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Need help designing Bandmill guides

Started by HOGFARMER, December 13, 2005, 07:39:32 PM

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HOGFARMER

Hi, I need some ideas on the design of bandmill guides.  I am building a Rakes type mill and need some help with the guides.  I am not a machinist but I do have a lathe and milling machine.  How would you build the guides and allow for adjustment?  How much blade deflection do I need?  Drawings or photos would be helpful.  Thanks in advance.
Manual LT-30

SAW MILLER

  I had a machinist make mine on my old homebuilt rakes type.2 inches in dia. by 7/8 wide with 1/4 inch flange on back.He hollered it out and pressed in two  #202 bearings and that roughly fits a 5/8 bolt.I welded my bolt head to the support and heated it with a torch to line it up and never adjusted it again.You want 1/4  to 3/8 deflection when running car tires.Lean the guides just a hair toward the tooth side and the flange will tend to pull the blade up against the roller instead of down  which tends to make the blade want to ride back off the roller.I would buy good guides if I had it to do over.They  play a huge part in sawing true lumber.
   Have fun and bring on the pictures
                                                                  Ron ;)
LT 40 woodmizer..Massey ferg.240 walker gyp and a canthook

highpockets

I built a guide the other day that looks like this one from Suffolk Machinery.
http://www.suffolkmachinery.com/guide_systems_NW.asp

I think I used 2 ea 6202 bearings on the top sde of the blade and one that rides the back side. On the bottom I used a tungsten lath insert countersunk in an aluminum plate.  So far I am very pleased with it. 
Louisiana Country boy
homemade mill, 20 h.p. Honda & 4 h.p. for hydraulics.  8 hydraulic circuits, loads, clamps, rotates, etc.

edsaws

Heres a pic of the ones I made. I designed them so when these bearings crap out I should be able to use the ones from cooks saw to replace them.  http://diybandmill.com/index.php?set_albumName=album11&id=Dsc00285&name=Gallery&include=view_photo.php

D._Frederick

edsaw,

Most mill manufactures use flanged roller for guides that are much larger in diameter than the bearing. With the normal 1/4 inch of down force on  the blade, I think that you will find that the bearings will not turn. On my mill, the machined rollers where 1 1/4 inch in diameter, I went to 3 inch rollers to get them to turn 100% of the time.

edsaws

D._Frederick I don't have any problem with them turning. I just don't think they're gonna last to long once I get to making a good amount of sawdust.

HOGFARMER

Thank you all I really appreciate the information please keep it coming.  Have many of you had trouble with the guide bearings not turning ?
Manual LT-30

Tom

I have always wondered if roller bearings would work better in a guide wheel than ball bearings.  Perhaps even something like wheel bearings.  :P :-\

Modat22

Quote from: Tom on December 14, 2005, 09:19:20 PM
I have always wondered if roller bearings would work better in a guide wheel than ball bearings.  Perhaps even something like wheel bearings.  :P :-\

the more contact you have in a bearing the more drag it will produce, a zirconium ball bearing unit as small as possible mounted in a larger ring might be a good option.
remember man that thy are dust.

Minnesota_boy

Quote from: HOGFARMER on December 14, 2005, 09:13:56 PM
Thank you all I really appreciate the information please keep it coming.  Have many of you had trouble with the guide bearings not turning ?

Yep, I have trouble with a guide wheel not turning.  In colder temperatures the bearings will be just a bit stiff to turn and the blade just slides on the wheel for a few minutes to as much as 1/2 hour until the friction warms the bearings and then they turn for the rest of the day.  By colder temperature I mean anywhere form 40 F. to -20 F.  At -20 it almost always takes the full half hour to get the outboard guide roller to start turning.
I eat a high-fiber diet.  Lots of sawdust!

highpockets

I would think think that a roller bearing would have more friction if it got some contamination in it. As for tapered roller bearings, they would probably be nice but the housing and such needed to fit them seems would have to be fairly large.

As for cutting in -20 degree weather, I can't comment.  I was in Siberia and like to have froze to death. Now my toes turn black at 30 degrees.
Louisiana Country boy
homemade mill, 20 h.p. Honda & 4 h.p. for hydraulics.  8 hydraulic circuits, loads, clamps, rotates, etc.

rbarshaw

I used Cooks roller guides on 'The Bandmill That I Built', It's only A couple hundred for each setup, and looking at all  the types out there, I think these are best for home built mills.
Been doing so much with so little for so long I can now do anything with nothing, except help from y'all!
By the way rbarshaw is short for Robert Barshaw.
My Second Mill Is Shopbuilt 64HP,37" wheels, still a work in progress.

gmmills

HOGFARMER,

     Where are you located ? I seem to recall that you are not too far from me.  Cook's Guide systems are very similar to WM's. You can buy the complete system and weld them on. They may seem a bit pricey at first.  Keep in mind that the blade guides play an important part of cutting accurate lumber.  Cook's also sells parts for the guides systems separately. 
Custom sawing full-time since 2000. 
WM LT70D62 Remote with Accuset
Sawing since 1995

Modat22

I'd like to try to turn some bearing sleaves that have the back collar on them but I really don't know how large the collar needs to be or how need the sleeve needs to be from the outside edge to the inside edge of the collar (area the blade rides on), I wouldn't be hard to mill the lubricant channels on there and bore a hole for a pair of sealed bearings.

I've got some 2.5 inch dia unhardened carbon steel bar stock, I can temper it in my aluminum melting furnace.
remember man that thy are dust.

HOGFARMER

I want to thank all who responded to this post I have got some good input and hope to start building them on Monday.  I wish all of you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Manual LT-30

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