DIY Bandsaw Build

[Mill-er Time]

 

 

 

 Hi all, new member here and new to lumber milling in general. I'm a machinist/fabricator and have been interested in milling my own lumber for years so I took the plunge and Built my own. I thought I'd sign up to share the build and I'm wanting to gain some knowledge about milling and timber framing. 

[doc henderson]

Welcome Miller time, looks like you are off to a good start.

[Southside]

That's a nice mill you built there.  Can we get a photo of the business end of things?

[Mill-er Time]

Here is a link to a video of it doing the first cuts https://youtu.be/wq8N91v9AWw

Here is a link to the build. The video is a bit long https://youtu.be/VThWcZpmV04

[Walnut Beast]

Nice mill and video of first cut 👍

[Dirigoboy]

Haven't posted any photos yet, but I just finished assembly of my Woodland Mills 122. I'm gassed up and ready to go after I fill the water tank.  One of the nice things about being recently retired is that I didn't have a time element involved.  I was fortunate that I could take my time, and I have found that the thing taking up almost all my time was leveling.  The directions themselves were pretty straightforward.
I had a gravel base to lay my 4x6 pressure treated beams on.  I opted for a track extension, which will allow me to cut up to 16 footers, so that meant buying four 10 footers and cutting two of them to size.  Once I had the track on the fun began and I seemed to be chasing level from bunk to bunk and couldn't get the whole shebang to coordinate.  Then I took some old 4x4's I had laying around and cut them up in to enough blocks that I could lay one on each bunk.  I bought some string at the hardware store and tied off the string on the first and last blocks on the bunks and it was then that I could see where I had to make adjustments on the track feet.  It was a bit of a chore, the 6 by's were warped so it took me additional time to get everything squared away, but I'm ready to run a test cut which I'll do in the next couple of days.
One of the things I think that deserves more discussion is efficiency in the physical layout of the mill.  I don't know how many times I've watched videos where I see band saw millers end up handling cut off's and live edged lumber multiple times and having had that prior mill experience and in watching the way others are working their mills, I've come up with a plan for my own in which I will have appropriate sized bunks to run my logs in on, as well as gravity rollers to run cut off's, live edged, finished boards and timbers out to.  I have no desire to handle my wood multiple times, so I'll be building some bunks that I'll be able to run wood out onto using those rollers.  As for sawdust, I purposely laid down wide enough timbers so that eventually, I'll be able to run a trough right along side the track to capture sawdust.  Initially, I'll put down a u-shaped configuration that I can run a shovel along not like the old barn manure gutters.  Eventually, I hope to save up enough in the next couple of years to put in small sawdust conveyor.  I've done a lot of looking around and I found a company out in Wisconsin that has what I think will be a good solution for me.  The company is Loyal Roth Manufacturing and they carry what I feel are some economical options for sawdust removal:  
Loyal Roth Manufacturing
That's down the road a ways, but that's the plan.

For now I have some trees to drop and bunks to make as I wind my plan into gear.  I'm looking forward to it.

[Vautour]

 Very nice looking mill you built.. looks factory craftsmanship ..good job

[mrfu]

wow, very impressive. I really like the raising and lowering system.
Tom

[Wintergreen Mountain]

Excellent job!

    That has a lot of original thought and engineering. 

    Leon

[Crusarius]

Thats is beautiful I was looking at the raise and lower setup as well. very similar to what I am playing with on my mill.

Have any better pictures of it?

[Crusarius]

never mind I just watched the video. Love the work you did. 

It has got to be a pain changing the blade though.

[BtoVin83]

I noticed both bed rails are vee type, do one set of track wheels float or did you weld the track exactly parallel?

[Mill-er Time]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. 

BtoVin83 the wheels have about 1/8" available movement either direction to compensate for any minor difference in bed rail width. I did however make a jig to hold the rails when welding each cross member so the width is basically perfect the whole length. 

[Mill-er Time]

Blade change out isn't terrible. It's not as fast as most mills I've seen. It takes about 15 mins to get he covers off, change blade, tension and put covers back on. I don't have much for large diameter or hard wood where I'm located so change outs should be minimal. At least they have been so far.....I have yet to break one yet either