7m / 23ft Truss Beam Fabrication - Swingblade SAWMILL Build Ep.10

Donn DIY
Donn DIY
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Published 2023-11-11
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 a 7 m / 23 ft long truss beam from scratch. I'm using 20x20mm rectangular tube as rails and 8mm rebar as crossbars and diagonals. I start by setting up a 160 mm / 6.29" round tube as a something to tension the 20x20 tubes against for welding, sort of a backbone of the whole project. Otherwise the rails will end up wavy and the sawmill will cut inaccurately. Then the rectangular tubes are tightened and rebar cut to needed lengths. I then tack weld on the cross members both on horizontal and vertical surfaces. And as a last operation I add diagonals. Everything is tacked together. Now I only need to heat up the weld areas before welding to avoid deformation caused by heat shrinkage. Preheating should lessen the effects of that. But we'll see. The overall weight of the beam should be around 38 kg-s according to the calculations. Once the beam is all welded it'll be a whole different story taking it apart - meaning: getting the 160mm tube out of the beam. It'll get tight, no doubt. But we'll manage! Wish me luck! And enjoy the video of course! Cheers!

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: youtube.com/DonnDIY/videos
Support me on: www.patreon.com/DonnDIY Follow me on: www.instagram.com/DonnDIY

Welding equipment borrowed from Spetselektroodi AS, Estonia:
Fronius TransSteel 2700 welder
Optrel Crystal 2.0 Welding Helmet
Hypertherm Powermax 45 XP plasma cutter
All Comments (21)
  • @johnthompson6656
    Step one in becoming a great DIY'er, collect every piece of scrap material you ever set eyes on from the day you are born !!!
  • @sifawukabir8929
    Kudos man! you enlightened me what seems difficult I think I can start building my own in a jiffy ❤
  • @AlanSprague
    Super interesting build so far but I am having a hard time still seeing how this works when it's all together. I know it's unintentional but you are totally building the tension for when we can see it all together!
  • @TheDana110
    Nice work and, I love the way you work! Clean, organized, thoughtful... Sweet!
  • @JamesYoung61
    I love the way you make complicated things look easy, I am sure that it is a combination of a great deal of forethought particularly around the tools that you have, the space and material. All in a barn on a farm, so many other great inventions have come from similar origins, you are walking with giants of engineering.
  • @Crewsy
    Yes. Truss me that it’s a great video. 😉 Aren’t you glad I didn’t say you’ll be beaming with pride? 🤦‍♂️
  • @DanKoning777
    Watching this build/design come together has been great—much like the 4x4 timber trailer. 👍 Fact is they're all great—just seems some of the projects stand out. Looking forward to p11. God bless.
  • @09FLTRMM77
    MM77 Approved 👍🏼👍🏼…………………………………………………………………..This sawmill is going to be awesome. I didn’t realize how much engineering was required!
  • @olddawgdreaming5715
    Will be watching for more to come. Thanks for sharing with us Donn. Very Interesting !! Fred.
  • @Mikefestiva
    Man that’s turning out really nice 👍 good Work Donn! Thanks for sharing.
  • @Will-No-Co
    This a nice series. I eagerly await the next video because I’ve done a lot welding with those square tubes and I can’t wait to see how you’re going to mitigate heat warping. Learning something new always interests me. ❤
  • @aaronmcfee506
    Love your videos and i was waiting anxiously for this video and others to follow
  • @dexter1448
    Another very good video, fun to watch. A tip: if you had rotated the truss by 90 degrees at minute: 18:10 in the video and then welded the struts from above, the truss would have become even more graded because then gravity would not have pulled the part down.. .😉 But a very good idea with the thick pipe in the middle and the tensioning of the four-mant pipes👍 Greetings from Germa
  • @bronzearmy2645
    I watched the first 4 videos months ago, and when the amphibious craft videos started popping up, I assumed you had abandoned this project. I was pleasantly surprised to have rediscovered the channel this morning and see several more videos on the sawmill! Nice work!
  • @daniellyon7904
    Also really happy you went with a longer beam. I hope it pays off for you in the end.
  • @thundermountainatv
    thanks for the detailed video on building the beam , have plans to build a similar mill in the near future, just cant decide wether to use a single swinging blade or two blades set at 90 degrees, either way one pass nets a finished board .... keep the videos coming !