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Just tested my homemade bandmill.....(more details added)

Started by jrokusek, July 20, 2006, 06:04:15 PM

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jrokusek

....and it actually worked!  Seems to cut just fine too.  I used a lever assembly from an old drag section to move an idler pully instead of using a centrifugal clutch.  Simple and works surprisingly well.  It's a 13HP Chinese copy of the Honda engine.  Looks like a Honda, sounds like a Honda, but it's not a Honda.  Time will tell if it holds up well or not.  Used some trailer tires for bandwheels and some pulley's from Surplus Center.  The rear of the carriage is some metal 1"x2" metal that once was a Jello display rack.  I welded it together to make 2"x2" that I actually wanted in the first place. 

My clamping system should have been made from square stock...not pipe.  I can cut some real nice beveled boards if I don't pay attention to what I'm clamping.  Need a bit of redesign work there!

Total investment?  Around $950 or so.  Total hours involved?  Hundreds.  Most of it was spent scratching my head and redesigning stuff.  Here are a few pictures.  I'll post more as I make final modifications.

The wood is Elm - not sure which type of Elm. 

Jim


First Board:




First BIG board




Pile of short boards:




UNCLEBUCK

Way to go Jim , what a accomplishment !  Fun isnt it  8)
UNCLEBUCK    bridge burner/bridge mender

Norm

Congratulations Jim. :)

I do believe that's what we call the cat that ate the canary grin ya got there. ;D

sprucebunny

Congratulations  8) 8)

Sure is a feeling of accomplishment to make your own tools/toys and particularly to have them actually work ;D

MS193, MS192 and an 026  Weeding and Thinning. Gilbert Champion sawmill

Tim L

Nice work Jim,

                     Did any of the turner specs come into play ?
Do the best you can and don't look back

jpad_mi

Way to go!  It looks great. I'm impressed that you were able to keep the cost below $1000. 
Jeff P. in Michigan

logwalker

Kudos Jim.

Very cool accomplishment. I am assuming this is your first mill.

Your pics jogged my memory. I had a similar track for a Western Sawyer mill. I welded 2" square by 1/4" tabs to the underside of the track every 2'.  With a 3/4" nut welded over a hole in  the tab I could use a 3" long coarse thread bolt and a speed wrench to precisely level the track. It worked very well.  Could you add some pics of the details of the saw such as the guides and raise/lower mechanism. Have fun. Build some neat projects. LW
Let's all be careful out there tomorrow. Lt40hd, 22' Kenworth Flatbed rollback dump, MM45B Mitsubishi trackhoe, Clark5000lb Forklift, Kubota L2850 tractor

Snag

Nice job man.  That must be a great feeling.  congrats.... :)

jrokusek

I'll add a few more pictures to my gallery over the weekend. 

Tim L - the tension concept from Turner was definitely a big help.  I originally had the blade way too loose.  I guess a large blade can be real tight.  The biggest I used prior was a 3/4" blade on my shop bandsaw. 

LW - I think I'm going to pour a concrete pad and put some "J" bolts in the concrete.  Then I want to bolt some railroad ties to the concrete, and then lag bolt the track to the ties.   Probably overkill but I really have no desire to move this heavy sucker once I get the little glitches worked out. 

Norm - yeah....my wife called it a different type of grin.

I'll try to document other stuff that I did that worked and didn't work.  Lots of things I would do differently if I had to do it over again.  That being said - I would definitely do it again.

Jim

thecfarm

Good job.  8)  Now you will be trying to find logs to cut.Have fun!!!!
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Qweaver

It must feel great to finally saw on your own machine.  Congrats!

Quinton
So Many Toys...So Little Time  WM LT28 , 15 trailers, Case 450 Dozer, John Deere 110 TLB, Peterson WPF 10",  AIM Grapple, Kubota 2501 :D

Dan_Shade

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.

timcosby

YOU DA MAN!!!  and right in the driveway in the middle of a subdivision...  too cool!!!
i to bought one of those clone engines haven't slowed down enough to put it on yet but for $210 it is worth a try.

jrokusek

My neighbors already know that I'm the resident redneck.   :D  I did draw quite a crowd before I was done.....

getoverit

Way to go! You are now OFFICIALLY addicted to the world of sawmilling :)

By the way, you realize that in keeping with the traditions of this forum that you are only allowed to wear yellow t-shirts from this date forward?

:) :)

Keep up the good work!
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

Shawn

Congrats to you jim, I too am about 85% completed. I don't know why but I'm in the $1500-$1600 range. I do have some nice options on mine although. Paint looks good! My neighbors are already asking when I will Be finished. Man Hours? Haven't punched out yet. But, Change is part of the design process!!!
Shawn...
Change is part of the design process.

Admit nothing, Deny everything, Make counter-accusations

bedway

jim,,,,,to say im impressed would be a gross understatement. looking forward to more imput on this mill of yours. :)     bedway

joelmar10

Built it, used it, still got all your fingers, and it's nice lookin' to boot!  Awesome job, Jim.    8)
I used to think I could fix DanG near anything...now I know I can...or I think I can...or maybe I can?

jrokusek

OK...here is more detail for those of you who asked.  If I forget anything or you want more details on other stuff, just ask.

Here is the tensioner assembly that I modified from an old drag section.  I cut about 8" off it to make it a usable length.



The tensioner is connected to this round disk and the idler is attached to the disk.  Here it is while slack.



And then tensioned.....it just pivots to engage the idler.  It arc's in a cam shaped profile.  Simpler than it sounds.


Here's what connects it all together.  The turnbuckle is for fine adjustments to the belt.  I'm thinking I need to add a jam jut to the turnbuckle or it may vibrate loose.




Here is the blade tensioning screw and tracking adjustment.  The spring is there to keep the tracking "t-bolt" set in place.  You also see in this picture a 1" diameter shaft on the drive and idler sides.  I think it's too small.  I already have some 1.25" shafts and matching pillow blocks for the winter upgrade.



Here's something I don't need.  I was going to use this t-bolt to "lock" the blade tensioner in place.  It is unnecessary from what I can tell so far.




Shelby-style winch to raise and lower the carriage head.  It is SLOW, but I didn't want to monkey around with a boat winch and the locking and unlocking mechanism I've seen.  Personal preference I guess.  Just stop cranking on this and it will stay put.  Simple and cheap Harbor Freight Special.



View from the top - drive side.



Overall picture.




Fun project.  Need to build a few more guards, then strip it down and paint all but the fenders John Deere Green.   Can't wait to make more sawdust this weekend.  I think I'm addicted.   ;)

Jim

iain


mike_van

Jim, when I first built my mill, I had a steel to steel blade tensioner too, I broke a lot of blades.  I had to re-engineer it with a large die spring that does the tension now, gives it some flex, lets the blade expand & contract. Also, always let the tension off at the end of the day.  Your neighbors probably don't know you've been "eyeballing" all their trees - do they?  :D
I was the smartest 16 year old I ever knew.

Shawn

I have eyeballed a few trees in my neighborhood. Or anywhere else we go!

Shawn...
Change is part of the design process.

Admit nothing, Deny everything, Make counter-accusations

getoverit

I, Too, have been known to lust after my neighbors trees :)
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

Tom

jrokusek, your "here's something I didn't need" post was hilarious to me.   I'm  of the mind that a self built piece of equipment should contain a multitude of practical jokes.   You can't get too many intricate and useless things added to keep people off balance.  I have some favorites.

I once convinced a neighbor, who was rebuilding a camper, that the piece of pipe sticking out from its side and left over from moving the water container, needed a faucet mounted on it rather than taking the time to remove it and patch the hole.  We decided that he could tell people it was for water the grass at the campsite and he did it.

On my 1974 pickup, I had a 4th ball mounted next to the other three that were of popular sizes.  This one ball was the part of a computer cabinet door lock from the main frame I was working on.  It was about 3/4 inch tall and about the size of a pencil eraser.  I had to take the threaded bolt from the bottom and use glue in order to get it on my bumper.  You wouldn't believe the enjoyment I got when I would find people standing at the back of my pickup, in a parking lot, and staring at it.  I never explained it to anyone, just stood back and laughed inside.   There are probably many people today who are puzzled by what they saw.

Yes, I can imagine all manner of little handles, bolts with two nuts welded across a corner, stuff that might be able to be adjusted but no adjustment takes place, a piece of thin metal dressed and affixed to a panel with four brass screws as if to cover an inspection hole but having no hole under it.

Sometimes life is so boring that you have to make up your own entertainment. :D :D

beenthere

south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

barbender

jrokusek- if that winch is too slow, take it apart and put a piece of pipe over the hub to increase the diameter (you'll have to weld it on). That's what was done on my winch, it's harder to turn but raises the head much faster
Too many irons in the fire

Fla._Deadheader


That's the same type winch we used on "Homey" to run the head up and down, only, we put a motor and belt drive to it. Works as well as the "Big Boys" mills.  ;D ;D 8)
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

DanG

Great job on the mill, Jim! 8) 8)  Nice looking rig.

I woulda done one thing different, though.  I woulda left the Jello sign on it. ;D :D
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

Modat22

Congrats on the mill Jim, looks good and cuts good as well. Does the one belt work well without slipping?
remember man that thy are dust.

low_48

I would add a motor to the winch as well. To stay under the $1000 mark, get a car starter from the junk yard. Makes a good intermittent 12VDC motor. Taking the mill from the bottom to the top for the next log will be just a flip of the switch. Looks like a beauty, congratulations 8)

jrokusek

One belt seems to work fine.  I've only cut about 12" width to this point, but so far so good.  Can't see where it slipped yet.  I have some 28" logs sitting on the farm that will give me a run for the money!

low_48 - no electrics on the mill so far, but I can see why folks like having them.  I have a Ford starter somewhere, how do you attach a starter to the winch?

Jim

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