Bandsaw mill build

[muldonach]

Some project man - well done

 

[Stubby]

On 18/09/2022 at 08:58, Malus said:

I'm not a fan of threads that get abandoned with no resolution so here goes. 

 

After that last post I pretty much ran out of time for the project so it sat in the shed untouched for the best part of the winter. The weather really howls up the valley and the shed isn't the most water tight, so when I finally had made some time to revisit the mill it was all pretty rusty. I have to say it was pretty hard getting together the motivation to spend a day with a wire wheel on an angle grinder.

 

I was a bit slack with documenting the rest of the build because it was done here and there when I found time and my phone camera had been compromised.

 

Anyway, after facing many many problems, some of which would have been avoidable with a bit of foresight, and asking questions here, the mill is now operational. 

 

I've not milled up all that much yet, some test cuts in alder firewood logs and shock horror some turkey oak. I'm pretty pleased with the quality of the cut, I was taking 3mm slices that stayed a consistent thickness out of a 7ft length of alder. Surprise surprise the turkey oak has proved more of a challenge. There's a little bit of waving in some of the more knotted logs. 

 

I'm picking up some Douglas logs this week or next so I'll see how I get on with making some dimensional timber. 

 

One thing I've realised for sure is that I don't think I'll ever be milling logs near the max capacity of the mill unless I've got a machine to move the logs. That's a lot of weight to be handling manually.

 

I've still got to wire in all the lights to make it road worthy. I also need to remake the winch and ramps for loading logs. The ones I made were way to flimsy for a decent sized log.

outstanding ! looks better than a bought one ! 

[Malus]

Ha well looks can be deceiving! It does the job though, so still pretty pleased with it. Having spent a bit more time working with it I've found a few problems. It sat outside for a couple of weeks and the electrics that control band lubrication stopped working, so either the solenoid or switch or both don't like moisture. Also a note of caution to anyone thinking of using a lifan engine - the wind must have been blowing the rain pretty hard but nevertheless the exhaust collected it and funneled it down into the cylinder. As you can imagine I was a bit surprised when I tried starting it and it was completely hydro locked. Took the spark plug out and turned it over, loads of manky water came out. Surprisingly once it had dried out a bit it runs fine. Need to make a little rain deflector for the exhaust muffler.

 

The consistency of the timber I'm producing is acceptable for my needs at the moment but there does seem to be a bit of variation from board to board. At a guess maybe 3mm from the top board of a cant to the bottom one. What's typical for a portable band saw in terms of consistency of dimensional timber?