DIYbandmill has been graced by many great bandmill builders, and our numbers are growing. We have one member in particular that is being presented here due to his excellent photo documentation and his personal dedication in the forums helping others. Thank you Bedway for being such a help to everyone out here trying to get it built. Those of you who may have lost track of his gallery, we have moved it to page 1 for easy access. Click the image below and it will take you there.
Bedway started building his mill around September of 2006 to supplement the needs of his small cabinet shop in Northwest Pennsylvania. He has been an active member since August 2006, so he has been posting since the beginning. The mill went into service in May of 2007.
Lets get right into the good stuff here…
The headrig was purchased in kit form from Linn Lumber.
Bandwheels: 19"
Blade: 1-1/4" X 139"
Engine: 16HP Horizontal shaft Briggs & Stratton from a donor MTD mower.
Clutch: Manual lever tension pulley
Drive Pulley: 4"
Driven Pulley: 14"
Shaft size: 1-7/16"
Bandwheel gap: 21"
Log capacity: 26" diameter by 16' long
Blade guide system: Flange rollers
Blade tensioner: Hydraulic
Bed Rail type: Portable (Trailer type)
Weight: Approx 1800 lbs. (estimate only)
Height: Approx. 78" (Variable depending on jack leg height)
The rail construction information...
Construction: 3x3x1/4 box tubing
Bed width: 41 1/2"
Rail material: 2x2x3/8 angle iron
Length: 22' including the tongue
Bed rail length: 18' 9"
Height: 24" adjustable
Squaring bunks: 2x2x1/4
Bunk Height: 20" adjustable
Log clamps : Cam type with side to side adjustment
Log capacity: 26" 16'
Bed weight : 1000 pounds
Bedway custom built the axle out of 3x3 tubing, with rear spindles out of a dodge van. Each side has a pin that can be pulled to remove the wheels. This allows lowering the saw and avoids having to walk around the wheels, which saves the shins!
The B&S engine is running about 3500 RPM at full throttle. With the drive running the supplied ratio, the bandwheels spin at about 1000 rpm giving a sfpm of 5000.
The saw head as mentioned before was a kit. The kit came with several drawings, and technical layout sheets witch didn't really provide enough information bor the build, however was backed up with a very good assembly CD. The precut peaces did not come ready to drop in. There was a lot of fab work, and layout that needed to be completed.
The kit came with a manual crank type head raisings system. It consists of two acme threaded rods coupled by a drive chain to keep things synched. After a couple logs, he decided to upgrade to a power head adjustment for ease of operation. The chain coupling system was easily adopted into a power hoist with the addition of a gear motor.
The gear motor he located on ebay was rated at 96 in/lb at 24 RPM. The mill only requires 60 in/lb to operate. This was found using a torque wrench. In his original design he used a 12 tooth sproket to operate the hoist. Using a 12 tooth sprocket gave the mill a 5 inch per minute operation limit, and this was a lot of waiting between adjustments. A change needed to be made. Upgrading to a 24 tooth sproket helped but the new ratio was more than the motor was made to handle. Things needed to change in order to make it so the motor could handle the load without over heating or burning brushes.
Bedway has posted the solution in his gallery. Using a torsion spring from an overhead door, he was able to get enough of an assist on the hoist system that he was able to upgrade to a 48 tooth sprocket. Testing on this new hoist assist is still in progress but I'm sure we will have a full report this spring.
All and all Bedway has constructed a beautiful mill. His fabrication was of excellent quality, and his engineering to overcome issues has been straight forward and effective.
Thank you Bedway for sharing your build, and ideas with the home brew sawmill community. Its been a great couple years, and I hope you never grow tired of hanging out with us. From the look of the stacks in the background of some of your pictures, you have put this mill to good use. Please post some pictures of some of the finished projects you build from this lumber.
The B&S engine is running about 3500 RPM at full throttle. With the drive running the supplied ratio, the bandwheels spin at about 1000 rpm giving a sfpm of 5000. 
The saw head as mentioned before was a kit. The kit came with several drawings, and technical layout sheets witch didn't really provide enough information bor the build, however was backed up with a very good assembly CD. The precut peaces did not come ready to drop in. There was a lot of fab work, and layout that needed to be completed. 
The kit came with a manual crank type head raisings system. It consists of two acme threaded rods coupled by a drive chain to keep things synched. After a couple logs, he decided to upgrade to a power head adjustment for ease of operation. The chain coupling system was easily adopted into a power hoist with the addition of a gear motor. 