Milling boards on a bandsaw

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mickthetree

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Morning all

I have slowly been clearing the jungle garden at the house we bought a couple of years ago. There were a number of badly placed horse chestnut trees including some near to where we plan on creating an extension.

Plenty of good firewood in there, but it seemed a shame to just burn it all. I've toyed with the idea of hiring or even making a bandsaw mill as the logs are just too heavy to manhandle onto my 17" bandsaw. But then I thought, why not take the bandsaw to the wood instead?

I looked into making a track for the bandsaw but it seemed much easier and safer to leave the bandsaw static and move the wood through on a trolley that I already had.

I created a track to keep the trolley in a straight line, but actually what was really required was something for the wood to run against having removed the table. I added a small bar just above the bottom guides and instantly it removed any "grabbing" and made for a very smooth cut. The largest pieces were 12" and the saw handled it easily with one of Ian's Sabrecut 3TPI blades. Cheers Ian!

24743248683_fd9ff91af7_z.jpg


The log in this video I had already ripped in half with my chainsaw, but that looses quite a bit of material so I have left the others in the round. The piece in the video is tapered as I'm correcting for making a bad previous cut. I think this log has been down a year already, but some of the others I have are much more recent.

I had a load of shims (feather edge offcuts) which I used to adjust the height of the wood on the trolley. Screws were used to hold these and the trunk in place.

Just a couple of years drying now then I can make something from it!
 
Unusual, but it looks like it works well.

Pete
 
Well done, but I bet that bandsaw wasd rather heavy to move around.

It seems to work very well and you should get some good timber from it. If you are intending to plane when ready, I would have thought a slightly thicker cut would be more appropriate?

Malcolm
 
Hi Malcolm
Your right, its very heavy! But some physics and that trolley made (fairly) light work of it.

Yes I'm expecting some shrinkage. Some of the boards are a heavy inch thick, some a bit skinnier. For the stuff I would make from these I think thinner would be just fine.

It got a bit dark to take any photos of the wood, but there is some nice grain there.
 
Wow thats a great idea to improvise if you dont have a big setup for ongoing log ripping, i bet that also cuts bandsaw drift out of the equation also as theres no way a blade will lift the log as it travrls through, did you notice any resistance from the blade trying to twist up or down due to it trying to drift? Also I assume you wedged the cut plank so gravity doesnt make the plank pinch the blade when it nearly comes out the end?
 
Hi Mark
No drift at all. I factored in some adjustment, but only by tilting the band saw and re-clamping it. In the end I didn't need to, it just cut straight and the blade didn't deflect.
Actually I didnt think to wedge the cut piece, it didnt seem to pinch or cause a problem. I have seen lots of bandsawmill videos on youtube now and some seem to wedge, others not. I'll keep it in mind when I do the next lot though. Had to dismantle it and put it all away yesterday. Should take about an hour to setup again.
 
That's disturbing and awe inspiring all at the same time.

I suspect you may have started something here and a possible slight incline in the price of larger 2nd band saws.
 
Yes he does like to "help" as long as it involves smashing, bashing or generally making a mess. I wouldnt have it any other way :)
 
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