homemade bandsaw mill, help

[gww]

Josh
I keep a about a 2 lbs hammer on the side of my mill at all times.   When I move my guides, rather then trying to push it sideways and almost having to get on my knees to do it, I just losen the jack bolt and then tap tap tap untill it is where I want it.

Cheers
gww

[mazdathumps]

GWW, I can appreciate the hammer adjustment you have going on there, but I tend to break things if I don't make them work well from the beginning... haha... I've spent a few sleepless nights figuring out these rails and guide mounts and all, I better keep on with it... Below is my progress today... getting closer to cutting some wood...

Here's the raw welds... These are t-nuts welded over the holes in the tubing... This is both of them side by side...


This is where the slide rail will be welded in... Still have to cut my groove in it and shave a little off the whole rail so the 2" tubing will slide freely back and forth...


This is some square tube I welded together... It is a perfect 90 degree joint... Thanks to ya'lls welding tips - tacked all four corners, then went back and filled in the gaps... Ground away the bumps and here we are...


Painted up and fancy...

[gww]

Thanks for the pictures, keep trucking.
gww

[Ox]

I appreciate seeing nice fabricating skills.  It takes a long time to make things look nice.  Your 90° looks very good.  Are you using a flapwheel on a grinder?  It's one of my favorite tools of all time cause it only takes off the high spots and makes you look like a durn pro.  :D

[mazdathumps]

The smooth surface was done with a flap wheel on angle grinder. One of my "go to" tools also. For welds I use a Hobart 125 mig, Flux core wire.  I haven't bought the gas kit for it yet. My first welder and I'm self taught. Some days, I'm pretty satisfied with my welds. Clean metal makes all the difference and doing loops I've learned. Heat and wire speed come with experience. The tack stuff yall showed me is something I wasn't told about over the years, so I've had some stuff pull this way or that way on me. I feel my stuff is strong, just still working on keeping it straight/aligned, and lastly making it pretty. I have zero experience with sheet metal. Usually I bend it, drill it, and rivet it when possible.

[gww]

Nothing I build will ever be pretty.  I like looking at stuff that those that go the extra step build.
Cheers
gww

For myself, I rely on the old dirty harry movie monolog: "A mans got to know his limmitations .

[Ox]

gww - I also have a fond appreciation of gorilla welds too - big strong and ugly.

[gww]

Ox

gww - I also have a fond appreciation of gorilla welds too - big strong and ugly.

gww

[mazdathumps]

I aim for solid nice welds, but I often end up grinding off more than I welded. Haha

By the way, got the blade guides welded up and waiting on them to cool down for paint... Lots of numbers and adding and subtracting to get them just right (tried to set the brackets up to a neutral position, so there will be less extreme adjustments on the guides themselves. This will give me room to wiggle with fine tuning)... Probably not so hard the next time around, but I checked and triple checked my numbers.

[gww]

Josh

but I checked and triple checked my numbers

I do that all the time and then still measure and inch off when doing wood work :D.
Sounds like you are really getting close.  I can't wait to hear how you feel about the differrance when you use it the first time.  I am thinking it will be very noticable and nice.
Good luck
gww

It's going to be ba, ba, ba bad, bad to the bone.

[mazdathumps]

Excited is the word for it... It has to be better than what I had before. I've fixed too much for it not to be... haha

I have pictures along the way too. I'll try to post some today again.

[mazdathumps]

Here's the progress going on today... They are painted and drying now, so I think i'll go grab some food...

Tacked on the corners...


Welded up solid...



Fully assembled...

[Kbeitz]

One thing I have learned over the years is to weld as hot as you
can without burning a hole. This will give you the best penetration
and a very strong weld. sometimes you need to zig zag to stay longer
on the heaviest of the two metals to be welded.

[mazdathumps]

I agree on the heat. I usually weld on my highest setting and either speed up or stay slow. Just before burning through. I use just enough wire to keep a small puddle...

[mazdathumps]

More updates for the day...(with pictures) 8)

Fresh after welding the rail in... Notice the t-bolts that hold the tubing from sliding around...


Here you can really see the depth I'm getting now... I think it's 10.25 inches from blade to frame... Blade guides are solid...


Same thing from the back...


Engine mounted and blade guides on... Next is belt tensioner...


She's getting closer.  I can see home plate... I might be cutting wood tomorrow or the next day... Also, I used a straight piece of aluminum flat bar I had and laid it on the blade and over the gullet.  With a level stretched between my log bunks, I took another aluminum ruler and measured from the level to the bar as far forward as I could and as far backwards as I could and adjusted until they were within about 1/64" difference (as close as I could get)... Did this several times to each blade guide trying to true it up the best I could... Thanks, GWW for mentioning this... I was pretty bad off even though I thought I was good (even up to a half inch off at first)...

It's hard to explain, but here is a video from Cooks MFG about what I did... https://youtu.be/qkwW2iX4Wqw

[Kbeitz]

Looking really good. What kind of paint are you using ?

[Ox]

Don't forget to measure across a straight tooth.  A tooth that's up or down might give you a bad or wrong measurement.  It looks good, you're almost there!  a 1/64" will be good enough.  Mine's within 1/32" and it's good enough.

[mazdathumps]

Ox, I set my bar up between the teeth in the gullet...

Kbeitz, Thanks and the paint is spray paint from walmart... Rust-oleum Satin eden color

[gww]

Josh
The effort to get your blade parelel will be worth it, I think.
I think you about have it done.  The biggest hurtful issue that is possible to be left is the tension.  On one web site they have a thing called the flutter test that is supposed to help with blade life by letting you set tension with out have too much and putting extra pressure on your blade.  I admit that I do not use it. 

It goes like this. You put the tension on your blade like you are now and then you losen tention untill you see blade flutter and then you tighten a little past where the blade flutter stops.
I have flex and just tighten to where when I speed my motor to full throttle and it makes my mill flex enough that the blade starts to ride forward on my tire and then I back it off till the blade is pretty well riding the center hump on my tire. 

I only mention the flutter test because you had mentioned breaking a shaft once.  So in my mind, even if you can now run the tension real high, if the flutter test shows you do not have to, then why put extra strain on your mill.  Just a thought.  If I did the flutter test, I would be looking for the flutter between the guides cause my mill tires are not close to ballanced or round or really on hubs made for them.  I have four washers on my hub bolts to make the tires ride furthur out so everything fits.  So I have lots of bounce, still get good boards though.

Just something for you to think about if you feel like it. 

Good luck and looking good.
gww

[mazdathumps]

GWW, I follow you... I tend to tighten my blade until it tries to slip off the front of the wheels, then back off a little... The tension between my guides is pretty dang tight. A rubber mallet bounces all around on it when I drop it from about 4 inches... Gut feeling, It feels tight enough, but the top of the blade (top/slack side) has a little flutter in it, but I can't get rid of that no matter what I do...

I'm not sure what science is behind the blade tension and how to determine tight from loose... Guess I need to do some research on that...

Got a question for everyone kind of off subject... My 14" metal chop saw is like running on half power or less under a load and it just started doing it... Is this the motor going bad or just the brushes?? I've never dealt with brushes before, so not familiar with how they act up...

[gww]

Josh
I have found most times that when the brushes go, my motor is not too far behind.  Lots of times the little copper bars on the stator that the brushes ride on start coming lose and eating the brushes.  Brushes are pretty cheap I think and I did get about 6 more months out of an angle grider by using the brushes from a differrent one that I knew had a bad bearing. 

You may get a little more use out of it and brushes are really easy to change.

If you have a caliper, you can measure blade tension by blade strech.  I can be looked up with a search on the internet.

You sound like it is not going to matter cause like me, you get what you get and as long as it works, oh well.

Do you have a dremal?  Your blade will not go through very many logs with out a touch up to the tips.  I just got a new set of blades rather then the cheapest ones that cook sells.  The bad part is they had to be ordered by the 20 rather then ten at a time and are $1.30 per blade higher then the cheep ones.  I believe in the end that I like them enough better that the extra for them was worth it.  They seem to fit the size dremal wheel that I can find locally.  I got the super sharp silver.  I am not pushing you to buy them but just saying. You are going to need blades and unless you have a resharp and in my view even if you do.  You are going to have to freshen or change often.
It takes very little touch up to get them to cut really well but also does not last long.  Just my view.
I am not trying to over load you but just reconizing that you are so close and that will be the next big money draw.
Cheers
gww

I bet it does not fail on the tension being enough, but if it does a bar in front of your wheels will fix it.  However, I think it is going to cut like butter as it is.

[Kbeitz]

I bought this off E=bay to set my tension.



 

[mazdathumps]

Maybe it's time for a new chop saw... haha

ANYWAYS, I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED THE REBUILD...

This saw with a fresh blade cuts very fine, straight, and fast... I couldn't be happier with it... That 18 horse engine never misses a beat and I cut through that pine at like 5 inches a second max... I'm realizing now that the axles probably broke due to the stress that the bad cuts were causing... I had no issues today cutting...

At first, i thought i grabbed my new blade and my cuts were kind of wobbly still, but then I hit a hidden gem (old close line cable) buried in the wood and ruined that blade anyways... Went for another blade and realized it was not the new one... With the new blade on there, I'm buzzing through my wood with little effort... Straight all day long too...

I honestly could not have done it without guys like ya'll talking me through it and recommending things... The Cooks complete guides are a god-send and that 18 horse engine is plenty of power... My blade tensioner works well and easy to use... I'm all around happy with this sawmill... I don't know where to start... Thanks to you all for the advise and inspiration along the rebuild... It's all paid off now

Pictures to come...  8)

[mazdathumps]

I'm thinking over the next few weeks or months, I may write up a guide on where to start and key points on building a homemade sawmill... I've considered drawing up the plans for my mill in AutoCad for someone starting with little to no info on sawmills... OR maybe i'm just so excited it's working i'm talking non-sense... Who knows, either way, it's working and a pretty solid build now... Thanks again everyone

[gww]

josh
You sound excited, and I am excited that we did not run you down too many money eating rabit holes.  In the end except for the guides and motor, it was just really hard work on your part.

Very neat. 

Now you will find that you are going to need to play with sharpening your blade now and then. I do mine while it is on the mill.  A couple of logs and you are going to still be cutting fair and then you are going to take a dremal or I even started just barily grinding behind the points with a angle grinder.  Believe me when I say really quick and barily touching the blade for a portion of a second.  Then you are going to make another cut and say, wow, I can't believe this made so much differrence, it didn't seem that bad.

That is my experiance anyway.  If you intend to use a resharp sevice, you may not want to touch the blade on your own because they reject blades that you change the cut angle on.

Hey man, it sound like you have really made a differrance and are happy and so then am I.
Cheers
gww