Hi everyone. I posted in Knots as well, but i figured this might be a good place to ask aslo.
I was visiting my grandfather last week and took a walk in the woods (ten acres) and he has a lot of fallen maple, walnut and cherry trees that are a good size. Does anyone know where I can find information about building a portable band saw mill? I have been wanting one for some time and finally have a real reason to build one. I have access to a tool and die shop so metal working wont be a problem, but I do need some good plans to go by as I have never even seen one up close before.
Any leads would be great! I don’t want these trees to spend the winter out in the woods so time is an issue.
Replies
I'll give you my two cents, having built a couple of shop bandsaws, a commercial resaw, spent a good portion of my life maintaining large bandsaw headrigs in old growth Doug Fir sawmills and over a million feet cut on a Woodmizer mill that I sold this past Spring (and have endured endless grief from Jim Blodgett for doing so!).
My first suggestion, if you're set on building one yourself (very do-able) is find someone with a woodmizer and hi-jack their design (for yourself, of course). You can even buy critical components from them like guides that will save you some grief.
Build a saw that will accept off the shelf blades so you don't have to weld up your own. Both Woodmizer and Timberwolf offer excellent blades along with grinding equipment.
Several aspects of a mill are critical: the guide system, RPM, blade tension, some kind of setworks, to name a few.
I would steer you away from building a circle saw mill for a number of reasons, the primary one being that they can be very dangerous if designed poorly or for someone with a limited experience with the behavior of logs when they are being cut.
If you are interested in the circle saw technology, again, building your own is feasable, but you can probably find a good buy on a used one and not suffer the learning curve or risk life and limb.
Whatever you do, have fun with the project!
Notchman, what do you think of the Woodmizer? Any brands better than them?
Of the bandmills, for the price, durability, customer service, reliability, accuracy, constant improvement, etc., none better.
I had mine for 14 years, accumulated nearly 6000 hours and had very little problem.
Most wear components are available from common bearing houses or industrial supplies.
Mine had the hydraulic assist (a real necessity if you're serious) and cutting volumes stayed consistent over the years at 1800 to 4000 feet per day (depending on cut dimensions, log size and species. Set up time on a job typically took me about 10 minutes from the time I unhitched from my truck.
I still have use of it from the guy I sold it to...he takes good care of it. I used it recently to cut some large beams and it's still dead-on accurate.
The key to performance is blade maintenance and keeping the machine aligned and maintained.
The best mobile circle saws, IMO, are the Mighty Mite and Mobile Dimension.
Both will cut more volume in a day than a bandmill and can typically handle larger logs (over 3' diameter), but are not always as accurate. I once hired a friend with a Mobile dimension to cant up some large WRC logs that I then cut into siding with the bandmill. (Kerf on the circle saw was 5/16" and the bandmill 3/32").
Thanks everyone for the input. I think I’ve decided that I will go and cut up all the logs as best I can than hire a guy with a band mill to come up another day to saw it up into boards. This season is ending in a hurry so I think ill build one for myself next season. Thanks again for the input!
Hey, Gecko,
These guys have an appealing site. Haven't done it myself.
Apologies if it's been passed on all ready.
http://www.procutportablesawmills.com/index.html
AlanAlan Jones
The most important point I would make is to USE DRY STICKERS when you stack your lumber. I've got stains from wet ( green ) stickers in about 6,000 board feet os red oak, cherry, and southern yellow pine. I had little experience with green wood, and didn't know about using dry stickers.
We had a custom operator come to our wood lot with a Woodmizer. The machine is amazing - very little waste.
Good luck ! Greg
Gecko-
Be on the look out (luckout) for Spalted maple. When you cut your maple logs to managable size, look for black circles on the end of the logs. This may indicate spalting and logs should be cut accordingly.
If you get any of this stuff, send us pictures."It doesn't take a lumber jack to climb a fallen tree"
Marv
thanks for the heads up!
i hadn't even thaught about that. there is one large maple tree that came down a while ago, so i'll be sure to check it.
It's doable (most anything is) but I've run a woodmizer just enough to know how much time it takes -- you need to get one onsite, rather than taking a year to build your own. There will be a goodly amount of trial and error as you design and build one. It will still take you quite a bit of time to do all the sawing you need to do.
I'd look at A) having a portable sawmill come in, you can provide the drag, off-bear and stack labor (really just saving yourself the cost of a minimum wage worker or two), or B) purchase a ready-to-go unit (new or used), resell after the wood is worked up. Either way, it's a very expensive way to get the wood done up.
I have, in the past, cut and loaded the cants (most 12 to 20'), then taken to a local sawmill (run couple of old toothless geezers, something out of deliverance) that is about a 48" circle blade, driven by a 500 tbi caddy motor. This is about your cheapest bet. I would haul a trailer there on a saturday, dump load of oak or pine, and load up what they had sawn for me the previous week, and stack that in the tractor shed. Don't remember offhand what we paid, but it was cheap for the amount of wood. Most of it rough-cut 2 by 6 to 2x12's, a fair bit of the pine, and some red oak they planed and t&g'd.
You might take a look at:
http://www.linnlumber.com/
http://www.procutportablesawmills.com/themill.htm
http://www.sawmill-portable.com/
Don't know anything about any of them. I do vaguely remember an article in some magazine where they built a steel frame with their bandsaw blade strung between between a couple of bald automobile tires - it wasn't pretty but it must have been cheap
blade strung between between a couple of bald automobile tires
GREAT IDEA, why didn't I thinka that!!
a' gonna' have to try that when I get time - can just see it now, one old datsum truck on end with the motor dropped horizontal, rear wheel drives the band, front wheel idler, band tracking adjusted via the steering wheel, tension via a screw replacing the caster shims, weld the guides to the frame, etc. 2nd & 3rd old trucks (need 2 for those 60 ft logs) on surplus a/c runway pads or 3" angle & steel wheels for the trolley. Got a whole roll of surplus 1-1/4" skip tooth blade oughta work just fine. Will post pix if I do it, should be easier than building the well drilling rig. It's on the schedule for 2005!
Art,
I remember reading an article in Fine Woodworking That showed and detailed how a guy built a bandsaw himself... Using small auto wheels, bearings, etc. It was pretty detailed.
Maybe someone over at FWW can help you to find the article.
A good heart embiggins even the smallest person.
Quittin' Time
about 30 or so years ago there was an article in popular mechanics that someone used a volkswagen engine to power a small, portable , homemade sawmill. You may want to search for it.
http://www.forestryforum.com/cgi-bin/board/YaBB.pl
Excellence is its own reward!