Bobsled at work

[Gabe Ayers]

George-
We had our best day yet yesterday with the bob. We started at 7:45 AM and finished about 4:45 PM – a long day for sure. Two of us and the team managed to cut, twitch, and bob about 2500 bf. However, I would never expect to get to this total on a regular basis. Like Carl, when by myself I consider 1000 bf a good day. I think the improved total is the result of picking a better spot to load the bob (less twitching and more distance on the sled) and also bigger wood packed more closely together. In addition, we had a rare day when no trees got hung up, we had no equipment breaks, and the weather was perfect!

[Does’ Leap]

Brad:

Congrats. It is so nice when things go well all the way through. Sounds like you are really getting the hang of the bobsled. I am off to a friends to work his team of Suffolks in the woods.

George

[Carl Russell]

A few more pix from 1/26/11

Carl

[PhilG]

Carl,
Can you make the Bob sled work with shafts/single horse ? i saw a photo of that “go devil” would that be a better option for single ?
Thanks

[Carl Russell]

Phil, I started out with a single bobsled with shafts. I moved quite a bit of logs that first winter. It worked pretty well.

Carl

[bradley]

What did you guys use for shoe bolts? Our local specialized bolt store has allen wrench flat head bolts that work great but they don’t make anything longer than 3 inches. If I grind a taper on some hex bolts, won’t they just spin when I try to tighten them? Thanks for your help.

[mitchmaine]

i think you have to make them, brad. 3/8 soft carriage bolts. heat them up and drive them into a countersunk hole in a peice of hard steel. easier than it sounds.

[Carl Russell]

Mitch is right. So far I have been able to reuse ones in the sled, or others I find in buckets in barns.

Carl

[bradley]

Thanks Mitch and Carl. That makes alot of sense driving the carriage bolts into the hole to make the heads flat. Now here’s one more and maybe the last because I am really close to finishing. I have the tongue and roll all put together with the rings on the end of the roll. But I haven’t drilled the holes in the ends yet. The old sled had bolts through the roll and through the end of the pins!!! I will just drill the hole a 16th smaller than the pin and with pins through runners drive that puppy together, Right? I am nervous it’s not going to be tight enough I guess. Thanks again for your help, you guys are the best.

[Carl Russell]

I’m not sure you need to worry about the hole being tight enough. You will need to be able to rotate those pins some to line up the through bolts. It is the through bolts in the roll that go through the ends of those gudgeon pins that will hold the whole thing together. don’t get too nervous, things will loosen up eventually anyway.

Carl

[mitchmaine]

when you drive those pins in, file a little notch in the head so you can twist it if you have to to make sure its square to drill through. my pins are old and had a dish in it around the bolthole to catch the tip of the drill as you bored your hole. you might try countersinking the bolthole in your pin to do the same thing.
carl’s right. the sleds have to work. loose is good.

[Carl Russell]

Finally found these plans and scanned them. The only dimension left out is that the runners are 6′ from end to bolt hole.

[near horse]

Remember that video link on here somewhere showing that guy making a bobsled (seemed he was at an old mill in Maine/VT maybe). He made his shoe bolts out of carriage bolts I thought – heated and reshaped/flattened the head as I recall? Awesome.

Worth a look Brad if you haven’t seen it.

[dehutch]

Ben’s Mill: Making a Sled

Sled making starts at about 5 minutes

http://www.folkstreams.net/film,187

[near horse]

Thanks dehutch!

[Author]

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