Hello I'm new and started building a bandsaw mill.

Modat22 · October 31, 2005, 11:58:18 AM

A member recommended that I join this forum and from the looks of things I'm glad I did.

I haven't made a great deal of progress but I'll post what I've done so far.

I've been collecting metal, parts, tools etc. over the past 6 months
or so and finally started building the beast.

Pictures of the two pieces of my track.

section 1

section 2

The sections measure 56 inches wide and 8'6 long made with 4" x 6" x
1/4" thick steel angle. The stringers in most instances are the same
material.

The engine I plan to use is an old 1952 4 cyl Wisconsin hay bailer
engine that I bought for 50 bucks.

I managed to level and square my tracks this weekend and finally
welded both track halves together, this monster is heavy! Approx. 680
pounds so far.

My tracks aren't as true as I hoped, the used metal deviates by 1/8 in
a wave pattern along its entire length. I thinking about buying two 20
foot sections of 3" x 3" x 1/4" angle iron and laying them on top of
my existing tracks, shimming them true and tack welding those down to
straighten my track out. I also shortened a mobile home axle to fit my
monster, I'll try to have it hung next weekend.

My motor gets delivered this Friday and I'll start looking around for
some 4" square tubing for my band saw head columns.

I'll post a few pictures latter of my progress and motor, once again
its going to be a slow project as money will limit my progress. I plan
on building the band saw head over the winter in my shop (if I can get
the motor in there).

Happy Trails!

Sam G
Irvington, KY

ronwood · October 31, 2005, 12:10:39 PM

Modat22

Welcome to the forum. Good luck on building your mill. Plenty of information on the forum.

Tom · October 31, 2005, 12:15:31 PM

Welcome to the Forum!

You've taken on quite a project. We have members that have been there though. They will probably be a big help.

If your track is wavy, you might have a problem. I don't know what type of mill you plan to build but the track generallly determines the surface of the board. If anything needs to be straight it is the track. Of course, I guess it depends on which plane the bend occurs.

Think safety!

Deadwood · October 31, 2005, 12:19:43 PM

Congradulations, you have started an ambitious project and I wish you all the luck.

My father and I built a chainsaw sawmill a few years ago, but found it was underpowered and woefully slow. We are considering modifying it to a bandsaw blade set up and have a few ideas brewing around. The current one is to drive it with my 25 hp tractor. in any case I hope you accomplish your goals as I might just contact you and glean some ideas off you.

As the railroad motto always says, no one person is smarter than all of us put together.

That is why I become a member on online forums and am certainly glad you joined up as well. Again good luck and glad to see you posted your progress.

Modat22 · October 31, 2005, 12:22:48 PM

Aye my track is wavy on the up and down, I checked it with a laser level and waves up and down almost 1/8th inch. I'll put a subtrack on it and shim it true.

The mill I'm building I guess would be considered a 2 post mill, I got the idea from looking as a few mills in my area and decided that I should be able to build one.

The worse thing that can happen is my not finishing it and ending up with a decent trailer to haul lumber, but my wife is pushing me to finish it thus cleaning up all the stuff laying around my yard.

DonE911 · October 31, 2005, 12:28:45 PM

Welcome....

can't wait to see her cutting logs 8)

Mrs._Stump_Jumper · October 31, 2005, 12:52:12 PM

Welcome Aboard!

From stump jumpers

DouginUtah · October 31, 2005, 01:34:53 PM

That just might be a first--posting pictures in your first message.

Congratulations.

-Doug
(I be dat member. Drug him over here from rec.woodworking. ;D :D )

Jeff · October 31, 2005, 01:38:35 PM

Quote from: DouginUtah on October 31, 2005, 01:34:53 PM
That just might be a first--posting pictures in your first message.

Congratulations.

-Doug
(I be dat member. Drug him over here from rec.woodworking. ;D :D )

Well sorta doug. I had to change them to links because they are photo bucket photos and go well past our forum size limits.

Welcome there Modat22

Modat22 · October 31, 2005, 03:53:24 PM

Sorry about that, I'll post all my pics as links from now on out.

Tom · October 31, 2005, 04:08:55 PM

The real trick is to use the forestry forum gallery. That way your pictures stay on here forever.

Check out the instructions down below in the "Behind the forum" section.

SwampDonkey · October 31, 2005, 05:20:20 PM

Welcome aboard Modat, You'll find a few folks posting there saw building projects as you explore the forum. It would be great to post the images in your forestry forum gallery. Sometimes those external links disappear if someone's account offsite gets purged. :-\

Jeff · October 31, 2005, 05:35:04 PM

Yep Modat22, once you get the hang of the Forum gallery system it gives you a ton of room for posting your forum related photos, and the more you post and interact here, the more gallery room you earn. I have not had anyone say yet that they reached the limit on their photo space, and thats probably because it is so liberal.

Modat22 · November 01, 2005, 11:31:06 AM

I'll start using the gallery, I'm having a little trouble with pictures like the one attached to this message, I'm losing too much detail for the picture to be any use. Seems that the problem is only related to screen captures from my Cad program though.

I have a question, on a home made bandsaw head, should both tires be toe'd out like this?

Or can the drive wheel be perpendicular to the head frame while the follower wheel is toe'd out?

last question. I know the tire face is cut to a curve to allow the band to follow the center of the wheel, is there a standard curve that works best or would free handing the curve work alright?

Thanks

Sam

Tom · November 01, 2005, 11:57:28 AM

Until some of really technically oriented fellows shows up, here are some old posts that might help.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=13940.0
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=5536.0
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=4854.0
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=2472.0

Modat22 · November 01, 2005, 12:28:34 PM

thankyou tom, I think I found the information I was looking for. I just found the search function (smacks self on the head).

Engineer · November 01, 2005, 06:37:07 PM

It's a lot more pleasant here than lurking in Usenet. Especially wreck.the.woodwork. I bailed out of there a long time ago. :(

Modat22 · November 01, 2005, 08:48:45 PM

Quote from: Engineer on November 01, 2005, 06:37:07 PM
It's a lot more pleasant here than lurking in Usenet. Especially wreck.the.woodwork. I bailed out of there a long time ago. :(

no kidding, if you ask what seems to be common knowlege question on usenet they'll burn you at the stake.

SwampDonkey · November 05, 2005, 01:09:50 PM

I found Fireworks was not as easy to crunch the photo and be as viewable as images compressed with Photoshop's Save for Web plugin. I'm not suggesting to go out and buy Photoshop, but if you have the speed of broadband and the storage space you can download the trial from Adobe's site for a free 30 day trial. Adobe also owns Macromedia now which includes Fireworks. I think they needed Dreamweaver, because GoLive didn't really cut it. ;)

Looks like a screen capture. Is there a JPG export in your CAD, or maybe DXF and convert it later to a JPG. I took the image into Photoshop 7.0, resized it, altered the contrast a bit and compressed it.

Modat22 · November 07, 2005, 08:23:43 AM

I made a little progress with my track, welded it all together, hung one axle and fabricated my tongue and coupler. Another axle will have to be added and I will as soon as I pick up another set of tires. Tongue heavy as it is it tracked wonderfully.

Also picked up my motor Friday afternoon, its a Wisconsin VE4 4 cyl motor, it runs good and I can still get parts. I wish I had a video of me getting this off my truck, I used a furniture dolly and as it passed off the tail gate it threw me over it like a catapult. My back still hurts.

I think I'll use this as my drive wheel axle, picked it up for 10 bucks. Look at those massive pillow block bearings! Man I love older machine parts.

Mods, I think I started this thread in the wrong forum. If you think it belongs in the bandsaw forum please move it. Sorry posting in the wrong place.

GF · November 07, 2005, 09:02:01 AM

My first engine for my home built sawmill was a Wisconsin VH4D (30HP), they definity have some weight to them. I replaced because it was pretty much wore out when I put it on the mill, it had alot of compression going back in the crankcase because the rings were bad.

Modat22 · November 07, 2005, 09:28:33 AM

I'll probably overhaul the ve4 over the winter, honestly the engine it heaver that I'd like but its cost was right. I'll end up putting an additional 200.00 in the engine before use.

Rings, gaskets, seals, distributer cap, points. I'll probably switch it over to a 12 volt system as well.