The Bandmill That I Built Continued

[rbarshaw]

the height Adjustment, made from two camper jacks that everything is attached to, with a hand crank that drives two bicycle sprockets linked by chain.

A log carrier that i made out of mobile home tires and angle iron.

Rear view.

Front view.

The drive axel is a 3/4" steel rod welded to the wheel at one end and to the chain sprocket at the other.

This is the engine, a CB400A Honda motorcycle engine, electric start and automatic transmission.It's attached to the frame by 1/2" threaded rod.

Rear view of the mill.

Blade tension and toe in adjustments are 1/2" threaded rod.

My first two pieces of wood, from a small sweetgum.

Front view of mill.

[pasbuild]

rbarshaw
 that sure is a good use of all that good stuff we all seem to save I wish I had what it takes to do a project like that 8)
 Do the band wheels double as the towing package???? ;D

[rbarshaw]

No,but my wife thinks it looks like a motorcycle tho'.

[Furby]

Not so sure about that 1/2" rod, might need some beefing up.
I'm glad to see a motorcycle engine will work. I was kicking around that idea for a while.
Good job rbarshaw, whatever it takes to make some sawdust!  ;D
By the way, welcome!

[etat]

Well Howdy There!  I like someone who takes what they have and makes something they need, without having to break the bank to do so.  Pretty Cool!

[rbarshaw]

Furby - That's four 1/2" rods that hold the engine in  place. the only money spent was for 2 guide assemblys from Cooks Mills and the scrap iron for the rails ( was Home Depo shelf legs ), about $300.00 for the whole thing. It cuts straight, dosen't waver around knots, went thru 12" of sweetgum as fast as I could push it and didn' slow the engine at all.
   Can't wait to get a 30"+ piece of wood on it.

[D._Frederick]

rbarshaw,

A couple of questions if you plan on doing much sawing: I don't see a fan to cool that motor cycle engine, without it you will burn it up? How are you going to control engine speed, over speed will also  will destroy it?

[Corley5]

That's  8)  Looks good.  I was wondering about over heating.  That engine should have air flowing over it to keep it cool.  A fan of some sort might be a good idea.

[rbarshaw]

   I've got a 12 volt car radiator fan that i plan on using for cooling, the engine does have a working 12 volt system that will provide more than is needed for charging and the fan.
   The speed is controlled by placing my finger directly on the throttle on the carb. to go faster than the idle setting and i have put a stop to prevent over speed.
   Everthing on this mill was measured by a ruler, made square by an old rusty framing square and eyeballed, cut with a sawzall, stick welded, used c-clamps and pipe clamps to hold in place during assembly. It dosen't vibrate and works quite well. So much for needing a machine shop!

[Tom]

You are an Artist. ;D

Machine shops are to help the Masses :D

[Steve]

What a great mill!! Keep us posted.. I haven't seen that level of creativity and "made do" since the old bush days in Alaska.

[Duane_Moore]

 8) 8) 8) 8)rbarshaw, one heck of a job, can't say enough.you got more guts then most, fantastic. wish I had your ambision.   8) 8) 8)Duane

[Norm]

Dang that is one neat mill ya got there rbarshaw. You should go to work for NASA, those guys get billions of dollars and can't make anything work right. I figure with a couple thousand you'd be waving at us from Mars.

[OneWithWood]

Glad to hear you have thought about some cooling.  Any cooling is good.  Those CB engines will run forever-even if you drain all the oil out of them.  I sorta remember some biker events where the big fund raiser was to take a Honda CB and try to kill it.  Always raised a lot of dinnero and very seldom saw an engine failure.  Frustrated the bejeebees out of some of the hard core HD crowd  :D
I would of course take great care with the air filter system.

[rbarshaw]

 ??? ??? ??? Well, bad news.   ??? ??? ??? I was cutting my third log today and the axel broke off on the side of the pillow block away from the tire. :'( I knew that 3/4" was too small, but was all I had on hand. Guess I'll have to get a larger shaft, maybe 1.5 or 2" and new pillow blocks.  :P I've got to get it running again, it's too much fun. ;D

[D._Frederick]

Rbarshaw,

I would be interested in knowing how the 3/4 inch shaft broke, was it by a weld? How did you fasten the shaft to the hub or to the sprocket?

[Percy]

Neat mill rbarshaw.
Too bad about the breakdown but from the look of things, you'll haver up and running in no time. I was wondering if the tranny was still functional, heh, like do you shift down for the big knotts?? ;D ;D ;D

[rbarshaw]

D._Frederick
Look at the fifth picture down, see the pillow block bearing to the right, the break occured right where the shaft exits the pillow block on the left side of the right block. There was no weld or other visable defect there or in the break. The wheel is stick welded to the shaft, everything looks fine there, I have ground all the weld away in preperation for the new 1.75" shaft that I got today. I have also reviewed the thread about welding a drive shaft. The drive sprocket has a pipe welded thru it that is keyed to the shaft, all looks fine there too, i'll have  to remove that also for the new sleeve. I'll see if I can get a picture of the break posted here soon.

Percy
The tranny is functional but I havent needed to get out of Low speed, and since it is an automatic I just leave it in gear when I turn the engine off or on. Seems to work fine.

[rbarshaw]

The broken 3/4" drive shaft

Another view

Old and new shaft, new is 1.5" and is welded into the wheel. Just waiting on new pillow blocks.

[cluckerplucker]

 to my way of thinking the weight of the wheel assy is why your shaft broke.The new shaft is a lot better.but is there a way to lose the brake drum and reduce the weight?  cecil

[Swede]

Nice to see all this!  

I think You have some vibrations in Your sawmill.  The weight is no problem but You have to  get the whole thing in perfekt balance in the register of r/min it runs. Compare to a wheel on Your car.
Take the wheel off, (5 skrews),  Is the material in the wheel center (plate) realy for welding? If not, make another in 1/2" (0r more) sheet metal. The 5 holes has to be exakt placed and sized. The hole in the middle too!
Place the shaft in a lathe with both ends in center. Press the plate on the shaft and fasten the center by small weldings, (Earth to the shaft, not to the lath´s chassie!) Check the angle by turning and a steel placed close to the plate´s side near the periphery. Make a good welding both sides of the plate. Work them up in the lath.
If You can use the original plate, check that You´ve got the shaft in the center (as above), exact right angular and get good balance.
Check the balance in the wheel and I think You´ll never again get this shaft broken.
You´ll even get less vibrations and a better cut. Good luck!

Swede.

[rbarshaw]

is there a way to lose the brake drum and reduce the weight?  cecil

The drum is needed to bolt the shaft (welded to the drum) to the tire. My picture is a little out of focus, but the metal looks wrung/twisted rather than cracked, this happened shortly after I jammed the blade due to missalignment from a roller problem and the whole thing came to a rapid halt. I didn't relate that to the break earlier, so I agree with you about the weight.

[rbarshaw]

Nice to see all this!  

I think You have some vibrations in Your sawmill.  The weight is no problem but You have to  get the whole thing in perfekt balance in the register of r/min it runs.

Swede.

My picture is a little out of focus, but the metal looks wrung/twisted rather than cracked, this happened shortly after I jammed the blade due to missalignment from a roller problem and the whole thing came to a rapid halt. I didn't relate that to the break earlier, I agree that vibration can't be allowed, but there were no noticable vibrations. I had balanced the tire and made up a temporary lathe on the mill and cut the tire to perfect round.

[Fla._Deadheader]

  What kind of tool did you use to cut the tire???

[rbarshaw]

 What kind of tool did you use to cut the tire???

I just ground the end of a flat file like a wood lathe gouge, had to resharpen it often tho.