GUESS WHO NOW IS A REAL SAWYER!

[joasis]

Kirk bought a circle mill! Now that he owns a real mill with a big blade, he can claim to be a real sawyer.....next stop....a billion board feet of experience!

[Kirk Allen]

Well I finally bit the bullet and got a circle mill.  It was a deal I just could not pass up.  EVERYTHING still works and they cut a board on it this morning at the auction.  C35 Corley with a 56" blade and a spare 60" blade



42 feet of track here and another 20 feet outside in the old saw shed. 
 

The power unit is a IH Gas/Deisel.  Starts on gas and then flip the lever to run on deisel. Not sure how many HP it has but the old timer there said it was 60HP but that sounds high.  Time for some research. 


The Red pump in the picture is an old hydraulic pump commonly found on 3-point hitches. He has it hooked up to run the log lift mechanism.


There is a sawdust blower hooked to the belts system in the lower left hand corner of this pic.  He had it set up to blow all the chips outside the shed.


You can see how the duct work goes across the bottom of the ceiling.



This is the gas powered winch he used to bring the logs into the building. Even got a new 12 volt battery with it.  They had to buy the battery to show everyone the engine still ran


Spare 60" blade


250 Gallon Fuel Tank for deisel.

[Kirk Allen]

The Best part was the price.  I got everything you see for $???  

One of the locals wanted to buy the power unit from me for $500 but I figured I might need it since I'm venturing into the circle mill busines

The only other thing I bid on was a stack of lumber.  150 bf of white oak and a few cherry boards.  $5 was my winning bid! 

[DaveK]

Considering you spent $??? for a sawmill and some lumber at the auction, I'd say you had a pretty good day

[Stephen Wiley]

Good Deal........congratulations

Now your gonna need some help 'moving' all those materials and saw.....

[Mr Mom]

 you got a great deal.
 there is a mill on e-bay right now that is 20 miles from were i live and has a set up like yours for $2000. without power plant.
 
Thanks Alot Mr Mom

[Kirk Allen]

I have the 30' flat bed to move it on but getting it all broke down is going to be the time consumer. 

The other challenge is going to be getting the power unit up on the trailer.  Good old Farm Inginuity will surly come into play. 

[Kirk Allen]

I saw a Belsaw on Ebay and the guy is asking $6000 for it.  I hope he gets it but I think we all know it probably wont happen. 

I am looking forward to yet another project

One of the values in going to auctions are the people you meet.  I was hoping to buy the South Bend lathe they had because I have one and need some parts so I figured it would be worth a couple hundred for the parts I need. 

Turns out the guy who was bidding against me on the mill knows the largest supplier of parts for the South Bend and said he could get me any parts I need for a whole lot less than what I was willing to spend.  Turns out the lathe sold for $950    I was shocked because all the other wood working equipment sold for less than $75. 

After I managed to win the mill bid I had two guys talk to me about getting wood cut.  Turns out they are just north of me about 30 miles and have 20-30 logs they need cut.  Told them about the band mill operation I already have and presto,2 new customers!

[Stevem]

Horse shoes!!@! Damn horse shoes.  gotta get me a horse shoe!

[Carl Middleton]

Kool deal Kirk Now you have to build another building for the circle mill

[Kirk Allen]

Actually I have been scattering my brain on how to set it up under the current saw shed and creat an assembly line type operation. 

Use the circle saw to break down three sided cants then shuffle them over to the band mill for grade sawing. 

[Kirk Allen]

Horse shoes!!@! Damn horse shoes.  gotta get me a horse shoe!

Steve, that would be "Golden" horse shoe.  You have to make sure if you going to have one its got to be a Golden one  

I am beginning to think mine has been stuck in place for a while 

[Carl Middleton]

Goes to show you can never build em to big With all the sawing I have lined up right now looks like I'm going to move the back out side and use the building for lumber storage.

[Kirk Allen]

I would build storage for the lumber before I would go back out in the weather.  I cant wait for this summer. To be able to cut on hot sunny days with a roof over my head is going to be a dream come true!  I might actually get something done

[Kirk Allen]

Tomarrow morning I am heading over to start taking the mill apart and prep it for its new home   Any suggestions.............other than take LOTS of pictures

[Frank Pender - AKA "Tail Gunner"]

Yes, measurements are very important.  I learned that early on with my big head rig.

[Carl Middleton]

Got a lead on some locust logs I can use for post. Looks like Im building a storage building Also cut about 1500 bf of gum today in Alex, Va Tomorrow got a oak 52" dia three sec 8' long  better bring the chain saw

[Stephen Wiley]

Carl;
What species of Oak u cutting in VA  
Was that sour/black or sweet gum  

Kirk;
Ditto on what Frank says, plus the pics........you will be surprised at the smallest of bracket, etc. for placement. (than maybe you won't)

[Kirk Allen]

I wish I could just take it apart and come straight home and put it together but unfortunatly its going to sit for a few months and thats where all the detail I can get is going to help.

[mike p]

WOW what a luckey guy

im glad you got it
wish i had the time & was closer wood love to help you tear down & set up
enjoy

[Stevem]

Take some kind of impact wrench, penetrating oil and heat, propane or hotter.

Might even take a highspeed grinder and a sawsall.

[Kirk Allen]

It took myself and one helper to break everything down and get it lined up at the big door a total of 5 1/2 hours. 

Steve, I had everything you mention except for an impact wrench.  We spent almost a whole hour getting the nut off that holds the blade on.  Pics to follow!

[Kirk Allen]

For starters, we have some corrections to make.  The track is 52 feet long, not 42 

The blade that is on it is 52" and the spare is 58".  I managed to get the blade off and we put both of them in the truck for the trip home as I didnt think it would be wise to leave those laying around for the vulchers. 

Serial number relfects CH0009.  Going to have to do some research on it and find out when it was built.  Any ideas on where to start looking for that kind of info?


We got the motor up on a 2x8 of white oak and used the truck winch to pull it across the floor towards the door.  Not sure what I am going to use to lift it onto the trailer right now as this thing is a beast, but it runs quite well


You can see the small pony winch & motor in this pic.  That thing must have weighed 400lbs as it was all the two of us could do just to slide it across the floor.  Lifting it was impossible


We lined everything up so that when I come back with the trialer and a lift all we have to do is push or pull it to the door and lift it up.


We took the saw guide off the husk and brought it home with us as its one of those items that could very well grow legs.


This is the home-made log lift.  Not the best picture but you can get the idea of how it works.  Going to have modify it when I get all this back up and running as I think the entire mill needs to be up about another 12" so I know that will change the lift mechanism some. 


We spent a good 30 minutes jacking up the husk assembly just to get the sawdust blower out from under it.  I have no clue how the guy got it installed unless he put it in first then built the husk around it as it was not coming out without lifting everything up about 2 feet.


Another shot of everything lined up for pickup
 

Misc. Shots of different componants.
         

This puppy with the main pully must have weighed 1000lbs.  It was probably the most labor intensive portion of todays task.


The track was relativly easy to break loose.  We cut it dead center where it had been welded back together and its now loose and ready to be loaded.
 

Getting the main pully assembly apart so we could remove the belts was fairly easy, other than we should have brought a handy man jack with us instead of using leverage
 

Just about everything was anchored down with "L" brackets so once we got all of them uncovered from sawdust we took them off and could pretty much slide stuff where we wanted it.
 

[DaveK]

It looks like you had a good productive day getting everything apart and ready to move.  Hopefully you have plenty of help to load the heavy stuff or some kind of lift to get everything on your trailer.  Now all you need to do is set up a webcam so we can watch you put it back together in real time

[Kirk Allen]

Its definatly going to be a summer project.  I know all the timbers the rails are attached to have to be replaced.

The husk probably needs to be rebuilt and I think I will do that with Osage Orange so that it "NEVER" has to be rebuilt again!