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James Hunt, a man of the mountains and a skilled craftsman.
When James Hunt needed a stack of lumber the only natural thing
for him to do was build a saw mill. James is a quiet, gentle
man and a master machinist with a genius for invention. He can
build and fix anything from water wheels, driving generators
to textile manufacturing machinery, to airplane parts and anything
that moves.
The “James Sawmill” as I like to call it was not built
from a package or kit or copied after one. With extra parts
and a few bought parts, James set about to build his portable
saw-mill. After about a year the mill was completed and put
into operation. It had to have a few bugs ironed out but was
soon running “as slick as a hound’s tooth.” The
mill on wheels can be hitched to a truck and taken any place
the truck can go.
Once in place and leveled up it’s ready for operation.
The mill is powered by a two cylinder diesel engine. The engine
came out of a “retired” road packer. The engine drives
a band saw blade up to 6” wide by 17’-10” long,
at a speed of 4000 fpm. If you look close you can see two tires
on rims that the blade rides on. The mill cuts up to a 30”
thick log.
Logs up to 24’ long are placed on the bed by a loader and
secured in place with cleats and instead of the log passing
through the blade, the blade moves back and forth slicing the
log. The log is squared up first and then slices are made at
any thickness needed. The boards are then stacked for air drying
or taken to a kiln for drying. Building the kiln is next.
James is “right proud” of his handy work and when
someone drops by he always stops what he is doing to show them
the mill. At times he helps them with something that needs “fix’n”
or even “invent’n”. It’s said you “never
know what’s going to roll out’a these hills”.
That couldn’t be more true knowing James Hunt. |
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