Thread: bandsaw blade supplier for home made bandsaw mill

Heres a few pis my mill in various stages.
First time uploading pics their bit all over the place sorry.
20160320_104714.jpg
Allot of changes made along the way
The large log was an old hoop pine covered in fungus wich clogged the blade and was a pain to mill.
Post was 260x260 spotty
I will put up some better ones if you like i know how much help looking at other peoples mills can be when building your own.
Cheers
Tom.

Tom

Thanks for the pix. Although in an earlier post I suggested motorcycle tyres, you are the first person I have seen do that. It looks like you have done a really good job. I think you should consider some guarding unless it has been removed for the photo shoot. The blade is safe enough when it is in the timber, but before (or after) that it can go anywhere if it comes adrift. There is also the chance of accidental contact in an unguarded (no real pun intended) moment.

I am sure more pix, if you are able, would be welcomed. particularly detail of crucial parts.

Regards
Paul

Brendan,

I am also currently building a bandsaw mill, and have been doing lots of research on parts and design options.

Woodland Mills Australia show a bi-metal 144 inch blade for $89.00. https://woodlandmills.com.au/product...i-metal-blade/ They also have 10 packs of what must be carbon steel blades for $289.

Norwood Sawmills Australia also have a 144 inch blade, for $119.00.

I've had blades made up to specific lengths for my 2 older workshop bandsaws by Henry Bros, and they have been great to deal with, but I've decided to design the bandsaw mill around a 144 inch blade because this size is readily available off the shelf from multiple suppliers.

On wheels, I've looked into the motor bike option, but I could not find a cheap source of suitable second hand wheels and tyres. I've gone with cast iron V belt pulleys from Surplus Centre in the US. I landed two 18.75" cast iron pulleys (the largest they have), plus a centrifugal clutch, plus an idler pulley, plus shipping, for less than the cost of aluminium pulleys and a clutch in Australia. The pulleys were US$52 each. The shipping was a killer, more than the cost of the items, but it needs to be looked at in the context of what the items would cost locally plus local shipping.

Good luck with the build. I'll probably put up a build thread here or in the metalwork forums for mine.

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Tom

Thanks for the pix. Although in an earlier post I suggested motorcycle tyres, you are the first person I have seen do that. It looks like you have done a really good job. I think you should consider some guarding unless it has been removed for the photo shoot. The blade is safe enough when it is in the timber, but before (or after) that it can go anywhere if it comes adrift. There is also the chance of accidental contact in an unguarded (no real pun intended) moment.

I am sure more pix, if you are able, would be welcomed. particularly detail of crucial parts.

Regards
Paul

Thanks Paul.
Hard to see from the pics but there is a guard on there,
Had the blade come off once it cant get far even when not in a log.
I will take some more pics when i get a chance.
Ive never seen a brand name mill in person so i learnt a lot from trail and error. Nothing major just little things that would make things easier. I will try point them out with pics, may help someone building their own.
Hopeing to go to tge melany woid show this year do they have any bandsaw mill demos up there.?

Originally Posted by Tinythomas

Thanks Paul.
Hard to see from the pics but there is a guard on there,
Had the blade come off once it cant get far even when not in a log.
I will take some more pics when i get a chance.
Ive never seen a brand name mill in person so i learnt a lot from trail and error. Nothing major just little things that would make things easier. I will try point them out with pics, may help someone building their own.
Hopeing to go to tge melany woid show this year do they have any bandsaw mill demos up there.?

Tom,
there was only 1 BSM at maleny last year, it was a 2nd hand hardwood mills Aust for sale. I have had a look at the exhibitor list and can only see Lucas mills. Most of the commerciall ones are outside the price range that most of us can afford. That'swhy we build our own. I have built one using space saver spares. https://youtu.be/--763OkMAx4
I am bringing some timber to Maleny, Pm me if you want to catch up and compare notes
Cheers
Jon

Thanks Jon,
Your mill looks like it works really well.
What blades do you use and what supplier, i was using ripper37 then a bi-metal and now simmons red streak.
All 1.1 tpi my supplier cant tell me the hook or set so its hard to find what works with different timber.
I would like to try a few different combos to see what works best.
I cant make it to the expo now i have to pick up some logs for another miller��.

Originally Posted by Tinythomas

Thanks Jon,
Your mill looks like it works really well.
What blades do you use and what supplier, i was using ripper37 then a bi-metal and now simmons red streak.
All 1.1 tpi my supplier cant tell me the hook or set so its hard to find what works with different timber.
I would like to try a few different combos to see what works best.
I cant make it to the expo now i have to pick up some logs for another miller��.

Tom
I have only ever used Lennox Woodmaster B (bimetalic) 1" 1/4 1Tpi from Henry Bros, They are a bit aggressive when new as the hook angle is around 11 deg I think. I sharpen mine to 8 deg as mainly cut Hardwood. I am planning on building a bigger one mounted on a trailer with hydraulic log pickup and power feed. Just need to find the time to build it.

Cheers Jon

Hi Jon,

What diam are your space saver spares and how much were they?

Thanks for the tips re blades too. How long does it take to sharpen one, and how often do you have to do it?

Brendan

Hi brendan.
My blades are 185 inches and take about 20min to sharpen.
I do it on the mill, would take about that long to change the blade anyway so i leave it on.
My bike wheels are 22inch from memory with the tires im guessing 30inch diameter total.
Blade life has alot of variables.
If we say clean 500mm diameter 4m long ironbark (no bark)
50mm slabs
Carbon blade i would hope to get 3 logs
Bi-metal i would expect 5 logs before sharpening.
This is a bit of a guess becouse most of my logs are
Ugly looking and not always as clean as they could be.
But i slab most of my logs and ugly logs normaly produce the best slabs (feature wise).
Hope thats some help to you.
Tom.

I sort of look after a 36" 27HP bandsaw mill at my mates Tree Lopping yard.
We used have some Lennox bimetal blades from Henry brothers but now we get our blades from Home
They supply a Swedish bimetal brand know as Hakansoson- and found they have similar performance to the Lennox blades but are slightly cheaper.

We get similar performance from the blades as Tinythomas, well a bit more because were not milling IB very often, mostly we mill spotted gum.
Cleanliness of the log is pretty important. We use water as a coolant so we have a hose handy and always wash down the logs as they tend to get covered in crap when they are picked up and moved around in the milling area.

Our bands are 212" long and 1TPI and I sharpen and set the blades using an automatic Dinasaw sharpening machine and a Dinasa manual setter.
I have made a post about these and it is here Bandsaw setter in action
We have about 10 bands and I sharpen the blunt bands in batches every couple of months.
Were using 6º but should probably increase that a bit.
Time to sharpen depends how blunt the bands are. some of the other guys that use the mill are pretty rough and use a band well beyond its use by time and as a result it takes longer.
There's no excuse because time to replace the band is only about 2 minutes.
Dinasaw gear is not cheap, but once I have set the gear up, it automatically touches up a band in about 5 minutes. Usually I do two passes so 10 minutes. If the guys have been extra rough it might need three or even 4 passes.
The tooth setter is manual and a complete pass through takes about 2-3 minutes but I can do that on one blade while I wait for the sharpener to finish another.

Thanks Thomas and Bob. That's some really useful info.

All I need now is the bloody bills to stop rolling in so I can start buying parts.

Brendan