Band saw mill wheel size

[osagehunter]

Just curious if anyone here on this forum has bought "Texas Ben's" plans for a sawmill. On ebay where he sells the plans for like 30 bucks or so, he shows a video of himself cutting a piece of mesquite. I just wanted to see others who have built his sawmill. I guess his mill looks ok. I won't get to this anymore until the late spring so I haven't yet bought anything more than the casters. I may try out his plans, and if need be, vary them a little to suit my tastes. I am in the process of buying some land so I'll have more room.

 

[Mike Van]

Bens plans & his video look pretty good, a longer bed would probably be wanted - being able to saw 12 footers is an asset, 16's even better. I used the Acme thread head lift on mine years ago, works well & is as accurate as your eye - Right on the ground as Bens mill is, makes it easy to load logs, but then you have to bend down to take the boards/slabs off the cant. I don't believe there is any "perfect" bandmill, there's always something we want to change to better suit what we need.

 

[osagehunter]

Bens plans & his video look pretty good, a longer bed would probably be wanted - being able to saw 12 footers is an asset, 16's even better. I used the Acme thread head lift on mine years ago, works well & is as accurate as your eye - Right on the ground as Bens mill is, makes it easy to load logs, but then you have to bend down to take the boards/slabs off the cant. I don't believe there is any "perfect" bandmill, there's always something we want to change to better suit what we need.

Good to hear about the threadlift works since I want a really accurate thickness of cut - perhaps it will only be limited by some other
things - blade, bearings for the wheels, casters perhaps, who knows what. And I will likely err on the high side of thickness - perhaps 5/8" rather than 1/2" - Texas Ben mentioned something like this. I could build a trailer if I wanted it off the ground - on the ground is nice to roll the logs on. The hardest part of this whole operation is the logs themself - I'm looking at 15 red oak logs right now - but I cannot for the life of me move them - they each weigh well over a half ton - perhaps one or two, a ton! It's like candy from a baby!

 

[Mike Van]

Moving the logs is always a tough part, as you just cant saw them if they've been drug in the dirt - A 50+ hp farm tractor w/ loader works for many, for some it's a skid steer - rough terrain fork lift, etc. Dirty logs = big problems, no matter whose mill it is -

 

[Richard C]

osage, Glad to hear you plan a mill, why not start now.

Richard

 

[osagehunter]

Allright - here's my excuse. My car got snowed/iced in for 2 months. Each day I dug it out, the snow-plows plowed it back in. I then went to buy a property but I backed out at the last minute since I need to finish my deluxe cat-house for the cats. They have a nice time in my garage now - sleeping in my trailer in a nice wicker box with blankets. But I want to move them gradually into my new gazebo - but here's why that's behind schedule. The guy who is cutting my 4 oak beams (to replace my home-cut oak 2 x 4's which I want to replace) - his sawmill and logs are under 8' of snow. So he hasn't cut my beams yet even though I ordered them almost 3 months ago.
So everything is going slow. I almost bought the new property. I know - I could just do a pencil and paper or drawing program design - perhaps I will download Google sketchup (need vista - that's my laptop which is packed for my trip). Anyway, I'm just busy I guess and a little bit of a slacker lately! Plus, my ruptured lower right-back is a lot of pain so all of my little garage-type jobs are slowed down. I think in a month or two, things will pick up speed. Plus, I never did quite finish my new oak dolly. And there's my really cool new roof-rack for my car - it's almost done but not quite since I need ... forget it, I just need some warm weather. Maybe I'll give myself a kick in the pants and finish something. It was a terrible winter - that's my excuse. Gannt Charts anyone?

 

[Ed1]

Hey Chaikwa, and others, I know I'm five years late to the party, but when I started researching for building my own mill, I found this discussion from 2012. I ended up buying the Surplus Center 18.75 wheels you suggested. When I went to buy bands I hit a speedbump. In that post you recommend using a 1 1/4" blade. I got to thinking the width of those wheels is more narrow, so I looked up the specs and sure enough the Surplus Center wheels are 7/8" wide. Isn't there an issue with the blade being 3/8" wider than the wheel? The actual tire will be even more narrow. I'm certainly no expert, but I'd think you'd want the blade completely supported by the wheel. Is that not correct?