I have watched a lot of custom mill videos. A lot. And this is undoubtedly the sickest one I have seen for a chainsaw mill. Matt Cremona's bandsaw mill is pretty freakin' epic, but this is incredible as well. Wow. Thanks for sharing this brilliant design. Nice and smooth and quiet.
From the Uk. 👍 what an absolutely amazing saw mill. For a moment I was looking v for the bandsaw blade... I’m very envious and I hope to build one like this soon.
If I could give you more than one like I would. This is the best home built chainsaw mill yet. It shows there are still some smart people out there. Thanks for sharing.
Have to say this video just popped up in my feed subscribed just off the great engineering of this mill. Highly impressive .you should patent it and sell models
Thanks, appreciate that. I don't have any intention to build any more of these, but maybe someone else will take this idea and make something out of it.
Man, excellent execution! I had a very similar set up in mind. Really the only thing I can critique is the placement of your cabinet temp probe. Being mounted right on that exhaust fan is going to keep that probe colder than the ambient air in there. Definitely recommend moving it toward the center of your cabinet. But other than that, seriously impressive! Subbed for sure!
I have to disagree with you on that. There are fans inside the VFD's that blow warm air out the top. If you placed the probe in the middle of the cabinet it would actually be cooler due to the fresh air coming from the intake fan. There's no other place in the cabinet where the heat from all three VFD's congregates except right at the exhaust. It is actually the warmest place in the cabinet. It would make more sense if I could draw you a flow diagram.
I have some small aluminum guards on the ends. I might make some bigger ones at some point. I've broken the chain probably 10 times now. It mostly just stays in the cut. I give it a wide berth and turn it off if I have to get anywhere near it.
The bar it made by Cannon Bar Works, and the sprockets are made by 6k. They are mounted on a jack shaft that is mounted between two pillow block bearings.
I would like to get some pictures of the top of the unit. Like what type of motor and pulley system you are using. Thank you for all of your patience with my crazy questions.
I needed to have a minimum 36" throat on the mill to be able to quarter large logs. To build a bandsaw that could do that, I would probably be looking at 42" wheels. That would put my bands at 32'+, and my mill at 15'+ wide. A band mill this size would cost probably 4x or more as much as my chainsaw mill, and I'd have to make a much larger building. I've worked with guys that have band mills, and the blade has a tendency to dive in the middle of the cut, which on walnut could cost a $1000 or more. The bands are particularly unstable when you are cutting really wide logs with knots and crotches, or if you hit any steel. I've cut straight through the eye of a 3/8" eye bolt with my chainsaw mill, and had ended up with a perfectly flat board. The only downside to the chainsaw mill is speed and kerf size. I don't really adjust the tension but I pull the chain off to sharpen it, so it gets adjusted every time I sharpen.
Put a limit switch at both ends of the tracks and forget about the carriage going pass the ends of the mill. I will guess that VFD is well over 15hp to work as an inverter for a 3 phase motor. Probably that cost more than an small car.
There's quite a few advantages. The only real disadvantage is speed. Band mills have a really hard time cutting flat slabs. The band wants to dive when you're dealing with wide logs, and especially when you get into crotchwood or knots, or if the band gets even slightly dull. You can ruin thousands of dollars in slabs in 1 cut. I wanted to have a 36" throat on the machine for quartering large logs. If I was to do that with a band mill it would have to have 42" wheels or so which would put my overall width at 14' and my band length at over 30'. I would have to put a much bigger motor on it and probably run 3" or 4" wide bands to have enough stability, which would probably double or triple the cost of the mill, and the cost of the bands. I like the fact that I can cut both directions with the chainsaw too. In the end the chainsaw mill was cheaper, simpler, and cuts better slabs.
I think it was around $15k at the time. It’s been working great. The only modification I’ve made to it is adding a way to put some tension on the bar. It helps to keep it cutting straighter.
That would just exacerbate the problem. It's always going to try to sag to the same point. If you start by lifting it higher the board would go from being convex to concave instead of going from flat to concave. You would have twice the thickness variance over the length of the board. I made a bar tensioner for it, and that keeps it pretty flat now.
Do you have plans and a parts list? I am building a slab mill and I am really impressed with yours!! Fantastic job!! I would be very interested in plans and material list.
Sorry, but I don’t have any plans or parts list. It was all in my head. I just started building it and figured out what I needed as I went along. most of the parts were from McMaster Carr and automation direct.
Nice mill I really appreciate the details that you show. I'm designing my own slabber that is using some of the features of your mill, is there anything you would do differently or change? Thanks!
I would find a way to tension the bar as well as the chain. It helps to keep it nice and flat. I made an arch and used a chain and binder to tension mine. If you dm me on fbook or insta I can send you a picture of it.
I would need a 40-50hp lawn mower to run a chain this size. Which would require a redesign of the gantry. I would also need a clutch, fuel tank, remote throttle and cutoff. The fuel would cost 5-8 times electric at market values. We have a solar system, so it would cost us even more. Plus, I would have to wait for it to warm up and listen to it idle between cuts. You certainly could make it work, but I don't see any advantage to it.
I built this for myself, and didn’t use any plans. I don’t intend to makes plans or sell these mills, but if you have any questions I can answer, I’ll be happy to help.
I wanted to be able to quarter large logs which requires a throat of 3ft. In order to do that with a band I would need 42" wheels. That would make my mill nearly 14' wide and my band nearly 36' in length. When cutting large slabs, over 50"or so, the band tends to wander a lot. You're always one pebble away from ruining thousands of dollars worth of slabs. I would want a minimum of a 3" wide band. It would be so much more complicated and expensive to build. This saw was simple, relatively inexpensive to build, and can cut a 7' slab flatter than you could ever get it with a band.
I would estimate 18-20k in time and materials. I also had a few sunk cost such as having to buy a larger motor, vfd, and gearbox for the lift, because it wouldn’t lift the head with everything installed.
