Hi I'm a newbie with a question regarding blade length.
I want to build my own Band sawmill. Still working on the design and was just wondering if there are "standard size" Band sawmill
blade lengths. This will help me decide how to put everything together.
Also I want to do this thing Cheap so I welcome ANY tips,tricks,Ideas.Thanks for any help.
Probibly A band that would fit a WM lt40 would be the most common size, I don't own one but others that do will be right along. Frank C.
Im putting the finishing touches on mine and have been sawing up some walnut with it. I cant give you a specific size I use I just built in a ton of spread on my mill so I can use a wide variety of ready made bands or I can have some custom made. Usually there is no extra charge for having them weld up a band to a specific size since you are buying from them and they have to weld it anyhow although not all sellers offer custom band. Good luck to you! It is a long process but it is very rewarding.
Welcome to the Forestry Forum. A 158" blade is probably the most common.
If you are building your own mill, that is a very good question to ask. Like bandmiller2 said a lt 40 woodmizer would be a good size to mimick and Lynn just gave you the size. I have seen them on Ebay for cheep. wish I could have used them. Banjo
Woodmizer, Cooks and Timber wolf will all make blades of any length you need. Others probably do to but those are the three companies that I have got custom length blades from.
If you need a specific length you may want to ask how they make there bands. Two of the three companies I talked to said they make the blades as close to the length asked for but they make sure that the teeth have the same spacing at the weld as any other pint of the blade. That means with a 7/8" spacing on a blade it could be as much as 3/8"longer or shorter than you specified. When I called to place my order I told them I want the blades exactly 151 1/4" and I didn't care about the spacing at the weld. All three companies were able to make them the exact length I wanted. (the only easy adjustment on my mill for blade length is by adding air to the tires)
Another advantage of going with woodmizer size blades is this. When(not if) you get in a bind and need a blade or two in a hurry, you can borrow from the nearest woodmizer owner until you can re-order. There's 4 other mills near me and we have all borrowed blades at one time or another.
Thanks everybody for all the feedback it really helped.helped. I've been looking at steel today. The plans I'm looking at use 2'' square tubing 1/4 thick.Man that seems heavy.Do I need to go that thick?
I`ll be about 6'wide and a bit over 5' tall when its all said and done. Don`t plan on doing any Really big stuff...
mlieb,welcome to the forum. My track and frame is ΒΌ inch and so is the head.
Milieb, you cannot build a mill too heavy duty, you need all the strength you can muster, logs are heavy. Frank C.
1/4 inch wall tubing is good. For us non engineers overkill is better and safer than building it too light. I used thin walled stuff on my first bandmill and it held up fine but I wasn't cutting big stuff. Keep in mind that not everything has to be 1/4 inch thick. Braces and such can be lighter walled when they dont carry loads so to save money you can consider getting a few pieces of thinner stuff and if you can turn down your welder low enough to not blow holes in it. Your trolley and uprights would be good to use 1/4". I used 4" channel for my tracks and lower bunks then used a 2x2 thin wall square tube for the top of the bunks. I also used the channel for the trolley and 4 uprights with 1/2 x 2" flat bars at the corners where the channel joins each other since channel does not have a lot of weldable surface. Channel is cheaper than tubing so it worked better for me. And it is good and rigid when supported properly. Here is a couple pics of what I have so far. Still need to fab the guards and paint the frame but it it workable.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36419/IMG_6970.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36419/IMG_6969.JPG)
One of the standard sizes that both woodmizer and cooks make is 158 inches. I'd stick with that. Custom blades are ok, but like was mentioned, if you run into a bind, it will be harder to locate a blade that will fit...
Thanks again everyone for all the help I really appreciate it.I know I`ll have more questions as I progress. It`s good to know that help is out there !