DIY mill

[schmism]

Lets say you could buy a 20" powermatic band saw on CL for $750.

Any good reason not to use this for a base for a DIY build....

already has 20" wheels on bearings
already has wheel tracking mechanism built in
already has blade guides built
already has drive pulley/bearings
already has a metric ton of sheet metal for guards

I could streach the existing casting 8" for a standard 158" band.....

[Ljohnsaw]

Couple things come to mind.

Never seen a Powermatic band saw but if it is built like their table saws, it has to be pretty darn heavy.  Are you going to run the saw on a track or go old-school circle saw and put the logs on a track?

Have you thought about having to run blade lube (water/diesel oil)?  What will that do the saw?

Assuming you are going to continue to run as electric.  How big is the motor?  I found 2.5 hp electric not enough.

[schmism]

Its a band saw, so instead of being vertical i was going to build a 2(4) post head lay it on its side build a track.

New Gas engine to be used instead of the 1.5hp 220v it has.

[gfadvm]

Do you think that bandsaw can tension the blade sufficiently to function as a sawmill? The band on my LT15 is tensioned A LOT tighter than the band on my 17" bandsaw. This may explain why "blade drift" is a bigger problem in bandsaws than with bandmills.

[fishpharmer]

schmism, you won't ever know for sure until you try it.  Many a bandmill has been built using bandsaw parts.  There is a youtube channel that shows how a fella successfully built a working bandsaw mill from a 14" bandsaw.  I think the channel name is bluemgyver.  If I find it I will post it here.  Wrong channel it is this one, johncornelius

http://youtu.be/ZPDhkp2djQ0

[york]

Hi all,
In your new Grizzly catalog,on page 111,have a look-they already did what your talking about,but is a resaw,your idea is valid.....