Metal project (sawmill)

I see horrible freight has a knockoff: AndrewV wrote:

I bought the browning sheaves, bearings, and shafts from him years ago. I see he sells kits now.
Uncle and I put something together that works for us. Not a lot of rigidity in our frame so we crib it good so mother earth is the support and pay attention to leveling it.
Wes
-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

... The motorcycle wheels worked out well because they have their own bearings on a simple-to-mount axle and the rear wheel has the drive sprocket attached. The rear tire was already flat enough. I had to grind the front tire to make a flat the width of the blade.
The frame is a simple ladder directly between the axles rather than the usual C frame which would be much harder to make and align. The wheels are large enough that it will cut up to 13" thick. The front wheel is mounted in a sliding subframe for alignment and tensioning.
The engine is a 5.5 HP Tecumseh borrowed from a log splitter. It may be on the light side but it's adequate. With it the 1-1/4" Suffolk Timberwolf blade cuts dry oak at approximately 1" per second, running at around 4000 feet per minute.
The project definitely required a lathe and milling machine and arc welder, plus several hundred dollars for new shaft, bearings, pulleys, etc, sized for 10 HP in case 5 proved too small.
This is the log storage shed which protects them from winter snow and the dust from ATVs. wood dries with fewer cracks if you brush wax on the ends to slow drying. I used a toilet bowl ring dissolved in kerosine.
Good luck with it. Jim Wilkins

On Fri, 7 Nov 2008 15:05:07 -0500, the infamous "AndrewV" scrawled the following:
Check your costs against the HF model before you build. You might be able to retrofit it to be a super saw for less. $1800 with 7hp engine. I was in HF today and saw that they had new welding rod storage tubes, with thick rubber washers, to keep your welding rod dry. Cool idea, and on sale now at $4.99 a pop, cheap enough. Western Safety brand. -- To use fear as the friend it is, we must retrain and reprogram ourselves...We must persistently and convincingly tell ourselves that the fear is here--with its gift of energy and heightened awareness--so we can do our best and learn the most in the new situation. -- Peter McWilliams, Life 101

I have two of those, they work well.

Nice job on your mill . Its good to hear about success with the limn plans & parts... his design seems to stand the test of time. I have some wide flange beams to use for the mill bed otherwise I'd be doing a lot of shimming to. Tell me more about the hydraulic jack used as a tensioner, like size and how you mounted the gauge.
Andrew

... The motorcycle wheels worked out well because they have their own bearings on a simple-to-mount axle and the rear wheel has the drive sprocket attached. The rear tire was already flat enough. I had to grind the front tire to make a flat the width of the blade.
The frame is a simple ladder directly between the axles rather than the usual C frame which would be much harder to make and align. The wheels are large enough that it will cut up to 13" thick. The front wheel is mounted in a sliding subframe for alignment and tensioning.
The engine is a 5.5 HP Tecumseh borrowed from a log splitter. It may be on the light side but it's adequate. With it the 1-1/4" Suffolk Timberwolf blade cuts dry oak at approximately 1" per second, running at around 4000 feet per minute.
The project definitely required a lathe and milling machine and arc welder, plus several hundred dollars for new shaft, bearings, pulleys, etc, sized for 10 HP in case 5 proved too small.
This is the log storage shed which protects them from winter snow and the dust from ATVs. wood dries with fewer cracks if you brush wax on the ends to slow drying. I used a toilet bowl ring dissolved in kerosine.
Good luck with it.
Jim Wilkins
Nice job
I'm planing to buy parts like sheaves, bearings and shafts primarly because I don't hav a lathe or mill and secondly to get proven for application parts. I have a line on an 18 hp engine so I need to build the rest to match. Do you sharpen your own blades or send them out? I was leaning toward buying enough blades so I can send them out for now.
Andrew

Be afraid very very afraid.... I need 30" log capicity anyway. I'd be interested in the 7hp @ 4000 rpm engine should be fun to watch for a little while anyway.
Andrew

Evidently the doofus factor here is going to whine about the election until there's another one to whine about.
I've given bandsaws for wood some thought, and observed some commercial versions as well.
Wood-Mizer uses large double-belt pulleys as wheels, with belts (just barely larger than the pulley) in there as a tire.
The easiest way to simplify the framing and forces on a bandsaw is to forget the "C" concept and throw away half the throat - then you can run a beam from axle to axle. For most lumber-milling, this will not really limit the useful size of the saw, as you hardly ever cut that deep into the throat.
I either had a thought of, or quite possibly read about someone doing (but don't recall where) using car tires (and wheels and other car parts), which would appear to allow building a more "fixed" mount and adjusting tension with air pressure (while having inexpensive highly durable bearings). Not sure if that really would work.

I've heard of trailer wheels being used. 1" threaded rod might work for the axle.
Air pressure greatly affects tracking. The tensioner on mine is a disk brake pad spreader screw pushing on a leaf spring cut from a pry bar.

You can get some ideas here =3D
Smitty

And here;

I'd check professional and hobby sized ones for HP sizes. 7hp sounds small for 30" anything. Linear speed of cut would be small - if the blade didn't bind up in resin.
Martin
AndrewV wrote:

The first bandsaw mill I built had a 1/2 HP electric motor. It was extremely slow, of course, but it did make two dozen 9" wide planks. I tried a large, coarse bandmill blade on it and got some improvement until the small wheels cracked the blade. Based on two saws it seems to me that you just push as hard as the motor allows.

I was kidding about the 7 hp engine@ 4000rpm as stated in the harbor fright ad. All the small engine ads I've looked at lately (lots) state 3600 rpm as a max governed speed. My pick for an engine and the plans I'm using call for 15 hp min, 18 as an option & up to 24hp max. This is for gasoline engines , diesel or an electric motor would be different.
Andrew