I'm not sure if my sawmill will actually be called Robinson's Sawmill but it's a good enough working name for now.  Initially I had thought the mill would live outside permanently but after listening to wise advice from the good fellows here on the Garden Railway Club I revised the plans and the mill has been built as a shelf queen to only be out on the railway during running secessions.  This has meant that choice of materials to use in the build has widened though apart from the custom wood base most of the materials would most likely survive outside anyway.  

The overall size of the mill is llllxwwww, a scale   ft x ft.  The breaking down saw can handle a scale   ft long  ft dia logs.   Just to complicate things slightly the Higgins Park mill is a right handed mill, where as mine to fit the space needed to be left handed.  The plan in my book was of a left handed mill.  There you go, you didn't know you could get different handed sawmills!

So where to start?  It may seem a bit back to front but I decided to start with the breast bench saw.  The breast bench saw is the one where flitches are cut to finished sizes.  

Next up come the tolleys that the sawyer feeds the flitches throughout the breast bench saw on, and the opposing trolley the taylor-outer uses as the flitches have pasted through the saw.  Both are made from various brass strip and sections.  The wheels are from some old HO bogies, the leather strips to protect the workers shins are just that, leather and the bit of chain on the feed trolley is, yes, chain :-)

The Feed Trolley, it has been blacked with Brass Black which on used on most brass throughout the build.

On to what I suppose if the key part of the mill, and what the log meets first, the breaking down saw.  Can't be that much to it can there?  Just a few wooden beam, some rollers for the table to slide on, the table, a couple of saw blades and some belt drums.  Hmm, and then you get into it and there are a fare few parts needed to tie it all together.  The main beams, intact all the timber work, is cut down on my bench saw from Kwila decking timber. (Hehe, milling by own timber.)  Kwila is a hardwood with a rather nice scale grain, and importantly according to my suppliers product info comes from a sustainably managed forest.

Not having any styrene tube or rod the diameter I wanted for the roller I came up with a quick way to pair off slices of tube quickly so I could then build up the rollers from 3 progressively large dis discs.  Yes it's my wife's had modelling the method.  Hold a length of styrene tube in a battery drill, press up against a stop clamped in a mitre box, itself clamped on the bench.  With a craft knife with it's blade extend out to fit across the mitre box now gently press down the the knife while operating the drill to slowly rotate the tube.  It only takes a second or to to slice of a disc and a matter of minutes to produce loads of little discs.

And the following picture, in a test fit our side gives an idea of how the table, beams etc work.  What holds the two halves of the table so they move together back and forth?  A solid section of timber bolted to the trailing end of the table, closest to the camera.

Part way through the assembly, in the photo below, you can see it's a real mix of what ever will look right.  The saw blade and gears are from Ozark Miniatures, most of the drums are various size dressmakers domes and some bits from a empty correction tape thingie.

The belts are cut from a bike tyre inner tube.  The cable on the friction feed is cotton.  

How does it work in real life, best to watch some of the video, complicated to describe in words!  However here is a picture of the same section on the real thing anyway!

With the prime components sorted it was time to set the two saws in place, think about how the mill would be powered and work on the wealth of sundry detail.

With the layout more or less set holes were drilled in the custom wood base and pegs of Kwila were lightly hammered into the holes, a good dollop of PVA glue squirted in the holes first.  Once the glue was dry where possible the joints were pinned as well.  In the photo below I'm part way through making the feed rollers that the flitches slide down towards the breast bench saw after being cut on the breaking down saw.  What will become the mill boiler is from and LGB Otto.

The feed rollers are beads kindly donated from on of H&M's craft kits and styrene angle one a thin styrene base.  As you can guess setting the height of the breast bench came first, then setting the slope for the feed rollers with the level for the breaking down saw table being set by the top of the feed rollers.

Position of rails for the various trolleys happened now (the first bit of 32mm gauge track I've ever laid).  Of course thinking ahead I knew to cut a channel too.  Sigh - why do we forget these things and have to dig out the channel without breaking anything!