First Thread, Noob be nice

[hackberry jake]

Does the grain in the middle run perpendicular to the two boards towards the outside?

[resqd1]

Yes it does

Anywho back to saw talk, I am thinking I am shying away from tires.

[boscojmb]

Tried searching but not sure what to search for. Wondering thoughts from others, been lurking a long time but finally made an account. I am thinking about a bandsaw mill. I have a low budget for one, or in my wife's words no budget, but that is another discussion. Anywho, I have seen some saw out there made with rubber auto tires for the drive wheels instead of a big steel wheel is this a bad thing or something to shy away from?

When I lived in Alaska a neighbor had a band mill built by a local welding shop that used tires for band wheels. I never ran the mill myself, but it was used to build 3 houses, a 20 x 40 workshop, and 10+ small buildings without any issues with the tires. Unless you are planning to run it as a full time business, I would say that rubber tires are fine.

[SawyerBrown]

First of all, welcome to the Forestry Forum, resqd1!

So I'll just share my very limited experience.  I bought a home-made "sawmill" (for $50 total!!) that used rubber trailer tires ...  This is about the only picture I have of the DanG thing (sorry for poor quality).



 

The thing I would say after running a WM for a couple of years now, is that I could not get the same amount of tension in the blade running over rubber, no matter how much air pressure was in the tires.  The blade would still depress into the rubber and limit the tension.  I had no way to measure it, of course, but it still seems like the "professionals" are running more tension which helps to keep the cut nice and straight.  The other problem I had with this unit, and likely is addressed by "real" manufacturers, is that there was enough "crown" on the tires that would either put a lot of pressure on the "thrust" bearing, or the blade would walk off the front. 

So, while manufacturers may be addressing these issues, my experience with running over rubber was not necessarily positive.  It at least might give you a basis for asking some very pointed questions.

Good luck!!

[resqd1]

Thanks Sawyer, That helps

[hackberry jake]

Yes it does

Anywho back to saw talk, I am thinking I am shying away from tires.

have the boards in the center started splitting yet? are they glued?

[resqd1]

Yes it does

Anywho back to saw talk, I am thinking I am shying away from tires.

have the boards in the center started splitting yet? are they glued?

Yeah we knew it would pull a little, was the style we were going for, wanted it to look aged, so by doing it this way it pulls against eachotehr and spreads the wood in places and then you stain inside the cracks and it give character to it. This one actually split sooner that I thought due to it having to be stored in the garage for month while the dining room was being finished. It is glued and doweled. I love the character it has now. I am not a clean line straight smooth finish kind of kind, hence the live edge on the legs and long sides.