I Built DaVinci's Saw Mill

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Making my first major step toward industrialization, I built my own water-powered saw mill based on a 600 year-old sketch by Leonardo Da Vinci.
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[@TwinPhoenix666]

I have a few constructive criticisms: 1) the transit of your saw frame suffers enough slop that it's actually making an orbital reciprocation. Your cut will suffer from this motion. 2) the tooth geometry of your saw should be revisited. It looks to me that the teeth are filed in a crosscut pattern with a VERY relaxed rake. If you want to rip cut a log (and do so with any kind of speed) then you need to refile your teeth to a rip pattern with a somewhat aggressive rake angle. 3) your results would benefit from ensuring that the saw engages in the cut on the down stroke.

[@a.s.j.g6229]

He needs to see this

[@SmolPotatowo]

All of that is great advice. His saw blade is definitely holding him back.

[@MeepChangeling]

Oh wow! A rennisaunce era saw made with only period technology has slop and takes forever to make a cut? Whoda thunk it!

[@philipripper1522]

A real one wouldn't. This guy obviously isn't a master craftsmen of that era. I'm not even sure he knows what a triangle is, considering he made an all square saw support@@MeepChangeling

[@philipripper1522]

hell he even makes wooden gears with teeth along the grain

[@DimNussens]

You could always try replacing the water wheel with a walking wheel, which while a lot more manual than a waterwheel, might help you test things while you tweak the design.

[@jeffg1381]

Water wheel on the water side. Walking wheel on the land side.

[@ficolas2]

And put a very big hamster inside

[@Torrath7411]

Awesome idea. Could be powered by humans or beasts of burden. Maybe set the mill up and wrangle a herd of Kindergarteners to power it. Don't think you could build a windmill large enough but it would be grand if you could. What about a treadmill design? This would be easiest to couple to the mill but what would be used as the belt? Layers of canvas over a more slippery fabric such as silk maybe? What about wooden slats connected to each other with rope with the gap in between the slats meshing with an axle and sprocket? Like a modern tank tread.

[@frankcarden4709]

Charge people a gym membership and set up a Conan wheel to drive it!

[@PlutoniumBoss]

This is actually historically plausible, look up the treadwheel crane or magna rota.

[@recurvestickerdragon]

Fun fact: Leonardo _hated_ being referred to as "of Vinci" because that's just the town he was orphaned in.

[@CaedmonOS]

Oh... that's unfortunate

[@Nobody-U-Want-2-Know]

There’s nothing “fun” about that fact.

[@AeroQC]

Unfortunately, we sort-of can't really not call him "of Vinci" nowadays... How else are people supposed to differentiate between Leonardo the Inventor/painter and Leonardo the teenager/mutant/ninja/turtle?

[@tuseroni6085]

@@AeroQC or leonardo of caprio

[@ficolas2]

@@AeroQC lmao

[@xylonpesquera8605]

You need a splash guard! All that water will make the components swell and bind. The extra humidity itself will change how the pieces fit together.

[@danilooliveira6580]

so, cover everything with mineral oil I guess ?

[@faervas1234]

Right that is what I was thinking the entire time.

[@DH-xw6jp]

The sled and rails need a solid coat of wax. Both waterproofing and lubricant in one.

[@BaconIover69]

​@@danilooliveira6580this is not how this channel works 🧐☝🏻. At first they need to forge a pickaxe, travel to the middle east and start digging. When they finde crude oil the need to refine it and THEN they can cover everything in mineral oil.😂

[@danilooliveira6580]

@@BaconIover69 there are easier substitutes for mineral oil, like linseed oil. I just said mineral oil because its commonly used to finish wood.

[@reedtassell4847]

I think a new blade would be the biggest improvement. With asymmetric teeth you could get them sharper for a more effective cut

[@KainYusanagi]

It'd also do a lot more for him if the blade was straight, too; you can see it's rather warped and bendy, causing it to have a massive effective kerf.

[@danilooliveira6580]

@@KainYusanagi I mean, his biggest challenge is the lack of professional artisanship. he got MUCH better at woodworking, but not nearly as much as some of his builds require. his best progress actually came from finding amazing artisans to help him out.

[@faervas1234]

@@KainYusanagi I wonder about the way Andy's reusing items that are 100's of years apart. by the time they would be used in later project in the timeline. The production of the part would be refined in the later application. The saw blade by the time it would of been used with the waterwheel would of been commissioned from a skill craftsman. The Idea would of been presented to a patron. The Patron would of paid Da Vinci to commissioned skill workers from a guild. When the project was done the patron would pay Da Vinci for the ownership of the end product. Many times I see people in this series taking a tool they made and applying no basic technics that a person who been using the tool for years would of picked up. Making these give tools look less effective then they were at the time. The tool were rare and expensive to obtain. They would of been done with the upmost care they could do to produce the tool. The way these tool are made seem to be in a minds set of how disposable the tools are now.

[@KainYusanagi]

@@faervas1234 I'd argue less "how disposable they are now" and more, "limited time, limited budget, limited skill". A lot of older tools get reused as-is because of that.

[@KainYusanagi]

@@danilooliveira6580 100% agreed; been saying that for years, myself. While his tools provide a good first attempt learning how to make something, they get refined over hundreds if not thousands of years between builds, and his tools (and skills, obviously; he doesn't have the lifetime to apprentice to a blacksmith, a carpenter, a chemist, etc. etc. necessary to learn all those skills to the depth some of them ask of you) don't reflect that.

[@ChuckleBuck]

Hard to believe Leonardo designed this all while filming for Titanic. Truly inspiring!

[@stevenschleigh1002]

But he couldn't design a bigger plank to stay alive on....sad.. But he was building a sawmill.. Soooo.. I guess he was at the first steps.. Saw first.. Then bigger planking..

[@jerrywakefield6109]

Was this before or after training with master splinter

[@claytonmatthews7323]

@@jerrywakefield6109 Yes

[@NavyVeteran1776]

It’s sad that you can’t tell if it’s sarcasm or not these days…….

[@jafetrodriguez6003]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@toddellner5283]

A fantastic build! Watching you cut wooden gears with a saw made me think that as you approach the 19th century you're going to be challenged by the most important single invention, the one which the entire Industrial Revolution depends on - the straight, accurate lead screw. Without that you don't get machine lathes and all the things that follow from them from screws to precision gear cutting to all the rest.

[@chandradharkoneti]

It actually wasn't as difficult as i first imagined it would've been. Search about a topic called generating master screws.

[@toddellner5283]

Interesting. All the material I had seen about early machinists developing them from nothing was a lot more fiddly and complicated. Looks like people got clever about it once they had the idea it *could* be done. @@chandradharkoneti

[@Barskor1]

Make a crude lath that makes a better lath etcetera :)

[@toddellner5283]

@@Barskor1 the tricky part is that even threading.

[@Barskor1]

@@toddellner5283 Indeed

[@chronicon5616]

Can't decide which I'm most impressed with: the successful completion, the ingenuity, or the sheer dedication it took? Congrats!

[@cockeformer2736]

A proper saw blade would help. Currently you have points that just rub the wood away, try to slant the teeth in one uniform direction to actually cut it.

[@cypherfunc]

Super cool to see the amount of engineering and joinery being applied. This channel has been through so much, and come so very very far. ❤

[@spec_opsgaming]

Sadly the joinery and engineering is extremely lacking even for a hobbyist.

[@jakobthelibrarycard6261]

With respect to the guys giving it a go, I think even calling it joinery is insulting to joiners. However, the saw that was being used was a little on the small size and the chisel was way too big. Easy when you use the correct tools. Also easy to be critical sitting here on my arse.

[@zafarsyed6437]

The problem with over, is the amount of extreme amount of water spray... swells up all the other wood. It's very impressive that you did build what you built. I only suggest that you look to modify it to use a river run below the wheel. As most (old) mills ran spring to late autumn by having channels divert water and in some cases were able to modify the height of their primary or secondary wheels to account for change in river runs depths. Very few (that I've read about) changed the pitch of blades or bucket scoops. Lastly, there's a significant amount of slop allowing for rotation in your sleds. With cross-bracing and/or oil-soaked rope bindings, you can eliminate that movement and likely will keep the sawmill from shaking itself apart. Best of luck and looking forward to seeing this in April/May of next year.

[@buggsy-sb3if]

I have not seen any water powered saw mills, or any other water wheel powered machinery for that matter, that had the water wheel attached directly to the machine itself. It is easy to locate the machine(s) at a distance and use drive gears/belts to transfer the power - as well as allowing more convenient location for the machinery.

[@zafarsyed6437]

@buggsy-sb3if There's lots of mills that powered different machines. And yes, they aren't driven directly. There's always differential gears to change speed and torque. But the concept remains. In the simplest and earliest forms, water wheels were used because windmills were inconsistent, and milling was done specifically for flour. They only had 1 rotational gear change from vertical to horizontal. A few examples still exist.

[@buggsy5]

I suspect the earliest usage of the water wheel was to pump water for irrigation. But that is just a guess. @@zafarsyed6437

[@psgouros]

Out of curiosity, have you refined your saw sharpening skills? Good sawtooth shaping will make far more difference to the machine’s performance than anything else.

[@theomelchior2739]

Trust me, you should have seen it before I sharpened it

[@cDog8766]

The feed rate is very ambitious for that blade. Overall this looks fairly well done for a first try. Three things I'd change is the pitch of the teeth on the blade, the rate of feed, and a better crank for the saw head by narrowing the distance between the blocks instead of using string as a keeper for the crank arm. Also, if size was not an issue, some of these mills would have a large enough wheel to fit animals or people on the inside to allow for walking to be the power source.

[@99TheDrummer]

if you replace the rachet with just a weight pulling down, you would be able to adjust and stabilize the pressure on the saw. All in all i love seeing this idea continue to progress!

[@matthewszostek1819]

I agree they need some way to dump excess pressure if the blade isn't keeping up. An adjustable drop weight on a pulley would be an excellent idea

[@IanZainea1990]

Pretty cool, drop sand bags on the base to firm it up. And make sure the machine is super rigid. When hand sawing, if your wood/fixture isn't locked down it is a PITA to cut. You could also use spikes to rigidly mount the log to the sled. Something similar to dogs on a wood working bench, but with spikes at a 90-degree angle to stick into the log and lock it in.

[@MartinBrunswick]

I don’t know if it would be the right fit for your channel, but I’d love to see follow up episodes about optimizing or re-designing these projects to make them more than just a proof of concept

[@blackdog6969]

I wouldn't say that's outside of the scope of this channel. I mean this current series is to see how to advance through history and history definitely had advancements. His saw blade for example definitely needs work even given the time period he chose for it.

[@iantaakalla8180]

Furthermore, his glass projects was refined over most of the lifetime of this challenge. While he is doing a project, improved tools would befit a “going through the history by building known technology from their time” thing.

[@Cyber_Nomad01]

back in 1996 I made one with a round saw blade direct connected to the water wheel with a driveshaft. It worked great.

[@killingtimeitself]

A better mode of moving the log sled would be a gravity pull of some sort, highly configurable, easy to tune, and fully consistent pull force. As well as trivial enough to set up.

[@derblablablachannel]

When building structures like the frame, some diagonal support elements really add a lot of stability to it. Love your series and how you keep going

[@jonathanalber4107]

I think in the long run that you should install some wooden dowels to hold the log in place instead of a rope that would have to be moved multiple time run, if it wasn't cut every time you ran a log through the mill.

[@faervas1234]

I was thinking that also. The more rigid the system is the more effective.

[@kensmith5694]

He really needs "dogs". These are things that go from the frame up to the log at an angle so that the weight of the log is pushing the point of the dog into the side of the log. As the cut progresses down the log, you put wedges into the kerf so that the gap doesn't close up on the blade.

[@mattmadolah]

realizing how effecient it works with a low pressure garden hose has me blown away! Know what I'm building next summer for myself!

[@Ntyler01mil]

It's fascinating that Da Vinci didn't think to invent a circular saw, as it wouldn't require converting the type of motion from circular to reciprocal.

[@samleigh7817]

The original had 4 blades, 4 planks per pass, also a circular blade would be restricted on the size of the logs. The gearing needs a little work to speed up the saw blade. Just my opinion and thoughts.

[@scottsteele1908]

I am not sure Divinci would have enough power available to him. Our 48 inch rotary sawmill bogged down cutting boards with a 327 Chevy engine, our portable bandsaw gets by with a 22 go Briggs and Stratton. Rotary is nice, but takes a lot more power. Incidentally the circular saw blade was invented by a woman.

[@ironhead2008]

Leo knew what he was doing. The man was one hell of an engineer amongst a whole lot of other things.

[@gavinjenkins899]

*looks at sketch with zero diagonal braces in it* You sure about that?

[@ironhead2008]

@@gavinjenkins899 DaVinci would routinely leave defects in his more detailed designs to guard against getting ripped off.

[@gavinjenkins899]

@@ironhead2008 LOL okay, if that's the delusion that makes you feel better about your idol being mediocre at engineering, then sure. Smart guy overall, but pretty bad engineer.

[@pyropulseIXXI]

@@gavinjenkins899he wasn’t a bad engineer at all You are looking at sketches, not modern engineering diagrams. Leonardo was a better engineer than 99% of modern engineers. What you are exposing is the flaws of your own mind and you don’t even realize it

[@gavinjenkins899]

@@pyropulseIXXI lol no I'm talking anout the flaws in the sketches. Legendary engineers would draw crucial parts of the device in their sketches. Only mediocre ones would draw inaccurate pointless sketches without major crucial components.

[@RejonMunchausen]

of all the tings DavInci could have predicted 'we broke the river' wasn't one of them. Great work as always

[@DH-xw6jp]

Rivers were broke all the time back in the day. By damming or diverting water flow the river can get screwed up and have drastic unwanted effects downstream.

[@RejonMunchausen]

@@DH-xw6jp but we both know thats not what I meant, come on man

[@Zogg1281]

A couple of things that you might want to have a look at... 1. When your mechanism advances (rachet advancing beam) the ratchet wheel, it moves forwards quite a bit but then moves backwards again. This means that the log will only be against the saw blade for a fraction of the blades stroke. This can be easily fixed by shortening the length of the piece of wood that advances the ratchet..... reducing it a little at a time to get the best results might be a good idea. 2. Seesaw beam that connects to the rachet advancing beam..... the bit in "1" above. By increasing the length and adding some extra holes to adjust the pivit point and the point that connects to the ratchet advancing beam, you can experiment with changing how far the log is advanced each stroke. This would also mean that you can fine-tune the mechanism depending on how much power your water wheel is currently generating. i.e. reduce the speed of the log if you have less water flow and increase the speed when you have more water flow rate. A tip for the future, if you make a mortice gauge, you can use it to accurately scribe the lines to create tight fitting joints. Your castle joints are a bit loose, which will reduce the stability of the joints and allow quite a bit of movement in the frame...... even with glue and nails....... sorry 😳 It was awesome to see an idea based on a sketch by Davanci come to life in this video 😊👍👍👍👍👍

[@dave7038]

Regarding 1, perhaps the advancement mechanism should have a weight hanging from the rope? Then the pressure of the log against blade will be constant and based on the weight, which can be adjusted depending on the available water flow, blade wear, cut length, etc. If the weight had enough vertical travel distance the advance wheel mechanism could then be removed (or possibly replaced with a mechanism that relieves the pressure on the blade when the saw is on the upstroke).

[@merijn1086]

Try to gear up your saw up and down movement rather the infeed speed. Your saw cant handle the current feedspeed. Now the saw goes up and down 1 time per revolution of the waterwheel. Gearing it up will increase your saw speed.

[@kensmith5694]

More saw speed via gearing comes at the cost of needing more torque at the waterwheel hence more water in each bucket on the downgoing side. It may be that a better option would be to optimize the wheel to turn a lot faster for a given flow of water.

[@voiknallen1447]

… or just gear down the feed.

[@kensmith5694]

@@voiknallen1447 Yes, this could even be made automatic. Imagine that the saw frame could move back and forth a bit and was pressed forward into the log by a lever with a weight on it. If the weight gets low, the mechanism that pulls the log into the blade trips.

[@SimonClark]

This is the culmination of so much work - huge congrats team!

[@BishjamIC]

Very interesting. As many have stated, a revisit to the saw tooth geometry would likely help. The sled gear, a same sized gear with more/smaller teeth may be what the dr ordered to reduce the slop in the tension on the sled. I enjoy immensely the videos you put out!

[@Robb403]

A river powered water wheel is going to have a lot more torque than is achievable from your garden hose. Even back then, a lot of experimentation went into matching a water wheel to the water source. I suggest DaVinci's design is an undershot wheel for use with rapidly flowing water. They also used lubricants back then like beeswax and tallow to make wagon wheels and other mechanisms move with less friction.

[@jaeric]

I love to see how far you've come with this series. I would suggest adding waxes or oils to reduce friction on moving parts. You could also build another wheel that a person could walk inside of to provide power when a river isn't available.

[@ThePhilFella]

Very glad to see you really back into the swing of things since the fire. This is a serious piece of technology and the fine tuning worked very well. Big applause from Ireland!

[@Targe0]

The best way to better balance your water out flow is to have an upper water tank like a barrel. That will give you a buffer time to fix any pump issues before the pressure ran out. A large rain water tank might provide the volume needed to simulate a river in the same way.

[@isaacgroen3692]

I've seen you crystallize sugar in your kitchen. This is a major milestone. What strikes me is that you usually end with a summary of everything thats is left undone and your observarions of faults in the design and execution of your project. This drives you to improve, i get it. But every once in a while, when you reach a milestone like this, don't forget to stop and reflect. Awesome job mate! loving it! Can't wait to see what you decide to do next!

[@lemmonsinmyeyes]

I really hope you will open a museum one day where we can come see the stuff you made, its fantastic the amount of work you have put into this

[@johngilbert1752]

I saw one of those running at Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts

[@ananominity]

Wow! Great job guys. This should be on display somewhere. Everyone is a critic - YOU ACTUALLY BUILT IT. FROM SCRATCH. BY HAND. WOW!

[@SonsOfLorgar]

For my own improvements: I'd first put a rope torsion spring at the top of the saw frame and make it a pulling crank system instead of a pushing one. I'd also make the saw teeth into the same shape as the ratchet wheel and put at least three paralel saw blades in the frame.

[@Mindstormer]

This is the kind of stuff i subbed for, besides the fact that you started from scratch and worked your way up which is such an amazing channel concept. Just love seeing things i would have low key wanted to build myself but didnt have the tools or resources at my doorstep, but all this kinda of stuff always interested me

[@wtechboy18]

were leather bearings invented in this time period? oiled leather bearings are pretty great for a lot of stuff and you might be able to reduce the slack in a lot of pieces, like that hook on the crankshaft, with some leather bearings and tighter constraints.

[@lawr5764]

DaVinci actually made drawings of ball bearings! Ìt has a shaft with a cone shaped tip like a pencil. The balls are around the cone trapped in a round (flat bottomed) wooden(?) hole.

[@akakscase]

Adding a draw bow to the top or the base will reduce the amount of pressure needed to move the frame in that direction (most would put it at the top because it counteracts gravity). Adding a slot guide for the push arm would stop the walk and give you the greatest efficiency for your build. Also, grease the frame guide (use LOTS of grease) as well as any point that has moving friction in parts. As for the pump, watch a couple high banker videos of people high banking at home, and add a simple screen (you can use a window screen) will keep your water clear and your pump running.

[@keithneal6787]

This is great, I have read a lot about Da Vinci's inventions, it is nice to see you construct one of them. Good Job!

[@Dr.DevX42]

I absolutely love your work. I love how you can just have an idea and then put that idea into practice. It's very inspirational in my life and I want to say thank you

[@Otyrr]

Is there anything to be said about snugging the saw in its housing better? It seems like the saw would work better if it didn't wiggle around so much in its movement.

[@faervas1234]

I think they would of use bearings and more some sort of lube. Those parts would not last a season. Even today greasing the machines is daily maintenance on industrial machines.

[@PMMcIntyre]

Increasing the size of the ratchet will slow down the sled even more and prevent bind ups and sharpening and heat treating the teeth of the blade will increase efficiency.

[@halted_code]

this is pretty neat. I think you should rethink that crank and linkage, the linkage will either break itself or the crank, this was amazing and i cant wait to see more.

[@amellish]

he habitually makes cranks like this, too wide allowing huge amounts of slop when a narrower "U" portion that closely held the crank would be sturdier and more mechanically efficient. it's frustrating watching him make the same mistakes over and over, even as he goes on to learn new techniques and refine other skills

[@theomelchior2739]

Was a lot of fun, can't wait for the next projects

[@RealAndySkibba]

Amazing build! Nice job Andy!

[@nikkothegoblin]

This was an amazing project! Seeing all you've worked towards before and everyone's skills coming together really shows the beauty of humanity's advancements and collaboration!

[@1st1anarkissed]

seasonal lumber mill makes sense with the fact that lumering is done ideally in winter. You drag the logs out with a horse and lay them on the river ice. Come spring melt, the river delivers the logs downstream to the lumber mill. So spend the wet season milling, and in summer, building things.

[@esalehtismaki]

The principle is just fine, but build quality is too half-assed for it to work. Moving parts need to be precise and the saw needs to have actual saw teeth. And the feed mechanism is about 10 times too fast.

[@pyropulseIXXI]

This guy’s entire channel is him of low skill/high slop but just good enough to fool the normies watching. Then he can pass his failure off as the fault of an old design. He took a sketch and built a shoddy device. The fault is in him Renaissance era woodworkers would’ve made a substantially better product

[@sadiqayan]

This is such a cool project!

[@grahambo-42]

There's an historic production saw mill back where I grew up. Multiple blades and a lot more water but one thing that I thought was most interesting was the advance mechanism. There weren't any ropes or pullies that I remember seeing. What they did have was a constant driven roller that the sled sat on. It provided a constant push to urge the sled forward but not enough for the blades to bind or break, just letting the friction from gravity and the back pressure from the blades to dictate the advance rate.

[@danielemur]

Awesome stuff! Really cool to see everything come together at the end. I’m excited to see more projects like this in the future!

[@stitchfinger7678]

An excellent machine. Really well done :) And hey who cares if its a little slow, the point was to be able to start it up and walk away and not use manpower, right?

[@2.5cogs]

I feel like with one real carpenter on his team he would be unstopable

[@theomelchior2739]

Ouch

[@CrazyBader]

Yeah, no amount of modern know-how is gonna make up for those bad tolerances.

[@darkforest154]

He hand built a sawmill hahaha using tools he built himself from materials he forged for himself. He fuckin forged his own nails, hes a real carpenter by any definition. Let's see you go build a sawmill with only tools that you also hand built from scratch I would love to see how perfect you can make it hahahahaha

[@2.5cogs]

@@darkforest154 My guy I wasn't trying to hate. I was just saying the design of it would have been improved with input from someone who has experience building things out of wood such as adding crossbracing to improve regitity. And adding some form of retaining clip on his pivots so the links don't flop about as much. It increadly impressive what he has done. All I am saying is I can see a few clear issues with the mechanics and structural design of it. I am not trying to falt him for "poor" execution, because given his background and resources the quality of his work is amazing. because no mater what "improvements" I think could be made it works as is, which as you pointed out is both impressive and something to be incradably proud of.

[@AGuyThatMakesStuff]

I can’t wait to see more advanced machines like this in the future

[@darkforest154]

I remember the early days back when you had zero knowledge on carpentry and couldn't hammer a nail and now you and your team built a sawmill and that's WILDLY impressive congrats

[@simongumn3154]

Those early days were kinda painful to watch as a chppy but what progress!!! Love this channel.

[@mobiousenigma]

your gonna need a lot more teeth on that ratchet system there isnt a rip blade that can handle your feed rate

[@germalganis]

Thanks to Andy and its team for the amazing build. Still I would love to see actual carpenters building this things. When I was growing up there was a Sugar Cane Mill close to my house, and they had a water powered mill, no longer in use but it still ran. My point is, out there in the world there still people with this set of skills. You can carefully plan and execute, but it will only take so far. There is no replacement for years of experience.

[@leifhietala8074]

Leaf springs like those that provide the return on your foot-powered saw will improve things on the mill, too - load the spring so it cancels out the sawframe's mass, and the waterwheel will then pretty much only be powering the saw through the wood, and much less of the energy wasted on moving the sawframe up and down.

[@HobbesNJoe]

I LOVE what you’re doing with this series! I have often wished for a video game one could play which guides the player to develop all the tech one would need to move from a pre-industrial state, to launching people into orbit. Premise: you’ve crash-landed on an uninhabited planet and you want to get back to civilization. I feel it would be the best STEM training one could get to understand and appreciate our post-industrial world. And you’re doing it IRL! You’re so lucky!

[@datfloof2732]

I love stuff designed by da vinci being built irl and used for its intended purpose, pls do more vids like this. Whenever u got time for projects like these ofc 😊

[@JasperXoR]

Bravo! You were quite dedicated to making it out of period parts! That definitely makes it more challenging but also interesting.

[@Chriss120]

I think changing the log pulling mechanism to use a falling weight might give you more control over how hard the log is pushed into the saw and it would keep the pressure constant.

[@buggsy-sb3if]

You don't want constant pressure on a reciprocating type saw. The pressure should only be applied during the cutting stroke and relaxed during the non-cutting part.

[@smeedatelierwijtvliet576]

It will probably run smooth when the wood joints ain’t wobbly, the saw was properly sharpened etc. Concept proven, properly made it can definitely operate. Awesome build guys. Really enjoyed it.

[@GhostOnWater]

Like you educated guess it, it is Very impressive. I love that I found your channel and hope to see more of your own re-creations as well as your own modifications and to be here to see wherever you lead your channel. You're doing a great job. I love it!

[@zanekovac726]

It is really cool to see that you got the log moving at the right speed.

[@gsmontag]

This is one of your best projects yet! There is a lot of fine tuning to be done, but that'll also make for interesting content. As for a real world water source, you should look into small weirs and coffer dams, which are often fairly small and easy to access.

[@andrewkrahn2629]

I just came back to the channel so I'm sorry if you already covered this, but the other way to make cuts along the log (rip cuts/ripping) is to rive/split it using metal wedges and a sledge, wooden wedges (gluts) and a beedle, and axes. This doesn't work with all species and doesn't handle knots well. It also requires relatively straight grain. Rather than cutting from one side to the other, you halve the mess each time. If you don't halve the mass evenly the less massive side tends to bend more and the split wanders that way. You can sometimes correct the split by forcing the thicker side to bend more. On thinner stock this is often done while using a tool called a froe. What you get, though, is the strongest possible board out of that particular tree, ideally with most fibers being continuous from end to the other. Beams were made this way into the 1900s. If I recall correctly, shingles made this way last longer than cut shingles because water has no exposed end-grain to soak into. Tool handles are also best when riven. Also, hi from Minneapolis-ish! I'm just kind of getting into this, but I've used this method to break wood I couldn't possibly saw (3ftx4ft oak log) into wedges I could haul out on foot to my tiny car. If you want to see a master of this from the US, look up Peter Follansbee.

[@cartmanrlsusall]

Very cool with some fine tuning and reinforcement it looks like a practical and useful machine

[@Subparanon]

add a spring to the sled where the rope attatches to even out the pulling pressure and keep the log in constant contact pressure with the blade

[@Animefan2o07]

Just wow! Amazing that you built that and got it to work. Cant wait to see the improvements you make to it in the future

[@robertmattox9715]

It’s awesome to know that things made way back then actually works

[@SealFredy5]

For your mortise and tennon joinery, I have a design I like to use for knockdowns but I think it would help you achieve more rigidity. Most people will drill straight holes with an offset of 1/16 on one part to pull them together. I find this a bit inadequate for a knockdown joint. Instead, I use a 20mm forstner bit, tighten up the through tennon as much as possible and then mark the point on that tennon. Take the joint apart and then move that mark 1/16 towards the joint. This should be standard for a dowel up until here. Then I drill the hole at a ten degree angle. You can now use a chisel to square the hole or take a dowel and use a hand plane to flatten one side to make a round wedge. This joint works great and is incredibly stiff despite any looseness of the tenon fitting into the mortise. I would make a jig that helps with cutting the pegs at a precise angel. Just drill a ten degree hole into a block and then cut that block open to expose an amount of the wedge/downel. You can then plane flush or what I do is run that jig across an oscillating sander with a low grit number.

[@claytonharting9899]

Awesome! Always a good day when HTME uploads

[@pegoossens]

It s just amazing to think that in the space of 300 years we went from this behemoth to a tool that fits a compact case.

[@oshimia6746]

"And my river kind of ended up breaking..." Yup. That's what I expect from this channel. Perfect.

[@M0rtunodos]

That's really cool! This feels like some sort of culmination of previous projects.

[@JiyuKodai]

I remember as I kid going to a historic water mill in Macinac city. It's still there and operating, but think it's closed for this season. They did pit milling (hand milling) and also showed a working water mill. Maybe check them out next year if you revisit this project? Or find one in your area that might be working. Along the Great Lakes was traditionally a logging area.

[@Tb64]

Pretty awesome! I think some triangle bracing in a few spots would really stiffen the rig up. A lot of it reminds me a mechanical clock.

[@samstewart4444]

This is an extraordinary achievement. Of course, over a couple of generations of tweaking, this basic design would revolutionize lumber milling. The next quantum leap in your industrial revolution is a steam engine. Great video!

[@bioman1hazard607]

This is impressive in 2 ways, 1st way is that da Vinci was a genius for coming up with this thing back then, and 2 you guys for not only following his design to a tea but even getting it passed the drafting phase. This device would have changed the lumber industry if it actually came to be

[@equesdeventusoccasus]

You could use a Roman style aqueduct water wheel to fill a large water tank then use the tank to run the sawmill's water wheel. If the sawmill's water wheel is high enough, the return tray for the water could feed the Roman aqueduct water wheel. If this works as I am picturing it, a simple hose should add enough additional water to make up for water loss in the system. The tank would fill up as it was emptying out.

[@BSIII]

Now this is an excellent history lesson. Awesome

[@belhabchioussama4234]

great job to the whole team for building this, with a bit of tweaking this is a success, can't wait for the next project

[@theomelchior2739]

Thank you so much, it's a work in progress

[@KenrickLeiba]

Considering it’s a first attempt you’ve done extremely well. Heck the fact it did anything is pretty amazing, the fact it actually worked although not very fast is great. With a few tweaks and a better water supply it could work even better.

[@dmo848]

In awe over this kind of stuff. My mind says let's do it but my pockets tell me no, you can't do that😂

[@shull8476]

this is great, I love to see the progression of how we are evolving. especially to see how using a water source to power a sawframe to saw lumber, it looks really alike to what we have in the Netherlands. I run on the sawing mill the Salamander in Leidschendam, be sure to take a peek at some video's!

[@graxav]

One of the founding principles of frame sawing is 'overhang'. This means that the blade tilts forward in the frame - so that the cutting action then acts like a wedge that closes going down and opens going up - thus the machine becomes self-feeding and there is none to little friction on the non-cutting up stroke ..

[@jaysonbunnell8097]

This project was so so awesome! I'm excited to see where it goes.

[@FaeraGaelwyn]

This was a pretty cool build. Water wheels really were a game changer for civilization. Can essentially turn any moving water into a power tool. I will say the saw looked to be rocking left and right on top of the single rod pushing it up. would definitely benefit from using two rods closer to the ends of the center dowel for a more consistent motion, though I'm sure someone's already mentioned that.

[@fraserbuilds]

amazing work. seriously impressive dedication.

[@gregholl5011]

To make the castle joints tighter drill holes through the joint with the inner hole being slighly off. Use a square wood peg larger than the hole and it will pull the joint tight.

[@tonybarnes5309]

Glad you did a large mock up of a old water powered saw mill. This may help. Built a much smaller one for a 5th grade science project, we found out that the frame that holds the saw blade and runs up and down in the Chanel needed a light grease. We used petroleum jelly. But I think they used animal fat or whale oil if memory serves me. Great Video

[@user-mt1qi4vd1z]

Look up for the wind powered sawmills in Netherlands, they actually work on the same principle and were used to produce timber for Holland Navy

[@thecrazy8888]

Very cool! Maybe use a pool pump, they are made to run 24/7. Also, I'd look into adding gears to run the saw faster, a fly wheel will help keep the momentum.

[@8Jory]

If you want to go forward with the water wheel, you could look for an old derelict water mill with its mill pond still more or less intact. Might be a tall order in some areas, but where I live there are quite a few of them around for the finding

[@kensmith5694]

Your connecting rod is a bit short. This causes it to be at extreme angles and push the saw part to the side a lot increasing friction. To keep the whole thing small vertically, there are ways you can get a much longer connecting rod without increasing the height to the log. A simple one is: Add an extension to the frame of the saw that reaches down almost down to ground level. Make the connecting rod reach down to a crossbar on that. This lets you have the log not very far above the shaft of the waterwheel.

[@lawr5764]

Wouldn't moving the water wheel & crank farther apart horizontally accomplish what you're trying to do? I made a similar comment about the connecting rod. Its angle looked horrendous.

[@kensmith5694]

@@lawr5764I don't think I am getting your suggestion. Somehow the one end of the crank has to push the saw up and down and the other end has to go in a circle. I don't see how a horizontal change makes this better. You need more vertical distance in the situation to decrease the angle.

[@lawr5764]

@kensmith5694 You're RIGHT! What I suggested can only work "VERTICALLY." To do that, you'd have to raise the height of the ENTIRE frame to increase the connecting rod length. To avoid that, I thought it'd be simpler to go sideways, but I didn't fully think it through. There are ways to do what we want using angles other than vertical, but they are MORE trouble than just raising the frame, not less. It would require extra parts, making it more complicated. More parts also introduce more potential friction. Your "extension to the saw frame" idea seems like the best way to go.

[@user-zu9iu7vn1p]

Wood joinery is used to assemble the piece - metal fasteners are avoided.

[@shiahalud]

Something to consider is the amount of friction in the mechanism. For water wheels attached to mills animal fat was often used for lubricant on the moving pieces.

[@vaclavnikl6842]

Cool build. Just one small thought that could ease the work of the machine. Instead of a ratchet that pulls the sled, which can put pressure on the saw blade and compromise the blade and cutting, I'd suggest following. Make the sled go from a slight slope, so gravity will pull the sled and the log towards the saw blade. That way the blade would be cutting under constant pressure. Plus you can discard the whole ratchet system, which I see as another piece that can break. Cheers.