This is Why I'll Never Use This Sawmill Again 

While I'm still happy with the overall design of this small mill, I am FED UP with the blade deflection issues. It's time for v2.0. Oh and I should mention that Josh basically had pneumonia and he did a ton of work that day. Thanks Josh!

I'm impressed with your boldness to post a video showing less than sterling results. Your perseverance is a characteristic I hope you maintain. You'll get it right, I'm sure.

I'll add my 2 cents: Love your build, and your tenacity. It looks like the blade is 1". If so, I can tell you I have never had any luck with 1" blades and straight cuts. 1 1/4" works perfectly for me. Keep up the good work.

That is an impressive sawmill build! Great job, Dennis! Here's my troubleshooting checklist for wavy cuts: 1) Dull blade (This is by far the most common cause of wavy cuts) 2) Blade tension 3) Pitch buildup on blade (friction creates heat...blade expands and loses tension) 4) Alignment issues (Don't obsess over alignment issues until you have addressed numbers 1 through 3)

If Corey and Trevor (from trailer park boy) started milling wood this is what they would be using

Your reasoning is right on the money 💰 your next gen saw mill will be much better. Love your tenacity your an inspiration for even experienced Sawyers. You are truely loyal to your followers please be kind to your self. I am sure everyone admirers you as I do.

if the blade is wavy, you must tighten it more And the wheels don't have to be bigger, you just need a tensioner

Cooks Saw in Alabama is an incredible resource for blade tracking and so many other issues. They post tons of articles with in depth research on sawmill design and why they do everything the way they do on their mills. I have bought parts from them to build my own mill including blade guides. Good Luck! Keep up the good work!

Make your guides adjustable that’s a lot of free float room between the log and the guide wheels

You may have gotten figured out buy now. You have two main problems (1- Your blade guides need to be adjustable, 2- You need to be able to level your log center, the piff. ) don't try to push the blade down with the guides. you need the guides to be on top and bottom of the blade with about 5 - 10 thousands clearance and the thrush bearing just touching the back edge of the blade.

I was impressed. I didn't think that little saw could cut those logs. Fir and soft woods are easier cutting. Plus no knots from limbs. Forgotten about them. A buddy has a Woodmizer. Soap and water is what he uses. He gave me a few tips. HP, Sharp blade. Alignment. Constant speed. I was still impressed. Good job. You said you were going to build another. Build it heavier. More steel. If using wood for bed use beams for sleepers. One of my old customers had a resaw.

It's really cool how you got it to make perfectly wavy boards!!! :D

You can have everything perfect and a band blade can still deflect over or under hard spots in hard woods. # 1 you have to get the rollers close to the can't / log, and the rollers should be adjustable to guide the blade parallel with the saw bed. # 2 Blade has to be sharp and the set of the teeth must be correct, If you get a lot of dipping in your cut it can alter the set of the teeth thus pretty much ruining the blade, as it will never cut straight again after the set is altered.

Always a good sign when you have gaps between the blade and the log when you pull the head back on the return.

Self adjusting blade guides would solve most of your problems. Have a roller that runs along the log ahead of a free floating guide on a track (rail). Will have to use springs to push the guides together as the wheels tract down the log ahead of the blade guide. Its not as complicated as it sounds. There's a few video's that give different example's of different design's. Some quite easy to build. But, it would solve most of your problems. Also, using water on a high carbon steel blade is not a good idea. It will destroy the blade with rust. Increasing the RPM's & properly curing the log (reduce moisture) should prevent guming up the blade. Lastly, increase your mill to at least cut a standard ten foot plank. Might have to make it 12" (or so) to fit the mill itself. You have a really good starting platform though just a few fine tuning designs & you're there.

Don't give up on the sawmill it is a great design. Here are some of the things I have learned from using my version of it. Blades have to be sharp and correctly set. When I first used mine it cut perfectly. Then I ran the blade into a metal log dog which ruined the sharpness and the set one one side. I put on a new blade and it worked again. I welded a nut to the end of the tensioning crank so I could measure the torque. I found that with the turning torque between 15 and 20 foot pounds and a new blade it cut fine. I am going to increase the length of the tensioning bar so I can easily get more tension. I used a $29.00 foot pound measuring device from Harbor freight to measure the foot pounds of torque for tensioning. That and a 1/2" wrench works great. I also do not use water. I think this causes the drift by gumming up the blade rather than keeping the blade cool. Water also destroys my steel bearings. I considered using stainless steel bearings, but at $6.00 each I think I will stay with the $1.30 steel ones for now and just replace them. I felt the blade after cutting the 16 inch ash log shown in my channel and the blade was cool. I do use 1 inch custom made 2 tpi blades that I get from a local saw filing company. They are cheaper and better than the Grizzley ones I started with. They make them with any tooth pattern and length you want. On my version of your sawmill both of the wheels can be tilted in both directions to adjust tracking. I can adjust tracking after tensioning which helps a lot in keeping the cut straight. If you change yours you only need to make the blade guides on one side adjustable from side to side as the log will always but against the stationary log dogs. I also use 3 bearings with the 1 inch blade. If you have any questions just ask. Hope this helps

Sharp blade. Increase set. Increase tension. Move blade guid. Soapy water, yes! When all else fails...I like a chain saw blade 4 stroke vertical shift engined mill. This for making cants. The old argument against wood loss due to kerf width does not apply to producing cants as the dimension of the cant is the same. A sharp chain saw likes bark and all the irregularity of rough logs much better than than a band saw. This approach let's the band saw do what it does best. Make boards from cants.

Great choice of tunes on log loading, made me think of abbot and costello watching you two. Fun video, Thanks

Thanks, best of luck in the future.

There are few problems, I think, only from video, what I saw. 1. not enough blade tension 2. buildup on sawblade - if water with dishsoup doesnt work, try water with turpentine 3. try to lower the blade guide rollers, like push the blade little bit down 4. dull blade - just one small rock, or soil in bark can do that 5. dont push hard to cut, let it go how it wants

First, check your blade speed. Cooks Sawmills has a really good video on this. Second, adjustable blade guides. You don't want a lot of spacing between the guide and the start/end of the cut. Third, I can't tell for certain, but it appears that your blade comes off the wheels and goes straight across. The blade should deflect downward, through the guides, by about 1"-2" when it comes off the wheel and have to deflect the same height back up to the idler wheel. This helps with tension and also ensures the blade tracks following the guides and not the wheels. Fourth, tpi. Ensure that you have the right number of teeth per inch for the size wheel and speed you are running. There's more to building/running a sawmill than just putting a blade on some wheels with a motor. Fifth, blade width. See #4. Overall, your concept is excellent. Yes, you do need to make some design changes, and I really look forward to seeing version 2.0. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6yCZ9YMs0jA.html This would be a good place to start.

The ocean wave sawmill, great learning experience.

once a blade starts walking on you, its shot... i re-saw a lot of hardwood.. as long a s the blade doesnt get pinched while running it should last a a long time - support your offcut... i keep spares though....

The hook angle of the teeth is a key factor. 10' degree (softwood), 7'- 4' degree ( hardwood)

A dull blade will cause that as will. Red oak is hard to cut and the speed is another thing. If you can keep it more even.

A couple more thoughts. I am thinking of changing the tensioning crank by extending it past the yellow housing and making the crank about 12 to 18 inches like the one on the Harbor Freight saw. This makes tensioning easier. . I am also thinking of changing the handle. If some day the threads strip I may make a new screw using and Acme threaded rod. The handle works great when sawing, but you have to step in and out of it when starting the engine. I have not thought of a better design yet though.

The blade was deflecting due to time / space factor multiplied by the gravitational negative ion abyss. If you move your saw set up 2.7778 meters to the southwest you will not have any more problems. But remember that will change as Jupiter moves towards Neptune. Also noted is Uranus is getting very gassy lately.

Bandwheels square with raíl and log supports, the saw must run parallel, if so, try without guides, if the cut is up, set the other si de a little more, ( down), you must see it when the cut starts, excuse my english, greetings from Jalisco México.

Maybe tighten the blade more that might make the blade cut stright,

What you could when you get around to fixing your guides is to try two rollers one over the other and run the blade between them Or make a slotted guide and keep the roller . One of the main things you will have to do is make your guides adjustable sliding forward and back and for slight adj. up and down .

The blade has to be sharpe and riding correctly on the wheels. If the wheel angle cannot be adjusted then you will never be able get straight cuts. Also you only need a little bit of lubricant ( water) too much makes the sawdust stock in the cut. The blade needs to be supported and as close to the guide needs to be as close to the log as possible. That will lessen the deflection ( diving and climbing) of the blade

i needed laughs, Den delivers

I had such high hopes for turning that tree into some good lumber. 2.0 is going to kick butt for sure!

I used to work on a welding shop. We had metal cutting saws that looked similar to yours. We had blade tensioners that would tighten from the top against the blade. They were just rollers that put some tension into the blade

Try a wider blade with more tension

I had same problem. In my case i had to change the blade more often and sharpen them corect and also "Wikk" them

Timberwolf blades! You’ll like them. Talk to the folks.

Just watched this video and...you have way under-tensioned (is that a word?) Your blade. A small downward deflection at your guide would also help. You cut oak with a less-than-perfect blade arrangement, and that means that only about 10% of your result can be blamed on the sawmill as a whole...it's an excellent mill for its size. Beef up the frame, adjust the tension in the drive belt and the saw blade, put a new blade on it, and double-dog-dare another oak to come down! Good video!!!

I am about to make a sawmill and I have studied professional one. I give you my opinion: 1- The blade must be 1-1/4" wide and have a tooth every 7/8" and have a thickness of 0.042 ". The wider the blade, the more it goes online 2. Each blade guide must hold the blade between two pieces of ceramic or metal, this will hold the blade straight and push the dust from the blade while cutting. A single bearing on the top of the blade does not clean the blade and allows the blade to move down and cut in a curve. 3- On the other hand, with a wider and thicker blade, wider wheels (minimum 19 "diameter) should be used. I hope my comment will help you in your project. Ave a good one !

Screw the naysayers, just learn & move on. Naysayers are born professionals, after all. You don't do this for a living and I didn't see a whole lot of dangerous recklessness. It's a HOBBY, people.

Dennis, is there a way to make your blade guides width adjustable? Also I’m thinking more tension on the blade. One more thing make the free wheel adjustable to set tracking. I’m thinking these changes would make your saw mill much more pleasurable to use.

because the cutting of the endless ribbon short curved, what is this failure?

I think a fair market price for the mill would be 4K to 6K

I use soapy water on my mill because I cut alot of ponderosa pine if I don't I get the same pitch and dust buildup that you got and it screws up my cuts. Luca

Nice try and Thanks for sharing

Use pinesol and water about a half bottle and the rest water and that will help greatly on the build up on your blade that and more tension with your rollers close to your cant

The blade rollers need to be adjustable,,, so they can be moved closed to the log

I think your blade wandering is from inadequate support. The guides you have are too far apart and should have adjustable positions according to the width needed for each cut. You also may need guides to hold the blade in position horizontally along the length of the cut.

Drive belt tension, not blade tension. If the drive belt slips, the band slows in the cut, causing it to dive. don't go too tight, or you will bend or break the crankshaft on the engine.

Blade too narrow? Blade tension? Blade guides too wide?

Thank you for your videos. I am thinking about building one. Don’t you need 3 blade guides on each side? What horsepower is the engine? Do you have a video of what you would do differently?

It doesn't look like you're running near enough blade tension you need at least 1500 PSI if you had hydraulic tensioner I run 2500 to 3000 psi but mine mill is bigger. if you can sit there and wiggle the blade like that it's not tight.

With new sharp saw blade, Use Torque wrench to tighten blade to 24ft lbs then adjust your cutting speed, don't cut too fast, or too slow, find a happy medium 😀

Yeah I think a bandsaw making one lot more difficult than one thinks. I would most likely go with a chainsaw even though that said that they don't like to go straight in. That freehand chainsaw cutting the boards they want you to rock the chainsaw and use the tip inside the groove that you have made. But I would probably try it slower. And use a electric chainsaw. With a very slow creeping Drive ideally I want to somehow keep this available to be soldered powered. Set it and forget it as you do other tasks around the homestead is the norm for this machine with safety concerns evaluated and addressed.

To help with blade tension try a slightly shorter blade.

time to upgrade :)

What do think about a wider/heavier guage blade with cleaning and cutting teeth like on your chain saw?

I could not build a working mill from scrap. You are awesome. But I'll stick with the lt 35

That is the thinnest blade I have ever seen on a mill

It's a sugar maple that you tap to make syrup much like pine tar

Is the 2x wooden frame doing any flexing under the weight of the log and stress of the cutting ? also did you level and square it up it or just set it down on the ground and leave it at that ?

Speed up your blade I had a timbermate that did the same thing. Running the blade faster and slowing the feed should help. A wider blade also helps.

You need adjustable guides

adjust your blade tension to approx. 25 ft. lbs. make sure you have a Sharpe blade and adjust your rollers so that they are with in an 1" of the log edges. you might have to slow down your travel speed some. good luck!

yet another comment. I found that the moving carriage on mine is a little too wide. Even if i tighten the bolts down so the carriage can just move it still skews a bit when I tension the blade and the wheel tilts a little. On mine I can make up for this by readjusting the blade skew. I should not have built my carriage with so much play. only a few hunredths of an inch would have been better. I am going to look into this when I get time.

Hi, check the obvious- blade tension, tooth clearance, sharpness, correct blade for the application, correct blade length etc,these are basic checks to start with then maybe wheel alignment or cutting speed, have you got coolant running on your blade? I would be interested to know the cause once u sort it out, keep persevering mate👍👍

My buddy and I cut up some cedar for a deck at my house. There is not one board like any other in thickness, close but not as it should have been, the finished deck looks great though. We named our lumber making adventure The Wavy Davy Lumber Company. We never figured out what was making this happen.

Overall the mill looks like it works pretty well to me Ive been a boater my whole life as i grew up in South Florida and ive completed several Trips to and from the Carribean islands and then some and i actually did take a sailing class and a Scuba Diving Certification class in College. My joke has always been that in Sailig class they taught us if you cant tie a good knot tie plenty of them i did do Woodworking professionally and as a hobby for over 20 years most. Cutting mishaps and problems are usually a result of a dull or overheated blade on a band saw. Tension is very critical as elll as not forcing the saw through the wood You can usually build a pretty simple jig to hold a Drexel or Rotary tool at the correct angle and pass a blade thru the jig to sharpen. Each tooth one at a time using either a stone or a grinding wheel on the rotary tool i know that Harbor Freight and Ebay sell pretty reasonably priced made in China kits that include the tool and there are a few different designs on RU-vid channels i imagine if you got creative enough you could build a sharpener that works with the blade still installed on the saw ? My personal experience in blade sharpening is that just a “ touch up “. On each tooth is better than nothing and a high precision is not really needed unless its for certain hand tools like chisels and planes of course i personally will almost always purchase carbide tipped blades whenever available as ive found Over time they pay for themselves and just. Do a better job

SEE :SAWING WITH SANDY MAY 16 2016 on You Tube.

Maybe time for a different brand of sawmill?

I believe you need to move your guides closer and maybe more tension?

That's actually kind of cool how the boards are wavy. They would be great for custom cabinet doors.

I promise you, use (obviously) hardwood guides on the top and bottom of the blade. I guarantee it will not 'snake' and use diesel as lubricant.

So I'm just a guy on the internet here but I think the issue is with the blade guides. I don't know exactly why, but I've watched all of the budget saw mill builds on YT many times and almost all of them have an offhand remark buried somewhere about having had problem after problem with homemade blade guides, to the point that in my own build I bought the bullet and have allocated funds to get the Cooks giudes (doubling my budget in one fell swoop). Insufficient tension could definitely also be an issue, but I suspect that you're going to keep having these issues until you have a beefy, flanged, roller-style guide on there. My understanding is that the 12'' wheel is going to be an issue in the long run because it shorten's blade life, but I would *think* that you could still get straight cuts with it. Keep it up though and keep us posted!

I don't get the impression she cares about the value of the wood or the exercise her husband is getting not to mention the fresh air 🤓🤣😁🇺🇸

Dennis please take a chainsaw course. No safety pants no face shield to speak of, just glasses will not do. Sneekers will cost you a foot, get safety boots. I know this stuff costs a lot. It will last you a lifetime if you take care of it and you will live healthy and happy because of it.

My advice... put the sawmill down before you hurt yourself. Learn what the hell you are doing before you ever try something like this again.

With a dull blade you have to go slow or u get waves.

You have some issue , first you need a guide closer to your log . Second you need to clean your log from any debris. Your blade must be properly stretched. You also must have the right blade speed if it go too slow and you force on it , the blade go up and down .

You have to make some changes for your bandsaw to work corect ...

i would think that blade tension might have some thing to do with the way its cutting

I think if you moved alot slower your cut would be way more consistent with out all whe waves and make your guides adjustable you already know that or a stiffer blade may help

Your wavy cut could be simply that your saw carriage is too light. Not enough weight so if the blade wants to go up the carraige will just lift up a bit also.

2:59 You're supposed to say "That's not going anywhere." That makes it stick and then it doesn't move. Duh.

I think the saw and mill was tortured. The up and down cutting you described is called snaking. It is caused by over feeding, dull teeth. and heat. You did right by running coolant on your saw but when you try to.cut half of the cant (.tree) or even boards as thick as you were the saw will get pinched and binded by weight and compression in the wood even with coolant running on.it. Heat will cause a saw to snake and run forward or back on your wheels and can cause saw to break If you are planning to cut logs this size you should look into getting wider saw blades and try not to cut wider than 2 inch cuts. Teeth need to be sharp and changed if snaking occurs. Your saw is only going to cut worse and you risk breaking band. If you mistakenly put on band that is turned backwards it will be damaged and prob not be of use untill teeth reset or swaged and resharpened. Slow feed especislly.in knotty wood and try to keep band from binding in thick cuts. I believe your saws and mill cut well considering the size of wood your were cutting and trying to.cut boards too thick. Good luck.

you have no water cooling the blade..a hot blade will go all over the place...get a water flow on the blade to keep it cool and i bet alot of that stops

Mr Multicraft is right . Also i believe your band saw blade is dull. If the ''tips of the teeth a shinny it is DULL, DULL , DULL. Your saw guide should be adjustable. You got what you paid for, BUY A WOOD MIZER !!!

You need adjustable blade guides and a roller under your blade

Cutting those ugly logs with that baby saw is like me racing the Indy 500 in my Nissan Micra

Bro the generator is the problem it is shaking need to firmly tighten it

Dude, $2000 Delivered to your door !!! Harbor freight sells a GREAT little sawmill ! We have 2 of them ! And it's a GREAT mill !! It's a Mechanical Saw just like yours ! But is built Very HEAVY DUTY ! We cut BIG Live Oak Tree's all the time ! Stop wasting time and money on trying to build and prefect one !! Just buy the Harbor freight mill And GO TO WORK !! It uses the same blade as a Woodmizer LT10 !! (Basically the same sawmill) and cuts as true as a LT30($30,000) Sawmill !

Mount a planer on that rig

Good little sawmill, major operator errors "/

#1 blade guides need to beable to move in and out.#2 when sawing through knots with that narrow of band blade ------very slowly.

As I own and operate an older model Norwood Lumbermate, and viewing this video, I noticed a couple of things that may very well help you solve your issues. #1. Please stay with the Dawn dish liquid for your blade. As you are discovering, it assist in a cleaner blade, and helps reduce heat buildup on the blade. As you mentioned trying diesel, you will literally be tossing more wood away than using. 2. Purchase yourself a Dremel sharpening tool. The blades must stay sharp for a straight cut. Last, but not least, do NOT pry up on the back end of the log while cutting. By doing that, you are not allowing the blade to properly do it's job. BTW, you may need a better tensioner for the blade. The machine however is just fine, but purchase some newer blades the same size as the older blade. The set up you have is doable, it just needs a few tweaks and I believe you may find yourself producing much better lumber. Keep moving forward!!!

Tighten the twnsion on your blade .. slow down. Or sharpen you blade they are full after 2 hours use

wider blade, slower cuts

Bruh, you got to shim it as it cuts

Wood have worked well:)

Wanta sell it