Frame saw milling

[Big J]

Hi all,

 

Wondering if anyone here has experience with frame saws? The volumes of softwood cutting that I think that I will be doing this year are such that it seems to make sense to invest in one.

 

I am looking at this:

 

Trak-Met : Pilarki, Owijarki, Traki : Sawmill machines - Sawmill machines - 8-ROLLER FRAME SAWING MACHINE PRU-570

 

Would mean very rapid production of planks, and total production of over 25 cubic metres of sawn material per 8hr shift.

 

It's not a sawing process I've ever seen and nor do I know anyone with one.

[muttley9050]

Looks interesting but slow. But I suppose it's making alot of cuts. Wouldn't be something I would invest in but if you have the work fir it.

What does all the softwood you sell get used for?

[wills-mill]

I think that team Copford are setting one up at the moment. The newer ones that take in a pre-flattened slab are very neat and straightforward, I think the output is deceptively massive.

 

The old German gattersaege/ vollgatters that take a whole log seem to need a lot of skill to operate. It looks like it's quite easy to lose grip of the log and it can roll and twist in the cut, the mills have massive sets of travelling grippers or big feed rollers to stop the log going sideways.

 

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[wills-mill]

I'm impressed by this setup, very light on machines and people, with surprising output from small logs....

 

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[Big J]

Looks interesting but slow. But I suppose it's making alot of cuts. Wouldn't be something I would invest in but if you have the work fir it.

What does all the softwood you sell get used for?

 

It is slow in terms of feed speed, but if you work out that even at the slowest feed speed, it will cut an entire (up to 500mm diameter) 4.9m log in 8 minutes. No handling either. The plan would be to take the log onto the sawmill, take top and bottom off until the prescribed thickness is achieved and then fire it into the frame saw. Top and bottom boards go through the edger - should be very quick. The last wagon load of softwood was 33 logs (decent sized 5.3m sticks) and it took 2.5 days. Should be doable in a day with the frame saw.

 

Will - I don't think that I would use it for cutting unflattened logs (ie I'd only use it for cants) but the machine from Trakmet does have a sizeable log clamp on it.

 

Will be very interested to see Copford's set up.

[Graham w]

there was a post good few months ago with a steam engine driving that style of saw so no doubt its a proven method

[delabodge]

Good videos, looks like you lose the top board on the trek met due to damage on the roller, like wills video the guys set up is brilliant and efficient.

[muttley9050]

Heres a vid of a tree we did a few months back. stripped the tops of the both trees. There was a big hinge left on the final felling cut so the faller could get clear before the whole lot was pulled over by the tractor

 

 

I thought that but then when i zoomed in i thought it was just a pattern in sawdust rather than the actual board it self.

[muttley9050]

Weird. When I try to quote clives thread it quotes steves which appears to be from another thread entirely.

[muttley9050]

After watching a few videos, the thing that isn't clear to me is the blade spacing in the frame. Can you put a blade anywhere or just at preset places, so the option would be you either have a blade there or not?