My new BIY sawmill and rail bed.

[J & L Creations]

This last 4 day weekend was a workout for an old man like me, but I got through it. Almost completed the welding on my 24' sawmill rail, still a few things left to do on the band saw part of the mill, then I can install the log stops on the rail. After all this is complete, I'll be taking the saw apart, sand blasting, painting then reassembling to completion. I plan on a video of the build as I built it all. Here's, the rail as we left it Monday evening.

 

[Redfin]

Nice work so far. I enjoy metal work also. Eager to see it finished.

 

[quietfly]

Awesome i cant wait for updates.

 

[J & L Creations]

Thanks guy's, I really hope to be done completely by the end of this month or early in July.

 

[exSW]

Paying very close attention to this one.

 

[the GOAT]

Lookin good.

 

[J & L Creations]

Thanks guy's, looks like I'm not going to be able to work on it for a couple of weeks. I would like to have more time to work on it but things just keep getting in the way. The next hard push to finish will be soon though, I really want to finish this sawmill so I can start making/building things. Here is a hub I cast in aluminum early on in the build, then machined on the lathe.

 

[exSW]

This reminds me of my friend that built a frame machine for hearses,limos and one ton extended cab trucks cause they didn't make one that big at the time.

 

[J & L Creations]

This reminds me of my friend that built a frame machine for hearses,limos and one ton extended cab trucks cause they didn't make one that big at the time.

Cool, I really believe you can build anything you apply your mind to or dream up.

 

[czar800]

Looks great! I see building a mill in my future.... Thanks for sharing!

 

[J & L Creations]

Just wanted to mention if anyone needs information on building a band sawmill, I'll be glad to help or tell what I know. I have learned from my mistakes, or mistakes from others and went through all the guess work so you won't have to. Pulleys and gear ratio's, leads screws, FPM of the bandsaw blade, what band saw blade to use and where to buy them. There is allot of technical and common since information needed to succeed in building a good working sawmill. I did view many YT videos before I started to build mine, did not find many people willing to help either. But with all of this the proof will be how my sawmill will perform once it is finished and first cuts, which I expect to be spot on, we will see. I have not totaled cost to build this sawmill yet as I have traded some spent some and been given some materials for the build.

 

[Redfin]

Thanks guy's, looks like I'm not going to be able to work on it for a couple of weeks. I would like to have more time to work on it but things just keep getting in the way. The next hard push to finish will be soon though, I really want to finish this sawmill so I can start making/building things. Here is a hub I cast in aluminum early on in the build, then machined on the lathe.

View attachment 23785
View attachment 23786

Nice.

 

[J & L Creations]

Ok guys, here is an update on the saw mill. My partner and I worked on the sawmill this last week, 5 long hot days, July 4th through to July the 8th 2016. Took a vacation week. All the fabrication is done to the rail bed and the sawmill itself. Am now in the sandblasting and priming stages of the build. To stay in the shade a bit we first had to build a temporary awning of sorts, then set up a 60 gallon 3 cylinder compressor, built an air dryer out of 4" x 12' and 4" x 7' square tubing, with a 2" x 3' long pipe as a crossover on the top end of both tubes, a filter within, all welded together. Welded tops and bottoms of the square tubing with 1/4" plate steel to plug them off. Drilled and cut 3/4" pipe threads in the plate steel at the bottom end for drains and a few in the side of the two lengths of square tubing for air input and output. Now we have about an 80 or so gallon capacity of air volume. All of that is finished as well, so we can now sandblast and paint with dry air, it works oh so well. I hope to and expect to have the sawmill up and running by the end of the month, if all goes well. More to come when the sawmill has been completed with first cuts video.

 

[Mastermind]

Very nice work. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Definitive Dave]

totally jealous of your skills and focus

 

[exSW]

I really am looking forward to seeing this work.

I want a mill again. Stupidest sale I ever made.

 

[J & L Creations]

Thanks guys, I'm looking forward to the first cuts myself.

 

[Redfin]

What is the filter media in the crossover of the dryer. Any specific reason you chose to place dryer after the tank?

 

[J & L Creations]

What is the filter media in the crossover of the dryer. Any specific reason you chose to place dryer after the tank?

Hello Redfin, the filter material was made from a dense 1" thick A/C filter, was rolled up tight and pressed into the cross over pipe, with a small rod welded inside the pipe vertically to hold the filter material from sliding out of the pipe under pressure. Was able to keep the pipe cool enough as the welding was being done with wet rags. The 60 gallon compressor tank has a ball valve drain at the very bottom of the tank so we can drain water there. The manifold dryer we built was designed with the 12' square tube as the input from the 60 gallon tank. This longer square tube (12') made all the difference in having enough area to cool and condense the hot air and water vapor from the 60 gallon tank, the cross over pipe and the 7' square tube don't see much water vapor, what ever condensed water does make it through falls to the bottom of the (7') shorter square tube, we just open the drain a couple of seconds and that's all it takes for the water to drain out. We never see water coming out of our hoses or sandblasting gun now, before we built this dryer sandblasting used to be a huge problem with mud plugging up the gun every 10 minutes. We can sandblast all day without cleaning the gun now.

 

[Redfin]

Cool to see different ways of doing things. Using the cfm you are during sand blasting it probably doesnt matter which comes first, dryer or tank.

The only reason I ask was I normally see the dryer plumbed before the tank so the moist air can be dried before storage.