Malus

Saturday saw us finish drilling the holes to mount the log bunks. We measured and tacked the two end bunks together in place and then ran two string lines between them. We tacked each subsequent bunk so that it barely touched the string line. I marked each bunk 1-5 so that they always go back in the same spot and hopefully fit ok. Today I welded up the bunks and fitted caps on the ends. I only had 50mm flat bar so there was a 5mm gap each side to bridge. I turned the welder down a notch, welded top down in a c and filled the gap ok. I haven't yet welded on any flat bar as a low log stop, I'm not sure how the bunks will measure up against the height of the carriage yet. As for log back rests I'm thinking about keeping it simple with box section sliding into a vertical sleeve with a bolt to secure it in place.

Yep I'm gonna cap the ends. That's a great idea re the clamps, hadn't thought of that. What's the best way to do log rests for bigger logs/cants? I guess a little bit of adjustment might be handy so they are dead square to the log bunks?

I had to go and pick up some more steel yesterday for the log bunks. I had been head scratching for a while about whether or not it is a good idea to weld them in place and in the end decided it's probably better to bolt them on. This way I can adjust them for height if need be, after you've all been saying how important it is for everything to be accurate. Also if any get damaged they will be easier to replace. A friend came over to help for the afternoon which was a massive help. We cut 130x6mm flat bar into lengths and drilled 4 13mm holes in each. The slightly oversize holes for M12 bolts will hopefully allow for a bit of wiggle to adjust bunk height. If need be I'll elongate the holes into slots. The log bunks are made out of 120x60x3mm box section. I'm sure this will be strong enough for rolling logs onto the mill and turning cants, but might suffer a bit if a log ever gets dropped on a bit rough from a tractor. I cut the bunks to length and then knocked off the corners to create clearance for the carriage wheels to go by. I cut 10 braces for the bunks out of 50x50x3 box. While I was cutting Ben marked out all the hole locations on the mill chassis and started drilling them out. I've also started welding together the drawbar and drawbar mounts, but taking my time with it to try to avoid too much distortion. I made up some backer/spreader plates for where the drawbar will bolt to the chassis. I'm not sure if it's really necessary but thought it was worthwhile because the box section is fairly thin at 3mm. Sam

Ah right I see what you mean. Pillow blocks are often meant to be self aligning but I guess there's only so much tolerance. Hopefully they will last ok, time will tell. Sounds like your bearings will last a good time, I bet the lathe and mill have paid for themselves over. I wish I'd posted here a few months ago! I've been slowly gathering parts over the last six months. I ended up buying spb450 pulleys but I haven't bought any belts yet as I'm unsure of length. I was hoping the belt will be proud enough to run the band on. Spa pulleys seem easier to get hold of and cheaper, but I was advised against running an spb belt in spa pulley. How has it held up for you? I've got a 35mm shaft, I guess en3b. Nothing fancy but I'm pretty confident it will hold up ok.

I didn't get loads done today but I made progress none the less. I welded up the corners of the chassis after a bit of squaring up with ratchet straps. It was only out 5mm but I thought probably worth sorting out. I took the coupler off a donor caravan chassis and prepped the A frame pieces. The irony is I was meant to be building a shepherds hut on the caravan chassis, but didn't want to mill a load of cladding with the chainsaw and was too cheap to buy it. So I've ended up building the bandsaw mill. The A frame will be bolted on with 10 M12 bolts so I can get it out of the way if I ever decide to site the saw in one location. I'm a bit unsure about whether to use the caravan axle or not. I've been looking at trailer running gear kits that come with everything needed including axle, wheels, coupler, brakes for about £750. I can't really afford it at the moment but I don't want to skimp and regret it later. Does anyone have any advice regarding axle width, how much do your wheels stick out and do they get in the way?

Ace, thanks Simon. That looks proper! I'd love to be able to slab logs that big one day. I guess a tractor would have to come first. What are you using for band wheels? What's the issue with pillow blocks? That is the route I'm going down, at least I've got all the parts ready to be assembled. Tbh I would have preferred band wheels with a central hub/bearing but I couldn't find any in my budget, or know anyone with a lathe to bore out the centre.

Thanks for that nudge Andy, it didn't take much looking to find the manuals on their site. Loads of useful information in there, I obviously wasn't looking hard enough before!

Today I managed to weld up the other side of the chassis. I can see why people don't use a truss for a chassis, there's a lot of work to do. My original plan was to have some folded channel made 50x200x5mm for the chassis but it was only available in 3m lengths and had a week or two lead time so I didn't bother. I tacked up a couple of cross braces so have an idea of the size of the bed. The spacing is 950mm between the chassis sides so plenty of space for clamps etc, hopefully easy to reach over from one side to the other.

That's exactly what I found - loads of info on forums, videos etc etc but all from the states/Canada. I've seen a few builds in the UK but not so many. Parts availability in the UK has been a pain in the ass, at least to be able to get stuff on a reasonable budget. I've got a lot of what I need now. I'm not too worried about the chassis being slightly out, the logic being that the rails for the sawhead will be dead level and parallel. The log bunks will also be parallel to the rails, so cuts should all be nice and level. I see what you're saying trigger_andy, I've factored most of those adjustments in to my plans. Which logsol saw have you got? I've scoured the main manufacturers websites and looked at a lot of the details of different mills. One big help has been the woodland mills website, they've got manuals and scale drawings you can download. Have you got any photos of your build watercourse managament? Would be interested to see if you can point me in the right direction?

Hi all. New member to the forum but I've been reading on and off over the past few years, had some brilliant second hand advice so thanks for that. I've just started building a bandsaw mill and thought it might be of interest to some of you. I'm unsure about a lot of things so no doubt will have some questions. I'm going in a bit blind, I've never used a bandsaw mill but I understand the general principles. A few years ago I bought an elm log off a friend and sought quotes to have it milled in all the local mills. The cheapest quote I had was over £350, way more than I expected. This led me to buy a Chinese copy of a Stihl 660, and I made up a milling attachment. This cost about £400 all in for the saw, bar, 4 chains and steel for the mill. I've milled a fair few logs with this set up, enough to realise that there's a lot of setup work involved and a it's bit unpleasant to use. I'm hoping the bandsaw will be more ergonomic and a bit quicker too. All of the wood I mill is for personal use but if all is successful with the mill I think I'll try to get a few local jobs. If I can mill enough logs for people to pay for the mill I'll be happy. The mill is going to be built on a trailer so I can move it around. It's going to have a max cut width of around 700mm and should be able to cut a log about 4m long. I've started building the trailer chassis first. It's made out of 50x50x3 box. I'm hoping the truss design will keep it stiff enough to take a bit of abuse from log loading etc. I spent the time to prep all the weld areas, grinding off the mill scale and bevelling square edges to help with weld penetration. Over the 6m truss length there's a 2mm dip, I can live with that. I'm hoping to get the other side welded up today.