Rudolf Baumueller's bandsaw with sawmill sled

Rudolf Baumueller writes:

Hello Matthias!

I want to thank you again for the plans for the Band Saw 2, and am happy to tell you, that after more than 5 months, I have finished building it. It works perfectly, am very happy with it. It has a 2 hp 3450 rpm motor. I am using a 3 TPI 1/2" blade. There is no sideways wandering of the blade, it works very smoothly. A great design you made! I made the foot of the frame a little wider, and also built a cabinet. It has a very good moving dolly incorporated in it and it is very easy to move the saw around the shop.

After all that I built another table for it, 5 feet wide, sort of like your log cutting rails, with a 2 foot long carriage on the famous roller skate bearings. Then I added an automatic feeder system, and now I am cutting Mesquite logs into boards very nicely.

The Mesquite is very very hard wood, but this saw thinks nothing of it.

I made a video of it cutting a Mesquite board (further down on the page).

All frame pieces made first.

Truing up the disks for the wheels on the table saw with a sanding disk.

A wider base is added than the plans called for, because my motor is that big anyway.

Lining up the trunnion cradles with the blade position.

Aluminium blade guard

One door covers the whole front (one of several modification from the plans)

Note vacuum port on bottom.

Cabinet and one drawer

Wheeled dolly with lifting system to go under the cabinet

The lifting system consists of two 3/4 x 1 1/2" inch beams on hinges they lift the cabinet about 5/8". I had to replace the small hinge with more hefty ones, and put some sheet metal plates under the cabinet with a lot of car polish to lubricate them, now it works easy.

Maybe you noticed a travel trailer in my shop. I built it from scratch and never used it. Now I will build another place for it, because I need more room for all the wood working machines.

Bandsaw sawmill sled

Rolling sled is 2 feet long and 1 foot wide.

The track length is 5 feet, and the width is 1 foot.

The legs are about 1 inch too short but have the adjustable extensions on the bottom to compensate for uneven floors.

That is the way you set it up to get the rails perfectly 90 deg. to the blade. To store it away, I just undo the table adjust knobs and fold up the legs.

It attaches to the saw just as if it were the normal table, it goes into the trunnions and is held with a bolt just like the table

The 1/4" thin board with roller bearings goes under the sled to keep it from lifting up, the hardwood board is springy and mounted under some tension under the central rail.

The sled upside down.

The springy roller board mounts to the small center piece under the sled. Straight rollers on far side, 45 degree rollers on near side.

Springy board mount.

The board with the rollers with 1/8" tension run under the center beam

Free running pulley for the weight.

The weight also has a pulley on it so the carriage moves twice as far as the weight.

Mesquite log on sled

My first board.

Mesquite is extremely hard.