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saw head adjustment

Started by cat man, October 11, 2005, 10:04:05 PM

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cat man

I have been reading this forum for the last week and finally joined. Great site with alot of information and informative members. I have been building my own manual bandsaw mill for about two months and before I get too far along I have a question about raising and lowering the saw head. Currently I have a Harbor  Freight gear winch that works fine but is slow.I have never ran a bandsaw mill but would think it will take alot of cranking to saw a log up.Would I  be beter off installing a 12V winch at this time?I am open for any ideas, Thanks
Jack of all master of none!!

Furby

Well, first off........Welcome!
My Norwood mill has a garagedoor type spring that you can adjust the tension on.
I set mine so that it lifts real easy, and takes a bit of pressure on the wheel to lower the head.
A "T" bolt locks the head in place.
VERY little cranking, and no electric needed. ;)

cat man

Thanks for the welcome!   :) I have seen that system before. It was verry fast but I didnt know if it would work with the weight. The frame is built with two 2x2x1/4 steel tubeing with a old cast iron 8hp  kohler. It is built plenty heavy for more horsepower later when the mill proves itself. Thanks for the idea.
Jack of all master of none!!

Dan_Shade

I want to retrofit mine with a chain drive, and a worm gear setup to drive the chain drive.  I did some calculations to figure out what ratios I need to make the sawhead move per each crank.

all of the stuff is available from www.mscdirect.com

If you are interested in what I calculated, I can clean it up some so it's understandable.
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

cat man

Thought about adding a chain drive to this winch to change the ratio. I had to add about six inches to the handle to ease the cranking. With 12V already on the saw for starting I thought a old 2000lb warn winch I have would work better.I was not sure how percise the adjustment would be.Would I be fighting the buttons  to land on the mark? ???
Jack of all master of none!!

mike_van

Hi cat man - on my mill the head motor is a 3 phase 1/2 hp  w/ right  angle gear drive- I use the drum type reversing switch, no problem stopping where you want it.  Push buttons might be a little trickier, but like anything you do a lot, could probably be mastered.   
I was the smartest 16 year old I ever knew.

jrokusek

catman,

I have the same winch.  When I want my head to move faster I grab my cordless drill and a socket with an extension.  It attaches to the nut that holds the handle on. 

HOWEVER, My homemade mill isn't into production yet....still building mine too.  I did mount the bandwheels (trailer tires) and tested the tensioner.  With some fiddling I was able to get the blade to track very well!

Jim

Dan_Shade

here's the spreadsheet I made, hopefully it makes sense to somebody other than myself.  all the numbers were pulled from an MSC catalog.  my initial theory was to have on crank be a 1/4 inch, but that would take forever to raise/lower the head.  another idea is to use a drill to raise and lower it to turn the worm.

I'll attach a picture in a few minutes, hopefully....
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

cat man

Well today I went out and checked just how slow the hand winch is.It took six turns to raise the head one inch. At this rate it will take about 200 turns from top to bottom :(

mike_van ,I know the type switch you are talking about.Good idea I will see if I can find one.

jrokusek, I do not think a cordless drill will turn this winch.If it did it would not last verry long.

Thanks for the Ideas :)  cat man
Jack of all master of none!!

Dan_Shade



the chain has to make a complete loop with the ends terminated to the saw head, the worm gear is attached the shaft that the sprockets are attached to.  my picture probably makes as much sense as my spreadsheet!
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

cat man

Dan_Shade, It looks like you are puting the sprockets onthe outside of the drum.By doing this you could change the ratio some.
Jack of all master of none!!

Dan_Shade

what are you calling a drum?  I'm not going to have the chain layered on anything. my intention is to make a loop, sort of like a bicycle chain, but with the chain broke, and the saw head in the middle.

|O|
|          |
|          |
|        SAWHEAD
|          |
|          |
O

Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

cat man

Now I understand 8), much better illustration. Definitely worth looking into.
Jack of all master of none!!

Dan_Shade

yeah, I need to draw it up better.  basically there will be 4 sprockets and 2 chains. 2 sprockets at the top connected by a shaft.  This shaft will have the worm gear setup hooked to hit, turn the worm, and it will pull the head up or let it down. (hopefully)
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

jrokusek

Catman,

Lube the wormgears of that winch.  Mine was hard to turn until I got a few drops of oil on each gear - just give it a good spray of your favorite lube.  I can turn my handle with 2 fingers.

Jim

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