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Confused? Exploring Your Options

Exploring your Options

Building your own Sawmill

So, you’ve convinced yourself that having a portable band saw sawmill makes sense.  You’ve priced some of the models out there and had the “not with my checkbook” experience.  Maybe you’ve thought about building the saw yourself and saving some money, but weren’t sure where or how to begin.

We at Linn Lumber have been there and are offering several solutions to help in building your own mill.

First, a definition of terms:  Our mills consist of three main components:  The carriage, the power unit, and the track.    The saw part, which we call the “carriage”, is the rolling frame work that houses the band saw wheels, the band blade and its guiding system, the mechanism for raising and lowering the saw blade height and the guards.  It is also where the second component, the “power unit”, which is either a gas engine or an electric motor, is mounted .  This whole saw part sits on (and rolls up and down) the rails of what we call the “track”.  This track consists of two angle iron rails, similar to train track rails, that the saw rolls on.  The cross pieces that connect the two rails are the log holders or “log dogs”.  These allow the log to be secured in place so that it can’t move while being sawed.

We classify the size of our sawmills according to the maximum log diameter they can saw.   These sizes are:  20”, 26", 30” and 36".  So, one of the first steps in thinking about building your own sawmill would be to decide what the biggest diameter log you would normally be sawing.   Second, there are many options available in regards to how much of the sawmill you want to build and how much you want us to do.  For those who are pretty confident of their design and fabricating skills, we offer the bare parts.  16” 19” 21” and 26” diameter band wheels with their shafts and bearings are available.  Saw guides, the raise and lower mechanism, blade tensioner, track roller wheels and other individual parts are all priced as separate components.  This is an economical way to go for those who may already have a particular design in mind and just need to find the parts.

The second choice we offer is to get part of the carriage already built.  We call this our Basic Sawframe Assembly, which consists of the band wheels attached to their shafts and bearings, the blade guide wheels with their own mounts and the hydraulic blade tensioner fastened to a 2” square tubing sub-frame.  This is the hardest part to make correctly and is the heart of the sawmill.  This assembly could than be attached to your own carriage framework and soon becomes a useable sawmill.

The next offering is called the Super Sawframe Assembly.  This adds to the Basic Sawframe Assembly the two blade guards, the drive belt guard,  a blank engine mounting plate and a cross member suitable to attach to your own carriage.  (See photos)

Finally, we have the two above assemblies available in “kit” form.  This consists of all the parts, steel and bolts needed to make the particular item.  We even offer the Complete Carriage as a kit.  We provide a video that shows the parts and how they go together, how to align the band blade and finally the test sawing of the new mill.  In addition, we have drawings with dimensions and specifications that are part of the package.  If you should get stuck at a particular place in the construction, we are available by phone to help you through the problem.

If a bandsaw sawmill is on your "need" or even "want" list, one option is to build it yourself.  We at Linn Lumber Mills stand ready to assist you with parts, assemblies or even complete mill kits to make the dream of owning your own sawmill a reality.