Kristijan's woodgas sawmill

Circumstances finaly forced me to get to the project. l was procrastinating to long, so here it is. My bandsaw sawmill

Its gonna be a simple small one. Powered by a 8 hp petrol engine, woodgas later.

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I like it! Keep the progress pictures coming. I suppose that was about 15 minutes of work for you? :grin:

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Quite literaly :smile: guys at steel store know me allredy and l personaly know a couple of them so they cut steel to size without charge for me on the band saw. After that its just pulling a couple of beads of weld. Problem is l never put plans on paper so l need to download specs to them from my brain. You can see one mistake in the download operation at the top cross pipe, in a hurry l forgot about it and had to graft 2 small peaces together.

Got axles and 13" wheels/tires today before work. Hopefully this thing will be complete tomorow morning.

I failed t mention this will be a stationary saw system. Thinking about it, l realised l culd allso make it 90° adjustible. If l add a desk and change to a thiner blade it culd allso be used for some more precise woodworking. Will see about that…

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Maybe you should get to know some fellows at a sawmill

get the “wood” cut right to size and save the time of building and running your own saw mill. TomC

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I’m so so slow typing, my post is outof date when it’s time to press reply. Well, this is what I wrote.

That’s a teaser, Kristijan! Will require some internet time for explanations :wink:
Have you thought about using standard wheel hubs (for fabricating trailers)? Two of them is probably the same cost as your four bearings and no shafts needed. (maybe too late again).

Kristijan, this is short lumber and a vertical mill but kind of sets the standards of cutting speed :grin:

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I like swing blade circular mill for making precise cuts.

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pallet lumber doesn’t have to be very precise.

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Jakob, you’re right. I just wanted to pick at Kristijan some and show him what milling speeds to aim for :grin:

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If they used a double sided blade they could go twice as fast :grinning:

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Damn Jan l dont know whats in the botle on the bench but l know l want some :smile:

Tom, thats kinda what we did till now. Hauling wood back and forth to the mill kinda worked if you got a big load but sawing a log or two on need is a different story.

Jan, I have. Didnt decide for it. Its simpler this way and not much costyer, Chinese make screwable bearings for 7$ a peace.

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Hey Kristijan, Is that a jar of home made wine on the floor?:eyes:

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Don’t forgot you need to be able to adjust the distance between the two wheels to tension the blade.
Here are some photos of the head on my mill that might be helpful. Oh also if you leave the log stationary and move the saw head you need far less track you only need track for the length of the log plus the width of the head not twice the length of the log.




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Haha unfortunaly not :smile: thats diesel for lubricating the drill bit.

Thank you Dan for the pics!

Look on the top on the pic. The pipes slide in one a nother and there is a sturdy screw for tension adjustment. The rig adjusts 4-6".

You are right. However the thing is l want to power this via pto from my 8hp cultivator. Rather thain having a engine on every device l like to have one motor that fits all. The cultivator is just that, a 8hp engine on wheels with a 3 speed pto. Perfect for nany applications.
Its allso esyer for woodgas. Woodgasing 5 engines requires 5 gasifier that may allso need 5 different kinds of fuel. With one serve-all engine thats simpler.

Oh, l shuld allso mention my first choice wuld be electric but the place where the mill will serve has no electricity.

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I have a question about those blade liners or what ever they are called. What exactly is that for ? Any insight on how to construct them?

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How much does the walk behind weight? I was thinking maybe a slightly wider platform where my motor sits and you could just roll it onto the head of the mill and still have basically the same design I have.
Someday I want to convert my mill to electric but I have way more projects ahead of that right now.

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Do you mean the blade guides? They are basically just bearing one of them is on a slide so you can adjust it closer to the log. The idea is to help keep the blade from deflecting up or down when it hits a knot in the log. The problem with a bandsaw mill is that the blade is thin and deflects as the density of the wood changes chasing the easiest cut path. A circular saw takes a wider cut but is stiffer and won’t deflect leaving more true lumber.

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My WAG is about 300 pounds. But thats a idea l will think about. I need to make a platform for the cultivator anyway becouse it needs to come up higher not to bend the pro too much. Shortening the track sure is a good thing since flat ground is about as common as a vegeterian fox here :smile:

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I see… I thod they are there allso to prevent the blade geting pushed off the wheels

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I toyed with the idea of making a track out of angle iron before I bought my mill. What you need on a track is stiffness and sawdust kills tracks and will bind up a head as you push it through. My plan was to put the angle iron so it was a triangle up on the back side of the bend then run a wheel on each side of the triangle so you had two wheels 45 degrees from each other pressing back to center. My mill simply runs on the top edge of a track with a wheel that is basically a pulley following the ridge. But you do have to keep a stick near by to clean the track periodically.

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I haven’t seen any issue with the blades moving on the wheels I wondered how that would work. There is a back roller on the setup though so maybe they do both jobs.

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