We operate a Lane "0" or ought mill circa 1873 at the Zagray Farm Museum for demonstrations during our shows and to mill lumber for buildings on the grounds. This is a rack and pinion mill and originally was installed in Granby, CT. and water powered. We are currently finishing cutting for a 48 X 36 foot stationary engine building to be erected in the spring. The lumber you see in the video is for that building. I enjoy working the mill every chance I get. This is where you'll find me at every show, after i open up the event center and get relieved. In the video from left to right on the mill is Andy turning and dogging, Dave (my son) is the Sawyer, I'm on the takeoff side along with Rick. Andy and Dave switch off being Sawyer. The mill is powered with a turbo-charged 6 cylinder Murphy diesel after we removed the CAT D8 (13000) powerplant which was giving us lots of problems - read that $$$. The building has been completely reconstructed, new piers for the carriage, new concrete pad for the engine, new overhead drive system, and a sawdust removal device of our own creation out of two IH hayloaders. We are always looking for softwood logs, pine preferably but we get a lot of spruce and poplar as well.
Very cool...We built a mongrol out of an old Lane 1 and 2 and was powered by an 80 horse Buddah ??? gas engine, the gas bill was staggering...
went today and picked up 3 trailer loads as in 5 ton and 6 ton tag-a-longs of white pine, mostly 17' stuff. there's one more full load at the site which we will get the weekend of the 5th. Most of it is in the 12" diameter range, but there are a few nice logs. We got a load of white ceder on friday delivered by anothe member, which we will just make a square cant out of and chunk them into shingle sized blocks. We have a vertical shingle mill, very early, and a horizontal mill, also early. We are talking to the State of CT about a shingle mill they have - trying to get them to donate it. it's a later mill, all automatic in operation. between the three we should have a nice display. The white pine haul from today is on top of some 48 spruce logs we picked up a couple weeks ago. So, we are flush with material at the moment.
Looking for any more mills? My dad has a mill that's probably about a similar vintage he has been trying to find a home for. He's almost to the point of just tossing it in the field because he can't find anyone to take it... I think this is where it was originally house but I'm not 100% sure: http://stonehousemuseum.org/images/Belchertown/pc_prattssawmill.jpg
We also have an Amadon portable mill in operation at the museum and a couple more Lane mills, a #1 and an #0 i believe in piles for parts. That being said, if you have more information on the mill and it's condition, photo's etc, I'll bring it up for consideration.
Checked with my dad he says it is a chase no. 2 rack and pinion mill. It's had some modifications over the years (including at least one part that says lane). I took a couple pictures of the business end of it which has been removed from the building (under cover in a shed) it was too dark to get pictures of the rest of it.
that looks to me to be a lane shingle mill. the teeth in the second photo is to hold the cedar block and the chute next to the blade is for the shingle to drop into after cutting. i'm going to forward this to a couple of our guys for their thoughts. more pictures when you have a moment - and daylight
yes it's possible I was looking at the wrong one, I know he has a shingle mill as well, I had thought he pulled the main part of the mill out of the building but maybe it is still in there and I was looking at the wrong one. I'll have to take a look when I can get back over there. If that is the shingle mill (which I am thinking you are correct on that) I don't think that is the one he is looking to get rid of at this point. I'll try to get more (and correct) info.
That is very much a shingle mill. The wedge mounted on the blade and the block turning table are also clues. I have a DesJardins shingle mill with similar features but mine was built in the 50's or 60's and has a trimming saw blade as well.
forgot to mention that we have pine and spruce slab wood available free to anyone who wants it. Sawdust and occasionally planer shavings as well (which make great fire starter!)
fired up the mill for the first time this spring yesterday. We had removed the right angle drive from the sawdust removal setup as it was giving us constant problems - jamming up, throwing the flat belt, etc. I discovered when it was in my hands that it was a home-made drive, made out of two pieces of channel iron and a worm gear out of something that Stanley Zagray had on hand (they never bought what they could fab up, and generally Stanley's creations were good quality, (we are using two of his patented double acting log dogs on the mill). Not this time. it was set up with bushings and i think a 26-1 ratio with little means to lube it. lots of play and binding going on. at any rate, i bought a 16/1 replacement drive from Surplus Center and had a machinist member re-cut a bevel into the flat belt pulley on the drive side and make up the adapter bushings needed. another member re-mounted it last fall so it was ready to test out. It worked perfectly. the system is basically two IH hay loaders bolted together to lift the sawdust from under the mill into a dump truck, much the same as hay bales were lifted into the barn. we also needed more speed out of the unit because when we cutting a 20+ inch pine cant, we would overload the conveyor system with sawdust...and throw the belt yet again. I'm excited to test drive it on some logs. I also added a 24 volt alternator on the Murphy diesel to eliminate dead batteries. Those 4D batteries are heavier than i'd like to lug anymore! May 7-8 is our first show of the season, we'll be cutting for sure! www.zagrayfarmmuseum.org
ran the mill on Black Friday for most of the day. the intent was to make fifteen 8X8 posts for our food pavilion, and we had a request to make 1" boards out of several black walnut logs a member brought in. cut most all of it, alo0ng with the usual 1 by and 2 by coming out of the fletch cuts. a good time had by all. biggest log was white pine and about 30" diameter X 12'. first cut off the tree so it was nice, clear and straight! no pic's, sorry
