The Forestry Forum

When I was having problems with my eyes I had allot of time to think of new stuff that will probably infuriate my wife.

anyway what I was thinking about was a driven resaw conveyor belt constructed like a long treadmill, using aluminum ladder rails for the sides or wood 2x4's approx 12' long, plywood as the conveyor belt bed and 7" wide hay baler belt for the conveyor belt material and 3inch gas pipe as the conveyor rollers.

The whole thing could be driven from say a 1/2hp gear motor. To handle the problems of friction between the conveyor belt and the conveyor bed Teflon sheeting could be used or Teflon sheet screwed onto the bed with flush wood screws.

Now I'm leaving out many details like hold downs and rotary fence etc. but you fella's get the idea.

I think that hold down wheels would be a necessity.  Does the WM resaw have hold down?  I like the way WM ties into the feed circuit so that the speed is adjustable.  If it would take 12" cants, I would have to think seriously about getting one. 

I found some conveyor belt material that came from a coal loader today. Its a little thick at 1/4" thick but I think I can make it work and it was free.

As far as the variable speed goes thats not a problem. I use a 1/3hp gear motor to raise and lower my saw head, the motor controller is a PWM made by bodine. You can easily find similar controllers made by dart and others for 20 bucks each off ebay.

I think I'm going to try to make one with the intent to use it for cutting lap siding.

Check out the current Cook's Saw catalog.  They have a similar resaw.

Yep just looked at a photo at cooks. Similar idea just cheaper. I'm guessing I could make a conveyor that I could clamp to my mill bed for about $200.00 worst case. The most expensive part would be the conveyor belting but you could probably get it free from a rock quarry or coal operation (they replace it and toss the old belt in the trash)