Sawmill build.

[Dale2689]

Hi I'm going to be building a saw mill here right away using trailer tires. I'm looking around for some 12 inch trailer wheels as that's closest I can get in size to the 18.75 pulleys they seem to use. What length of saw blade do you guys recommend? I kinda want to figure that out to figure out everything else size wise. I'm hoping for at least a 20" cut. And are there any places online that have some plans? I have found lots of YouTube videos bit they don't really give you sizes of anything. I look forward to hearing your suggestions thanks. 

[Hilltop366]

Greetings and welcome.

I would suggest using a common length blade to make it easier/ faster to get blades (no special length to order).

Probably the wood mizer standard LT40 would be the most common and should get you well past the 20" cut width. It is 158" and fits about a dozen different models of mills.

[fluidpowerpro]

There are a few guys selling plans on e-bay, but I think all of them use traditional band wheels, not tires.

[JoshNZ]

I did a bit of reading around before building mine, from what I gathered the consensus was that wheels and tyres wouldn't hold the tension without the tyres starting to give and upset the set in the band due to them being sunk into the hollow, if that makes sense.

You can use B belt pulleys, usually easy enough to come by. Belts are cheap to replace and I don't think the pulleys are crazy.

[thecfarm]

Build it long too. Mills can cut 16 feet, but that log has to be put on there just about right to do it. 
I have a mill that can get a 20 foot log. I put a 16 foot log on it and I have four feet of room. That also helps to get the head out of the way too.
Have fun building and sawing!!

[Den-Den]

I use tires on my mill, they work great for me.  Mine are on 14" rims, are 24" outside diameter, are rated for 35psi and I run them at 35 psi or a little higher.  Tension for the blade puts a lot of force on the tires and axles (in my case almost 2000 lbs).  The tires must be able to maintain some crown when the blade is tight, make sure you use heavy enough tires, wheels and axles.  Non-standard blades take a few days to get but cost about the same.