Portable Log Mill

[rockinmywaypa]

It will be a great running machine when you're done. Is there any way that you can put a bottle jack under the platform and experiment with finding the sweet spot for lifting to eliminate the binding then add a piece to the toprail to crane the winch out over that spot and drop the cable down to a ring in the platform?

 

[mrcaptainbob]

Lifting it at both ends simultaneously would do it. Similar to venetian blinds. Cable from both ends over pulleys at the top and then the two cables to your winch. As long as the cables feed at the same level, (no overlaps of one cable and not the other), it should work fine.

 

[Egon]

You could also try and set up the lifting attachment like a single tree used for horses. Bar across the top attached at either end with chain and a pivoting mid point the winch pulls on. And grease.

Egon

 

[theonlybull]

try and add some counter weight to the light side of your frame. if you get it to ballence at the point your lift cable attaches, it will slide alot better.

 

[moeh1]

I agree with MrcaptainBob. You have to get a setup where both ends move up the same distance simultaneously. You indicated that one end is heavy, I'm sure you are cocking the assemby almost instantly each time you try and lift. I probably would have gone for 2 screws with a chain drive between them to assure that they are together, but thats just me. I'm sure you can get a cable to work, just haven't had enough coffee to figure it out on the fly.
Good luck looks like a fun project. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[scottbrrtt72]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will try a few ideas today. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[SPIKER]

Scot:

a couple insites of things I see:

1. try to remove the slideing part and bevel the top & bottom edges of the 2.5" tubes so that it can't DIG IN the edges are nice and square which will catch and attempt to grab the upright tubes.

2. add wheels to the top and bottom sides. wheels on one side only will not help you very much. the next thing would be to use some chuncks of UHMW (plastic stuff very slipery and easy to work with) and mount them as blocks on top.

3. consider mounting the blocks not only inside & outside but front and back so all 4 sides are captured around the 2" square.

4. get the LIFTs center for weight distrubution even so that if you were to ballance the saw part on a pin it will stay flat & level on all 4 planes (left, right, front, back, and twisting motions should be as neutral as possable.) this will go a long way in making it help.

5. add some toggle clamps to HOLD it in place on each side after you are set in postion so it does not MOVE freely on its own. that is if it is not being HELD in place already but (you're design) doesn't yet appear to have it. must keep the blade from twisting up or down as the blade starts going through the tree! which it will do if the unit is not held ridgid correctly.

6. maybe think of one of the jack screw machines to raise/lower it. http://www.surpluscenter.com has some that are 110 vac and some DC now for aobut 60 bucks with a lot of travel witch have 600~900 lbs of lifting price was 25 to 70 bucks + shipping.

I'll keep helping as needed. keep posting new pics as problems arrize.

Mark M

http://www.bright.net/~pfryman is my show where I work, built suff similar but I don't ahve any GOOD photos of them in the material handeling sections.

 

[scottbrrtt72]

I want to thank everyone for there ideas. This is what I did today. Pulling from both ends seemed to work well initially. Once I put the motor on it became unbalanced again. Once the motor was on it kinked the same corner (where the motor is) every time I tried lifting it up. Looks like I’m back to the drawing board again. I have spent so much time on this one part of the project. Talk about frustrating. I even mounted a few more casters to help take some of the weight off areas I thought were causing the most friction. Didn’t seem to help. I will try and round out the tops of the 2 ½ tube stock. That seems like it would help reduce the amount of friction. Any more suggestions would be great.

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[scottbrrtt72]

Here is another photo. When I used the cable (stretched from corner to corner) to lift both ends together I lost a little lifting height. I went to a being able to mill a 30-inch diameter log to a 25-inch because of the slack in the cable.

 

[scottbrrtt72]

Forgot the photo. It's been a long fustrating day.