A number of years ago I saw a article about a fella who made relatively small wood slab tables. He cut his own 50mm slabs using a long bar chainsaw and homemade jig.
Does anyone know of any plans/diagrams for this "style/type" of device?
Ash
Search around on "chainsaw mill" or "Alaskan mill". They're pretty crude things (wasteful of timber, as they take a big kerf and leave a poor surface) but they'll make beams or a table slab. OTOH, a few phone calls to portable bandsaw millers would still be my favourite.
You need a powerful chainsaw engine and a long bar. Needs to be a rip chain too. Some machines use two engines, but I'd avoid this if possible, because synchronising their speeds is a pain.
If you've seen pictures of one of these, or even better if you've used one, then you know pretty much enough to make one. Get an aluminium ladder as the initial guide bar, and make a carriage to slide upon it.
The ladder (for the first cut) sits in level notches cut in the top face of the log. Some people take most of the rungs out, to avoid time notching, but only do this if your ladder is stiff against warping. After you've cut the first cut, you can ditch the ladder. The sliding carriage uses four wide rollers - try to find some scrap conveyopr track. You need at least four, otherwise the carriage tips at the end of the cut. There are also some small adjustable guide rollers to keep things centred in the log.
The carriage is height adjustable, with screwed studding on each side and a bike-chain link between them. If you're cutting beams, then this height adjust needs to have a big range. If you're just slabbing though, you only need a shallow frame and this is easier to make and more rigid.
-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods
Have a look at Logosol's Timber Jig at
Ordered one today and should have it by the end of this week. Have a 20 inch diameter, 4 foot elm mini log that's going to be the first test of this unit. Figure at $165 US it's worth a try. Will post first impressions once I've got this mini-log sliced up.
charlie b
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