I could watch that sawmill operate for hours. Homes and maybe whole towns would not exist without that sawmill. That boiler, steam engine, and sawmill made dreams come true.
I buildt a "tie mill" from scratch with scrap metal and a straight 6 chevy with the Chevy in 1st gear ran the mill using a foot throttle and by ear. I ran a 54" inserted tooth blade with half the teeth short to decrease load on the mill. Your 25HP mill has more usuable smother power than that 6 cylinder. Just a note in 1905 the inserted tooth blade was patented. Than you so much for the video.
That was something to watch. It takes real skill to make boards from a log. All I have ever done is make boards with a chainsaw mill, and that takes a lot of preplanning too. To do it on the fly is mindblowing. Your sawyer is an ace. The steam engine is a jewel, over 100 years old and still running. Truly something to show the grandchildren. Thank you very much.
Thanks for taking the time for a complete walk through/operation explanation. I love those old machines and I had questions. You answered them. I could just sit and watch it run for hours. Thank you Mr Rucker.
+Mynard Mayne There have been days when we were running the sawmill that a visitor would just sit and watch it run for hours. If I were not on the other side of the fence getting to work on it, I might be guilty of doing the same thing!
Watching your video is in many ways more up close and personal than an in person guided tour of the sawmill would be. Still, you have to be there to get the whole effect -- the noise, the smell, the hustle and bustle, the people, the wide view, etc. Thanks, Keith!
I would hate to be operating that mill when the blade hits a spike or a large nail in the log. Both of those fellows are in the path of the pieces flying off the blade. It is wonderful to watch the old machinery at work, only dedicated craftsman can keep such machine operating. It is also important to remember the risks that our ancestors faced every day while at work. Thanks for the videos, Keith. I am officially addicted to your channel.
+John Ferguson I have hit more than one nail and even a few larger items (spikes, insulators, rebar, angle iron, chain, etc...). Because the wood is all around the blade and it is pulling everything down, nothing goes flying anywhere. But a bad crash will make you mess your drawers none the less...
Wow, I could watch that all day, just facinating. one of your best videos, I would like to visit there someday to see that in operation. thanks. The start of the industrial America
Most enjoyable, refreshing fond memories of my Dad's love of all things Steam, primarily locomotives. He was a Director for many years serving the Pittsburgh Shawmut and Northern Railroad Preservation Society, a local road through his hometown of Angelica, NY. Dad was blind most of his life, but was amazing at what he could do. He'd have loved this operation! Thanks so much for sharing! All best.
When I was a kid my Father cut down some trees from our property and we took them to a local sawyer. His mill was a much more modern one with ball bearings and a CAT diesel engine. At that time I never saw his mill run. However the lumber from those trees allowed me to build several projects at home and in shop class while I was in high school. I eventually grew up and became a shop teacher myself. I took 2 maybe 3 logs to that same sawyer and had them sawed into boards that allowed me to build much of the furniture in my home. He allowed me to come in with a video camera and film the mill running for my shop classes. I wish I could smell the pine being sawed. I imagine it smelled wonderful! The combination of the wood fire, fresh pitch and oil would be just heavenly!
+Junk Mikes World We still have lots of sawmills around here where I live - both big commercial mills and small mom and pop mills that will saw logs for the public. As for that smell, it is indeed a wonderful smell - at least to me!
Keith Thanks for the video. Around our area here in Northwest Washington State there were several similar saw mills, most converted to old model A engines or whatever they could scrounge up for power. Many mills later in life were used for cedar. These mills are now gone. Thank you for keeping these machines alive along with the spirit of those generations of men who operated them. Tony
BEFORE BANDSAWS and what a beautiful sawmill it is! Looks like a three-man money maker to me! 'From logs to lumber' was my presentation for teaching trade school in Queens NY.
Another Great video , Since i would probably never will be able visit the museum great to see all the stuff and learn about all the old machines, also for all those people who haven't saw last video were he talk on this and did some repair work search for Sawmill Clutch Repair: Part 2 - Broaching a Keyway, Reasembly, and Testing and 22 minutes in where showing again how it work
Liked the engine; liked the sawmill. Great video. Thanks for *all* these videos from the GMoA. That variable speed/reversible transmission was used in Norden bombsights (WWII). Instead of a wheel against the plate, they pinched a steel ball in a cage between the plate and a roller. The ball could be driven back and forth across the plate (they called it a disk) by a feed screw. Like the transmission, the distance of the ball from the center of the disk determines the transmission ratio. Each bombsight had three or four of them. Here's the cool thing: such a transmission can do calculus! In its bombsight role it's actually called a ball-and-disk integrator. It does integral calculus. You put one input into rotating the disk, and the other input into turning the feed screw, and the rotation of the roller is the answer. They were doing calculus in real time with the air-speed, altitude, wind (speed and direction), and getting answers that told the pilot whether to steer right or left, and to tell the bombardier when to drop the bombs. It made high-altitude bombing possible. I still have some of the parts left over after my dad salvaged shafts, bearings and gears from the half dozen of these things he bought back in the 1950s and '60s. I assume there are a couple of those ball-and-disk integrators buried somewhere in the tons of junk (sorry dad) that I inherited. I'm sure he didn't throw them away. (Growing up with access to his basement shop was really special. Thanks, Dad.)
+Peter W. Meek I just mentioned the calculus thing, too, before I saw your post! I love the mechanical computer series of videos on RUclips. They deal with trajectory calculators on battleships but still very interesting.
Come to the museum one day when we are running it and you can sit there and watch us work all day long. I have seen more than one visitor sit there for hours watching it run!
Fascinating, as always. The variable speed device was reinvented by an American called Hayes for automotive transmission around 1935. He sold it to the British Austin Motor Company. It was not a great success for a number of reasons, yet it represented a sophisticated early automatic system that deserved greater acclaim. Martyn
Thanks for the answer on the last video I posted a comment about being a shop teacher. It's really too bad that being a shop teacher isn't a field in demand. We need more shop people like you and Mike Rowe and fewer managers, lawyers and women's studies people in this world.
Now that's what I'm talking about! Can you imagine the man-hours spent to make building lumber back then! Thanks Keith, that was a superb video. BTW, I guess that you can claim that, "No humans were harmed during the filming of this video because they were careful." Rich
+Rich206L According to the old literature, this sawmill was capable of cutting 10,000 board feet per day. I personally don't see how - I was running it one day when we came really close to cutting 2,000 board feet and that was one long hard day.... But with an experienced crew of men and a good sawyer, it was probably possible on one of those long summer days when you had 15-16 hours of daylight....
+Keith Rucker - VintageMachinery.org Wow, seriously?! JMJ, those guys must have been hauling ass! I also forgot to tag that last sentence in my reply with, "OSHA." :) You have one of the best channels on "TheTube" and I love every minute of it. Keep truckin, my friend! Rich
+Skeeter Holeman Thanks - the museum has had this sawmill operational for probably 35 years now. I first started working on this mill back in the late 1980's when I was a college student.
This is awesome. There is a sawmill just like this one set up in Atkinson, IL. I saw it run maybe 15 years ago. I remember that friction drive. Very unique.
It was nice to see this machine working. I stopped by this museum on the way back from Florida in October 2015 and there wasn't much going on. the train wasn't running, the sawmill or the turpentine still wasn't either. I still had a great time though and plan to go back at a better time. I believe the guy I talked said that April is the best time to see everything going. It was just something that I wanted to see and after we left, we happened upon Juliette down the road that was used in the film Fried Green Tomatoes. BTW that town closes a 4:00 pm so we missed eating there too.
+austinwagoncompany What can I say, things are kind of slow down here in rural South Georgia! Saturdays are usually a good time to stop by the museum as that is when they run the train and we usually have more visitors on the site. The Folk Life Festival in April is the best time to come as that is a big event with pretty much everything running. That is the only time during the year that we actually fire the turpentine still.
The mechanical ingenuity to move that much materail and mechanisim so effortlessly and with such precision is flat out astonishing. The scale on which the inventors of such machinery (and locomotives too) thought and created is beyond impressive.
+John Strange And it was all done without computers and for the most part, the "rules" that engineers go by today were not even known back then. They were some amazing guys for sure!
Another great video! I love how quiet the stationary steam engines are, it's cool to see and hear all the associated mechanisms doing their thing. Additionally, it's always interesting to see the ingenuity that went into the mechanics of these old machines. Thanks for posting!
Keith, That really looks like hard work! ... My family and I toured a sawmill a number of years ago. The had a machine that debarked the log. It then had lasers that "measured" the log to tell the sawyer where to make the cuts to get the most out of the log. He sat in a cab above the saw and carriage and pushed buttons and moved joy sticks to operate everything. A big difference a century makes! Thanks for the great video and for a look back in time. Have a good one! Dave
My dad had a mill very similar to this one. It cut on the right hand side. The husk had an identical feed system. The carriage was 3 bunk and was set up exactly like yours. Our mill was made by J M Plante Co. in Ontario Canada
Maybe summer 2016. I'd like to visit the museum and have a look at your new shop. I was inspired by the tall trees! Thanks Keith for your work. It's great to have you take us along for the interesting experiences.
Mr. Rucker this was really fascinating and quite well done! Thank you for all the hard work you do to teach and entertain your followers - it is much appreciated!
Thanks Keith this brings back memories. Back in the 80's I ran my circular mill with steam . Had a 8 1/2 X11" Ajax engine and a AB Farquhar boiler. My mill is half Chase and half Lane. I run it now with a Ford Dagenham diesel power unit. Up here in yankee land its tough managing the boiler in the winter. It seems to me theirs enough scrap in a log to power the mill to cut it. Nice to hear the chug of steam instead of the drone of a diesel.
So gratifying to see century-old machinery running so well. No shortage of off-cuts to keep the boiler going! I wonder what happens to all that sawdust? A very enjoyable video.
Totally fascinating video Keith - love this stuff. For a modern facsimile that boiler is gorgeous, and really has that vintage look. Noticed Waynsboro PA on the firebox. The sound of that engine is classic... sure gets some RPMs going when you open it up. Great explanation and demo of it all - truly excellent video and thanks Keith.
+ChrisB257 The original boiler that we had was made by Frick, which was located in Waynesboro, PA. This boiler was pretty much an exact copy of the original with the exception of being welded rather than riveted. We even took the old original castings from the old boiler and put them on the new one.
what a treat to watch.... ive got some of those 1880s and 1890 brass oilers that im retrofiring them to newer machines ..... not super into steam engines ,,,but i like the notion that these can work anywhere around the globe as long as there is water and something to burn .... wow that belt was rubbing against the bricks ....but it corrected it self seconds later ....
+Faisal Abdulaziz The belt that you saw on the bricks gets slack when the engine stop. When you start it back up again it runs on the high part of the pulley and is not a problem.
As you were explaining the sawmill power train I was looking at those paper wheels and noting how they were just like my Snapper mower and then you mentioned that. I bought a Snapper around 1992 and it had a plate like that driven by a belt off the main shaft down by the blade. It had a wheel with a rubber tire that ran on that plate to drive the wheels, making it possible to adjust the ground speed independent of the engine speed. Still have the mower and it still works well.
Ironically, DeLoach patented the idea and Snapper copied it - the two companies were located pretty close to one another in Georgia, although at different time periods.
I remember there being a steam driven sawmill in London still working in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s. I’m not sure exactly where it was, but it was alongside a canal, by means of which the timber was delivered. Sawmills did seem to remain steam driven longer than most other industry, presumably because they had plenty of sawdust and waste wood available which could be used to fire the boiler.
Keith; I am a forester by training, and worked in the lumber business for a time (many years ago). The good sawyers could very quickly assess and get the maximum value for the log by making the initial cut in the location that yielded the best value in the boards. Gifted sawyers who could do this very quickly and accurately were in great demand when the steam powered and later sawmills were in use. Today computers and lasers help the sawyer make those decisions. However, in the end it is still the judgement of the sawyer who determines the value of the boards cut out of the log. Value in boards usually refers to the amount of clear grain and vertical grain in the resulting boards.
+John Leake You are very correct. We try hard to make the best cuts on our mills, but being a good sawyer comes with a lot of practice, and that is hard to get on our part time mill at the museum. We do the best we can. Back when I was a college student, we had a guy who ran the mill who worked as a sawyer on a circular mill back in the '50's and '60's. He was amazing to watch, but unfortunate he is no longer alive to share those talents any more....
Nice to be able to use odds and ends of unuseable wood from the sawmill in the boiler. I also noticed that engine is super quiet! Can only hear the steam passing.
Thanks for another fantastic video. While many of the methods used to power the mills have changed (steam, tractors, diesel power units, & now electricity) many similarities remain. Band mills are becoming more popular, with a thinner kerf, smoother finish, and easier to hold a better dimension. thanks again!
+Robert Ross Bandsaw mills are the way to go in a modern environment. The kerf of the bandsaw blade is only about 1/8" as opposed to 1/4" on the circular mills so you are converting less of your log to sawdust and more to lumber.
Best Channel Ever! That's quite a blade, if it's a vintage blade what a revolutionary design. I kind of looks like a hybrid between a blade from a Lucas Sawmill and a modern carbide blade. Your channel is Awesome! Excellent video Keith!
+max9068 Thank - you could get blades back then with replaceable teeth, but they were a bit different than these. The teeth we use are steel and can be easily sharpened or replaced if damaged.
That clutch system on the sawmill caught my attention because snowblowers up north here run on the same exact system! Surprised me! Just goes to show how old this technology actually is and hows its so good that it hasn't changed all these years.
Thank you for showing/explaining to us how these old time steam sawmills work. If it were possible, I would look you guys up to learn firsthand and work with you for free with this beautiful machine. Thanks again!
I love that cutoff saw! What a nightmare. In 2000 I worked as an engineer in a company that made curved gang saws. They saw logs that aren't straight, and a computer controlled system will manipulate the saw box to cut straight boards.
+Gkuljian Modern sawmills are really amazing. In a modern mill, a series of lasers will scan a log as it goes onto the mill and then the computer will determine how to best cut the log into lumber to get the most boards off of it, with of course preference given to dimensions that the mill is wanting to make. The computer then will control the log turner, speeds and feeds and all of that. The "sawyer" is basically just sitting there monitoring everything - he does not have to do much of anything except push buttons and shut things down if something goes bad....
Hello Keith, First off all I will thank you for this great video and I never have seen an steam powered sawmill. Also great that you explained how it works and showed at last how they saw the wood. As a child I came often at the farm of an old friend of mine and I can remember that they had also a sawmill. But they powered the sawmill always with their old tractor who had also such a big wheel at the side like the tractor in the museum. Again many thanx for the great video and many greetings from Roel !
+Graham Blackmore I just love steam! I will be spending this Saturday serving as engineer on the museums steam locomotive - looking forward to some good fun, but it will not leave me any shop time....
+Keith Rucker - VintageMachinery.org Any chance to ride the rails especially with a throttle in your hand must be taken! We will just have to wait in envy. Mike (o\!/o)
Je pense que cette scierie est vraiment géniale! Elle consomme uniquement ses déchets de bois ainsi que l'eau comme énergie pour faire marcher sa machinerie. Impeccable.
I visited there in the late 90s and seen it in action also the grist mill. We were the only ones there and they ran every thing for us. Go there if you get a chance,
Wonderful, thank you. I like the complete processing of Wood from plant to furniture or even artwork. That makes the cycle complete. To me this is Kind of Woodworkers Destination of life. And this Sawmill is self propelling far away from the Grid. Burning offcuts to cut Wood off. :-)
+Hermann Straub It is a lot of fun to basically take the waste from the sawmill and turn it into power to propel the sawmill! Almost like a perpetual motion machine!
Thanks for posting this Keith, very interesting. I visited a local sawmill here many years ago before it was demolished. This has made sense of what I saw there! Cheers!
I could watch that sawmill operate for hours. Homes and maybe whole towns would not exist without that sawmill. That boiler, steam engine, and sawmill made dreams come true.
I buildt a "tie mill" from scratch with scrap metal and a straight 6 chevy with the Chevy in 1st gear ran the mill using a foot throttle and by ear. I ran a 54" inserted tooth blade with half the teeth short to decrease load on the mill. Your 25HP mill has more usuable smother power than that 6 cylinder. Just a note in 1905 the inserted tooth blade was patented. Than you so much for the video.
+1DIYGuy Correct on the inserted tooth blade. Since our museum roughly represents 1890 to 1910, we are "period correct" to use it!
That was something to watch. It takes real skill to make boards from a log. All I have ever done is make boards with a chainsaw mill, and that takes a lot of preplanning too. To do it on the fly is mindblowing. Your sawyer is an ace. The steam engine is a jewel, over 100 years old and still running. Truly something to show the grandchildren. Thank you very much.
+Juan Rivero Thanks Juan!
Thanks for taking the time for a complete walk through/operation explanation. I love those old machines and I had questions. You answered them. I could just sit and watch it run for hours. Thank you Mr Rucker.
+Mynard Mayne There have been days when we were running the sawmill that a visitor would just sit and watch it run for hours. If I were not on the other side of the fence getting to work on it, I might be guilty of doing the same thing!
How much is it for the atlas steam engine? Can someone please let me know
Watching your video is in many ways more up close and personal than an in person guided tour of the sawmill would be. Still, you have to be there to get the whole effect -- the noise, the smell, the hustle and bustle, the people, the wide view, etc. Thanks, Keith!
+Bob Korves No doubt that there is nothing like being there in person - it is a different view for sure!
I would hate to be operating that mill when the blade hits a spike or a large nail in the log. Both of those fellows are in the path of the pieces flying off the blade. It is wonderful to watch the old machinery at work, only dedicated craftsman can keep such machine operating. It is also important to remember the risks that our ancestors faced every day while at work.
Thanks for the videos, Keith. I am officially addicted to your channel.
+John Ferguson I have hit more than one nail and even a few larger items (spikes, insulators, rebar, angle iron, chain, etc...). Because the wood is all around the blade and it is pulling everything down, nothing goes flying anywhere. But a bad crash will make you mess your drawers none the less...
i could watch that all day .. very cool , thanks for sharing Keith
+Chris Smith Thanks Chris - it is fun to watch. Even more fun to work in (except in the summer time....)
i bet it can get muggy real fast
a well spent 1/2 hr watching that Keith---I used to do a bit of timber milling as a young bloke and it brought back some good memories..
+Ian Craig Thanks for watching!
just enjoyed watching this again.
Wow, I could watch that all day, just facinating. one of your best videos, I would like to visit there someday to see that in operation. thanks. The start of the industrial America
+gary smith We would love to have you come by sometime!
Most enjoyable, refreshing fond memories of my Dad's love of all things Steam, primarily locomotives. He was a Director for many years serving the Pittsburgh Shawmut and Northern Railroad Preservation Society, a local road through his hometown of Angelica, NY. Dad was blind most of his life, but was amazing at what he could do. He'd have loved this operation! Thanks so much for sharing! All best.
+cal raines Thanks for watching!
When I was a kid my Father cut down some trees from our property and we took them to a local sawyer. His mill was a much more modern one with ball bearings and a CAT diesel engine. At that time I never saw his mill run. However the lumber from those trees allowed me to build several projects at home and in shop class while I was in high school. I eventually grew up and became a shop teacher myself. I took 2 maybe 3 logs to that same sawyer and had them sawed into boards that allowed me to build much of the furniture in my home. He allowed me to come in with a video camera and film the mill running for my shop classes.
I wish I could smell the pine being sawed. I imagine it smelled wonderful! The combination of the wood fire, fresh pitch and oil would be just heavenly!
+Junk Mikes World We still have lots of sawmills around here where I live - both big commercial mills and small mom and pop mills that will saw logs for the public. As for that smell, it is indeed a wonderful smell - at least to me!
Keith
Thanks for the video. Around our area here in Northwest Washington State there were several similar saw mills, most converted to old model A engines or whatever they could scrounge up for power. Many mills later in life were used for cedar. These mills are now gone. Thank you for keeping these machines alive along with the spirit of those generations of men who operated them.
Tony
+Anthony F. “Tony” De Leo Thanks Tony - it is a lot of fun to keep this old stuff running!
BEFORE BANDSAWS and what a beautiful sawmill it is! Looks like a three-man money maker to me! 'From logs to lumber' was my presentation for teaching trade school in Queens NY.
I saw your channel and wanted to volunteer. I told my wife then she reminded me that I just like watching it. Thanks for the videos.
Another Great video , Since i would probably never will be able visit the museum great to see all the stuff and learn about all the old machines, also for all those people who haven't saw last video were he talk on this and did some repair work search for Sawmill Clutch Repair: Part 2 - Broaching a Keyway, Reasembly, and Testing and 22 minutes in where showing again how it work
+David Howard Thanks David!
Thank you Keith, very well done.
+quantumss Thank you for watching!
Liked the engine; liked the sawmill. Great video. Thanks for *all* these videos from the GMoA.
That variable speed/reversible transmission was used in Norden bombsights (WWII). Instead of a wheel against the plate, they pinched a steel ball in a cage between the plate and a roller. The ball could be driven back and forth across the plate (they called it a disk) by a feed screw. Like the transmission, the distance of the ball from the center of the disk determines the transmission ratio. Each bombsight had three or four of them.
Here's the cool thing: such a transmission can do calculus! In its bombsight role it's actually called a ball-and-disk integrator. It does integral calculus. You put one input into rotating the disk, and the other input into turning the feed screw, and the rotation of the roller is the answer. They were doing calculus in real time with the air-speed, altitude, wind (speed and direction), and getting answers that told the pilot whether to steer right or left, and to tell the bombardier when to drop the bombs. It made high-altitude bombing possible.
I still have some of the parts left over after my dad salvaged shafts, bearings and gears from the half dozen of these things he bought back in the 1950s and '60s. I assume there are a couple of those ball-and-disk integrators buried somewhere in the tons of junk (sorry dad) that I inherited. I'm sure he didn't throw them away. (Growing up with access to his basement shop was really special. Thanks, Dad.)
+Peter W. Meek I just mentioned the calculus thing, too, before I saw your post! I love the mechanical computer series of videos on RUclips. They deal with trajectory calculators on battleships but still very interesting.
+Peter W. Meek That is truly interesting - any links to more info?
Wikipedia article:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball-and-disk_integrator
You got to tinker with formerly Top Secret Norden bombsights! Amazing.
Too bad he disassembled them.
Excellent presentation thanks keep up the great work team
That was a sight to behold!
I could watch and run that tool all day long, loved watching that run.
Come to the museum one day when we are running it and you can sit there and watch us work all day long. I have seen more than one visitor sit there for hours watching it run!
I would but it's a long trip from Vt. Thank you very much for your videos. I appreciate the time and work you do.
......had a wonderful time watching this, what a great show, thank you so much for taking the time.
+Rick L Thanks Rick!
Fascinating, as always. The variable speed device was reinvented by an American called Hayes for automotive transmission around 1935. He sold it to the British Austin Motor Company. It was not a great success for a number of reasons, yet it represented a sophisticated early automatic system that deserved greater acclaim. Martyn
Thanks for the answer on the last video I posted a comment about being a shop teacher.
It's really too bad that being a shop teacher isn't a field in demand. We need more shop people like you and Mike Rowe and fewer managers, lawyers and women's studies people in this world.
Man alive. I want to work at this place. That setup is a sawyer's dream!
Now that's what I'm talking about! Can you imagine the man-hours spent to make building lumber back then! Thanks Keith, that was a superb video. BTW, I guess that you can claim that, "No humans were harmed during the filming of this video because they were careful."
Rich
+Rich206L According to the old literature, this sawmill was capable of cutting 10,000 board feet per day. I personally don't see how - I was running it one day when we came really close to cutting 2,000 board feet and that was one long hard day.... But with an experienced crew of men and a good sawyer, it was probably possible on one of those long summer days when you had 15-16 hours of daylight....
+Keith Rucker - VintageMachinery.org Wow, seriously?! JMJ, those guys must have been hauling ass! I also forgot to tag that last sentence in my reply with, "OSHA." :) You have one of the best channels on "TheTube" and I love every minute of it.
Keep truckin, my friend!
Rich
that's one hell of a unit , enjoyed watching
+Paul Shaw Thanks!
Awesome video Keith. Thanks for keeping the the old machinery going. It's great to be able to see how we have progressed since those days.
+bentfork My pleasure - lots of fun playing with this stuff, but I would hate to have to make a living running this equipment in today's world!
Nice job. You have made a good productive machine out of one that most likely
have been scraped. Good work.
+Skeeter Holeman Thanks - the museum has had this sawmill operational for probably 35 years now. I first started working on this mill back in the late 1980's when I was a college student.
What a beautiful engine 🤩 thx for sharing 😊
This is awesome. There is a sawmill just like this one set up in Atkinson, IL. I saw it run maybe 15 years ago. I remember that friction drive. Very unique.
It was nice to see this machine working. I stopped by this museum on the way back from Florida in October 2015 and there wasn't much going on. the train wasn't running, the sawmill or the turpentine still wasn't either. I still had a great time though and plan to go back at a better time. I believe the guy I talked said that April is the best time to see everything going. It was just something that I wanted to see and after we left, we happened upon Juliette down the road that was used in the film Fried Green Tomatoes. BTW that town closes a 4:00 pm so we missed eating there too.
+austinwagoncompany What can I say, things are kind of slow down here in rural South Georgia! Saturdays are usually a good time to stop by the museum as that is when they run the train and we usually have more visitors on the site. The Folk Life Festival in April is the best time to come as that is a big event with pretty much everything running. That is the only time during the year that we actually fire the turpentine still.
The mechanical ingenuity to move that much materail and mechanisim so effortlessly and with such precision is flat out astonishing. The scale on which the inventors of such machinery (and locomotives too) thought and created is beyond impressive.
+John Strange And it was all done without computers and for the most part, the "rules" that engineers go by today were not even known back then. They were some amazing guys for sure!
Another great video! I love how quiet the stationary steam engines are, it's cool to see and hear all the associated mechanisms doing their thing. Additionally, it's always interesting to see the ingenuity that went into the mechanics of these old machines. Thanks for posting!
How much is it for the atlas steam engine?? Do you know
Good old technology...and the sawdust they produce is fuel for the engine. Good stuff!
The carriage drive system is such a beautiful solution, I’ve never seen anything like that before. We truly stand on the shoulders of giants.
Keith,
That really looks like hard work! ... My family and I toured a sawmill a number of years ago. The had a machine that debarked the log. It then had lasers that "measured" the log to tell the sawyer where to make the cuts to get the most out of the log. He sat in a cab above the saw and carriage and pushed buttons and moved joy sticks to operate everything. A big difference a century makes! Thanks for the great video and for a look back in time.
Have a good one!
Dave
+Swarf Rat It is for sure hard work - particularly in the summer when it is 95-100 degrees! Not too bad when things cool down though....
I've only seen bandsaw type mills work before. I'm amazed how fast that rips the logs! Great video!!
+Chris S They actually had bandsaw mills even back in the late 1800's. There were usually only found at larger sawmills though.
Very good video, helps you understand a little better, love it.
My dad had a mill very similar to this one. It cut on the right hand side. The husk had an identical feed system. The carriage was 3 bunk and was set up exactly like yours. Our mill was made by J M Plante Co. in Ontario Canada
I LOVE watching these old machines come to life, & do what they were intended to!
Another great video Kieth. thanks
+norm hays Thanks!
Wow!
Thank you for bringing this ingenious machine to life. It must be quite the experience to see it in action.
I could watch this for hours.
+k1mgy Come on down and we will put you to work on it!
Maybe summer 2016. I'd like to visit the museum and have a look at your new shop. I was inspired by the tall trees! Thanks Keith for your work. It's great to have you take us along for the interesting experiences.
Mr. Rucker this was really fascinating and quite well done! Thank you for all the hard work you do to teach and entertain your followers - it is much appreciated!
+Arlyn Smith Thanks!
I am so glad to see a steam powered sawmill up and running again,thank you for sharing.
+AlfonsoTheTraitor My pleasure!
Great work Keith!
Badass saw!
And fun!
Thanks Keith this brings back memories. Back in the 80's I ran my circular mill with steam . Had a 8 1/2 X11" Ajax engine and a AB Farquhar boiler. My mill is half Chase and half Lane. I run it now with a Ford Dagenham diesel power unit. Up here in yankee land its tough managing the boiler in the winter. It seems to me theirs enough scrap in a log to power the mill to cut it. Nice to hear the chug of steam instead of the drone of a diesel.
So absolutely cool, Keith your a lucky guy!
+Tim Ambrass I count my blessing every day and getting to play with old machinery like this is a lot of fun for me!
So gratifying to see century-old machinery running so well. No shortage of off-cuts to keep the boiler going! I wonder what happens to all that sawdust? A very enjoyable video.
+CornishMiner Do you need some sawdust? If so, bring a truck - we will load for free....
Totally fascinating video Keith - love this stuff. For a modern facsimile that boiler is gorgeous, and really has that vintage look. Noticed Waynsboro PA on the firebox.
The sound of that engine is classic... sure gets some RPMs going when you open it up.
Great explanation and demo of it all - truly excellent video and thanks Keith.
+ChrisB257 The original boiler that we had was made by Frick, which was located in Waynesboro, PA. This boiler was pretty much an exact copy of the original with the exception of being welded rather than riveted. We even took the old original castings from the old boiler and put them on the new one.
+Keith Rucker - VintageMachinery.org
Thx Keith - that explains it! Old castings re-used on exterior - most successful.!
what a treat to watch....
ive got some of those 1880s and 1890 brass oilers that im retrofiring them to newer machines .....
not super into steam engines ,,,but i like the notion that these can work anywhere around the globe as long as there is water and something to burn ....
wow that belt was rubbing against the bricks ....but it corrected it self seconds later ....
+Faisal Abdulaziz The belt that you saw on the bricks gets slack when the engine stop. When you start it back up again it runs on the high part of the pulley and is not a problem.
oh okay thanks for clarifying
As you were explaining the sawmill power train I was looking at those paper wheels and noting how they were just like my Snapper mower and then you mentioned that. I bought a Snapper around 1992 and it had a plate like that driven by a belt off the main shaft down by the blade. It had a wheel with a rubber tire that ran on that plate to drive the wheels, making it possible to adjust the ground speed independent of the engine speed. Still have the mower and it still works well.
Ironically, DeLoach patented the idea and Snapper copied it - the two companies were located pretty close to one another in Georgia, although at different time periods.
I love this beautiful vintage machinery
Fascinating (and SCARY) at the same time!
I remember there being a steam driven sawmill in London still working in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s. I’m not sure exactly where it was, but it was alongside a canal, by means of which the timber was delivered. Sawmills did seem to remain steam driven longer than most other industry, presumably because they had plenty of sawdust and waste wood available which could be used to fire the boiler.
What a great tour/explanation of the workings of the boiler, engine and saw. Looking forward to seeing it in the very near future!
+Jack Hoying As am I Jack!
Thanks for showing detail on incremental shifting of the cant eithr in or out.
Great video, learned a lot. Thanks
Keith; I am a forester by training, and worked in the lumber business for a time (many years ago). The good sawyers could very quickly assess and get the maximum value for the log by making the initial cut in the location that yielded the best value in the boards. Gifted sawyers who could do this very quickly and accurately were in great demand when the steam powered and later sawmills were in use. Today computers and lasers help the sawyer make those decisions. However, in the end it is still the judgement of the sawyer who determines the value of the boards cut out of the log. Value in boards usually refers to the amount of clear grain and vertical grain in the resulting boards.
+John Leake You are very correct. We try hard to make the best cuts on our mills, but being a good sawyer comes with a lot of practice, and that is hard to get on our part time mill at the museum. We do the best we can. Back when I was a college student, we had a guy who ran the mill who worked as a sawyer on a circular mill back in the '50's and '60's. He was amazing to watch, but unfortunate he is no longer alive to share those talents any more....
Nice to be able to use odds and ends of unuseable wood from the sawmill in the boiler. I also noticed that engine is super quiet! Can only hear the steam passing.
+OnlyTheEd Steam engines are very quite compared to other kinds of engines!
Excellent tour of how it works! Thank you!
Really interesting! Thank's Keith, this is very rewarding to have saved this machine from the scrap yard.
I never really knew how steam engines work until now, thanks!
+Ville QQ Thanks - glad that you enjoyed!
Very satisfying to see it in action.
+captainjerk Thanks!
Thanks for another fantastic video. While many of the methods used to power the mills have changed (steam, tractors, diesel power units, & now electricity) many similarities remain. Band mills are becoming more popular, with a thinner kerf, smoother finish, and easier to hold a better dimension. thanks again!
+Robert Ross Bandsaw mills are the way to go in a modern environment. The kerf of the bandsaw blade is only about 1/8" as opposed to 1/4" on the circular mills so you are converting less of your log to sawdust and more to lumber.
well thought out edited video, thanks for showing something that I would not get the chance to see otherwise. hope you can do more like it. thank-you.
+Adrian Higgins Thanks Adrian!
That friction disc clutch is in just about every snowblower there is!
Best Channel Ever! That's quite a blade, if it's a vintage blade what a revolutionary design. I kind of looks like a hybrid between a blade from a Lucas Sawmill and a modern carbide blade. Your channel is Awesome! Excellent video Keith!
+max9068 Thank - you could get blades back then with replaceable teeth, but they were a bit different than these. The teeth we use are steel and can be easily sharpened or replaced if damaged.
That just has to be the best video I have watched on a Vintage saw mill ..Love the steam power as well ! Thumbs up Keith !!
+ShawnMrFixit Lee Thanks Shawn!
Cool Video Keith, thanks for sharing!
+G.J Bradshaw Thanks for watching!
The pine cones for starting the fire is a nice touch. They used to burn them in the south at night to attract animals for hunting, I've read.
Landrew0
so cool to watch the old ways at work..
thanks Keith.
Seeya,
Dude
+80spodcastchannel ( : FACEBOOK DUDEJERKY ☆☆☆☆☆ Thanks!
Keith this was a great explanation of a steam engine and the saw mill. I liked the video very much.
what a fantastic machine
+rompdude Thanks!
Thanks for the work you put into the engine, sawmill and video. It was a joy to watch. Truly ingenious engineering.
+Lolita's Garden Thanks - I am glad that you enjoyed!
Thanks for sharing, Keith.
+ILGopher No problem - my pleasure!
That clutch system on the sawmill caught my attention because snowblowers up north here run on the same exact system! Surprised me! Just goes to show how old this technology actually is and hows its so good that it hasn't changed all these years.
Excellent video Keith
+Lynton Rodda Thank you!
Great video, Thanks
+baggd65 Thanks!
Thank you for showing/explaining to us how these old time steam sawmills work. If it were possible, I would look you guys up to learn firsthand and work with you for free with this beautiful machine. Thanks again!
awesome to see her still going keep up the great work
+gravedigr12 Thanks!
Very cool Keith
I love that cutoff saw! What a nightmare.
In 2000 I worked as an engineer in a company that made curved gang saws. They saw logs that aren't straight, and a computer controlled system will manipulate the saw box to cut straight boards.
+Gkuljian Modern sawmills are really amazing. In a modern mill, a series of lasers will scan a log as it goes onto the mill and then the computer will determine how to best cut the log into lumber to get the most boards off of it, with of course preference given to dimensions that the mill is wanting to make. The computer then will control the log turner, speeds and feeds and all of that. The "sawyer" is basically just sitting there monitoring everything - he does not have to do much of anything except push buttons and shut things down if something goes bad....
Hello Keith,
First off all I will thank you for this great video and I never have seen an steam powered sawmill. Also great that you explained how it works and showed at last how they saw the wood.
As a child I came often at the farm of an old friend of mine and I can remember that they had also a sawmill. But they powered the sawmill always with their old tractor who had also such a big wheel at the side like the tractor in the museum.
Again many thanx for the great video and many greetings from Roel !
+RoelTyros At one time, lots of farmsteads had a circular mill like this. They were very common place back then!
When I was a kid, we had a CASE/Ingersoll riding lawnmower that had a transmission like that. Interesting!
+KingNast That clutch was used in a lot of things over the years - still being used today!
thanks...very informative...ah, the majesty of steam!
+Graham Blackmore I just love steam! I will be spending this Saturday serving as engineer on the museums steam locomotive - looking forward to some good fun, but it will not leave me any shop time....
+Keith Rucker - VintageMachinery.org Any chance to ride the rails especially with a throttle in your hand must be taken! We will just have to wait in envy.
Mike (o\!/o)
Keith, an excellent video and very informative explanation of the boiler and sawmill operation. Thanks.
+Ian Postlethwaite Thanks Ian!
Thanks Keith. Love this. Very informative on the old ways.
Very educational and enjoyable, Thank you.
+Morris Gallo Thanks for watching!
Je pense que cette scierie est vraiment géniale! Elle consomme uniquement ses déchets de bois ainsi que l'eau comme énergie pour faire marcher sa machinerie. Impeccable.
Thank you Keith your video's are always so enjoyable !
+Gene Fultz Thanks Gene - glad that you enjoyed. Lots of cool stuff here at the museum that I have not had a chance to show you guys yet!
Keith,
Thanks for a very good video presentation of the design features and operation of the steam powered sawmill. Enjoyed very much.
+Gordon Eckler Thanks Gordon!
I visited there in the late 90s and seen it in action also the grist mill. We were the only ones there and they ran every thing for us. Go there if you get a chance,
When i was a little boy that clutch was used on the work car on the railroad that my uncle worked on .
Wonderful, thank you. I like the complete processing of Wood from plant to furniture or even artwork. That makes the cycle complete. To me this is Kind of Woodworkers Destination of life. And this Sawmill is self propelling far away from the Grid. Burning offcuts to cut Wood off. :-)
+Hermann Straub It is a lot of fun to basically take the waste from the sawmill and turn it into power to propel the sawmill! Almost like a perpetual motion machine!
Good morning from St John Parish, Louisiana 14 Dec 20.
Thanks for posting this Keith, very interesting. I visited a local sawmill here many years ago before it was demolished. This has made sense of what I saw there! Cheers!
Excellent presentation!
Great video 👍🏼