Tour the Shop Built Circular Sawmill, How It's Made

[@jpsimon206]

This is not a sawmill, this is a wood factory! Some extremely impressive engineering! Simplicity is always best, the oil cooling tubes, the threaded cable drum, there is too much to name. I have built two band saw sawmills and I have run several commercial ones, I have never seen a setup this nice outside of professional lumber yards and I'm not certain that yours is not better than them. This is really brilliantly worked out. It is clear that your design was not approaching the problem of how to slice up a tree, but rather how to cut down, harvest, efficiently manage waste, you've created entire system. I wish I lived close enough to take advantage of your services. Thank you very much for showing us.

[@TopperMachineLLC]

Thank you. A lot of time and research went into this build. Thanks for watching.

[@kfujillama9548]

Just an outstanding sawmill. I watched it and smiled the whole time…”these guys have it figured out” The hydraulic cooler is a brilliant adaptation.

[@charliemyres5450]

Brilliant design Josh! A triumph of considered thinking and perseverance.

[@chriskourlos4407]

Very awesome build. Did you have some smart people in your family or what? How does anyone ever get to be a man with a mind like you? Fantastic individual that really getsit! I like your tractors and log mill. Always wanted to work one someday. It makes straight lumber and smells great cutting. Working with wood is very special and a real treat in life. I'm very greatful to you for uploading such projects as im a disabled vet that was a woodworker for 60 years. I don't understand how to do half of it so bravo sir on your God sent Billy to accomplish the many tasks and ones to come that help so many people. You really deserve the presidential medal if freedom as you earned it. Nothing like good old hard work and fresh air. Thankyou.

[@chriskourlos4407]

Ability not billy. Sorry spellchecker changes words.

[@bendugas8632]

Thank you for explaining the rotary mill to the band mill, so many people do not understand the true rotary mill. Thanks

[@kellyfoster3862]

Josh, fantastic design, engineering and story telling. As others posted below, one of the best videos on youtube. I am new to milling lumber, having purchased a Lucas 7-23 swing arm mill a year ago to mill doug fir and redwood killed in the 2020 wildfire in Santa Cruz County. I am a circular mill bigot like you. We're only about 40,000bf into the journey, but have gained a great appreciation for all the brilliance in your design and implementation. I wish you were my next door neighbor!

[@TopperMachineLLC]

Thank you. Sawing lumber is quite and interesting and fun process. 40MBF is a great start and should have taught you a lot of lessons on how your mill acts and your sawyer skills tested. If you lived next door, you would have a wealth of knowledge available to you. We have several old sawyers living close by and several mills. Thanks for watching, I am getting excited for summer so I can start sawing again.

[@sylvesterdombroskie7823]

Thank you for answering back. Never retire keep inventing your rewards are not the $$$ you can make it's proving to yourself you got what it takes to survive in this world Great job done and thanks again you have given me some hope of building a mill again or buying one just to play with.

[@garywalters4286]

Great engineering on the mill !

[@GardenTractorBoy]

Thanks for the sawmill tour, it is a very cool build. I am not surprised it took you so long to build it between jobs but I expect you are very pleased with it

[@inspectorgadget6510]

Man I can only dream of having the knowledge you have. Awesome sawmill!!

[@michaelclark2840]

Impressive Impressive Impressive! What more can I say. Always loved circular saw mills.

[@rohannfraser8503]

This thing is amazing!

[@brianbloom1799]

Awesome Build, Makes you feel Good inside when you , when You Build something your self. Great Job Hope It stays working for Years to come. God Bless

[@eugenekerr4101]

like your saw mill . also your machine shop. i would like come to see your shop. i have one of my owe. GOD BLESS EUGENE FROM IL.

[@wilmamcdermott3065]

Looks really good

[@giorgiobassi9078]

Grande. Passione..X. La. Tecnica.. idraulica....... complimenti...👍🖐️👀💪🇮🇹🇮🇹✋

[@thomasshumaker1495]

This is awesome!

[@alanm3438]

Nice. God sure gave you a lot of talent. Thanks for the tour.

[@TopperMachineLLC]

I'm not sure it's so much talent as it is patience, but I'm definitely blessed. Thanks for the kind words.

[@egancraneriggingservicesin9142]

impressive build

[@TopperMachineLLC]

Thank you,

[@MAJ_TADean]

I love it!

[@fricknjeep]

hi there well done . i have a old Frick mill and can see the time and thought that went into this . john

[@tttco]

So awesome

[@susanvaughn741]

Very good. Get paint soon!

[@TopperMachineLLC]

Surface rust is actually as good or better than paint. As long as you keep the rust uncovered, it will never get worse. If I let sawdust build up, it will eat right through where the sawdust is.

[@Dan-ud8ob]

WELL DONE..!! i want one ..hehe.. makes me wanna build one to.. love to see it run a bit longer than the short clip.. but nice job... really !!

[@TopperMachineLLC]

There are other videos on my channel of it running. Check them out in the sawmill playlist.

[@jimcurrier3922]

I worked in my Dad's sawmill from 12 years old till I went into the service. You need a paying job to run a sawmill !!!

[@mudlakesawmill9332]

Unless you've got a big band mill with a heavy blade they compete with the circle mill. Otherwise once a circle mill is setup straight and level. They'll out perform a band mill all day.....even with a big kerf

[@millomweb]

You may have videos of this in use but I'd like to see it in use in demo mode - where you explain each step of the process and then let us see it in 'slow motion' to give us time to understand the wood path and how it's achieved. When you've got a bit of spare time. Please include how wood is cut to length prior to loading into the saw.

[@susanvaughn741]

If I were starting from scratch, I would make that saw! I’m trying to remember every thing you’ve done. How many gallons per minute is the pump? I have the old flat belt carriage drive but want to remove it. The pulleys are in the way of large planks as they fall off the cut. I’m leaning towards two car rearends back to back, chained together with different sized sprockets for speed control.

[@bigalremington]

Bandsaws......, I'd call that - log abuse! haha. ...and your off side is to the right. First for me. Very nice job.

[@susanvaughn741]

I’ve seen power rollers using gears provided from car differentials, driven with a common shaft. Made in America. Old times values! Hydrolic rollers , that would be good. Hydrolic kicker to move your can’t out of the way would be good.

[@ianbatterson2331]

You need to draw up build plans and sell them with the hydraulic prints

[@jamesrobinson1313]

I have a FB. M-14 in central Virginia.

[@ericallen9038]

This is the coolest thing on YT. How do you go about cutting long timbers? It seems like you would be greatly restricted by the length of the carriage as opposed to a moving powerhead (like a traditional hobby bandsaw mill). I can't wrap my head around a solution for a circular saw mill cutting 20+ ft logs without an extremely long log carriage. I've been considering building a circular saw mill using a 4 cyl Datsun engine and even using the transmission as a speed controller.

[@TopperMachineLLC]

I have an extension carriage that will give me 24 feet. We never use it because there is no real demand for anything over 12 feet. I have sawn some 16 without the extension also, with no problems. If you want to build one, your datsun motor might not cut it. For a 48" blade at 500 RPM, you will need a minimum of 75HP, unless it's got loads of torque. My Super M Farmall is pushing 60HP, but has loads of torque. It still struggles at times, but does a great job. The steam engine will do a better job. Thanks for watching.

[@dandeforest9439]

when i was rebuilding my frick,an old sawyer said to me ,a circurlar sawmill has a certain romance about it ,he was right

[@dbwhitepine3819]

Great job Josh! Was wondering if you have some sort of a slip clutch or shear pin in the drive line.

[@RichardThompson-gc1cf]

That is such a great peace off machine shop work. Boy what a great job.who did u buy the saw blade from

[@EngineersWorkshop]

Nice! Couple questions.. Did you consider, or do any commercial mills use ACME screws to position the log holders? And can you shift them independently to deal with tapered logs?

[@TopperMachineLLC]

Nobody uses screws. At least not that I've seen. And for the tapered lags, we just use a shim board until I design some kickouts.

[@OscarGarcia-sk5wt]

Very impressive sawmill u got going about how much u have on the sawmill not including your time u spend building it? Thanks

[@TopperMachineLLC]

I have about $8-10k into it. That includes the other mills I bought for design patterns.

[@markogrgic2201]

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@sylvesterdombroskie7823]

Verry nice I had a circle saw for 26 years till I retired. Would love to have one like yours. I have watched videos of the band mills and am not impressed. You must have a lot of money in this machine, I would love to know how much. Why is someone not building one of these? Thanks for this video you have done a great job compared to the mill I had.

[@TopperMachineLLC]

Thanks you. I spent a lot of time building it and researching. I never liked the bandsaws, too slow, bad cuts, boring. I've been considering building a couple to sell, but with current material costs, I fear it would not be worth it. Most of the steep in mine was bought as scrap, so it was very reasonable, but instill have a lot into it.

[@AlwaysBored123]

Absolutely incredible. About how long did it take you to build?

[@TopperMachineLLC]

8 years of trying to work on it in between paying jobs and life.

[@timsmith5562]

Josh, nice work! I am curios why you prefer the chain driven head blocks over the rack for your set-works. I run a Chase with a rack and pinion system so I am just curious what you find the benefits to be.

[@TopperMachineLLC]

Thanks. For one the cost with chain is better than cutting a rack. Also, with the chain, I can adjust out any slop. This gives me a perfect cut since all headblocks are set the same. Most all of your modern production mills are running the chain setup now.

[@nickelby247]

This is impressive. Loved the tour! How did you size your orbital for the carriage winch? What make/model have you got? We have a 48" mill we have just finished speccing a replacement for and had a tough time getting it right.

[@TopperMachineLLC]

It was figured out based on torque and gpm. I don't remember now how I did it, but it's sized about perfect for future HP input.

[@job38four10]

Sawdust sawdust sawdust, how to move sawdust from sawmills, all mills, need more videos on just that. One of the biggest chores on sawmilling is how to get sawdust away from sawmills, effectively....... So I wonder if a auger under bandsaw mills would work, if mill is in a building like mind is? Something like under a grated floor, sawdust falls into a10" wide 16' long trough, then an auger carries sawdust out into wagon...... Or does the sawdust only flow over sides of the trough instead of going down length of trough???? I dont know, but to start with where does one get a 10"X16' auger that doesn't cost more then a mill does.......

[@J.R.in_WV]

So I take it the all the belts, jackshafts and bearings on a mechanical Frick mill were something you didn’t care for? Never been around a hydraulic mill but I can see the advantage. Also I’ve always heard the “board splitter” called a “riving knife” even if it’s the wheel type, funny how big regional differences in lingo can be.

[@scottmctaggart7070]

What rpm does your blade turn

[@TopperMachineLLC]

I am running 500-520 for future use of the steam engine.

[@8Pointbuck]

Finally someone who actually hates bandsaws and the BS the manufacturers leave you with in setup, assembling and none stop maintenance. Hands down the circular saw is the only way to avoid a lot of headaches that the bandsaws give you. I liken them to Rube Goldberg contraptions. I took a more smaller, cheaper, but very capable way of milling timbers from the abundance of 10 inch and smaller diameter red pines available in Minnesota. And brought back to life an old friend of wood works at the same time. kzbin.info/www/bejne/haKal4KalLRor68 kzbin.info/www/bejne/oWjGc3-nZteahtE The only two advantages this size circular saw has over yours is a lot smoother board/timbers right off the mill and a lot less saw dust. It is slow but sure and is strait cutting all the time every time. Maintenance is time taken away from productivity, so go figure.

[@jpsimon206]

Do you offer engineering services by mail so to speak? I have a unique project that I need to hire someone to help with. I get the impression from your channel that most of your work is local and that you like it that way.

[@TopperMachineLLC]

I can help out however you may need. Just send me an email. In my video I give my website. There are links there to my email address.

[@RichardThompson-gc1cf]

@@TopperMachineLLC i need 50 inch saw hammered who do you use. I would like to call them thanks for your help

[@robertmorton2790]

If you wanna own a band sawmill be prepared to have a pickup load of blades left over

[@TopperMachineLLC]

And a planer to fix the wavy cuts.

[@mrtomsr]

Excellent. Intro time is very acceptable, Segways are cool. I like your fluid reservoir, not that you would like to work in 100 degree heat, but how warm or cool was the 8 hour day you took its temperature?

[@TopperMachineLLC]

Thanks. It was about 90-93° that day. Bit hot, but we had an order.

[@angrygnome4779]

Cheaper to build a sawmill then buy a pallet of 2x4 studs.

[@TopperMachineLLC]

Have you priced steel lately? Up over 300% from when I finished building the mill.

[@angrygnome4779]

No. Didn’t realize it had increased that much.

[@hopalong4822]

My dad would a whipped my ass with his belt if I let the sawmill get all rusty.

[@fredanderson5544]

you call it a manure spreader. i call it a politicians campaign wagon.

[@Senses007-x8x]

Very far to be topper................. Very dangerous work/machine

[@TopperMachineLLC]

Absolutely safe if you use your brain.

[@iradorthea2286]

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