Home-Made Trailed Chain Sawmill

[HuntingHicap]

Hi all, when I left school 6 years ago, I worked for a guy named Dave Welch (some may have heard of him) in cullompton, Devon, and he had a portable Serra Montana sawmill. I worked for him part time for 2.5 years before we parted ways due to him not really having enough work to support an employee.

 

To cut to the chase I want to build a smaller version of the Mill he had, I have good welding skills, a workshop i can use and a trailer chassis, a 5 metre metal chassis i can use as a saw bed, and a Husqvarna 3120xp.

 

My point in posting is, is it worth making this incorporating a chainsaw as the saw element of the mill, as I already have a big saw, or would it be better to hold out for a bandsaw hoping i can find one secondhand?

 

Has anyone made anything like this? I basically want to do this as id love to get back into milling and have most of these bits around that i can use but would it all work?

 

Sorry its a bit of a spiel but hopefully someone can help!

 

[Ukulian]

If you've got the welding skills, you'd be far better off building a bandsaw mill than anything that uses a chainsaw.

There are a number of vids on utube building the saw, you just have to incorporate it onto a trailer. For that, make sure there are plenty of adjustable supports and that the mudguard/wheels don't get in the way of loading the mill.

[shavey]

hello this is a photo of something similar to what iam building at the moment on a old marshall 5 ton tipping trailer chassis

it will be a few weeks before its finished but it will have a 44'' throat and 16ft bed a double ended bar with two big saws

 

i thought f*** it lets go the whole hog

[HuntingHicap]

Hi all thank you for your replies that trailed one is just the sort of thing i was thinking of shavey! how are you building the head? also what are chainsaw mills like? really slow? ive attached some pics of the one i used to operate.

[HuntingHicap]

sorry it was a Bavaria not a montana.

[HuntingHicap]

more pics

[Oaklay]

[Oaklay]

That the sort of thing? We built this couple years ago, randomly in honiton just down the road!

[HuntingHicap]

Yes that is it!! how well does it work?

[Oaklay]

Works a treat, obviously chainsaw is slower and more wasteful than bandsaw but its incredibly accurate and versatile. For what it cost to build I think its great, really enjoy using it.