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Author Topic: Building your own band mill  (Read 30986 times)

Offline Skymonkey1

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #25 on: February 26, 2016, 10:11:42 AM »
I had planned to use angle iron for the track but hadn't planed on turning it V up, I've already got my wheels and they are V grooved so ill replan my track if it works better. Thanks Frank. Harold, I've been planning a water turbine for about a year now, I just haven't got around to it yet...lol. I've got a pretty big creek right in front of my house and it runs all year. I grew up here in the mountains of eastern Kentucky and spent the majority of my youth wading and bass fishing this creek. Windmills would be a waste for me here unless I could get it to the top of the mountain and that's not happening..lol

Offline bandmiller2

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #26 on: February 27, 2016, 06:33:19 AM »
SM1, I'am sure the angle iron would work ether way but you have much more surface to bare the load with upside down vee rather than running on one leg jammed into the bottom of the castor wheel. Sometimes sawdust will get crushed between the wheel and angle iron, it causes no problems as it peels off before building up. Frank C.

Offline bandmiller2

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #27 on: February 27, 2016, 06:44:19 AM »
I have never messed around with water turbines as its pretty flat land where I live. Seems there are two ways to get water power, pressure ( which requires head) and water weight (filling buckets). Around here now they get testy if your anywhere around a stream unless your one of those danged beavers. Always seemed to me if a fella had only low head he could make a long water wheel that relied on water volume and weight rather than elevation. Good thing this country was built before the EPA and other goody goody groups. Frank C.

Offline red oaks lumber

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #28 on: February 27, 2016, 08:08:58 AM »
i have no water by me but,i looked into wind turbine.i have a big hill out behind the shop aways.looked into putting a tower up ,only to find out there is a grass strip airport 1/2 mile away and the faa has a rule restricting towers >:(
 next i looked into a steam turbine 1 mega watt, after talking to the state commisioner about my plan ,he gave me a heads up about coops. they aren't required to buy the surplus power.so,with that info i talked to the power company about buying back the excess power. their answer was if we are need of the power we will buy your excess.
 at best it sounded like a maybe >:( needless to say i wasn't going to invest a million dollars getting set up only to find .oh sorry we don't need the power.
 it's pretty sad when an entity is trying to produce a more friendly renewable power only to be stone walled.
 sorry if i went off course alittle :D
follow your heart, the rest will happen

Offline HaroldCR - AKA Fla.-Deadheader

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #29 on: February 27, 2016, 11:33:02 AM »

 IF I could post photos, I would start another thread on wind, solar and water powered electricity production and my ideas-plans on how I am attempting to accomplish this.

 Hate to hijack this thread any further.

Offline Skymonkey1

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #30 on: February 27, 2016, 06:04:39 PM »
Most everything i need for my mill has either been delivered or will be here by Monday. All that's left is spending a couple hundred bucks at the metal store. I plan to take plenty of pictures and document this build and I will post them here in a new thread. I'll do the same with my water wheel whenever I get around to building it...lol.

Offline bandmiller2

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #31 on: February 27, 2016, 06:40:24 PM »
Hal, your my hero you figured out the picture thing, don't worry about the hijack thingy its the least of my worries. Frank C.

Offline bandmiller2

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #32 on: February 27, 2016, 07:10:01 PM »
SM1, Documenting you build would be helpful to many future sawyers and give some others the boot they need to start. Hope you don't mind suggestions along the way. Frank C.

Offline Skymonkey1

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #33 on: February 29, 2016, 12:11:18 AM »
I love suggestions, actually that's why I'm here, I love learning new things and learning from others experience and mistakes always saves me from making the same mistakes and when your doing something this big, it saves a bunch of time and money. I've spent the past hour researching bearings that I can use to make blade guides, Cook mills has some very nice greasable ones with a 1 1/8" width which is perfect but they are $55 each, I'm looking to go cheaper even if I have to change them more often providing the price would warrant that. Any ideas on where or what I should look at?

Offline bandmiller2

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #34 on: February 29, 2016, 06:01:02 AM »
SM1, as I said I started with small sealed bearings they worked well for years but need to be replaced quite often as they have to be small and thus spin at high RPM. The distance anything extends below the band limits the thickness of your last board which ideally should be an inch. Anything bulky will hit the bunks before your down to the majic inch. The flange guides, wile expensive, have about a 1/4" lip and let your band get down. They last a long time and the bearings can be replaced. Frank C.

Offline HaroldCR - AKA Fla.-Deadheader

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #35 on: February 29, 2016, 06:05:44 AM »

 Fully agree with Frank. Built my first set and them bought Cooks. Have a brand new set on the second mill build, right now.

Offline bandmiller2

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #36 on: February 29, 2016, 07:44:13 PM »
Red Oaks, I had a high pressure boiler and engine that I ran my circular sawmill with and often thought about generating power. It fairly easy to do but you need to baby sit the boiler. Its only cost effective if you burn waste materials that require a fireman to stoke them. If you fire with oil or gas its cheaper to run an engine with them. If you have a big sawmill complex and burn your waste in what they call a dutch oven and generate electricity to run the mill and use the exhaust steam to heat buildings and kilns it may pay. I had a 35 hp. Copus gear reduction steam turbine I ran my shingle mill with but  small turbines are wastfull of steam. Theirs  enough energy in the waste on a log to cut the log. Possible but not really practical. Frank C.

Offline bandmiller2

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #37 on: March 04, 2016, 08:00:06 AM »
One of the big problems building a band mill is how to raise and lower the saw head assembly. Usually breaks down to cable or screw rods, both work, they can be manual or power. My saw carriage has hydraulics for feed so I used them to lift the saw head. Keep in mind you may at some time upgrade to a larger engine, spelled heavier. I used a 3 1/2" x 18" hydraulic cylinder mounted vertical agenst one of the four posts. The cyl. clevis has two commercial overhead door pulleys with two wire cables. The cable are reeved to give two inches head movement for each inch the cyl. moves. I used a new cyl. creep has never been a problem in 15 years. Its fast and easy to move the head with a spool valve and I could substitute a heavier motor or diesel if I want. I have a aluminum yardstick and pointer, simple and accurate you go above the mark and feather the valve to lower the pointer. Its easy to make many cuts raise the band over for gig back. I just cut to the inch so 1" ends up 7/8" never had a complaint and I've sold a lot. Frank C.

Offline bandmiller2

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #38 on: March 05, 2016, 06:39:52 AM »
Power feed is nice to have but it should be adjustable. I have hydraulics on my carriage so its easy a hyd. motor with a drum on the back side of the carriage. It just pulls itself along with one wrap of wire cable on the drum, its important to have it slip if something blocks travel or hangs up. Speed is adjusted with a needle type valve that is fully adjustable for feed but the check valve lets it gig back at full speed. I walk along with the carriage as it cuts it gives me a look at where the band is cutting and has allowed me to stop and remove small stones and hardware I would have missed standing at the end. A little tip take a majic marker and put a couple of marks on the back of the flange type saw guides then you can tell if they slow down or stop indicating the band is starting to dive. That allows you to modify the feed and keep the band tight to the guide. Frank C.

Offline bandmiller2

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #39 on: March 06, 2016, 06:18:55 AM »
Off topic sunday morning tip. I you have a small generator you haven't used in a wile and it runs but no puta out, try this. Start and run the gen. plug in a hand drill, hold the trigger and give the chuck a good spin with your hand. After sitting some generators loose their residual magnetism and won't put out. The brush type drill when spun puts out a weak current but enough to excite the genny. Look this up on the internet if your curious. I got a free dandy gen. just had to plug in my Millwauky hand drill and give it a spin. Hal hows your wind turbine doing.?? Frank C.

Offline HaroldCR - AKA Fla.-Deadheader

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #40 on: March 06, 2016, 06:39:43 AM »

 Experiments were satisfying. Here, it rains so much, exterior plywood from crates is useless for outside projects that need to last for over 6 months. I took down the lift/drag mill and stored the wings for a later redesign.

 I am impatiently waiting for a crate with MUCH needed parts for the sawmill and a new turbine build. I'm on an extremely lower fixed income, so, just buying stuff is not practical. Once the mill is working, we should get a nice increase in funds.

 Got the water turbine runner welded up. Now, need a sheet of 1/8" steel for the housing and new pillow blocks. The pond liner is in Florida awaiting shipping down here.

 This is why I have so many projects going at once. Run out of parts, move to a waiting project. Got the metal lathe going. Just need the acme thread rod and nuts that are in the damn crate. It's been a month since it was picked up, in Florida.

Offline bandmiller2

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #41 on: March 06, 2016, 07:11:27 PM »
Hal, years ago I ran the machine shop for a small R&D company some real brain power there most were MIT grads. The boss was interested in wind power generation before it was stylish. Wish I paid more attention, he took a 55 gal drum and sliced it in half the long way offset the halves and mounted them on a shaft. The wind would swirl around inside one half then dump into the second half. Theirs a name for that type of turbine but I don't know it. Frank C.

Offline HaroldCR - AKA Fla.-Deadheader

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #42 on: March 06, 2016, 08:09:38 PM »

 That's called a Savonius Rotor, Frank. I built one in the mid 70's and used 3 barrels stacked on plywood discs. They are low speed and difficult to balance.

 The one I just dismantled is a Lenz2 design. It uses drag from the wind and lift from the shape, very much like an airplane wing. I will post some photos, soon.

 Kirk is working on an alternative energy/lifestyle/project related section for us to comment in. I have many photos IF I can get to access them.

Offline Skymonkey1

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #43 on: March 09, 2016, 10:50:38 PM »
I've been working on my mill, my buddies and I have 14 hours invested so far and we are only a few hours away from finishing the head. Then all that's left will be building the track. The log size max will be about 34" with a max depth of cut coming in at about 6" and the track will be a 20 footer and the head needs about 3.5 feet of that. I wish I could post pictures. It's coming along great considering we haven't used plans or anything. We just took some general measurements of the band wheels and started building it. There's a few things I wished we had done different to improve this prototype but the benefits of changing it does not out weigh the work needed...lol. I'm pretty happy with it so far. Especially since my total investment so far is just $950 but I haven't bought the metal for the track yet so it will come in at about $1,150 by the time it's finished and cutting wood.

Offline bandmiller2

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #44 on: March 10, 2016, 03:22:11 PM »
SM1, that's good news, I've always said a fella needs to build two mills one to learn what he wants to do on the second one. Keep us in the loop. Frank C.

Offline bandmiller2

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Re: Building your own band mill
« Reply #45 on: March 15, 2016, 06:10:36 AM »
Hydraulic log turners are a big asset on a band mill, there are three basic types. The chain drive where a chain with nubs is raised to roll the log and flip cants. The Pineywoods turner which uses linkages. The last and the one I have experience with is the two plain which is the easiest to understand and build. Chains work but they tend to beat up cants and won't clamp. PW works well so I'am told but is a little complicated to build. The two plain goes in and out up and down, will turn and clamp. Frank C.