Wheel-Driven Bandsaw-Type Sawmill

Wheel-Driven Bandsaw-Type Sawmill TIRES/WHEELS New Uses 19-3-10 "A windstorm damaged and downed many trees on our property. After checking out what it would cost to have the logs sawed into lumber and also checking out the prices of small portable sawmills, I decided to build my own bandsaw-type sawmill. It can cut logs up to 30 in. in diameter and 16 ft. long. I built it mostly from scrap materials for less than $100," says William C. Reeks, Cromwell, Ky. A 1 1/4-in. wide bandsaw blade is stretched around a pair of 14-in. car tires. The wheels and spindles bolt to a plat-form that moves up and down on a 4-legged vertical steel frame with a hand crank. Power is supplied by an 8 hp vertical shaft Briggs & Stratton gas engine equipped with a centrifugal clutch. It belt drives a jackshaft which in turn belt-drives a brake drum off an old Pontiac car that's welded to the back of one of the car wheels. The saw blade frame mounts on rubber wheels that ride on steel tracks. "It's made out of odds and ends and isn't as fancy as some commercial sawmills, but it works," says Reeks. "The blade faces away from me as I push the sawmill which makes it safer to use. "Each turn of the hand crank raises the cutting blade 1/8 in. so to cut a 1-in. thick board I turn the crank 8 times. The cables attach to the sawblade platform with threaded I-bolts so it's easy to keep the blade exactly level." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, William C. Reeks, Rt. 1, Box 82, Hwy. 231 S., Cromwell, Ky. 42333 (ph 502 274-4270).

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