*probably* the biggest bandwheel you've ever seen (11' monster)

[StevenBiars]

It's almost impossible to imagine what it must have been like to max-out a sawmill with 11' bandwheels...

The Shelton, WA "Big Wheel"
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Site plaque w/ information:
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Human vs Wheel perspective:
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Shelton's evergreen:
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Shelton's evergreen close-up:
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[thechknhwk]

Alright where are the youtube videos of it running?

 

[olyman]

the one steam mill,,still running somewhere in the usa,,i believe is a double cut,,and its a monster also...

 

[discounthunter]

wow!thats a bigun!

 

[deeker]

wow!thats a bigun!

That is exactlly what she said to me.

 

[hamish]

That is exactlly what she said to me.

Damn near tripped over it!

 

[Rookie1]

Thanks for sharing. :msp_smile:

 

[StevenBiars]

I was pretty amazed by the size, but then after reading that it cut 3 billion board feet, I was even more impressed.

 

[fdoberman]

You need to remember when looking at old machines that blade metalurgy was a whole lot different then than what we have today.

For the most part bigger wheels meant less fracturing of the blade and more feet cut per blade.

I have in my collection a blade setter that dates to around 1900. The setter itself was mounted in the middle of a plank with a flanged wood wheel at each end the blade rode on. A man spent his days setting blades after sharpening. The sawshop supported 2 bandsaws, one with a 3 foot wheel and the other with a 4 foot wheel. One wall had pegs for dull blades and the other wall was for sharp blades. There were a couple hundred dull blades hanging when the place closed, and a good number of them were full of fractures.

Oddly no scrap yard wants used bandsaw blades unless they are cut to 3 foot lengths.

 

[StevenBiars]

Oddly no scrap yard wants used bandsaw blades unless they are cut to 3 foot lengths.

My dad scrapped metal for years to earn "play money", so I have (on several occasions) been quite surprised to see what scrap yards wouldn't take simply because it wasn't chopped into bite sized pieces. One time we had scrapped a rather large casing from a hit-and-miss that had been busted to pieces after a tornado. The scrap yard rejected one of the pieces for being 3/8" too long (it was 1.5 inch + thick). My old man nearly blew a gasket over that one.