Sawmill
If you like wood working, live on 150 acres of trees, and want to learn more about metal working – I mean who wouldn’t build themselves a sawmill??
I have to thank my buddy Marcel who is an equal partner with me on the sawmill. It was a multi-year journey to get our own sawmill and we are absolutely thrilled with the end result. Sure it would have been faster and easier to simply buy one of the numerous commercial mills available, but it would have been a lot more costly and not nearly as much fun!
I’d have to say we went through about 3 iterations of this before we got it to the point where it is today and we were completely happy with it.
Iteration 1
We contracted a gentleman to make the original head of the sawmill, and I was going to make the trailer bed. While we got good value for our money on the head – neither of us were happy with the overall design or quality of it. For the trailer bed, I found an old farm water trailer. I extended the frame and put the rails on top. The original design was to walk on top of the trailer next to the head as it rolled back and forth slicing the log. Well – being an old trailer, it wasn’t very flat – it was bowed in the middle. Not a big deal for slicing 1″ lumber as the thickness would still be uniform – just a slight curve to the overall piece which would most likely be resolved in the drying process. The issue was more when you were looking to mill posts and beams. Each time you flip the post and mill the opposite side – you’re doubling the error. We ended up milling an 8×8 that was 8″ at each end – but only 7 1/2″ in the middle. Not so good.
Iteration 2
We decided to essentially scrap the first head design that we had paid for. We salvaged it for parts and set to building a new head. The most valuable part salvaged was the beautiful Honda v-twin 22hp engine. Iteration 2 was a huge redesign from the ground up. We wanted a number of safety upgrades and convenience upgrades if we were going to re-do this thing.
- Pulley on the drive was changed to a centrifugal clutch so that when the engine slows down – the blade stops. (much safer!)
- The bandsaw wheels were changed to cast iron pulley wheels which are much stronger and more true than the pressed wheels on the original.
- Lift mechanism was changed from a manual lift to a power driven winch
- Head was changed to a 4 post design for more strength and stability
- Added fully adjustable blade guides from Cook Saw Manufacturing
- The existing trailer was made considerably narrower to to allow walking beside the trailer \ head – instead of walking on the trailer bed itself
- Hydraulic blade tension
We ended up being quite happy with the new head design – but the trailer was still giving us problems. We had removed the rails and tried to shim them level, but we were still ending up with posts that were tapered in the middle – albeit less so. At the end of 2019 – I gotta be honest and say I threw a bit of a hissy fit. I was done mucking around with a used trailer trying to get a straight flat post. I designed out version 3.0, ordered up a load of fresh steel and set up for a winter project.
Iteration 3
The third iteration was more about the log deck \ trailer than the head. The head remained pretty much the same as the one for version 2. The new deck was designed from the ground up with the intention of being fully road worthy and ready to travel. The log stops (fence) were designed with linear actuators, but they were eventually abandoned for manual log stops. There are a few iterations and versions of log clamping on this bed as well. The first version had toggle clamps. These were pulled in favour of screw tight versions and we also added a 1/2″ cant clamp. A pair of motorcycle lifts with rollers became the end to end log lifts to adjust for taper and UHMW strips were added to the log bed for extra height and to enhance the ability to move the log around.
