Need advise on my sawmill project

[Ken Malone]

I'm using parts of an old band saw.very heavy steel shafts,wheels and bearings.when the blade carriage is done and motor installed it will be probably close to 300 lbs.any suggestions on lowering mechanism?My plan is riding on 4 posts.I'm thinking acme rod or cable. Appreciate any input.Thanks Ken

[RetiredTech]

  My saw head is pretty heavy too. I built mine with a cable lift just because it was the cheapest way to go. It works fine however if I had the budget I would have used the acme rods. I think it would have made it easier to get accurate height adjustments. I have to ease up on my settings then bump the switch up or down to get an accurate setting. It works and you get pretty good at it after a while. I originally had a worm drive manual winch and it was much easier to set the height, but  my shoulder did not hold up to the constant cranking. It moved very slowly. I also find to maintain accurate cuts I need to drop the head below the setting I'm looking for then come back up to it.
  Acme rods on a chain driven motor controlled by a pwm should give you good a speed and be easy to slow down for the settings. Plus you'll probably be able to just move down from one cut to the next.

[Ken Malone]

I think I will spend the extra and go with the acme rods.It will be a Manuel crank tho so I wonder if that will be to slow.To much cranking.I'm not as young as I used to be and my shoulders may not take it.

[Ljohnsaw]

I had a chain lift initially but replaced it with ACME threaded rods. I first used 1/2" but one of the thin nuts stripped out. I replaced with 5/8", IIRC, and 1-1/2" thick bronze nuts from Surplus Center. Working great, if you keep the sawdust out of the threads.

Mine is powered by a 24v wheelchair motor. I was running it at 12v and was slow. I can now switch in and out another battery. At 24v it's pretty quick and at 12v easy to stop at the mark.