New guy here. Great site. Enjoying all of the informative posts. Bought a new toy six months back (other toys were getting lonely) and thought I'd share the project with you. It's a Povlsen band mill from the mid 90s. It uses a 5"wide double cut blade and has a nice wide throat for breaking down the big uns. I bought it for a song but it was in terrible shape. Both band wheels were fractured and both had been welded but the idler wheel refractured so I had to reweld it and grind both wheels true. I made a fixture to grind the wheels on the mill to get almost zero runout. The wheels have a crown so my grinding fixture had to accomodate the crown. I took a linear bearing rail and bent it to the shape of the face of the wheel and layed it against the face of the wheel to be sure the new crown would match the existing crown. The grinding was done with a Milwaulkee right angle grinder mounted to the linear bearing on the bent rail. It worked well but the idler wheel took a day to grind true because I had to turn the wheel by hand as I ground the face. The drive wheel took a couple hours to grind because I turned it with the 55 hp diesel engine. Next project was to cut the carriage guide rail off of the frame and fixture/weld a new one in place. The old rail was about 1/2 worn away from carriage travel and rust. I also made a sand blaster from a 55 gallon paint pot that was thrown out at work after the paint hardened in it and blasted the frame and repainted it. I had to replace 8 of the 12 hydraulic valves and put new energy chain in place to house the hydraulic hoses. I have a good bit of detail work to do to finish the mill and make it really eat some sawdust but I am getting closer every weekend. I have sawn some small logs with it and it is fast and true. I want to test it out this weekend on some good size walnut logs. Photos in my gallery. Hope I did the posting thing right. Need to sell the Peterson WPF 10" to pay for everything now. Tired of pushing the Peterson head through the logs anyway. Now I can sit in my drivers seat on the Povlsen and ride and push levers. Gary
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20672/2542/Povlsen_wheel_grinding.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20672/2542/Povlsen_3.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20672/2542/Povlsen_2.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20672/2542/Povlsen_1.jpg)
Way to go Shenandoah. Welcome to the Forestry Forum.
I was tantalized by a povlsen mill like that, a dozen or so years ago. It was a repo and had ended up in georgia and then an auction house. I was sawing for a customer in little defunct town called Crandall and there the thing sat, in his back yard. It was rusted solid from sittin in the open in the salt air next to the ocean. I don't think it was even rebuildable.
I'd sure like seeing pictures. I might have to visit your gallery. Don't be surprised if some of the pictures show up in your post. ;D
It's amazing!! Your post is already on Google, and not far from the top of the first page of (Povlsen sawmill)
Welcome to Forestry Forum Shenandoah, nice job on your mill.
You have came a long ways with that mill. I bet making some sawdust with it is putting a smile on your face. Keep us posted.
welcome, looks like a good bit of work goin into the old mill. btw what keeps the blade on those wheels? pc
The saw has a tire line (outside ridge, inside valley) in the center of the band that can be adjusted by rolling the saw, when the saw is tensioned onto the crown of the wheel the tire line will track the saw to the crown of the wheel. When a saw gets dull and you exert to much feed pressure you can push a saw off the wheel, but you have to be pushing real hard.
thanks i didnt know pc
welcome to the forum , that is the kind of bandmill I want ;). I had an old yates with a 5 inch blade. It wasn't a sawmill but a resaw. It was all babbit and in bad shape. I was wondering if those blades require the same maintenance as the large bandmill blades? congrats again .
Gary, good idea with your grinder and wheel crown, that would work well for guys with rubber tire bandwheels to true them up.I kick myself now I junked an old metal lathe should have saved the compound rest and mounted a grinder to true up circular mill fast collars on the mill.You will be a better sawyer from rebuilding that mill, and not afrade to make mods or adjustments.What does it have for log handling,turners ,clamps est.Frank C.
I past/ missed on one a few years back for a song as well. The one I saw had a crush red velor seat out of a Caddy on it :D. They also had an additional Honda engine running a shaft perpendicular to travel to edge the boards as well. The cost the Honda was a as much as they got for the whole unit. I tried to buy it proxy but too much commotion to get my bid to the auctioneer (8 rings run simulataneously). . I would have persued it, except my son was admitted to the hospital the night before the auction, so I drove all night to get back home. Some farmer from near Columbus Ohio got it. I was looking to stretch it, as it appeared to be a good base unit to start w/ and do that to. ARE you a Dairy farmer from Columbus? :D seriously
Ironwood