New Member GA, Wanting to Build a Band Saw

GABlack5m1th · October 27, 2016, 09:18:21 AM

Hey every one, I just stumbled across this forum when doing some Googling about building my own band saw saw mill. I live in North GA, and have been doing a lot of chainsaw milling for a couple of years, but I would like to speed up the operation so to speak. So long story short, I have a 4000 watt generator that stopped making power but the motor (390cc's 11-12hp) is just fine. I have a perfect 8,000watt gen so I thought about repurposing the motor for a saw mill.

One concern I have. the motor doesn't have a throttle like most saw mills i've saw. Since it was on a generator, when started it just runs. Would I be able to use it as is? Or would I need to rig up a throttle of some kind to the carb? Or would it be a good idea to leave the motor as is and add an idler wheel into the system that I could engage and disengage the blade with?

Any way I look forward to the replies and future conversation!

pineywoods · October 27, 2016, 09:47:28 AM

Welcome to the forestry forum. On the genset motor...12 hp is gonna be marginal if you do any serious sawing. Biggest problem will be apparent when you take the generator head off. The crankshaft stub is tapered with no keyway. Difficult to mount a pulley. Couple of ways around this that I have used. There is a throttle there, just no external control. There is also a governor, set to 3600 rpm. Do lots of reading on here before you start cutting metal. Bandsaws look pretty simple, but that ain't necessarily true..

GABlack5m1th · October 27, 2016, 10:12:46 AM

I plan to do much more reading and conceptualizing before I start.....

Kbeitz · October 27, 2016, 10:23:06 AM

crankshaft stub is tapered with no keyway.
Easy fix...

Take apart the generator and cut off the tapered part of the shaft as close
to the windings as possible. Bolt that part of the shaft back on the crankshaft
of your engine. This will give you a shaft to mount your pulleys on.
I get engines from the junkyard all the time because no one wants them
because of the taper. I have added the short chunk of shaft many times
to many engines and never had a problem. Sometime I even cut a keyway
in the shaft before putting it on the engine.

Sometime I do it the other way around. If the engine is bad and the generator
is good then I cut the shaft off the engine and use the sideplate off the engine
with the bearing in it and bolt it all on the side of the generator. This way
you can mount the generator on a tractor and belt drive it off the tractors
engine.