Closeup picture of a cam

[379hammerdown]

Greetings,

I've built a Procut sawmill & made to spec but the clamping system that was outlined in the plans just does not work for me. This is a long post.. I like to type, but there is a recap of my questions on the bottom of the post if you wish to just skip through it!

What I need to do is make two adjustible bars in the back and one (Two?) cam... The two adjustible bars in the back is not a problem for me to make and design should be straight forward... but the cam.. I just dont know what one looks like! Could someone please show me a photo of what a cam looks like? I'm looking for the shape of what actually smushes into the log or cant. I'm thinking it is a half oval shape, maybe 1/4" plate with either no special edge on it... or a bevel on the edge to dig into the wood a bit. How accurate is this? Any spikes on it?

I saw a picture on here that helps me out a lot of a manual woodmizer that has a cam with a handle & chain on the end attached to a binder of sorts... & adjustible vertical & horizontal. This design is within my capabilities.. but I just dont know the shape of the darn cam!

The problems that I have been having is that with the current system, I cut a few cants from the log... say if I plan on cutting 2x6's, I'.. cut a 5 1/2" cant, shove it off the mill, then another, & another... till I'm done with the log. Then load them up and cut the boards to the height that I desire. Problem is that the cant when vertical gets pulled out of square by the saw chain. I'm hoping this new design will eliminate this... & even make it possible to cut 2x4's (Very bad results because the cant is so skinny).

Another problem is that if I cut long boards... like 14' or 16', beginning of the cant vibrates side to side badly for the first 2' or so till it gets close to the supports... then vibrates bad again for the last 2' as it gets away from the supports. So... how far apart are your back vertical bars?

I know I'm long winded... so here's a recap of my questions:

1. What is the shape of the cam, the part that actually contacts the wood. Close pic would be appreciated.

2. How far apart are the vertical back bars?

3. Do I need to have just one cam in the middle of the two vertical back bars or two, one in front of each vertical back bar?

One other question that I have... what kind of stresses are placed on the cam? How beefy should I make it?

I REALLY appreciate you taking the time to read through this & answer my questions!

Keith

 

[poleframer]

Welcome to the world of fabrication, my bro. Google "cam" look at what fits. Sit and think a lot (with a good, cold beer in hand of course). Do something else for a while, plenty to do! - thats usually when the lightningbolt of inspiration hits me.
Russell :rockn:

 

[379hammerdown]

Thanks for reply I dont know why I didnt think of it... but anyway... I appreciate it. I looked up the cam on google and got the shape down now no problemo.

I'm still curious if there is any special edge put on it... like a bevel to cut into the wood, or is the edge just left as is...

Also learned that the back vertical poles are called log fences LOL! I also came accross a sawmill advertisement that had a design with 4 fences & 3 cams. Is this something that I ought to put on mine instead of 2 fences & 1 or 2 cams? The first one seems better... especially for solving my vibration problems on long boards. What about the spacing on the log fences?

BTW Nursing a MGD right now.

Thanks,

Keith

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Thanks for reply I dont know why I didnt think of it... but anyway... I appreciate it. I looked up the cam on google and got the shape down now no problemo.

I'm still curious if there is any special edge put on it... like a bevel to cut into the wood, or is the edge just left as is...

Also learned that the back vertical poles are called log fences LOL! I also came accross a sawmill advertisement that had a design with 4 fences & 3 cams. Is this something that I ought to put on mine instead of 2 fences & 1 or 2 cams? The first one seems better... especially for solving my vibration problems on long boards. What about the spacing on the log fences?

BTW Nursing a MGD right now.

Thanks,

Keith

The woodmizer in the pic I posted had 2 or 3 log fences but only 1 cam. Here's a quick sketch of the cam and handle from memory. The notch in the handle is where you hook a spring loaded chain to secure it.

It wouldn't hurt to put more than 1 cam but most of the time you will be able to get by with just one.

Grinding a bevel on the cam may help when you are canting the log but it would gouge a sawn surface pretty bad. You could put a small block in between the cant and cam to prevent this.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

BTW- It's good to see another Texan on here. Maybe we can organize our own GTG some day.

 

[olyman]

poleframer--whats the speed of that lightning bolt????

 

[carvinmark]

Good post 379, Been going thru the same thing on my procut. I'm not thru it yet.
Mark

 

[379hammerdown]

aggiewoodbutchr thanks so much for the drawing of the cam. Thats EXACTLY what I needed and it helped me out tremendously! Showing the pivot point etc... Thanks again! I decided to go with 3 log fences & 2 cams for my mill, so tomorrow I will cut out two & begin tinkering

Thanks also for mentioning that the chain was attached to a spring. I didnt notice that, nor think of that... that should make things much quicker when locking in the wood!

cavinmark, when I get things all put together & workin, I'll make another post on here with pics of what I did to show what works for me. It will prob be 2 weeks from now as I'll likely wait till my week off (Shift work for a real job) to begin getting really dirty!

 

[carvinmark]

I'll be waiting to see your set up.
Mark