Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[4570Man]

My mini is only a 5 ton machine.

 

[Skeans1]

My mini is only a 5 ton machine.

Use the same idea to build something like it.

 

[fruitcakesa]

Getting ready to cut some pine so I finally reset my top link and lower arms on the 3ph to get max lift and hoist the winch high enough to skid the 36- 40 inch butt logs and get them off the ground.
Also I mounted grab hooks on the lower pulley mounts to hook the big logs to.

 

[Yogi05]

I'm feeling way behind in the game here LOL.
Oh well, someone has to be the amateur I guess.

Saw some pretty sparkling coming from a blade guide today.
Turns out my blade was trying to cut a bearing in half. I saw a few tiny sparks yesterday but figured it must have been something on the wood.
I just happened to have a replacement bearing in the car from when I originally was getting this sawmill ready to use. Easy replacement.

Cutting my fourth 6x6" the blade started to wobble. Turns out I cracked another blade. That's how the original went. Cracked badly.

Am I doing something wrong? The blade is tensioned by feel because I don't have a spec for it, but it's as tight as I dare put it. Almost no movement when pressing up and down on a length of it.
I take more slab cuts than I need to so as not to push the mill hard (because it's old). Ok, part of the smaller slab cuts might be because I don't want to push ME too hard. I'm old too
Except for one large tree I split in half I think the thickest slab I've cut is 2".
I don't set the blade guide width to each log diameter. I kind of used a general average. Am I leaving the blade guides too far apart? I closed it in after putting a new blade on.
Do I need to be re-tensioning the blade every day? I did notice the first replacement blade I put on (which cracked today) was starting to move back a bit on the guide bearings as it got dull and less efficient at cutting. Today I set the guide so the horizontal bearing is a sheet of paper away from the blade. It wasn't much more before, just enough the blade had to move back a little to touch that bearing.
Or is it normal for blades to break often? I see they get dull quickly, but cracking??
I was trying to estimate how many cuts I made with this first replacement blade. I am averaging 3 cuts per side per beam. That's 12 cuts per beam x 30 or so beams. Is that the life expectancy of a blade?
Hoping for some opinions.

 

[4570Man]

Use the same idea to build something like it.

The mini will have to have a hydraulic ram to have any chance of working. A machine this size doesn’t have any chance of splitting wood with just downforce. It would be lucky to push down with 2 tons I doubt even that much. Just using the bucket cylinder like the splitter I posted a picture of earlier might work. The bucket breakout force on this machine machine is around 10,000 pounds. But you can use a shorter push plate than the bucket which would increase the leverage making it stronger.

 

[hunt4570]

I'm feeling way behind in the game here LOL.
Oh well, someone has to be the amateur I guess.

Saw some pretty sparkling coming from a blade guide today.
Turns out my blade was trying to cut a bearing in half. I saw a few tiny sparks yesterday but figured it must have been something on the wood.
I just happened to have a replacement bearing in the car from when I originally was getting this sawmill ready to use. Easy replacement.

View attachment 717957

Cutting my fourth 6x6" the blade started to wobble. Turns out I cracked another blade. That's how the original went. Cracked badly.

View attachment 717958

Am I doing something wrong? The blade is tensioned by feel because I don't have a spec for it, but it's as tight as I dare put it. Almost no movement when pressing up and down on a length of it.
I take more slab cuts than I need to so as not to push the mill hard (because it's old). Ok, part of the smaller slab cuts might be because I don't want to push ME too hard. I'm old too
Except for one large tree I split in half I think the thickest slab I've cut is 2".
I don't set the blade guide width to each log diameter. I kind of used a general average. Am I leaving the blade guides too far apart? I closed it in after putting a new blade on.
Do I need to be re-tensioning the blade every day? I did notice the first replacement blade I put on (which cracked today) was starting to move back a bit on the guide bearings as it got dull and less efficient at cutting. Today I set the guide so the horizontal bearing is a sheet of paper away from the blade. It wasn't much more before, just enough the blade had to move back a little to touch that bearing.
Or is it normal for blades to break often? I see they get dull quickly, but cracking??
I was trying to estimate how many cuts I made with this first replacement blade. I am averaging 3 cuts per side per beam. That's 12 cuts per beam x 30 or so beams. Is that the life expectancy of a blade?
Hoping for some opinions.

I take tension off my blade every time I quit cutting for the day and retention it again next time I fire it up to work. Haven't had a blade crack yet. Not sure those things are connected...

 

[BackRoad]

Thanks for sharing the article Mr. Gordon.

What a great example of how one's interests can transform into something with meaning Mr. John_Mc.

Enthusiasm can be a potent catalyst.

 

[John_Mc]

Thanks for sharing the article Mr. Gordon.

What a great example of how one's interests can transform into something with meaning Mr. John_Mc.

Enthusiasm can be a potent catalyst.

Thanks, BackRoad. I think your last sentence says it all. Enthusiasm may not be all you need, but it's a huge factor. When I think back on the people who have had the most impact on me over my almost 60 years, they've all had a real enthusiasm for what they were doing, whether they were school teachers, professors, co-workers, volunteers on various projects, or professionals I've hired over the years. Not only do they all seem happy and productive, their attitude is contagious.

My dad was that way. He changed the trajectory of so many with whom he came in contact, sharing his interest and enthusiasm and sparking them to try something new and make the most of their lives. I'm generally more of a "behind the scenes" type of guy.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I take tension off my blade every time I quit cutting for the day and retention it again next time I fire it up to work. Haven't had a blade crack yet. Not sure those things are connected...

I also did that for years, then my friend who has the same model mill as mine, said he never does, and he's had his mill for many years too.

SO, I quit doing it too, with NO change in anything to do with the mill or bands... It's now been even more years and neither of us has ever cracked a band, in fact to this day I've never even broken a band, not even one.

Without seeing anything obvious, normally cracked bands come from letting the band get too dull before re-sharpening, improperly sharpening bands and/or too small of band wheels that over work the band from going round and round, making the sharp bends around smaller band wheels...

I'll probably think of something else later...

SR

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I was helping a customer/friend yesterday build a bridge and do some logging. Mostly he just wanted to get certain tree's cleaned out of his woods, and keep some of the wood for firewood.

I got started by cutting the "logs" out of the tree's that were tipped over or nearly so, some were decent sized,

and some were quite long too,

I skidded out some nice logs that I cut to 8' 6" as that's my preferred length for my BSM,

and loaded them onto my trailer,

They were FREE, so why not?

SR