Short Log Milling on the M7

A recent forum message was a question about milling short logs on the M7. He asked on the forum if anyone has done this and Bill Stuewe tried to reply to him but was unsuccessful in his attempt to put it on the forum. I am posting it here until we can get it on the forums because I wanted to get the information out. Bill spent a lot of time working on this response and I wanted to be sure it could be shared quickly.


Here is the question by dlopeman on the forum:

I would like to do some short logs that don't span the length across the log holders. Has anyone created a successfull jig or something that can assist me with this? Maybe there's some logosol product that I haven't found that already accomodates this?
Thanks in advance."




Here is Bill Stuewe's response:





I have an 8" jointer so I flattened and jointed two 9 quarter cedar boards that were 4" longer than the outside distance of the log beds, one all the way up and the other all the way down. I then planed them to exactly 2" thick and glued them together to form a 2"x16" plank . I attached a cleat to each end so that it could not slide off the log beds. I attached a ½"x 3" piece of aluminum to the side of the plank nearest the guide rail so that it stuck up 1" to act as a fence to keep the log/cant from being pulled into the guide rail (this aluminum fence is in line with the upright log rests).





I attached a 2"x 2"x 1/4" piece of angle iron to the bottom to stiffen it up a bit and fashioned two ½" pieces of rebar so they could be attached to the bottom, protruding out away from the guide rail. I welded up an adjustable plate that would hold a ½" allthread to use in clamping the log/cant against the fence. It works because the hole in the bottom of the plate that the rebar sticks into is just big enough to allow the mechanism to slide but when force is exerted on the allthread it binds on the rebar and does not allow slipping.





When using:





* Lock the plank in place with your edge supports





* Always make sure there is no bark or sawdust under the log/cant to throw off your cut thickness. (this is the main drawback to my plank. Ideally I would use a 1"thick piece of aluminum grate—but it is very expensive)





* Always remember to allow for the thickness of the plank when reading your inch scales (that is why I made it exactly 2" thick)

• I try to always use the far end log rest upright to support one end of my log/cant


• The allthread/rebar clamping mechanism is not real strong but it is still beneficial and very adjustable.

Note: There is one more picture from Bill. It will be another blog entry.