Chad A Nicholls
New Member
I thought I would share my latest project that my son and I built. I have followed other homemade bandmill projects and I have yet to find one that used a vertical shaft lawnmower engine.
This all started with the emerald ash boar that has effectively killed all ash trees here in Ohio and the Midwest. I have 5 acres of woodlands that have over 50 standing dead ash tree’s to deal with. We cut up a few ash trees along with some other softwood trees this spring and I had more wood than I could burn, along with such a sick feeling from cutting up such nice usable hardwood.
A few years ago a major tornado came thru a few miles from our home, a good friend and his family perished in the storm, I have a bobcat and a dump truck so I volunteered and cleaned up 14 properties around the devastated area. I ended up getting a trashed out riding lawnmower that the tornado picked up and tossed ½ mile. The homeowner was happy to give it to me along with several large Oak and Walnut timbers.
So we decided that it was time to turn that lawnmower into and bandsaw, and cut up the timber left behind by both the tornado and the ash boar.
I started by picking up an old homemade band saw on Craigslist for $50 it was in very tough shape but it had 2 18” cast iron band wheels.
All of the steel used in the project was scrap metal that I had been saving for this project. So please ignore the rust/quality of the materials used. I have around $150 in the entire project.
I used the 13.5 hp Briggs and Stratton engine and the original MTD frame. I cut down the frame to use as the motor plate. The part you may be most interested in is how do you get a vertical shaft engine to couple to the bandsaw wheels. I recalled an old mower I had seen that had a “mule drive” system set up to power the lawn mower deck and other attachments. You can see the details here:
First Try.... Laying out the mule drive. Had to change...
Bottom Looking Up:
Let me know if you have any questions/thoughts
This all started with the emerald ash boar that has effectively killed all ash trees here in Ohio and the Midwest. I have 5 acres of woodlands that have over 50 standing dead ash tree’s to deal with. We cut up a few ash trees along with some other softwood trees this spring and I had more wood than I could burn, along with such a sick feeling from cutting up such nice usable hardwood.
A few years ago a major tornado came thru a few miles from our home, a good friend and his family perished in the storm, I have a bobcat and a dump truck so I volunteered and cleaned up 14 properties around the devastated area. I ended up getting a trashed out riding lawnmower that the tornado picked up and tossed ½ mile. The homeowner was happy to give it to me along with several large Oak and Walnut timbers.
So we decided that it was time to turn that lawnmower into and bandsaw, and cut up the timber left behind by both the tornado and the ash boar.
I started by picking up an old homemade band saw on Craigslist for $50 it was in very tough shape but it had 2 18” cast iron band wheels.
All of the steel used in the project was scrap metal that I had been saving for this project. So please ignore the rust/quality of the materials used. I have around $150 in the entire project.
I used the 13.5 hp Briggs and Stratton engine and the original MTD frame. I cut down the frame to use as the motor plate. The part you may be most interested in is how do you get a vertical shaft engine to couple to the bandsaw wheels. I recalled an old mower I had seen that had a “mule drive” system set up to power the lawn mower deck and other attachments. You can see the details here:
First Try.... Laying out the mule drive. Had to change...
Bottom Looking Up:
Let me know if you have any questions/thoughts
