Shed builds using home made band saw

[cathead]

Yesterday I started the base pads for an 8 x 12 shed made with indigenous lumber blown down by a summer storm.
Each base pad is made with a pair of 8x16x4 inch patio blocks with one 12 inch cement block for a riser. One needs to dig
a bit to get all four pads to the proper depth. Each pad is in about a foot from the outside of the building and a pair of 8x8
oak beams are placed across each pair of pads the long way of the building. Full two inch thick boards are laid flat over the
whole surface of the oak beams. The beauty of using a band saw sawmill is that these boards can be cut any width so one can make the
most of the logs available. Some are 6 inches wide and some are maybe 12 inches or more, it does not matter as long as
the whole surface is covered. My saw does not have a depth gauge but if one is doing a lot of sawing, you don't need one
as you get pretty good at thickness just by eye. OK, the deck is covered with 2 inch wood so I nailed it down with three pounds of four
inch pole barn nails. Four inch is plenty as one is nailing into white oak beams. I usually apply some wood preservative to all sides of these boards before assembly. I added a 6 mil piece of plastic I had left over from cement work and covered that with some 3/4 inch tongue and
groove plywood and screwed and nailed it down. It's amazing how nice and flat it gets even though there are aberrations in the boards underneath due to either warping or slight variations in thickness. I enjoy machining wood almost as much as metal so it's all good fun.
I have lost actual count but I have built over a half dozen of these buildings. Lumber is really expensive so cutting your own logs is
a great way to get what you want without getting a huge hole in your pocketbook. I generally spend about 300 dollars on an 8x12
building and most of the expense would be the plywood floor, some metal for the roof and some Torx screws and some nails.
Add a couple hundred for an insulated building. For the walls, I cut any width of board one inch thick and apply them vertically
to a frame made of 4x4 material. Battens are used on each vertical seam. If I want the building really tight, I will apply 30 pound felt
under the wall boards. If it gets insulated, I apply some 4 mil plastic before putting on the finishing boards in the inside covering the
insulation and then adding the battens for a classic look.

I have a good pile of eight foot long by one inch boards cut up so will be starting on the walls shortly. I'm using white pine mostly
along with some red pine and poplar thrown in for good measure. The smell of sawing white pine is a great thing and it imparts
a lasting aura which hangs on a long time.

This new building I am calling my energy shed as it will house several generators and a gas powered air compressor and
possibly some batteries and an inverter. It's one of my outpost hangouts so not interested in having monthly bills from the
power company. The shed is 20 feet from the main building so not a big job to bury a line from the shed to the building near by.


This is a pile of 6 foot one inch boards I will most likely use for roof boards. They need to get utilized as they have been
sitting on those saw horses for over a year now. This is an example of what I am presently building. It is a wood shed so just the basic uninsulated structure. I see I used poles for rafters and
a ridge pole to hold them up. Maybe some deer antlers on the top would be in order although I'm not much into hunting.

As my new energy shed build gets off the ground, I will try to add a few photos for clarity. Tomorrow will be framing it up and if the
day allows, some application of walls. The sawmill has been moved to a new location so maybe I can include a photo or two of that as well. The recent addition of a 16 horse motor along with electric start has made sawing a lot more fun. I'm considering adding an electric
height control mechanism using a wheel chair motor since I now have a battery to operate it from.

Maybe a ramp will be in order as I have a 220 volt single cylinder diesel generator on wheels that would fit nicely inside the building and chug away inexpensively... It's pretty heavy and weighs at least 500 pounds so need to think about getting it to where it would sit. Maybe a window or exhaust chimney would be something to be considered as well. All in good time I guess...

 

[mmcmdl]

Following along on this one . I have to / want to make a shed or a lean two up the property in New York this October . I have plenty of wood to do this and always looking for ideas on just how to do it . I don't need anything fancy rather than a place to get out of the rain when necessary .

Are you using a saw mill ? If so , which one . I've been investigating them on youtube and possibly may be buying one this year . I just went out and bought a Husky 395XP saw with a 36" bar as I have some major tree work ahead of me .

 

[cathead]

Yes, it's a home made band saw mill. It has 24 feet of track so will make up to 20 foot beams or boards.
It was built with parts from a Nissan Sentra that I junked out. The band saw runs on a pair of the tires
and the other pair of tires are used to make the saw movable. I will take a photo for you so you can see
what it is. The engine I'm using is a 16 horse Kohler. I have a friend who has a chain saw mill and he
came to me when he wanted to saw up a pile of boards for his wood shed.

 

[mmcmdl]

HM126 Portable Sawmill

Cut lumber anywhere with Woodland Mills' HM126 Portable Sawmill. Durable, versatile, and easy to use - perfect for hobbyists and professionals alike!

woodlandmills.com

I was thinking one of these 2 . I kinda like the first because it's so portable .

 

[f350ca]

Following along as well.
Built a sawmill a number of years back. Don't think I've ever cut down a tree to saw. All storm trees or the occasional tree from a tree service.
Have some LARGE I think Black Locust logs in the yard now to saw. Tried a 5 foot limb the other day, got some 1x12 boards with incredible grain. Future feed for the cabinet shop. We saw most of the wood for the cabinet shop now.
Was commenting the other day, Im sawing big timber now that I could have planted as a kid. Thats scarry.

Greg

 

[cathead]

It rained last night so not sure if it will be a productive day or not.

A friend of mine has a Logosol style chain saw mill and it is not a tool very useful for making boards. It is OK
for making cants or beams but running a 3/8 inch chain through a log to make one inch boards is labor
intensive to say the least and generates a lot of sawdust. The band saw saved the day and the walls for
the building were cut in just a few hours for his wood shed.

Also of some interest is the Chinese version of the Stihl MS660 which can be had for about $300.
My friend bought one and we put it together in a day. It seems to run fine but only time will tell as
to its dependability. It comes as a pile of parts and every part is interchangeable with the real MS660.
I run Stihl brand saws and mostly run an older Stihl 028 or an 046 for bigger work. There are lots of You Tube
videos on that subject if any of you are interested in the copy cat MS660.
Here's another one of the same type of construction. This one is 12x12 and fully insulated with a Jotul wood stove
so nice to come to in the dead of winter for a stay. Since the photo was taken, the "yard" has been cleaned up
a bit making it a bit more presentable and an 8x8 wood shed built nearby since dry wood stored inside the building
made it somewhat cramped, much better now with the firewood kept elsewhere. Inside the building is a table with stools,
a bed, dresser drawers, a couch and of course the Jotul stove. It's also wired with a ceiling light and fan and some
wall outlets if I need the luxury of electric power from a generator.

 

[cathead]

The weather today was better than expected so did manage to get some work done on the shed.
It's still pretty muddy by the sawmill so will be waiting a few days for the ground to stiffen up a bit
and then resume sawing.



Here is a photo of the band saw mill using automotive tires and a 16 horse Kohler gas engine with
electric start.
At this point it looks like I am building an upside down table.
This is a stickered pile of white pine boards waiting to dry out a little.
It's pretty much framed up at this point so could start with some walls or start on the door end and begin
working on the roof structure. I'm thinking of making a ridge pole to support the rafters but that will have
to wait a bit for things to dry up some. I used three pieces of 4x8 tongue and groove 3/4 plywood flooring
on the floor. Some difficulty was encountered to get the tongue and grooves to fit together but finally
they cooperated and I was able to nail and screw it all down.


Edit:

Notice the hydraulic jack in the foreground. I was careful to be sure the floor was leveled
before installing the uprights. If you level it after the build, all the vertical members will no longer be vertical...

 

[cathead]

It is still muddy out by the mill but did manage to saw up a 20 inch white pine mostly in to 2x4 and boards and a few battens.
Tomorrow I will be in search of a good prospect for a 15 foot length of tree that would be suitable for a ridge pole.
It could be pine or even oak or poplar depending on what is available out there. A blow down red or white pine or
spruce would be the best if I can find one. I didn't take any photos today because I forgot to bring along the camera
so will try to have a better update tomorrow. A special thanks to everyone watching my blurb. It gives be a boost
just knowing someone is interested enough to follow along.

 

[Barncat]

I am definitely interested enough to follow along. I have done more chainsaw milling than I care to think about. I have always wanted to upgrade to a band saw mill, seeing your excellent work has only reinforced that desire.

 

[cathead]

It's 5 AM and I'm having coffee and thinking of what I need to get done today. I need to haul the 6 foot long pile of boards
a few miles, track down a nice straight pole suitable to become a ridge pole and saw it. Then I need to set up the ridge pole
and install some rafters and after that apply some roof boards. It's going to be a big day. I consulted with my neighbor friend
and he told me to look for a suitable ridge pole back on one of his trails. I know there are some blow downs back in the
hinterland you can have he said.


When a band saw starts to get dull, it cuts a little slower and the boards start getting wavy especially when knots
are encountered. Yesterday I changed the blade and it cuts great now and the sawdust just flies. Blade life is dependent
on how much dirt encountered and to a less extent bark. At times I will use a gasoline powered planer to clean off the entry side of the log before sawing if it looks like it might be contaminated. I don't need to clean the exit side usually. If one is careful, one blade will be enough for a shed type building. That's why it is best to make cants first if possible as it is all clean
wood to saw after that. Yesterday, I didn't have that luxury as the log was just huge and I couldn't turn it all by myself until
I pared off about a half dozen layers of two inch thick boards. Those I set aside until the rest of the log was cut up.
The 2 inch thick boards were then cut into a bunch of 2x4s. Today the temperature is supposed to be in the 70s
up here and after that a cool down. I will take along my camera today.

Also out of curiosity, I am wondering if anyone has built their own chain saw mill and could post some photographs possibly.
I can see where something like that might be useful to pare down big logs into cants. A cant in sawmill terminology
is a log sawed on all four sides so that there is no bark remaining.

Home made band saw photos would be fun to see too!