Swingblade SAWMILL Build Ep.6 - Blade Guards, Subframe Fabrication

I'm building a circular sawmill from scratch. The function of the mill is in its name "Swingblade" - the blade swings 90 degrees making it possible to cut both ways while moving the carriage up and down the log resulting in dimensional lumber in one pass. I built a chainsaw mill ten years ago and milled lumber that I used for my cabin / sauna house project. Then I built a bandsaw mill five years ago and used the cut lumber to build a partition in my barn I currently call my workshop. Both of them worked great, bandsaw mill was faster than chainsaw mill for sure. But I think I can make an even faster mill and swingblade sawmill in my opinion is just what I'm looking for. There are different types of swingblade sawmills, one type utilizes a railway system where the saw carriage rides on rails so both rails are in the way when loading the logs. I want to build a beam-type mill where the saw carriage is suspended on a beam over the log that sits on a couple of wedges so it doesn't roll off while cutting. There will be no need to clamp the log down. Cut depth and width adjustments are all going to be made on the sawmill beam end frames. And to top it off - it will basically be a portable sawmill due to its build properties but I think it's only going to sit in my yard regardless of the portability.
In this video I'm fabricating both vertical and horizontal blade guards. Not to guard the blade but to protect myself and others from the circular saw blade. The blade has to have two guards since it pivots 90 degrees. I'm also cutting up an old steel bed frame again to get nice bent sections of tubing to make a nice and smooth handle out of it. This handle has to be functional at every height the carriage is on when the sawmill is in use. I have to take into account that the vertical stroke of this saw is 900mm/3ft. To accommodate the vertical and horizontal blade adjustment crosswise I'm welding on adjustment bolts and fabricating an additional section of frame on the carriage. It supports the swinging frame when lowered into the vertical cutting position (the frame itself is horizontal at that moment).
I'm gonna try and use basic tools like angle grinder as much as possible (except lathe) so I'm gonna enjoy this project even more. I hope you will too!
This sawmill build is based on www.turbosawmill.com "Manual Mill" design and it is patent pending.
Swingblade sawmill build series: • Swingblade Sawmill Build
My other videos: kzbin.infovideos
Support me on: / donndiy Follow me on: / donndiy
#donndiy #homemade #sawmill
Welding equipment borrowed from Spetselektroodi AS, Estonia:
Fronius TransSteel 2700 welder
Optrel Crystal 2.0 Welding Helmet
Hypertherm Powermax 45 XP plasma cutter

[@SteveCopley]

Fit this to the 8x8 Argo and you've got a pretty solid anti-zombie vehicle

[@DonnDIY]

🤣 Zombies scare me...

[@fretless496]

Scare them back!@@DonnDIY

[@shephardscrook]

Zombies Vs Estonian MacGyver! Could be a video game in that.🤔

[@thunderstruck1078]

With this immigration that they keep imposing on us, even though the overwhelming majority is opposed to it, zombies will be the last of our worries.

[@jlucasound]

Donn, you are "creeping up" on 1,000,000 ! In my opinion, you deserve it. Every aspect of your videos is excellent. EVERY aspect. Thank You, Donn for providing entertainment and knowledge to the World!! And me, Too!! ❤⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@DonnDIY]

Does the world not include you? It means you must be extra terrestrial.🤣

[@dozer1642]

Obligatory comment to boost the algorithmic overseer ✌️👍

[@DonnDIY]

You mean Skynet?😀

[@blackbuttecruizr]

Excellent work! Can't wait to see it spitting chips!!!

[@DonnDIY]

Can't wait either - I've already planned out many projects that require heaps of homemade lumber. 😀

[@DD-DD-DD]

Mr Chop never fails to make me laugh

[@DonnDIY]

Mr. Chop is da man!🤣

[@thomasgargano8813]

Donn, you are a very good fabricator. You can cut, drill, weld,look like a jack of all trades. Good job!!👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🍻🍻🍻🍻🍺🍺🍺🍺☮️

[@runsolo7418]

You should look into merchandise to help support you. Maybe some stickers with your logo, and or all of the projects? I think a Mr. Chop sticker/T-shirt would be cool.

[@DonnDIY]

I've thought about that. Mr. Chop T-shirt sounds cool. Good idea!😀

[@garymucher4082]

Always interesting to watch the design as you go build. Interesting to see how you figure things out and than build the parts...

[@DonnDIY]

Cheers man!

[@jakobv8]

I love it how nothing ever gets wasted or thrown away when you're working. TU for a great project!

[@DonnDIY]

Thanks man!

[@curm1778]

Have no idea how this is going to work, but know it'll be an awesome tool of death. Can't wait!

[@DonnDIY]

It'll cut logs to lumber 👍

[@09FLTRMM77]

MM77 Approved 👍🏼👍🏼

[@rjung_ch]

Thanks! 👍💪✌

[@DonnDIY]

Thanks for watching!🙏

[@santaloveseivind9784]

Nicely done, have a good weekend Donn

[@PAINFOOL13]

Can't wait to see it in Action Donn.👍🏻👍🏻

[@DonnDIY]

Me neither!

[@z1da]

väga äge projekt. jätka samas vaimus. 👍

[@DonnDIY]

Tänud! Üritan seekord saeraami valmis saada.🙏👍

[@gysbertvanderwesthuizen8011]

Nice Donn, Paint it when you done:)

[@daniellyon7904]

Love this is no longer on the back burner. Can't wait to see it done.

[@DonnDIY]

I'm also happy.👍

[@thomaswestwood5227]

looks like and enlarged chainsaw handle awesome work

[@gerardmeunier8309]

Un démarreur étoile triangle mécanique je ne pensais pas en revoir un .👍👏🇫🇷

[@Autogru]

very useful even during a zombie apocalypse

[@kenwood8665]

Absolutely brilliant video

[@carloskawasaki656]

Thank you for sharing, i learn a lot , always a pleasure watch your video, have a nice week end 👍👍👍👍

[@DonnDIY]

Thank you. You too!🤗

[@12jsteve]

Highly ingenious engineering fabrication Donn - looking forward to seeing this beast in action! 😁👍

[@DonnDIY]

Looking forward to getting it done as well.👍

[@Mikefestiva]

Nice work Donn 👍 I especially like the salvaged old bed frame, that handle turned out really good. I haven’t ever ran a swing blade saw before, I’m definitely looking forward to see this mill in action 😊 Thanks for posting 👍

[@DonnDIY]

Thanks Mike!

[@olddawgdreaming5715]

Looking good Donn. Sure enjoying this project series. You're doing a fantastic job. Keep up the fun too. Fred.

[@DonnDIY]

Thanks for checking in to watch, I do appreciate it.👍🙏

[@wojciechomiljanowski]

I love your handle design!

[@quarlow1215]

Looking good as usual Donn. Love it.

[@DonnDIY]

Cheers!

[@graemezimmer604]

Great progress!

[@valerij7941]

Всё что ты делаешь, супер, недочётов нет , браво.👍👏👏👏✌️

[@adnacraigo6590]

You are an inspiration for me.

[@DonnDIY]

Thanks man, it's great to hear that!🙏

[@TheDistur]

Always cool to see what you are working on!

[@DonnDIY]

Cheers man!

[@Einherjar_17]

Incredible work, seeing how you create that tool using your imagination is incredible, in addition to your welding and measuring skills, thank you very much for sharing such an excellent video.

[@DonnDIY]

Thank you for the supportive feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed.👍

[@yodasbff3395]

Nice work, thanks for sharing 👍.

[@DonnDIY]

Thanks for watching!🙏

[@president2]

Love it keep it up as always 💘

[@logistikp-lain2982]

Ручка - шедевр!!!!

[@vinceianni4026]

Good job Donn coming along really good well done

[@DonnDIY]

Thanks man!

[@job38four10]

I like the bedframe handle idea, old bedframes like that are hard to find in my neck of the woods. You must live near a junk-yard with endless supply of junk, you always seem to find stuff. But what kind of junk-yard has a 3 phase switch laying around........

[@DonnDIY]

Well... the barn is sort of a junk-yard. We do have several electric motors, relays, water pumps, switches and other dairy farm related equipment still around even though we haven't had cows for two decades now.

[@jubiletabustamanteserrano2446]

interesante ese trabajito

[@l-jpersson7532]

Nice work. Keep up.👍

[@DonnDIY]

Cheers!

[@DonnDIY]

The rest of this wingblade sawmill build series: kzbin.info/aero/PLkmF7FAZBzkWuunWOOh0zSzB1LllQdUKr My other videos: www.youtube.com/@DonnDIY/videos

[@ARBORIST.OF.UKRAINE]

шариш каністра уважуха

[@jlucasound]

The staggered bend locations, in your handle, will make it very rigid. Much like the handle on some older chain and hand held cement cutting saws that have tube bar handles.

[@JoZf_Gibson]

Merci

[@jarkkovanska6681]

Nice. Good work and video👍

[@DonnDIY]

Thank you!

[@bwillan]

Are planning on adding riving knives to the blade assembly to minimize the chance of pinching the blade during a cut?

[@DonnDIY]

Good question. I wasn't thinking about it while fabricating the blade guards, that's for sure. Turbosawmill has them so I guess they're important. :)

[@opendstudio7141]

Hehe! Hey Donn, from the comments I see people are confused by the build stand. 😋 How about attaching a full printout of the model on the door.👍

[@honeycuttracing]

Yes another confused 😕 one here, usually follow right along with Donn, but just can not wrap head around how this will be able to cut a log into boards @ this point 🤔, watched many saw mill builds over years and the head placement seems like it's 90° off or something but guess for Donn to pull a rabbit 🐇 out of his hat 🎩, and make us feel foolish for asking 😅

[@Crewsy]

@@honeycuttracing The webbed beam the saw is on is only a mockup beam. He will make one about 8m long for the actual mill.

[@jlucasound]

What is an adjustment "polt"? 🤣😂😉 I'm just breakin' em, Donn!! 😄😍🤩 (Typo @4:56). This machine is going to be sweet!! You do such awesome design work.

[@DonnDIY]

"Polt" is bolt in estonian. Oops. I reread the subtitles like three times before hitting the render button. It still slipped through.😛 Cheers man!

[@fred-san]

..Tune...

[@user-cz1pj4kb8k]

👍👍👍

[@DanKoning777]

Great video as always and a 👍 as always. Looking forward to the next video as well as seeing it in action. Btw, might we be seeing a DIY Donn "tube bender" sometime in the future? Sure seems you need one. God bless.

[@DonnDIY]

Can be.🤗

[@user-vq7xs4ey1q]

Обрати внимание на то что диск на высоких оборотах может плавать штоб не задел защиту

[@vladzaha4169]

👍

[@HenryShiley]

To be honest, I didn't even notice one thing: the main pivot is not at blade center. Going to be a bit of fiddling every cut when switching axis?

[@DonnDIY]

The pivot is at blade center. 👍 No fiddling required.

[@valdevieira8258]

👏👏👏👍

[@huseyin_erkul]

🎉

[@AntonioM.696.]

🤘🤠

[@obi1kahnobee549]

suggest you don't use the star delta switch as they are tricky to wire, I would use a soft starter instead and set the current limit to about the full load current on your motors nameplate that way you have a nice start and motor protection as well.

[@DonnDIY]

Soft starters are quite expensive. No worries, I sort of have an idea how to wire the star/delta switch. I'll try this first. If that fails I'll reconsider soft starter.😀

[@obi1kahnobee549]

Be careful you finish up with a dead short if you get it wrong and you will only have one shot as it will destroy the switch suggest you investigate the connection procedure and draw it out and bell out the switch to make sure it is correct. A basic soft starter is affordable.@@DonnDIY

[@poprawa]

I think, that this blade needs to be supported with something on both sides. Those naked screws will fail if directly on hard, shaky and one side loaded steel. It's like one bolt supporting cutting forces at all times, and only torque is supplied equally from all of them

[@DonnDIY]

Kinda defeats the purpose of a swingblade then.

[@kiffing]

Dumb question but wouldn't the blade need to swing left or right instead of forward or back to do slit cut the length to do dimensional lumber? Or is this just the side to side carriage and you still have to to the length carriage? (Never mind just realized after I typed the comment that this is the side to side carriage)

[@DonnDIY]

The beam will be 6m/18ft instead of the current 1m/3ft mockup beam.👍

[@neillawson4493]

I am wondering if the horizontal blade guard is going to hit both the boards you are cutting and the tree that you are cutting them from. I would expect you need to have nothing protruding below or beside the blade.

[@spdy3926]

He mentioned in the video making it removable to allow for exactly that. He's got you covered.

[@DonnDIY]

It is tight fit right now, something like 6mm / 1/4". If the horizontal blade guard starts to get caught on the log I'll just cut away a strip from the bottom edge.👍

[@onetransmission7871]

I'd be thrilled to buy the plans or even a kit that I can assemble.

[@DonnDIY]

I can't promise anything blueprints wise - I always plan on making blueprints but I end up picking up a new project ASAP and forgetting details of older projects. And I definitely can't promise a kit, too time consuming to make kits and send'em out. :)

[@JohnSmith-ud9ex]

Don... Is there any way to lock the blade to either vertical or horizontal other than the weight of the cutting head ? I wonder about the blade trying to "climb" out of the cut and now with the weight somewhat counter balanced by the hydraulics I can`t help but think it might want to...

[@DonnDIY]

No need, it'll dig in the log and keep itself locked in. Also the gas strut is super stiff and stable.

[@daveceneskie5805]

Am I missing something? Shouldn't the blade gaurds be mounted 90 deg. around?

[@DonnDIY]

They are, one is horizontal, the other one is vertical.

[@elissonmoraes5211]

Show

[@TheJure123456]

For the last couple of videos of this build Im asking my self...: Is it just me, or is the pivot turned the wrong way? If the log will be oriented paralell to the slides on the flor...?

[@DonnDIY]

Good question! The slides are for the width and thickness adjustment of the boards. The beam that the carriage is on (1m/3ft long in the video for mockup reasons, min. 6m/18ft long in real life) is longitudinal to the log.

[@evanpolasek8033]

I’m so glad someone else was seeing the same thing. Thank you for explaining Donn

[@robertlong9029]

Do you have plans for sale or could you help us out learning the ratio of the blade pivot shaft thing

[@DonnDIY]

Blade pivot is equal to the radius of the blade you are using.👍

[@JohnSmith-ud9ex]

I just know that there is a tube bender project in the works. Why ? Because Donn is going to run out of old bed frames at some point = )

[@plasmaxer]

Maybe somehow make the saw angle/tilt mechanism pneumatic or hydraulic with remote control. LOL.

[@DonnDIY]

Good idea. I'm building this for personal use and the more simple the better (read: the less parts to repair or replace).😀

[@gamingit1]

That star/delta switch must be very old beacuse it still has R,S,T labels for phases instead of L1,L2 and L3

[@DonnDIY]

It is. From DDR probably.

[@patrykwet8442]

if you now makita has got new 40 v tools

[@DonnDIY]

👍

[@Marco.Marani]

🦾🦾🦾

[@AW-Services]

A very robust build. I know how a standard bandsaw on rails works, but I'm confused with this design as it will only cut up to half of the blade circumference as it's mounted on a spindle drive shaft. Donn, your pop-up rules are in Estonian, not English

[@DonnDIY]

It has to be simple and robust, this is my goal to make and keep it simple. It does cut only half the blade diameter. Mine will cut only 220mm board (or 440mm when double cutting). But it's a swingblade, so it is able to cut dimensional lumber out of whatever diameter log. It doesn't produce slabs, it doesn't have to cut through the whole log all the time. It cuts dimensional lumber in one pass.

[@AW-Services]

​@DonnDIY many thanks for the explanation. Keep up the great work and have a lovely weekend. Austin 🇬🇧

[@user-ko5zu9im1s]

Eso no tiene sentido

[@sergeyognev1294]

Приветствую,маэстро! В вертикальном положении будет пилить поперёк?

[@DonnDIY]

Yes, it cuts both horizontally and vertically👍

[@sergeyognev1294]

@@DonnDIY 🤝

[@user-qx3pw6re5p]

@@DonnDIY а продольный вертикальный рез,что бы получать обрезной материал без поворота бревна??

[@AngelBautistaweb]

[@PeterNetped]