Some basic concepts and math for you, to help you in future projects. 1. The smaller the drive pulley or the larger the driven pulley, the more torque on the driven shaft. 2. To figure the fps of the blade, you need to know the rpms of the driven shaft and the circumference of the blade drive wheel in inches. (20 inch circumference drive wheel at 1000 rpms = 20 X 1000 or 20,000 inches per minute. Answer / 60 = 333.33 inches per minute. Consult blade manufacturer's recommendation for proper blade speed. 3. To figure rpms of driven shaft, the pulley ratio and engine rpms must be known. 4. For instance, many Briggs type engines run at 3600 rpm at full power, but this can be confirmed with the engine manual. 5. The pulley ratio is a direct size relationship between the two pulleys. A 2-inch drive pulley and a 10-inch driven pulley will have a ratio of 1:5 (one to five), which means that for every single turn of the drive pulley, the driven pulley will only move one fifth of a turn. 6. The rpms of the driven shaft will be the rpms of the engine divided by the pulley ratio in a step down configuration (multiplied if a step up), or in our example 3600 engine rpms/5 (1:5 ratio) = 720 rpm driven shaft speed. 7. Total formula to figure blade speed in inches per second: (E/R X D)/60 where E = engine rpms, R = pulley ratio, and D = circumference of drive wheel. 8. To figure blade speed for feet per second, divide the answer by 12. Tensioners should always take the slack out of the belt by pushing inward, not pulling outwards, and should always be on the slack side of the pulley system and not the drive side. The belt goes from drive pulley to driven pulley, around idler and then back to drive pulley. Connecting the system in any other manner will cause idler hopping and/or belt slippage. This should help you when working with belts and pulleys.

I really appreciated the points you covered. The experience you have had with your mill and the honest description of areas of improvement were terrific. The engine thing is called the shaft that the centrifugal clutch is attached to. But I’m sure you’ve had someone else tell you that by now. Thanks for your video it helped me to reconsider some important things to rethink in my plans. You did a great job…👍👍👍

Not sure, but you may need more "wrap around" on the drive pully ....you only have about 30% of belt contact, and may cause slippage issues... Maybe switch to a flat pulley for the tensioner , pushing inwards from the outside of the belt...kinda like a truck serpintine belt. God bless.

Man thank you so much for this video, I'm making a bandsaw mill right now and this helped a ton. Thanks for being real and for having the guts and gumption to post a video of what you learned to help others. That's awesome :)

If you look at a factory bandsaw, you will see they use bearings to guide the blade and stop the slip, wobble. You can get the tires foam filled, leaving them relatively solid and no air to loose. As the tires wear, you can use a router on a guide to retrue the tires. Good info you sharied. Also on the belt, use a dbl or triple belt and keep them short as practical or a serpentine belt with more surface area. Also, you need to let the belt have increased contact on the motor pulley, you dont have but less than 25% contact area. the less contact, more slip. With a little math, you want to run the motor at 75%, and at the fpm (feet per minute). Thx. Pulley math. perimeter is Pi x diameter. the Pi cancels out. So motor pulley is 12" / 4" motor pulley, so is 3:1 ratio. So motor runs 3000rpm. so larger pulley is at 1000rpm. 1000 x wheel diameter of 20" (my est) or 1.67ft, so perimeter is 5.25ft x 1000 = 5250 fpm. Recommended speed of blades, depending on the blade is around 2- 3000 fpm. So going backward math. 3000fpm divided by 5.25 is 570 rpm for drive wheel. So ideal would be 370 to 570 rpm. For 570rpm ratio off of drive wheel. 3000 drive motor divided by 570rpm. so Ratio of motor to drive shaft should be 5.25 or 5:1 You can buy a cheap RPM gauge off of Ebay, to calibrate the throttle. The more accurate the blade speed, maximum cutting speed and increase blade life. So drive motor can be 2" to 10" or 3" to 15", the larger the pulley sets, the increased friction, less slip. Lubricant/ water or water blend with wax solution cools and lubricates the blade. Heat in a blade or drill bit dulls it. Cool equates with harder steel and longer life besides reduce friction and increase blade speed. with sap on hot blade, you can end up hot melting your blade to the board like a glue gun. The indians used cooked sap to glue the fletching onto arrows.

Hey Coy, you can now use a 19" sheave with a v-belt on it for the band wheels. I priced them out through Surplus Center for $107.00 for a set without shipping.

i have to say thank you for posting this. i see a lot of vids about "i made a sawmill" but don't see the pitfalls. thank you for your honesty.i am inspired. be blessed brother.

Your clutch should have as much belt as possible riding in the groove. Move your idler pulley in front of that clutch and let as much belt as possible ride the groove. It will save your belt and give maximum grip when engaged..:)

Dennis not everything has to be put on paper in order to create, it's called envision, work out the kinks and just roll with it... most great invention never hit paper until someone wants to market it... pastor great build, i will be copying a couple of your ideals and enlisting my own while i build my own sawmill great video...

Thanks for your video mate! I'm really trying to understand all the pitfalls before I begin building my own. Good points about the tyres and about the sawmill guides. Cheers

Well done , I built a portable band saw mill a few years ago . So far it has cut around 100,000 b ft of lumber . You can buy a lot of sawmill parts from cook saw mfg in Alabama . My blade travels at 5200 feet per minute . I used cast wheels from princess auto and then I had a local machine shop take 1/8 of an inch off the 19 inch wheels .Then you put a tight v-belt And it will make the tire the blade runs on . By the time you get your own sawmill built one is a lot smarter than when they started . If I had it to do again I would buy the cheapest one I could find and then build my own trailer. By doing that you have a parts book for parts .

If I were you, I would go to a junk yard and look for aluminum or magnesium motorcycle front wheels (don't use spoke wheels). The front wheels will have enough diameter to be easy on the blade. I would then use old inner tubes (split along the center radius and using the outside half of the tube) that are slightly smaller than the diameter of the inside groove of the wheels and stretch multiple inner tubes over the center groove of the rims until you create a solid blade tire that has a center "hump" for good tracking. That will allow you to make your blade tension much tighter for large logs.

That's a really nice build. I noticed someone suggested earlier about filling your ties with foam. There is a kit you can get specifically for filling your tires to make them solid. This would keep them from deforming and might allow you to put more tension on your blade to cut larger diameter trees.

Hi there Pastor BCoy,I just watched the videos on you handsaw sawmill and am very impressed.I also built my own sawmill, but recently having problems with the blade climbing of the tyres, I tried everything to stop the blade from climbing of, but to no avail, so i decided to rebuilt my sawmill. I really like yours, you don't have any plans that you can help me with. I am a missionary in a small village (Seronga) in the Okavango Delta, Botswana Africa, training church leaders and also do a bit of skills, we have beautiful Teak wood here. Blessings Freddie de Waal

thank you for your mill building videos I kmow you have helped thousands planning to build their own mill .....i'm sure you have gotten out all the kinks by now and are cutting better the way you planned it to

Thanks for this video! Its is really helpful, time saving, and motivational. Again, Thanks!

Your motor pulley is engaging the belt for less than 1/4 (90 degrees) of the motor pulley's circumference. That means the belt can slip easily on the motor pulley under load. You should move the motor farther away from the large drive pulley. Your tensioner pulley has a comparatively large engagement with the belt but doesn't need it. It just pushes the belt until everything tightens up and it needs no friction grip at all. It can be located closer to the large pulley so you don't have to change belt size when you move the motor farther away.

Well you built it so you now know how to fix the small problems you have described. I to have wanted to build my own band saw sawmill. I have several notebooks and sketch pads of all the designs and changes to those designs to various styles and types. I keep telling myself that one day I will build it as soon as I finally figure out what design it will be. I have figured it out but now how to pay for all the materials. Ha ha. Well God bless you and your family.

band saw mills are the most popular, yes but if you ever decide to build another consider a swing blade mill. 1 no need to roll log after in place.2 cuts forward and backward /better time yield 3 huge logs no problem 4less blade cost/matenence 5no bending twisting of frame from rolling logs if cutting from suspended track beam 6 this type saw wins in the sawmilling shootout contests hands down btw admire anyone that can make their own machine like that Henry

thank you for all the tips you gave us so we can avoid problems to build a saw without problems,good luck with your new project of stationary sawmill

Thanks for sharing the short commings, we learn thru our mistakes as well as others. Appreciate your humility

Thank you for the process views shown and I like to see this many times. It's me, Sule Shangodoyin.

Nice you share your thoughts and experiences with this build. This will make my build easier.

Thanks for the video. I will be building a mill this year and your suggestions have been so helpful. I was considering the tires, but, I think I will pony up the $$$ and get the correct wheels. I am a cabinet builder and finish/general carpenter and was lucky enough to buy an antique vertical bandsaw that has a 12" throat and will serve as a finishing machine. By the way... my "boss" is a Jewish carpenter.

thank you for all the tips and advice.

Thanks for taking the time to make this video. It helped me alot saved time and money. Nice work!

Great video! Words of advice are priceless, thank you.

Great video and thanks for taking the time to share your experience - you gave me a lot to think about. You have a nice mill, and I suspect most everyone has to make a few adjustments to fine tune their builds after the fact. Especially with large complex projects like this. Enjoy the holidays!

You've done well PastorBcoy. For the naysayers.. "make one yourself" then they can tell you how to do it. The drive pulley off the clutch must have a full half circumference with a simple take-up on the return side. It will last forever too. Think how many revolutions the belt on your car alternator has done over its lifetime! Thanks for posting.. Nice job.

A suggestion, build your saw carriage with the tires flat. Then inflate the tires to provide the blade tension. Cooks saw mills sells a blade guide roller that is adjustable for roller pitch. It is a nice part.

Ahh! Thank you. Now I know for when I build mine.

Thanks for your info. Very helpful.

Super interesting! Thanks! Im thinking of building my own sawmill sometime so i appreciate it, i think you might be using the v groove casters "wrong" but it seems to be working fine for you, also you might want to have your blade guide be like 1/4" below the bottom of the bandsaw wheels, thats what i read in a cook sawmill tutorial, thank!

Its all about your guides. They have to contain the blade as it is cutting, keeping the blade square to the cut and true. This is why the blades are coming off and cutting your tires. A minimum of 2 bearing guides on each side of the cut, preferably 3 bearings with one above, one below and one behind the blade. Also your idler puller between the engine and the drive pulley(10 inch) need to be on the outside of the belt and close to the large pulley so that the belt wraps around both engine and drive pulley more than it is now.

Thanks for taking the time to explain some of the potential problems with building this. Do you think Filling the tires with urethane foam could help with the tire problems?

THANK YOU FOR ALL THE INFO,IT IS MUCH APPRECIATED, NICE BUILD

If you use a shorter belt, and move your tensioner to the right, you can get more contact with the belt on your clutch, the more contact you have, the less slippage you will get.

The drive pulley theory. A small pulley driving to a larger one actually increases the torque but reduces the speed of the driven pulley. It's all about ratios A 3inch pulley driving a 12 inch pulley means that the effective gearing ratio will be 4:1 (12/3 = 4) This means that the small drive pulley will have to turn 4 revolutions to turn the large one one revolution. 3" pulley turning at 3000rpm = 12" pulley turning at 750rpm. The torque will increase by 4 times of course

Get that idler / tensioner pulley on the smooth side of the belt just like on a lawn mower. It will give you more contact patch on the clutch pulley (more belt around the pulley) and you'll be tensioning the belt into the drive pulley, not pulling it away.

Thanks for sharing!

Nice job on giving tips so others can come behind and build it better the first time. Thanks for sharing, Sub'd.

put multiple tongue jacks on the main rails of the trailer to level it to various terrain

thanks for your video it answered some questions I havede

Inner tube maybe 15 bucks,cheaper than a Tire. Japanese motorcycle wheels are larger diameter and cheaper to use and can be equipped with a spring activated disc brake for an E-Stop.

The saw looks awesome

Thank you very much. Good video!

This sawmill you made seems to be good and durable. I have been thinking wheter its possible to replace the normal wood cutting saw blade with diamond saw blade which are used to cut granite? Any ideas could it be done? I know that the diamond blade needs water to cool down but i do not see any problems with it. You will have to go really slow with it but i am keen to try it - i have a few boulders by my yard so it would be nice to say that i made that granite table topping..

The faster the blade the less the torque it has. The larger the wheel drive pulley the more torque and less blade speed you will have. Also your belt at the motor should be in no less than 50% contact (you have about 25%) with the pulley or it will always slip. With 13hp this saw could cut really fast. I also dont see any water drip for the blade to keep it cool. Hot blades are dull, all the time.

Brother your a great American for sharing your information, be safe.

Great design and video. Do you just air up/down the tires for tension? or is there a built in tension adjustment. Your tracking adj. is great! Thanks

I have to say this is neat I have looked and weighted my options and after seeing this video which I appreciate very much. I have decided that am going to build a swing blade saw mill it seems to be a much easier build and more efficient am just not sure I can get the bigger timbers out of it. good video

Excellent video tons of useful information Thanks

very informative and thanks for the great presentation.

Awesome!....Thanks dude. My next project.

If you used a shorter drive belt you would could increase the torque handling. The belt length you have now is right about 1/4 of the engine pulley surface. If you were to draw imaginary lines to connect the clutch pulley to the driven pulley, you would double the contact area and double the amount of torque that the connection can handle. Its a good possibility the the clutch mech would slip before the belt, but optimizing for larger stock may make this a necessity. Good job on the make!

I know this comment comes a couple years late - as for the idle pulley design, the placement should always (if possible) be placed in between the drive pulley and the motor pulley. This increase the surface contact of the belt going around the motor (clutch) pulley. Take a look at your car, the fan belt always has the idle/belt tensioner pulley in between the crankshaft and accessory pulley. This could allow you to use a larger (>8"dia) drive pulley and still have the power required since less loss occurs from slippage on the drive pulley.

The blade will track better on the tires the more the tires are crowned. A blade will naturally track to the highest (largest diameter) of the wheel. This is the opposite of how standard V-belt pulleys work. If you use tires that easily make a wide footprint on a road surface the blade won't track well on that tire. Temporary Safety Spare "Donut" tires may be the best tire for this purpose. They are highly crowned and they are inflated to a higher pressure than regular car tires.

Made my first cut today, I am using trailer tires and the same guides you have. My blade started up as soon as it hit the wood. Any suggestions how I can remedy this?

If you want a cheap source of wheels junk yards sell the donut spare tires for practically nothing. There is one in every junk car that comes in and they almost never wear out in the life of the car so there is no market for them. I've gotten them for as little as five bucks apiece. I use them for heavy wheelbarrows and garden carts but they should work for a sawmill. They are designed to run at 90 psi so you could put a whole lot more tension on the blade.

Use thrust bearings behind the band to keep the saw band from back tracking with bigger lumber.

Thanks for the great information. I've wondered what would happen if you deflate the tires just enough to make them concave so the blade would be less likely to slip off? I didn't get all of the way through the video yet, so you may have addressed this. Thanks!

Have you considered using wooden wheels like Matthias Wandel? Although I suppose with your saw being out in the elements more it might not be so good...

If you make another "bearing set-up like you have for the blades and mount it to the top that bearing would push down on the blade to help keep it tight.and if the arm of it goes pass the top of the sleeve and you put a long bolt on that end you can place weights on the bolt to add tension.

Buying dedicated bandsaw sheaves/wheels is a better way to go. You have to shop around, but they are available.

Thanks for the Video and Tips based on your Experience and Expewrimenting on the build you came up with a pretty nice setup and design you had me laughing pretty good when you said you pulled that around with your Subaru i pictured being behind you on a major Highway shaking my head this guy is nuts LOL untill you described more details about staying off the highways etc When i was a teenager my Dad had a VW Rabbit that he pulled a pop up camper with although we did live in Florida which is pretty flat and it was only for a Weekend of Camping in the Florida Keys my Dad did actually bolt the ball on the factory bumper with some reinforcement Steel plate ! Ive kind of went the overkill method as i pulled all my trailers with a Full sizeAmerican made Dually Deisel truck from 30 foot boats 10 K lbs to a 19K lb 5th Wheel and on occasion Jet skis which you couldn’t even tell were hitched to the truck and Enclosed Car trailers many people used to comment on the rare days i only pulled a Jet Ski trailer which of course was a joke behind that set up but not what i bought that truck for

thank you so much for these useful information , u help me great

Nice video.

Thank you!

I am in the process of studing and collecting parts and info for a mill. I like yours. Have you tried more air in the tires?Also I have seen people use a thick block of steel (brass?) to run the blade through, mounted near the idle rollers it might keep the blade from dipping down in the front. I have heard that using tires, the tires will take a lot of the heat outof the blade. You may already know this but it is just a few things I thought of while watching your video.

Cool Video!

One thing for sure You do have the right Idea. keep working on it You'll get all the bugs worked out of it. The tensioner pulley needs to be pulled up & the belt on top,, in turn giving you more belt on the engine pulley. take your time draw out & write down those idea's. I would bet Money the next one you build will be even better & so on.

I'm getting ready to start building one just like urs, all's I need is what was ur measurement inbetween ur back piece's and what's the length of ur blade? Hope to get a reply soon and thanks 4 the video it was a great build

thanks for sharing

What about a back idler/roller blade guide set with horizontal axes? Might help with the blade tracking. U might benefit by using tires that can stand a higher pressure, say 70 psi.

Good job i am making one and see some of my own issues great job look good :)

The location of the idler pulley is keeping the belt from having more contact with the clutch pulley. Use a shorter belt and move the idler. Actually no reason to use an idler unless you are getting the belt up and out of the way. Tracking issues with the rubber tires? The guide rollers should not let the blade move back. If the blade is dull you would have to "push" tit through the wood. If the blade is dull you are going to have other problems too: diving; rising; over heating. With a sharp blade you feed the blade at the rate it will cut a given log width at a given feet per minute band speed and for the horse power you have. The slightly warped bearing plates should have made no difference. Those axle bearings you used will swivel in their bases to accommodate misalignments. It's a nice built in feature.

You can do thinker material just fine if you remember one simple principle: The thicker the material you are cutting, the slower you have to feed your material through the blade. So you have to calculate how fast to feed. It will also have enough power to cut just about any material if your calculation is right.

Nice built, can you tell me how much did you inflate the wheels (psi, kpa), thank you

Nagyon jó gép én most próbálom megvalositani ! :)

tnx for all information dude

The belt on the drive pulley has very little contact ‘ u are getting belt slip ‘ belt needs to wrap right around the pulley ‘ them wheel shafts are on the small side they might snap off the more tighten the blade the greater the load on the shafts’ pump the tiers up to 60 lbs ‘ good work there don’t give up keep fighting 😊

The "gear" on the engines power shaft is called the "driven" gear or in your case the driven pulley

The bearings and guides very close to the cut accepts the side pressure of blade. It should never be pushed off the wheels.

V groove wheels are designed to roll on the cornice of the angle iron, not the edge as it is seen here. laying the angle iron over on its edges so it points up like a triangle creates a lot more strength and will handle weight dropping on it without bending and therefore stay straight. The wheels have approx 100 degree bevel cut so it will still runoff the apex of the angle iron.

Good Video Bro!

Would it work to poke a hole in the sidewalls of the tires and fill them with cement or something else that would harden and keep the tire from deforming when there's a lot of stress on it?

Your problem with the "Power" is the fact with the larger pulley your blade was not going fast enough...you had the power not the speed otherwise you could not have gone to the smaller pulley to turn it FASTER. also get a shorter belt and move your idler pulley back so your belt wraps as far around the engine pull as possible and you will have less slippage and not need so much tension on the belt. It will lengthen the life of the bearings and the belt. been there done that..

many of these points, like for example the belt tension (which still isn't set up properly), should be common sense to anyone with experience working on machines.

Thansk dor your explanation

I have seen the golf cart sawmill build, and was wondering if the guide that he uses would solve your tracking problem? he only uses one, and it is just a block of solid steel with a grind cut a couple of eighths thicker than the saw blade? markp0177 cheers lawrence?

Thank you very much.

The crank shaft is also the drive shaft in this engine most likely. Need shorter belt relocate your tensioner so that more belt wraps around the drive pulley. Won't have an issue with slipping then. Good job!

Change your belt tensioner to in between your pulleys that way you are using half the diary of your drive pulley not one quaternary as your present setup thus increasing your available torque happy cutting Erik South Africa

the tension pulley is changing the gearing most saws with that much hp would not have a problem with a bigger pulley on the tire pulley. If that had a smaller belt with a tension pulley pushing on the outer side of the belt.

Hello, I haven't watched all your videos. But I have to say the ones I have watched are beautiful. Thank you for sharing. Are there any plans available for this build?

Looks like Space saver spares would be better without as much flex. Or some solid core tire.

thanks for the info. I am also planning on a build . thinking of using 42" chain and bar vs the band . but still wanted it on a track. I have an 8hp gas motor I was going to try to use but not sure if its big enough // what's your thoughts

excellent presentation!! Very informative. Have you considered re mounting your mill on heavy ties i.e. railroad ties instead of concrete.

Wouldn't trailer hubs be a much better choice for longevity and simplicity?

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