Here’s a chainsaw hack that makes a lot more sense than the last one we shared… It’s a setup you can build to help cut down logs into usable planks for your own projects!
Our guide on this tool hack is [BongoDrummer], who is the co-founder of a group in Wales called the Flowering Elbow, dedicated to imagining and making better futures by helping inspire people with inventions, encouraging project collaborations, and contributing to the community. We think he’s just a wee bit more knowledgeable than our previous grinder-chainsaw inventor…
[BongoDrummer] starts out with a proper note on safety, explaining accident statistics and offering up a refresher guide on proper chainsaw use. From there he gets right into the design and build of the mill. He’s chosen to use aluminum extrusion because it’s strong, light, and easy to work with—not to mention easy to assemble! Videos and more info after the jump.
The build log is very detailed and easy to follow. [BongoDrummer] presents a few clever features, like using bicycle inner tube as grip covers, making an auxiliary oiler to keep the blade running smooth, and using a skateboard wheel and bearing as a guide roller.
And of course, a demonstration:
Didnt they used to sell these in the backs of magazines 20 years ago?
yeah, just googled, it was called an alaskan sawmill
and the key word was ‘slowly’
Just the thing to make a txalaparta, a board drum. It’s signals can be copied at a distance of many miles.
That’s quite a nice setup for a hobbyist, I’d say. Makes me want one. My uncle has cut up many beautiful oak trees (fallen or damaged, of course) for firewood, when the wood could have been salvaged. T.T
Oak? You’re not going to get long boards out of most oak trees — if they were the typical large sprawling types — but if you got some nice straight boards hidden inside that tree, then it’s worth a *lot* more as those boards than as firewood.
i used that before, every 3 cuts you loose 1 plank
Why do you shoot every third plank out of your trebuchet?
Why *wouldn’t* you? That sounds awesome!
Exactly! chain is a lot thicker than bandsaw
Maybe if you tightened up the machine it wouldn’t be so loose?
sorry for error, each 3 cuts 1 plank is lost to sawdust.
yeah but think of all the pencils you could make
That’s called an Alaska mill. Not a hack, you just buy them. The ones where they build gasoline-powered bandsaws on rails are even cooler.
Cooler yet are swing saws.
Just looked one up on “Gabriel Kuate”s channel. When you’re right, you’re right!
Regular chainsaw chains run like ass ripping wood. I just figured I’d throw that out there. Rip chains do not have raker teeth. Or if they do they do not have nearly as many as regular crosscut chains do. You can convert a regular chain into a ripper by removing the rakers with a cut off disc. Or you can buy ripping chains. Go ahead and look it up.
In the kit video, he mentions he has a rip chain in the case, iirc.
For F**** sake, Absolutely DO NOT grind off the Depth Guides “rakers”
but the advice to read up on ripping chains is correct.
http://www.arboristsite.com/community/forums/milling-saw-mills.62/
Notice the depth guides are intact.
http://www.madsens1.com/bnc_rip.htm
You just use a different set of sharpening angles.
This is a good (but expensive) build of a common tool. But it did remind me of THIS insane, self-feeding bandsaw lumbermill hack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ON5IpUj0g&index=3&list=PL5DE2AC0EFA1DD3BF