My Design for a Band saw Sawmill.

[Bob]

Oh ? I know Northern tools has 2 for sale, didn't know Harborfrieght has any !
thanks !
Bob....

[crb]

Bob,
Have you been to diybandmill.com? Lots of pics.
crb

[Bob]

Nope and thanks for the addie !
 I finally got the 8hp to run constantly.... and mounted it on the band saw... adjusted the clutch
cut a spring and fit it for the latch... fired up the motor and cut a board with no problem...
... so... Success !!!! so far !
... now the hard part... making the carrage/trolly system for it on the trailer !
....
 sure was nice to see the thing spin under the 8hp motor.... i've been working for that for a long time
and its very gratifying to finally see it work under its own power ! HAHAHAHAHAHA
....
Bob....

[Bob]

hehehe well I found the meterial I need for the trolley on the sawmill its the bench I have the saw hooked to now!   it has 2# 6ft 3" channel iron rails in it and thats just what I need !
they will be the horozontal porton that sets on the trailer frame rails....
however I need to get the saw unclamped off that thing and moved somewhere else so I can dismantle it !
hehehehhe....
 I am almost positive I will have to have a slight off set to the Posts that go vertical so I'll make that out of 1/2" scrap plate... and weld the posts to that then weld the plate to the channel iron
...but I won't do that till I get that trailer down here so I can work on it and build it on the trailer rails... so I know it will fit for sure ! hehehehe
...
its raining again today... and we gott'a go to town later  so I ain't going to get anything done today ...darn it !
.... oh well such is life on the Ranch ! LOL
...
Bob......

[Bob]

Well, I've accomplished allot sense my last post....
in short I have both sides of the trolley made up and On the trailer with the bandsaw between them...
Hopefully I'll have them laced together by tomorrow night... and the engine back on and the band saw blade back on... I took them off to put the thing on the trailer... the monster probably weighs 250lbs now, hehehehe I loaded it with the tractor though so it wasn't bad at all.
....
I'm getting real close to testing it out on a log!
... though I don't have the up and down mechanism on it yet...
... a friend of mine Sonny Jeffers reminded me that I could use a vertical shaft Lawnmower engine by running a v-belt to 90 degrees.... I have a 21hp Murry lawn tractor that I could steel the motor out of ... but I'ed have to put the old lawn tractor motor in it to make it run again in a short period of time as I need to cut grass with it ! LOL
so IF the 8hp fails to cut a tree I know the 21hp will do the job !
...although it will entail a bunch of modifications...heheheh
... I'll try the 8hp first... I think it will cut ok...but we'll see about that!
...
I made up my own rollers out of 2" pipe and some 5/8" washers and some 5/8" re-bar as axles... it don't roll the easiest but with a bit of oil on those wheels it rolls real easy! LOL
...
I'm a long way from being done on it , but I think its one of those things that will be in constant evolution.... simply because there are so many parts and different ways of doing things.
one of those , I'll try it this way, and if it don't work good... I'll try something else ! LOL
...
I'll post another pic or two when I got it up and running doing its thing...which should be some time soon!
....
Bob.......

 

[Bob]

Ok SUCCESS !
 I got it up and running, got the trolley working/rolling up and back on the trailer ok...
and the bandsaw re-assembled
...
 here is a pic of it as it sets now...(1st pic)
and this one is of it actually RUNNING, spinning the bandsaw blade !!!!!!! WOOO_HOOO!
...
Bob...

[Bob]

Ok ... they always say the "proof is in the pudding"  meaning we'll see if it works or not...
well I went out to the Pasture and found a 4"3" long log about 15" in diamator... brought it back
and put it on the trailer bed... it just fit over 3 cross braces and I put some vice grips on each side to keep it from rolling and braced it real good.
...
 So I fired up the saws engine and eased the bandsaw blade into the log.... it started cutting fine but imediately started cutting Upwards !.... I got in about 2" and realised it was binding on the blade itself at that point so I backed it out ...turned it all off and inspected it real good... it indeed did cut Upwards from the start.... and bowed the blade a good inch in the proccess!
... I got to looking for the cause and realised that the saw blade itself was indeed pointing UP at about a 15 degree angle when compaired to the trailer bed !!!!!
so I cut and re welded the vertical posts and got them perfectly vertical.... and realised that the guides were pointing up now.... so I pulled them off , bent the tubes slightly and re worked the bearing guides to reach out further on the blade ( longer bolts and a bunch of washers!)
... but sense it has been raining for 2 days stright I havn't tried it sense...
 I am almost positive that 90 percent of the problem is the band saw blade itself... its dulled, a few teeth missing and I think the Kerf is gone out of it... so I will sharpen it somehow and try it again once I do ....that's what I get for making my saw around a discarded bandsaw blade ! LOL
....it was discarded for a reason!  John hit the log dog with it ! so replaced the blade !
that's the one I got.... so sharpening and re working the kerf is needed... I hope I can pull it off ok... I dunno... never done a bandsaw blade before , but I think I can fumble my way through it !
LOL !
.... 
I did discover that the motor will have to be ran at about 3500RPM other wize the engine boggs down fairly fast... but if I keep the RPM up  it does a good job...
... we'll see what it does when I get that blade sharpened up...and cutting in a stright line !
....
... its almost there anyway !
...
Bob........

[hydrotinkerer]

Bob, After looking at the pictures I don't see the OSHA approved safety gaurds in place. Just got to kid you a little. lol

[Bob]

LOL ! Yah Well... that's more weight! and blocks the view of the blade.... because if I see it starting to come off I hit the clutch reliese lever and run screaming like a little Girl !
 LOL !
....
that reminds me that lever needs to be extended a bit more ! LOL   and painted Bright RED!
...
Bob.....

 

[Bob]

BTW... my pushing place is on the other side of the wheels of the band saw... so I am back away from that meat saw if it should come off of there....
...
Bob...

[Bob]

Ok... here's the proof you've been waiting for ! hehehehe
 last night I sharpened the band saw blade and set the kerf real wide...
 it makes a rough cut about like a chainsaw but it does the job
the saw engine runs wide open or darn near it... and it cut the plank in about 3or 4 min  the log is 4'3" long....
....
I still have a bunch to do on it but FINALLY I can see some progress ! YAHOOOO!
...
 I think I'll party ! HAHAHAHAH!
...
Bob.....

[Bob]

hehehe,
 Well I flipped the log over so the flat side was down and trimmed of the top
... but before I did that , I took my Oil can and oiled allot of things... being very careful not to get it on the blade or tires..... "WRONG MOVE" ... the blade came off twice.... luckily at very slow speeds....but it did come off...  I think the reason is the way I have the tension er arranged on the thing.
 when ever I engage the clutch I do it very slowly, and keep an eye on the blades tracking...just in case it tries to wander off the wheels before it gets stabilized at speed. that kept me from having to chase down the blade 2 times after I oiled parts....
 Odd how just a small amount of oil will muck up the works but it sure does....
 if I had it to do all over again I'ed take out the tensionier wheel and make the tension on the blade by moving the far wheel out ..... I may do that eventually anyway...
...because of 2 things 1.the tension isn't enough...it needs more tension on it and I have it as tight as it can go...
2. it plays with the tracking in weird ways.... it would be far better from a tracking standpoint not to have the 3rd wheel in there.
.... I'd also place the driven v-belt on the inside of the rim instead of the outside so when the blade does come off ( and it will at some point in time) it doesn't tear up the v-belt... because the inside of the wheel is the back side of the saw blade... no teeth to cut up the v-belt.
...
 so I may well end up doing these things...
...
I have been seriously giving some thought to the raise and lowering of the saw...I think I will simply use a 1" pipe across the top next to the side ways bar, and put a crank handle on it and 2 cables going down to the band saw head.... it will need a good lock on it so that will more than likely be a fine thread case hardened nut and bolt that I can squeeze into the shaft to stop rotation.
and just put a "T" handle on it.
...
cutting the top bark section off the log wasn't all that bad... but took a bit longer than the other cuts...
 then cutting the next plank was very long for some reason... it probably took me 15 minutes to cut just the one plank.... I think because of the oil... and I noticed the tracking on the tensioner wheel was jumping all over the place so I was going easy on it....
but it did cut another plank.... I only have one more 2" plank left in that little log then I'll have to find another log to play with! heheheheh
... its a very Pitchy piece of Pine and the "saw dust" was building up on the blade and wheels, so I took my puddy knife and spun the thing by hand and scraped most of it off... I am sure that is why the tensioner wheel was acting strange because it had 3 lumps of pitch on it! ...
having a hand crank on that Drive wheel is really a nice convenience... all it is is the long bolt
that sticks through the pulley.... I cut off all but one...and use it to turn the saw... it really helps !
...
 The engine is barely running however... the carb came loose... I tightened it... its stripped out threads on the bottom of the carburetor are leaking gas now and is reluctant to adjust the fuel ratio
very well.... I'm thinking I'll take the float bowl off and fill the hole with J.B.Weld , then drill and thread it and see if that works..... I could try to fill it with the aluminum welding rod but I think it would all discentrigate on me while doing so... welding the intake manifold was hard enough!
...
so my conclusions are ....
 Don't use the same method I did for a blade tension arrangement... make one of the main wheels to go in and out for the tension....(remember it also has to twist to make the tracking work!)
...a bigger engine would really help as its barely got enough hp to pull itself through the log.
(that's probably because of the large kerf I gave it the other night.)
(sense the trailer the band saw is on is leaning down hill  I can take my hands off the saw and let it feed itself... it will bog it down quite a bit, but it still does it, and cuts really fast when I do that...so it does have enough HP... but just barely!)
 use Store bought wheels on the Carrage... don't make your own metal rollers like I did the wideness of the rollers instead of helping is a hindrance... the saw dust is pan-caked on the left rail and I have to take a wire brush to it after each pass.... (a shield should help keep the saw dust off the rail and eliminate that problem, but the wheels just don't roll worth a darn !)...
the trolley does get "Cocked" to one side from time to time....that's something I tried to eliminate
but it still happens as I feared it would. however the vibration of the saw allows it to work down the log at a slow pace anyway regardless.... that motor shakes the whole thing real bad!
(a smooth running 2 cyl opposed engine would be the cats meow ! )
....
I have yet to tackle the "Log Dog" Dilemma... so far I have just put clamps on the rails the log is setting on to stop it from rolling... that is all the clamping I have done to the log!
...
But ... it works ! and it cuts a log.... cutting enough lumber to do something with is another thing altogether ! its slow and troublesome at this point in time but I hope to refine it to work better.
it is by far and away, better than a chainsaw sawmill..... LOL   
I am guessing but I think it will take about 15 to 30minutes to cut a 10' plank 12"wide... each cut!
so about 45 minutes per board.... not the greatest... but far faster than my Alaskan saw mill!
and about 4 times as SLOW as a store bough band saw sawmill.... but that in all fairness is probably just the saw blade!
....
here's 2 more Pics'
...
Bob.......

[randy]

Tap that intake manifold out to the next size up and install downsized studs in there

bob.

[Bob]

the intake manifold is not the problem ...I welded that up and machined it down to size it fits fine.
the problem is on the float bowl there is a high speed needle jet adjustment a brass fitting that has a needle jet in it... the fitting itself stripped out the threads in the float bowl... the fitting descrintigated from corrosion but i found another that is working great.... but the threads are no longer there.... I had to drill them out and insert a vinyl hose and screwed the fitting into that...
...its been working, (although Jerry rigged), but it started leaking... I have found that the red High temp silicone is NOT good for ANYTHING with gasoline.... that stuff swells up and melts away...
...I might try  J.B.Weld in it and tap the J.B.Weld maybe that will work.... the problem is it needs something to grab on to ... so maybe taping the hole that i got in there now will give it enough traction to be able to thread the J.B.Weld... I think it will...
 once that is done then I have to clean out the 2 passage ways coming and going from the little valve...  if I put toothpicks in the passage ways I will be able to at least find the holes when I drill the hole to be tapped out.... then a hunk of bailing wire or torch tip cleaner should clean them up good enough ! <grin>
....
 its just getting around to it now....
 I tightened the spindles a bit ago and put air in one of the tires and it tightened up the blade real nice! LOL.... tried to start it and it wouldn't run... checked the gas and sure enough its dry as a bone in there ! LOL.... could be why it quit last time  !  but I was ready to turn it off anyway and didn't pay any attention to it ! HAHAHAHHAHA
...
I took allot of my "Radical Kerf out of the band saw blade this morning...it should cut better now
still has plunty of Kerf I think.... even if its not very sharp...
( odd that!... because I just sharpened it!)
...
anyway ...waiting fer gasoline so I may fiddle with that carb later today ! LOL!
....
Bob....

[Bob]

well, I've been busy sense my last post....
I broke my band saw blade about a week ago.... so sense I can't cut anymore planks I decided to refit the band saw..
....
I added another long piece of angle iron on top of the existing angle iron that I have the spindles bolted to... to add strength.... it was flexing too much  I think...  that made the main beam that everything sets on allot stronger. its now a 2" square tube 6ft long and the spindles mount to it...
 I made a sliding joint for the far wheel on that square tube so it can twist sideways for tracking adjustment as well as slide up and down the rail for tension adjustment...
and sense I am buying shorter blades (144" instead of 167") I won't need the 3rd wheel in the center
that mucks up the tracking so easily...
I took my broken blade and measured 144" and cut and tacked it together so I had a Length to adjust things to.... it worked real well. with a properly sized blade on it I could make the tension adjustment bolt and lock nut. which I did and tightened up the blade and its now tight enough not to flop around so bad... I am purdy sure that is why the blade broke... it flexed too much...
because it didn't have very much tension on it at all... even though it worked well, it wasn't optimum
by any means.
...
I tried to fix the old carburetor again and finally gave up and went and pulled the engine off the Chipper/shredder, a 7hp B&S and come to find out the carburetor is exactly the same....
 (I know I had trouble with that engine flooding out at times... )
so anyway I pulled the carburetors off both engines and put the one from the 7hp (good one ) on to the 8hp... and tried to fire it up ... it ran ok but as I thought it might it flooded out and started leaking gasoline... float stuck !... so I pulled out the float and found it had gas in the float so I drained it out and re soldered the hole and put the float back in .... then the engine ran too lean...
so I pulled it out again and re set the float depth and finally got it just right... (the float setting on those carburetors is very very touchie... )
anyway sense I got the carb working FINALLY! I decided to hook back up the governor on it so the engine would maintain the RPM like it should... we'll see about adjusting the governor when I can saw again!
....
I had to re work the lower guides as well , their sliding bracket on the angle iron had to be changed to a box over the square beam, which I did.    although I won't know till I get a new blade on there and tracking correctly if the lower guides will reach the blade properly or not.... I think they are going to be about 1/2" to 1" too short... if so I'll have to fix them as well.
...
I took out the center Post on the main frame when I added the angle iron piece and then welded it back in there after I was all done with it...
...I did a bunch of touch up welding in places that needed a bit more as well.
 the upper guide I will leave in there to help keep the top band from flexing too much... sense I have it made up anyway !
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All in all I've had to just about re-make the entire saw heheheheheh!
but soon as I get some bandsaw blades I'm ready to do the final adjustments and put that puppy to work!.....
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with the engine running great now,(and new sharp blades) it should cut about 2 times as fast as it had been.
 ... I can't wait to try it!
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although I haven't made up the Log holders (log Dogs) yet I'll get around to that soon as I can get some square tubing so I can make them adjustable.
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I'll try to get some new pics of the saw posted soon.
...
Bob...