The New Model II

The model II prototype just completed, June 2007.
Production is scheduled for this summer (2008) and each unit is expected to sell for less than $6000.

Simplicity of Design, Features:

- industrial "ball bearing" centrifugal clutch featuring a cast iron drum and 4 automotive brake pad shoes
- one piece, single rail lightweight* but extremely strong, powerhead frame,
-Two advanced blade guides, each has dual industrial bearings on top, one at rear and an automotive brake pad underneath
-multi purpose vertical guide tubes also hold the blade guides and the unique "lifting rollers"
-blade tightens (and loosens) instantly without tools, by the simple press of a lever.
-the blade and even the drive belt can be changed in mere seconds without tools or removing guards
- blade guards are rounded "non clogging", "Pittsburg Seamed"
-motor drives bandwheel directly, no extra, unnecessary drive pulley means less weight, less expense, gives blade support at top which dampens vibration and direct drive allows for a narrower (lighter) carriage which means a longer log per bed length
Wheel assemblies have three height positions and remove in seconds
Trailer towing tongue has two height positons and is removable
The bed frame is 18' long but the mill can cut a 17' log, 30" wide
Bed extensions (to 22'+ log) and a beveled siding/shake attachment options will be available
The powerhead and bed both use the inverted kingpost truss design for lightweight strength

The powerhead is quickly and easily raised in the carriage without any:
-threaded rods, gears, belts and pulleys, chains, sprockets, winches, rachets, jacks, motors or hydraulics

*the bare powerhead frame (no bandwheels, bearings, guards and motor) weighs a mere 88 pounds
but is stronger, (i.e. exhibits less deflection under load) than others many times the weight.
If you think that heavy duty must mean a heavy weight please read Dave's article below.

A Structural Thought

"Common minds confuse familiarity with knowledge and believe themselves well informed of 'the whole nature of things' when they see their form or told their use. But, the specialist is not content with superficial views and as his curiosity teaches him more and more, he perceives only that he knows less."
Samuel Johnson 1758

Most of us have been brought up to believe, especially regarding tools and machines, that heavier means better, longer lasting and therefore more expensive.  Sometimes that is true and has usually been the case in the past.  If you want something to be stronger, then you make it thicker, larger, and heavier.  In some situations* that is the only way that it can be done and in the general public’s eyes this is a virtue, a sign of honesty and integrity.  We talk of things being "heavily built" as a term of praise while "lightly built" usually means flimsy or shoddy.  But, the study of structures and the assemblage of materials is highly sophisticated and replete with complicated mathematical equations.  So when an engineer tells people about his subject, he talks in a strange language and the rest of us are left with the conviction that the study in which materials handle loads is incomprehensible, irrelevant and very boring indeed.

Many people dislike theory and engineers, especially to questions of strength and elasticity**.   A surprising number of them who would never attempt brain surgery or build a rocketship and would admit that a large bridge or an airplane was a little beyond them, would also consider the common structures of life as presenting only the most trivial of problems. This is not to suggest that the construction of a backyard shed calls for years of study, but even that is littered with traps for the unwary.  Most things are not as simple as they might seem.  Very few can appreciate the complexity of even a tree.***

But if you're an engineer you'll know that the outer wood of a tree is under tension while the inner is in compression.  Thus the distribution of stress across the trunk, halves the compressive stress and therefore doubles the trees bending strength.
You also will have studied "Hooke's Law", "Young's Modulus" and "Brazier Buckling".  You'll understand a "work of fracture" and "thrust lines" and be intimate with compression, tension, torsion and shear.  You'll already know how to increase a solid beam's load carrying capacity by cutting large holes in it and that a structure can be stronger just by being lighter if it's properly engineered.  It then possesses all the advantages of both.

Fortunately in today's "high tech" world with sophisticated computer designed machines, the general public is slowly beginning to realize the advantages of "lightweight strength".

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex...
It takes a touch of genius, and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction."
Albert Einstein

* The part and tool in a lathe or milling machine must be held with great rigidity and inertia to avoid deflection and chatter.
**  Elasticity is the science of the interactions between forces and deflections in materials.
*** And I'm only thinking structurally.  There is more to a tree (and "the whole nature of things") than what most of us can even imagine.