Todays Project - What did you do today?

[Dr Stan]

One guarantee RE hydraulic systems. They either leak, or will leak in the future.

[Doc55]

I wound 2 more miniature model engine ignition coils. The secondary windinds were made of 44 gauge mag wire and 12,000 wraps each.
Rained here most of the day so was a good day to spend in the shop playing. I have now wound (I think) 8 miniature coils.

[Pete O]

Thought I would put up some photos of a little project that has helped keep me busy for the past few weeks.
I have a row of 12 cypress trees behind the house that have outgrown their welcome, at about 50' tall they're too big for where they are so I've started removing them. I dropped 3 of them a few months ago and after getting rid of all the foliage I was left with a fair few straight logs up to about 15" diameter. I've been wondering how I could put the logs to good use.
My wife asked if I could make her some raised garden beds for her veggie garden, her arthritis is getting bad and she can't kneel at all and can't bend for long, so we decided a set of garden boxes at bench height would be just the ticket. The space where her veggie garden used to be will fit 4 beds about 6' x 5' with enough space to move around and between them.

I decided the most difficult and time-consuming way to go about this would be to make a chainsaw mill and use the cypress logs.

The chainsaw mill was thrown together in 'proof-of-concept' fashion in a couple of hours one afternoon. It mounts the chainsaw in a frame that is adjustable in height and runs on a ladder for rails. The rungs of the ladder are used to mount brackets to hold the logs. I can mill a log up to about 6'6" long (limited by the length of my old ladder) and 12" thick. With a second set of brackets I can mount the first cut face at 90 degrees. It's worked fairly well to split a log down the middle, then turn the halves on their side and split them again or just take the edges off for the thinner logs.
Pics show the basic setup and the first finished garden box.

   
   
   

It's been a fun experiment but it is very hard on the chainsaw. It cost me almost zero dollars to throw together, I thought if this worked well I would put some more effort into making a longer frame, a jig with a better height adjustment system etc but I think a bandsaw mill would be a much better system.

[TomG]

Nice work Pete!

Looks like it worked very well.

Tom

[f350ca]

Nice work on the planters Pete. They make a rip chain, different tooth shape, apparently cut quite a bit faster but still puts a lot of load and wear on your saw.

[Pete O]

(10-27-2019, 01:03 PM)f350ca Wrote: Nice work on the planters Pete. They make a rip chain, different tooth shape, apparently cut quite a bit faster but still puts a lot of load and wear on your saw.

Sure as heck does, loading up the full length of the bar for over ten minutes at a time can't do the saw any good. I haven't seen a proper ripping chain, but I figured out pretty quickly that a normal chain profile is not made for ripping. After a bit of youtube research I modified a chain to a ripping profile- you cut the top part of one left / right pair to leave just the side of the teeth, then sharpen the next left / right pair at 90 degrees, alternating side-cutting and top-cutting pairs around the chain. Made a huge difference but it's still slow going and my old Husky 55 was a bit out of its depth.
I can see that turning your own trees into useable timber could be addictive though. Know anyone with any ideas for a bandsaw mill?

[Dr Stan]

Several bandsaw mill plans available on EBay for $20 to $25.

[f350ca]

Here's one I built 7 years ago, where does the time go. Works well, have sawed a lot of lumber on it. http://www.metalworkingfun.com/showthrea...ht=sawmill

[Pete O]

Yeah my question was tongue-in-cheek Greg, I've already admired / envied / lusted after your bandsaw mill. And 'plans', Stan?? What the heck are 'Plans'?? I thought they only existed in one's head.

[Dr Stan]

(10-27-2019, 08:26 PM)Pete O Wrote: And 'plans', Stan?? What the heck are 'Plans'?? I thought they only existed in one's head.

As an academic I learned it is usually cheaper & quicker to borrow/steal/reference other's work instead of simply starting from scratch.  I did so when I built my horizontal bandsaw based on Lindsey's design.  Made several mods, but having the basic machine already laid out was a huge help.