I have wanted a sawmill since I first saw a picture of one with car tires as the band saw wheels. My first thought being “I can build that!”. I would have built one a long time ago at my place in Mannford, but there was a fire there about 15 years ago and all the trees have a core of charcoal. Interestingly, after I finished the mill I got to thinking that maybe not ALL of the trees there had burned. After studying some satellite photos (gotta love Google Earth) I discoverd that I have about 9 acres of good large oaks. As the housing market has gone to the crapper, I should have plenty of time to selectively harvest some of them before the place sells. If it ever sells.





This is the 3-point hitch I build for the lawn mower my friend Alex (Hey, I have one or two friends...) gave me after mine was stolen. I'm going to try to retrieve logs from the woods by towing a log arch with this mower. On the right is the wire spooler I built to run the fence around the three acres. I also built an adapter so I could spool out 4ft tall rolls of 2x4 “horse” wire, which worked very well. I have since built a box blade and, more to the point, a 3-point hitch receiver to tow things with. Note the linear actuators used for the vertical motion. These are amazingly strong, they will lift the front wheels of the mower off the ground when I put too much weight on the hitch. Can't ask for more than that.







I started this project with the good intentions of rebuilding an old rotor tiller motor to use on the mill, you can see a picture of it on the left above. By the time I got the parts and gaskets to rebuild it I was looking at a hundred and a half. Expensive, but cheaper than a new motor. Then I went and broke the flywheel on the press trying to take it off the crankshaft. <sigh> Oh well, I didn't need to fix up that old POS anyway. I looked in a catalog Alex give me and discovered a 12hp Briggs motor, brand new, with warranty, for $209. Can't beat that. Spend my time building the mill, and not fussing with a motor.

Center picture above is a rough layout of the wheels. I'm using a couple of “donuts” that fit the axle to a 1979 Pontiac Firebird that was donated to the project by one of my few other friends, Dale. (See, I have more than one!)

On the right is a box of cheap trailer jacks from Harbor Freight. I know, I know, if any of you know me then you have heard me complain about cheap stuff from China. However, they were like $12, and I needed eight of them. I flat couldn't afford to install eight $30 jacks on the thing.







Left is the heavy plate that I used to build the mounting system for the axles. It's quite amazing what one of those bi-metal holes saws will cut, isn't it? Center is mount mocked up to the main cross piece. I agonized for days over whether to just do a straight beam like this (as recommenced by Dale) or to do a more complex layout that would give me the ability to cut thicker wood. This simpler layout gives me the ability to cut a board that is 12 inches thick, and for the life of me I couldn't think of a reason I would need to cut something that was thicker than that. And Even if I did, I could cut it out of a 30 inch tree by slicing pieces off the outside.

To the right is the layout with the drive pulley. This was recycled from an old blower I picked up while scrounging for junk one day.





Here is the vertical movement mounted on the main carriage. The “Simple Saw” method would have worked better, with a piece of square tubing that fits over another piece of square tubing. However, I already had this 1x3 steel, so I used it instead.





Left is axle mounted on the carriage, center and right are that motor mounted temporarily so I could take measurements. I decided to run mine backwards from “normal”. This means I had to reverse the band saw blade, but that is trivial. What this gave me is all the controls to the engine on the back where I can easily reach them, and the pulley on the far side from the opereator. In addtion, the dust gets blown away from me instead of into my face. I'm happy with the layout.





Left is over center lever I made. My first over center lever, and it worked out very. Center is the “V” wheels I bought from McMaster-Carr. Not very expensive, so I bought four of them. This makes the rails symmetrical, so I can reverse the direction of the carriage if I need to for some reason. Right is the 5/8” acme screw that is used for the vertical motion.





Left two are the slide plate and over-center lever in action. Right is drive for vertical motion. This is a matching pair of electric window motors from a car.





Couple shot of the rail/trailer system. My wife bought me the steel for this for my birthday. A very nice present. Center I am aligning the angle iron for the rails by using the carriage to make sure it fits exactly right.





Here are the roller guide for the blade. Much more complicated that I though this part would be. I decided to use bearing instead of the metal slider things mainly because I think it looks cooler and more professional. The two front bearings are set forward quite a bit, so when I use up these 1” band saw blades I can easily replace them with the standard 1-1/4” blade. I designed it so I could use standard size Wood Mizer blades, as I have heard good things about them.





Here I am using boat building techniques on the blade guard. Used up the last of my epoxy and all my light weight fiberglass for this.





Here I have test ran the engine and the whole thing didn't ASSplode on me! Note the air filter recycled from the rotor tiller engine. This motor originally came from a snow blower, and did not have an air filter, as ingesting snow is pretty trivial. Sawdust not so much...





Here are some pictures of the complete project. Hey, it was the season, so you will have to excuse the Christmas color scheme... <grin> Battery box made with my new toy, a box and pan brake.





Here is the log clamping system. On the third try I got something that works good for the clamps, they are simply eccentric cams. They scar the wood a bit, but that is a small price to pay for the simplicity. They even “over center” and lock into place. Sweet.





Left is the contraption I built to true the tires up. This is one of those cheap cross slide vices, and an adapter for my grinder. Made a fine rubber powder and losts of smoke, but worked. Now I just need to figure out how to balance the tires.

Center, none of the tire shops would seat the bead on the donut for me. Damned lawyers. No problem, I built my own Cheatah. The valve isn't as big as the "real" ones, but the air in them comes out before the big valve is open all the way anyway. It takes about one second to empty the tank through this 3/4" valve, which seams to seat the bead just dandy.

Right is the new blade, new rollers for the guids, and the tube for the lube system. Old blade was wandering. New blade is much better, but still dips if I don't have the tension up high enough. Toying with makeing a tension gauges with some blocks and some feeler gauges. At least use it once so I know about what the right tension looks and feels like.







Left is the first layout for the bandsaw blade sharpener. Using a chop saw base a friend gave me. It's been sitting in my junk shed for six years. Makes a perfect base for the sharpener! I'm even using the original pivot bracket for the pusher shaft. Using bronze bushings as guides. The original thought was to twist them to hold the blade tight, but the natural curve of the blade seems to hold everything firmly enough already. Center is the arm for the grinder, I'm using the Harbor Freight carbide circular saw sharpener as the sacrifical machine for this project. I cut the factory mount off just past where it attaches to the gringer. It was pretty thin metal there, so I filled it with epoxy and glass fibers, then bolted the angle iron on to make the lifting arm. I'm happy with it, kind of looks like a little bridge. Right is the adjustable pusher rod, and another shot of the lifting arm.







Left is a shot of the arm lifted to put the blade in. I'm using aluminim for the cam, and a "ball ended thrust screw" (allen screw with a ball bearing on the end) as the cam follower. Took about an hour with a file, but I finally got the cam to the right shape. With work hardening I think the aluminum cam will last for the few hundred times I plan on using the machine. Right two are a couple videos. I sure love modern still cameras. Only thing left to do is build a deflector to keep the sparks and grit off my moving parts. Already sharpened two blades with it, I'll let you know how they work out.