Bandsaw Mill Design and Build

[jpassardi]

Congrats. I agree.

 Happy Bday to you Fluid Power!

[rusticretreater]

And if one breaks you have a spare.  Also one to give to an heir.

[Crusarius]

you have all the parts you need and then some. I would almost be tempted to just keep the hudson and sell off the other parts. the hudson can always be modified.

[fluidpowerpro]

What model Hudson is it? How big will it cut?

[JoshNZ]

One thing I've recently learned, if you're turning your own main shafts, make sure they're high tensile!

I had a bearing failure 3 years in and spun a sleeve on a shaft which ruined the journal. I decided to make new shafts all around as I'd not owned the tools to get a precision press fit when I did make them. 1018 steel was what I had on hand so it's what I made the new ones out of. First one snapped about 3 hours into work and second about 45 minutes later, which is somewhat impressively consistent hah.

So I've made a third set, out of 4140 again and back in business. Certainly the long way around.



 

I'm also not a fan of pillow blocks. Mine run hot all the time. Much better off with something like what cooks uses (and many others I'm sure) with a tapered roller bearing.

[RetiredTech]

  Congratulations on your mill purchase. Sounds like you got a deal. I hope you don't decide to abandon your custom build. My mill is going to be stationary. But I'm already thinking about building a second lightweight easy to transport mill I can take into the woods much like the smaller Hudsons. I can see where two mills would be beneficial.