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Shop-built bandsaw sawmill

9K views 18 replies 6 participants last post by  Sodabowski 
#1 ·
the plan

Hi guys,

After visiting Les fils de J. George several years ago for the first time, my vision for a homemade bandsaw turned into something more sophisticated than the existing stuff. So I started making plans and brainstorming around the idea of the "Bandsaw Sawmill 2.0". Seeing the "scie au bois montant" at George's, which is a traditional saw cutting into a stepwise climbing chunk of wood, and which produces cuts of utmost quality without tearing the fibers, I really thought my sawmill-to-come should allow for a similar cut quality. More on that precise topic once the sawmill will be done. For now let me show the general shape of the project:





This is the 3D render of the overall idea. The wheels will be 50cm Ø (almost 19" 3/4), with a 1 meter wide frame (39" 1/2) giving around 64 cm (25") maximum board width. The Z axis will also be 1 m high, with a useable span of around 45 cm (around 18"). Maximum board thickness will be 18 cm (7"), and the cutting length will only be limited by the bed and rails length. For starters it will be 2m (78 " 1/2), but I will quickly add another two meters since the logs I have saved are longer than that.

The structure will be 3 cm (1" 3/8) square steel tube (cold-formed) which will be enough for my needs and expected feed rates. The Z axis will be actuated with four M10×1.5 threaded rods, with the corresponding nuts in the cutting head assembly. I want precision and smoothness for this machine, since I will also use it for veneer.
 
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#3 ·
Yes, the 3D render is only the general shape, that tube is quite thick and can take a beating. I'll be putting at least two bars between the wheels, and if tension is an issue I will double them up. I won't be using huge blades though, 1" wide maximum. My main concern is blade kerf, I really prefer thin blades and a slow (automated) feed, to get the most out of my stock.
 
#7 ·
first welds and preparing the threaded rods - July 2016

Well for the first welds sorry, I forgot to take pictures. Long story short, I started by welding the two sides of the cutting head, those that will receive the threaded nuts for the blade height adjustment.

After carefully stick-welding the nuts, some proper cleaning was in order, since the penetration is so high with stick-welding. By the way, I used 6061 rutile electrodes, which gave nice control and results, with little slag to remove.

After that, I re-threaded the nuts to ensure a fluid movement without any risk of binding. I first used the hand wrench to clean up the taps and then ran the second tap several times with the drill to really make sure the excess was gone:



Next was doing the same thing with the threaded rods, since stock hardware is by no means designed for such applications. So to remove all the burs and irregularities from my threaded rods, I ran them with power across the M10 die, with lots of WD40. The amount of metal that I removed was higher than I expected, but the results worth the trouble:





Then a good cleaning was in order, first with a paper towel to remove the bulk of the chips, and then with a wire brush to get rid of everything:





And here's the result: the upper rod is freshly re-threaded, the second one is still in its rough form, quite a difference : the thread is narrower but most importantly the surface finish is way better:



Crappy die:




The fit between the threaded rod and nuts is great, with little play and no binding whatsoever. SO I can move on to the next step, probably one of the most important ones: welding up the cutting head, ensuring absolute squareness of every joint and parallelism of the two sides. Quick-slap jig over a particleboard, welding magnets, and that's the cutting head assembly taking shape:



This is how I left it, I couldn't get back to it on the following holidays because there was SOOO MUCH to be done in the garden and in the bedroom. Next step will be to build the sides of the carriage onto which this part will be attached by the threaded rods, probably with casters too if there is too much sideways shake.

Nothing to call home about for now, but you gotta take the first step, right?
 
#13 ·
mobile frame all welded up! - July-August 2017

Hi guys,

The holidays have been a mix of cleaning, finishing the bedroom, and general sorting out of stuff, among which getting the workshop in more of a workshop state than it was so far! I also bought me some big boys machinery, namely a really big drill press (blue thing on the picture) and a XY table (the red thing on the picture), so now I have a metalworking mill for things to come. Here's how I left the sawmill this time :



This part of the sawmill build was so critical and stressful that I really didn't take the time to take any pictures, it was all like : check for squareness, clamp, tack weld, check again, fix, weld, grind, weld some more, grind again… my stick-welding skills have improved a lot this summer, not yet to the point that I'm able to get it right on the first time, but almost. Long story short, I only have this one picture to share with you guys, of the finished frame. No crappy iPhone picture this time, I shot it with the big DSLR.

Next I will fit the gears and motor that rotate the threaded rods which raise and lower the cutting head. Then it will be onto some woodworking to prepare the templates for the ~ 20" (50 cm) cast aluminium wheels that will receive the blade. Until next time, bear with me…

Cheers!

Thomas
 
#14 ·
Hi Thomas, Looking good. I really appreciate a physicist that can actually make things. Love the drill press. I've been terrible about posting things. Right now I am in the process of reorganizing the shop. Making hard choices about what to keep and what to pitch. I have sooooo much small pieces that I hate to throw out but it's becomming clutter. Best wishes.
 
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