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Homemade bandsaw basics

Started by Dolf74, August 27, 2017, 02:24:59 AM

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Dolf74

Hello,

I'm from the Netherlands (yes, metric system!) We don't have a lot of woods and therefor no much homemade bandsaws. Ill love the outdoors, so last year I buy me a (very) litte forrest for my own. My happy place!
But...now I have the idee to start building my own bandmill. I searched youtube and google but there are some questions I want to ask to the veterans of homemade bandsaw builders:
1. What is the minimum of HP I need for the saw? Most engines I can buy for a good price are 6,5 Hp. Is that enough? (Most wood is soft pine about 20 inch)
2. Is it neccesery to use a clutch or is an electric starter strong enough for start the thing up? What clutch systems are you using?
3. Some saws use a lubricant. Why? Is it normal water (we have metric water 😎)
Every other basic information is also welcome, questions also (not tho private!). Please use a lot of pictures, my English is terrible. Especialy technical English. I hope to read from you!
Kind Regards, Dolf

Kbeitz

There is a lot of home made mills to read about on this forum.
This is one I made. Good luck with your build. We all like pictures
of what you do.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,82853.0.html
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

Ianab

The smaller commercial band mills like the Woodland start at 7hp, with a 22" log capacity. I don't think you would want to go below that. But if you are only cutting softwood, it should work.

What coolant / lubricant usually depends on that you are cutting. Pine has a lot of resin, this tends to build up on the hot blade, sticking to it, and that causes all sorts of problems. There are various recipes for water / detergent mixes that cool the band and dissolve the pitch. Some folks even run a diesel oil drip for woods with a lot of resin.

If you built you lube system so it can handle any sensible liquid you can change the mix to suit what you are cutting.
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

grouch

Quote from: Dolf74 on August 27, 2017, 02:24:59 AM
Hello,

I'm from the Netherlands (yes, metric system!) We don't have a lot of woods and therefor no much homemade bandsaws. Ill love the outdoors, so last year I buy me a (very) litte forrest for my own. My happy place!

The trees will attack you for that evil metric system!

Ok, maybe they're indifferent to our quaint ways.

Quote
But...now I have the idee to start building my own bandmill. I searched youtube and google but there are some questions I want to ask to the veterans of homemade bandsaw builders:

I'm not a veteran bandsaw builder, but I have some opinions and info.

Quote
1. What is the minimum of HP I need for the saw? Most engines I can buy for a good price are 6,5 Hp. Is that enough? (Most wood is soft pine about 20 inch)

Harbor Freight started out with 6 Hp and lots of people gave their bandsaw low ratings for low power. It's now at 7 Hp and the criticisms for low power have dwindled significantly. It is worth noting, as Ianab pointed out, that Woodland Mills put a 7 Hp engine on their smallest manual mill when it came out (which happened, by the way, *after* I had bought the HF mill  >:( ).

With any low horsepower mill, you will bog down for knots, dense wood and curly grain (such as in crotches). It's not the end of the world. If you were milling for a living, you'd want to power through those things without delay. Milling for yourself -- you just slow down and be patient with the engine.

I use 4 degree blades on my 7 Hp bandsaw mill. It works well for my mixed hardwoods but I have yet to saw any pine and so have no experience to pass on in that regard.

Quote
2. Is it neccesery to use a clutch or is an electric starter strong enough for start the thing up? What clutch systems are you using?

It's very handy to have a clutch. My HF mill has a centrifugal clutch.

Quote
3. Some saws use a lubricant. Why? Is it normal water (we have metric water 😎)

Your metric water will dissolve non-metric blades and destroy the earth. Thanks.

Quote
Every other basic information is also welcome, questions also (not tho private!). Please use a lot of pictures, my English is terrible. Especialy technical English. I hope to read from you!
Kind Regards, Dolf

Your English sure beats my any other language.
Find something to do that interests you.

Ga Mtn Man

Welcome to the forum Dolf74.  Technically, most of our English is pretty bad too!  :laugh:

One of the nicest home-built manual mills I've seen was built by forum member roghair who is also from the Netherlands.  Here is his introductory thread:

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,62409.0.html

You can also see more mill pics in his gallery.  Perhaps he is close enough to you for a visit?  Most mill owners love to show off thier mills.
"If the women don't find you handsome they should at least find you handy." - Red Green


2012 LT40HDG29 with "Superized" hydraulics,  2 LogRite cant hooks, home-built log arch.

justallan1

Welcome to the Forestry Forum Dolf74
The first mill that I bought had a 6.5 hp engine and it did it's job if I took my time and went slow. One thing that I learned fast was that you have to keep your blades real sharp with a smaller engine and just as soon as you feel the engine dogging down you change your blade. When I would take a blade off the mill I sure thought they were still plenty sharp, but I'd put a new one on and it would be a very noticeable difference in how it cut. This was on pine logs up to about 18" diameter.
It pretty much comes down to how much you plan to use it, but my opinion is to spend the money now rather than having to rebuild your mill later.
On the pine we have where I live there's pitch (or sap) and you want to use lube. I use a blend of pine-sol cleaner and water just to keep the pitch from building up, which is another good reason for having more horse power.....pitch build-up will drag down a small engine as bad as a dull blade. I don't know your climate, but where I live it freezes for quite a few months of the year so I switch out and use pine-sol and winter grade window washer fluid instead of water.
I hope this helps a little.

Ljohnsaw

Here is my build thread:
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,84444.msg1290881.html#msg1290881

Engine size -

I started with a 2.5hp 90v DC motor thinking the conversion would put me at about 5hp gas.  Worked but not great (but was really quiet!).

Swapped that for a 7.5hp Subaru clone - worked better but blades had to be really sharp so not much cutting from each blade.

Found a 18 hp twin cylinder with electric start and electric clutch - I'm a happy camper now!

Log size -

You mention 20" logs (did they fail the metric system? :D) - you won't likely be cutting that width.  If you are making lumber (boards), you will be cutting off the top (slab) curved piece and maybe one board.  Then you will rotate (either 90° or 180°) and repeating.  The width of cut will be reducing quite a bit.

I did have some monster pine logs - one being about 27" and was almost square.  So my cuts were a good 24" and the wood was "seasoned".  That was the hardest cutting I had to do and needed every single hp the engine could produce.

My mill can handle up to a 42" log but I would never cut a hard/dry log that wide unless I was looking for trouble.

Lubricants - I'm running plain water now, I was using a pinesol mix, and I'm not getting any sap buildup.
John Sawicky

Just North-East of Sacramento...

SkyTrak 9038, Ford 545D FEL, Davis Little Monster backhoe, Case 16+4 Trencher, Home Built 42" capacity/36" cut Bandmill up to 54' long - using it all to build a timber frame cabin.

Den-Den

Power is proportional to force X speed.  If you reduce the band speed, you can have the same force available to pull the band through the log (compared to a machine with a larger motor).  This will work much better than keeping the band speed high and trying to reduce the feed speed (which would waste energy in friction and wear out the blades much faster).

You will want some system to stop the wheels while leaving the engine running.  Can be a clutch or as simple as moving the engine or a idler pulley to release belt tension (like on a riding lawn mower).

"Lubricant" is sometimes needed to keep sap from building up on blades (which causes multiple problems).  It is not necessary on all logs but is something that you want to be available.  Lots of discussion about what to use for lubricant.
You may think that you can or may think you can't; either way, you are right.

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