Because the first blade I bought was too narrow, there was no hope for the blade guides to do their job. The blade I did buy wandered badly in the cut, or rubbed against the wood and fell off several times. I had done no research on blades up until that point. I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t even order a blade until the saw was almost done. Well, the first time I used the saw this motor overheated and almost caught fire! I have a much better understanding of horsepower now.Īlso I didn’t understand the intricacies of bandsaw blades well enough. I had assumed a 1 HP AC motor was more than enough for ripping 20″ logs. However, some of my intuition was way off. I felt that most DIY sawmills used way too much metal and were too heavy, so I built mine with the least amount of steel that I could, and ended up with a very capable lightweight machine. I figured out a way to make the blade guides using just simple bearings and some scrap pieces. I came up with a clever design for tensioning the blade based off milling machine ways. I designed on the fly using my own experience and intuition as a guide – something I refer to as “eyeball engineering.” The only calculations I made were for figuring out pulley sizes to get the right blade speed (2800 fpm) and determine how far apart the wheels should be for a certain blade length. No CAD designs or paper sketches went into building this. There’s something to be said for having theories and plans, but too often I get bogged down in design. There are some tricky parts, but I ignored those at first and just jumped into building. When looking at a bandsaw mill, there are really only three parts: the bandsaw, a gantry that holds it horizontally, and rails that the whole thing can slide on. Showcasing amazing maker projects of 2022 ![]() Gift the gift of Make: Magazine this holiday season! Subscribe to the premier DIY magazine todayĬommunity access, print, and digital Magazine, and more Share a cool tool or product with the community.įind a special something for the makers in your life. Skill builder, project tutorials, and more Get hands-on with kits, books, and more from the Maker Shed A project collaboration and documentation platform.Initiatives for the next generation of makers. ![]()
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