ladder boards (f.a.o rob.d)

[ray s]

rob, these pics show roughly how i hold the ladder on with the boards i described to you, like i said its possible to make a couple of different size boards to suit the trees your cutting, they're made out of 0.75" ply and drilled in various places to allow woodscrews. once screwed in and ladder is on they give a pretty stable platform for the alaskan. good to meet you at the oak fair today.

[Rob D]

Cheers for posting Ray.

 

Yes I see how this works and it looks good. Definately an alternative to the screw on method.

 

Good to meet you at the Oak Fair - will be doing this one again next year and could not believe how the weather played ball!

 

 

[firewood]

Ray

 

how is this better than screwing the ladder directly to the log? do you not get a bit of wobble on the ladder as you run down with the mill?

[ray s]

i'm not saying its better, it just seem to work well if you've got an uneven log or if you want to be precise with where the first cut starts and finishes as you can adjust the board to whatever height. its a lot more stable than it looks as the aluminium braces hold it secure. the only other advantage is you dont have to drill holes in your ladder, guess its just down to what suits you best.

[firewood]

i'm not saying its better, it just seem to work well if you've got an uneven log or if you want to be precise with where the first cut starts and finishes as you can adjust the board to whatever height. its a lot more stable than it looks as the aluminium braces hold it secure. the only other advantage is you dont have to drill holes in your ladder, guess its just down to what suits you best.

 

 

looking at your pics again i can see it would be good on lengths with a fair bit of taper to them i.e. set your end boards at differing heights on the ends of the length.

[Big J]

Very innovative, though I would worry about movement in the ladder when running the mill along it.

 

I've started taking a very rough top slab off freehand to give me a flat surface to screw the ladder to. I also put alot of screws and wedges in to make sure that the ladder doesn't move one millimetre.

 

Jonathan

[ray s]

the amount of movement really depends on the height of the boards, the pics show the first set that i made. they dont have to be so high. its probably good to have a high set and a low set so you can adjust them to suit what your milling. it just gives you another option on mounting the ladder,i put a block in the middle of the run as well just to stop any sag that may occur, i've done about 8 or 10 trees this way and not had any problems so far, . (touch wood !!)

[Bob Slade]

i like your idea, however i already have 3 ladders (different lengths) with holes in the rungs dedicated to milling. if there is a big gap in the middle of the ladder i pack some wood under it and screw it to the tree and then screw the ladder to the pack.after all the crown board is scrap wood so it doesnt matter about screw holes. No one as yet has come up with a different way to attach the mini mill rails without screwing them into the good wood. now that would be a better idea.

[ray s]

bob,just a thought but with the mini mill why not screw the rails onto something like a 4x2 or 6x2 and lay that over the wood,this could be fixed at the ends so you dont have to screw into good wood, i haven't got the mini mill ,so not sure if this would work,i've got a homemade version of it that runs on a piece of aluminium angle and thats what i do.

might be worth a try

[firewood]

following on from ray's boards, I've come up with this design for two metal plates that bolt to your ladder and screw into the ends of the log (into the waste wood).

 

I've also tried to incorporate hinged squares to help square up the second and third cuts (against the first cut) for a 3 sided cant.

 

I've not made these yet but all comments and suggestions welcome before i do.would they be worthwhile or not ??

cs mill ladder plates.pdf