HOW TO MAKE A SAWMILL FROM IMPROVISED MATERIALS

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Not everyone has the financial ability to purchase a factory-made power-saw bench for households. But if you look around, you can find a lot of materials from which you can assemble a home-made sawmill.
Perhaps there will be some costs with the purchase of an electric motor (a used, but serviceable one) and circular saws will do, but still they will be incomparably less than the cost of a factory sawmill.

Homemade power-saw bench design

It will be a frame construction of rectangular pipes and angles, providing sufficient rigidity and strength. Initially, a belt drive was planned from the electric motor to the ring saw drive pulley, but then this option had to be abandoned due to its complexity and lack of reliability.
In the final version, the drive pulley (wheel assembly from a passenger car of size R13 or R14 with a fully inflated tire) was rigidly mounted on the motor shaft.

The driven pulley selected exactly the same wheel mounted on a movable carriage, with which it is possible to adjust the tension of the circular saw.

This design of pulleys along which the circular saw moves solves two important tasks:

stability of the cutting tool during operation is ensured, that is, the saw does not slide off the pulleys due to the large friction force between the rubber and the metal of the tool;
random peak loads are extinguished, for example, when the saw passes through the knot zone, due to the elastic properties of the rubber.

Bearings are mounted in pairs vertically behind the drive wheel and in front of the driven wheel, between which the descending branch of the hole saw passes, which dampens its vibrations and gives it direction.

The lifting mechanism is assembled on the basis of a cable winch and two pulleys.

Using it, you can raise or lower the cutting unit and, thereby, adjust the thickness of the resulting board and raise the saw at the end point to return the cutting unit to its initial position.

So that the racks of the cutting unit can easily move in the rails, and there is no play, in them 4 bearings are welded on top and bottom on the axes.

Also made a simple knot of tension of the circular saw based on adjustable traction, removed from old agricultural machinery.

The cutting unit, together with a saw, a winch, an electric motor, a driving and driven pulleys (wheels), moves on 4 rollers along two longitudinal corners, placed angle to the top on a reliable base.

Sawmill at work

Serving a home-made sawmill in the process of dissolving a beam or a small round log in diameter on the boards is not difficult.
The sequence of basic operations is as follows:
1. The cutting unit is installed in its original position, so that the working (lower) branch of the circular saw is located up to the opening array, which must be securely fixed to prevent its longitudinal and transverse movement.
2. Using a cable winch, raising or lowering the cutting unit, set the thickness of the board, which is required.

3. A small amount of water is supplied to the lower branch of the cutting tool in the cutting zone, but a soap solution or diesel fuel (preferably less due to rubber damage) is better to cool the saw and extend its service life.
4. The electric motor is turned on, the moving lower branch of the saw is brought to the end of the array, which, together with the cutting unit, manually moves along the guides from the beginning to the end of the cut.

5. At the end of the passage, the board cut off from the array is removed, the cutting unit with the winch rises up and returns to its original position. The device is ready for use again.
To prevent the circular saw from sliding off the driven wheel, a bolt is installed on the carriage, with which you can change the direction of the axis of the driven pulley to a small extent, and thereby counter the saw to go sideways.

Result:

Boards are even and smooth.

Summary remark

For the safety of persons managing such a makeshift sawmill, a circular saw should be enclosed in a protective casing in case it ruptures and prevents fragments of injuries to people.

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