a rat rod SAWMILL!?!?

[hotrod preacher]

for the man that not only brought me into this world but taught me most everything I know about all things mechanical....My dad literally built this sawmill from scratch in the mid '70's and even though I was around it all my life I never really appreciated all the "hillbilly engineering" that went into it.
He whittled out a decent living cutting timber and sawing crossties for the railroad with this for several years, all the while teaching three boys the value of HARD WORK. --also would like to say that he never had any dangerous accidents in all the years it was opperated

the sawmill was powered by a tractor PTO shaft and reversed with the truck tire/hub--it also worked as a "slip clutch"

view of the operators platform--the wooden handle controlled the "carriage"
and the 3-spool valve body(shiney handles) controlled the "log turner" and skids---the hydraulic outlet on the tractor fed this valve body

a view of the next workers station-- look closely and you will see that the frame of the mill is an old bus frame and those rollers next to the saw are old Maytag washing machine wringer-rollers (no telling how many Maytags gave their rollers for the cause but i do remember when i was a kid, dad asking EVERYBODY if they had any old washing machines around!! LOL there was a row of these rollers to move the crossties down to their stack

this is next to impossible to explain...but to roll the "bunks" back on the carriage to get ready for another log, he rigged up this contraption--a wheel-barrow wheel (in background) would be activated by stepping on a pedal, which in turn, raised a track to make it roll. This, in turn, made the ring and pinion gear spin back the bunks......sound complicated????it is even worse than i described.....

my hat's off to the "hillbilly engineer" thanks dad

 

[Tripper]

Sawmill!

Preacher,
WOW... all I can say is... that's awesome. Love that pinion action!!!

BoB

 

[FlatBroke]

WOW....

Your Dad made a living with something he built with his own 2 hands.
That is the Awsome part

 

[ratty46pickup]

This is a really great post. I learned alot of my skills and inherited my love for "hillbilly ingenuity" from my grandpa who I helped set up and operate three "homemade" sawmills. One was even powered by an old Detroit diesel from a 30`s or 40`s bulldozer. I lost my grandpa to cancer in `99, but this has sure brought back some great memories. Thanks alot for sharing this with us.

Lee

 

[dmw56]

That is amazing stuff. I worked in a lumber/pallet yard back in the 70's and 80's. We had one guy working there that could make stuff like that. Man what would OSHA say today!

 

[Gastrick]

That is an amazing contraption HRP. It reminds me of some the things my grandfather used to build/make. It makes me wish I would have paid more attention to him when I was younger and he was still with us.

 

[Bonehead]

That's the way this country was built, you had to make what you needed, you had to think, and work things through. A fine example!

 

[24dodge]

That is really cool , looks like your Dad was a great engineer , I bet he built it with a minimum of tools too , thanks for sharing it.......`24

 

[hotrod preacher]

That is really cool , looks like your Dad was a great engineer , I bet he built it with a minimum of tools too , thanks for sharing it.......`24

hope i didn't mislead anyone, but dad is still around, but spends more time now building stuff in his woodworking shop than inventing/engineering things.....but i should also say he helped me get the camaro subframe and rear end under my project 46 truck
and 24 you're right, it was with a minimum of tools. A torch, an old lincoln "buzz box" welder and regular hand tools like any other shop has is all i can remember/think of

 

[hotrod preacher]

That is amazing stuff. I worked in a lumber/pallet yard back in the 70's and 80's. We had one guy working there that could make stuff like that. Man what would OSHA say today!

appreciate the comments everybody!
hey I thought the same thing about OSHA! but i also want to point out that dad's engineering also included guards in dangerous places and covers over some moving parts-- take a look at the metal work around the "tire slip-clutch" and he put guards around the belts that drove the edger, too.

 

[Willowbilly3]

Just plain amazing. I spend a whole day just trying to figure out how to mount my pedals.
I worked for a foreman once who had build most of the gravel crusher. He had build one big conveyor using old grader blades. It was ugly.

 

[PA41]

Enjoyed that Preacher, A little more sophicated than many I've seen. My Grandad ran a Tie mill in the 50/60s. He had a pair of mules do the skidding from where the loggers worked, back to the mill. Sometimes I'd walk back and forth with them, but usually they'd skid the logs without a 'driver' after they were shown the way.

Anytime I broke something or screwed something up--which was often, He'd always holler "boy, my mules are smarter than you". Which was kinda true--ain't nuthing much dumber than a 14 year old boy...

I made a little gas engined bandsawmill a while back--lotsa work, but fun for little things. Used checkerplate 'lunium trailer fender for blade guards..

PA41

 

[dmw56]

Every time I look at that I see something I didn't notice before. Things like that belong is a Museum of American Ingenuity!

 

[cycledog]

Wow that is some machine. Thanks for sharing. Does it still work?

 

[51Cards]

Hope you don't mind, But I sent this link to someone who will probably be in touch with you soon.

 

[cnchotrods]

Sawmill

That is AMAZING. The imagination that went into the design of that..... And you still have it, amazing. Can you still operate it? Thanks for the pictures and story.

 

[hotrod preacher]

wow, guys.....i haven't been down this thread since originally posting it....thanks for the comments and yes its still on Dad's place.....in fact we're talking about firing it up to cut a few pieces of lumber and square up a few cedars for posts to build me another place to park junk-like my ratrods-and still have my shopspace free........

one more salute to the hillbilly engineer![

 

[flat6rick]

preacher that is good stuff

a man made stuff back then because they had to. no choice and little cash. i come from a line of woods folks my self. upstate ny old forge area. grand pa was a logger. he had only one hand. mean as a snake ugly as the devil could drink man he could drink. he ate nails rr spikes chewed broken glass for some thing to do. then he would bounce me and my brother and sister on his knee while in his rocking chair. wood will always be in my blood so i love seeing the old mills and tools of the day. thanks

 

[BigShem]

Holly Kraptacular that thing is just to way Kool....... my hats off to your pop...[cl[cl[cl[cl[cl

 

[tburnett]

that is way cool! It reminds me of when my dad built a well drilling rig from scratch. he built a frame kinda like a trailer, mounted a straight 6 on it and made an arm on the back that had a rear diff mounted on it. the differential would slide up and down on the rear arms so you could raise it to add pipe. if I can find a pic I will scan and post it. We lived in a neighborhood in Dallas and he punched a well right in the middle of our driveway and hit water. He got paid to drill a few wells until some guy saw it and had to have it so dad sold it to him. I still wonder what happened to it.