Longer Logs on the Sawmill

The chainsaw mill has been wonderful for making beams, but there were two reasons Dan wished he could use the sawmill for them instead: kerf and time. Kerf is the width of the cut. The chain on a chainsaw is roughly 0.25-thick with all of that wood being turned to sawdust. The bandsaw blades on the sawmill are 0.045 inch. Plus the sawmill is faster. The problem was that this particular sawmill (Central-Machinery sawmill from Harbor Freight Tools) was only made to accommodate 9-foot logs.

Some brands come with extensions, but this one did not, so Dan decided to extend it himself.

Basically, the sawmill unit sits on a track with grooved wheels. The log is secured to the track and the operator pushes the mill the length of the log to make the cut.

Dan said, well, if he replaced the original track with longer pieces of angle iron, it would give him the ability to make longer cuts. So that’s what he did.

He welded three 3-inch, 6-foot lengths of angle iron together and bolted the same green log supports (or whatever they’re called) onto the new track.

The entire track is bolted to 2x4s because it tends to shift due to the vibration of the saw.

Next came a trial run.

The saw head takes up quite a bit of the track length, so Dan decided to add two more 4-foot pieces of angle iron to be able to saw 16-foot logs if need be.

All it needs is to adjust the placement of green log supports (or whatever they’re called), or add something for new ones.

Then he’s ready for these: