Oakland, CA airport. I bought it wrecked and spent two years putting it back together. My car is an early 66 with the over-ride traction bars. As production progressed on they when to the under-ride bars. I always liked the White/blue color scheme so that is what I had it painted. The Hertz cars were also white/gold, green/gold and the most numbers were in black/gold. I paid a whopping $700 for the car back in 1971. It's worth just a few $$ more now. Glad you like it, so do I.

jerry-

Does the saw ever try to push upwards when milling with the top of the bar? Nice looking mill!

dustytools said:

Does the saw ever try to push upwards when milling with the top of the bar? Nice looking mill!

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I really haven't had a problem with the mill wanting to rise when cutting. I think it's a combination of the weight of the mill frame, the saw, and a sharp chain. Even when the chain gets dull I've had no problem with the mill/saw wanting to rise. I did have one time when the saw started to vibrate and it was because I hadn't secured the piece I was cutting from below and the rail board started vibrating. Since then when I mill any big pieces I make sure the piece is blocked from below.

jerry-

820wards said:

I really haven't had a problem with the mill wanting to rise when cutting. I think it's a combination of the weight of the mill frame, the saw, and a sharp chain. Even when the chain gets dull I've had no problem with the mill/saw wanting to rise. I did have one time when the saw started to vibrate and it was because I hadn't secured the piece I was cutting from below and the rail board started vibrating. Since then when I mill any big pieces I make sure the piece is blocked from below.

jerry-

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We milled again this past weekend and I tried using the mill by pulling backwards so the chain was pulling up through the wood. It works very easily both directions with the chain pushing or pulling through the wood. The only thing I will modify on the mill will be to add a spacer to the dust deflector to get it as close to the underside of the saw as possible. Pulling backwards threw the chips up between the saw and dust deflector. Not bad, just noticeably more chips/dust.

jerry-