Mounting a ladder as a guide bar for the Alaskan

[morten]

I have come up with a way of attaching a ladder ("I" profile stiles) to a log without having to drill through the steps.

 

The ladder is easily mounted to the log-ends using a total of four screws. The ladder is very stiff. On a 2m log, the deflection at the middle of the ladder is about 2 mm. That deflection could be minimized by placing a wedge between a step and the log. And the ladder is very stiff, ensuring minimal deflection.

 

I am enclosing two pictures taken yesterday, while cutting up some wind-felled spruce.

 

If anyone else have pictures of ways to make mounting rails easier/quicker, please let me know. For me, it has been the initial set-up for the first cut that has hampered my productivity when milling low value timber (softwood).

[Paul Smith]

Great idea! What is the bracket for originally or have you modified a bracket?

[morten]

Great idea! What is the bracket for originally or have you modified a bracket?

 

A cheap angle bracket with a slid cut using an angle grinder, and a small bend for making it easier to slide on to the ladder-profile. Total cost is about £1.

[Pat Ferrett]

Great idea if you have ladders with the same profile. I just drilled the rungs on an old one I had laying around but I suppose there,s more than one way to skin a rabbit

[Paul Smith]

Maybe if you made the brackets smaller when you attach the the horizontal piece to the brackets you could use a much smaller piece which in turn would mean you could have a smaller first cut when planking? To add stability you could fix the horizontals to the face with screws. This is a method used on the Alaskan site but using all wood.

 

Like it, think I may try it!

[morten]

Great idea if you have ladders with the same profile. I just drilled the rungs on an old one I had laying around but I suppose there,s more than one way to skin a rabbit

 

I have tried mounting a ladder using screws through the rungs in the past, but I found it way too much work fiddling around with wedges under the rungs and measuring at the log-end, and adjusting again and again. Also, I found that the mounting screws tended to rotate the ladder slightly.

 

Using this end bracket, I simply mount the first bracket at the "big" end of the log, and measure the distance to the centre. Then, at the "small" end I lift up the ladder using a wedge until the distance to the center is identical (small yellow wedge in picture two), and mount the screws. All done and no deflection at all. It saves me time and aggravation :-)

[Rob D]

It's a great idea esp for getting your cuts parallel to the center of the log.

 

I think this is better than screwing the ladder to the log when milling straight logs where you want to run as straight to the grain as possible.

 

Also handy if you want to quarter a log.

 

 

 

[morten]

Maybe if you made the brackets smaller when you attach the the horizontal piece to the brackets you could use a much smaller piece which in turn would mean you could have a smaller first cut when planking? To add stability you could fix the horizontals to the face with screws. This is a method used on the Alaskan site but using all wood.

 

Like it, think I may try it!

 

I considered making the brackets narrower for exactly the reason you mentioned but occasionally you need to raise one end a few inches to cut parallel to the centre, and on smaller logs I tend to split them through the centre initially and then cut planks from each half, to get as large a surface for the mill to maximise stability.

[Stephen Blair]

Did my first Alaskan milling this week, first cut, we caught the screws lol

Great idea, thanks for sharing, consider it copied

[morten]

Did my first Alaskan milling this week, first cut, we caught the screws lol

Great idea, thanks for sharing, consider it copied

 

Oh yes, that's another benefit: no risk of hitting any screws, and you only need four short screws. Not a whole batch ranging from 3" to 8".

 

Post aome pictures of your brackets once you've made them. Distributed product development