The Lumber Smith Portable Sawmills

Engines and Blades for Your Lumber Smith Portable Sawmill

The Right Engine!

We use the Honda 5.5 hp Model# GX160HX2 engine . This is a great engine and, for us, it starts on the first pull most times. The engine is a Honda Commercial engine and has a 6:1 gear reduction ratio. It weighs about 28 pounds.

With the engine running at 3,000 RPM, it delivers 30 hp at the shaft (drive wheel) at 500 RPM.

Blades

Sawmill blades can be re-sharpened with a Dremel tool (see the video links for more information) but it is always good to have a spare blade. Blades tend to wear at the tooth offset and have a limited life. Resetting the offset of a blade can be difficult as the area of the tooth is very hard and may break.

The Lumber Smith sawmill can use a range of blades from a 1" inch wide fine tooth blade to a 1.25" wide blade with two teeth per inch. Blade length must be 92.5" to 93.5" with the optimum length at 93.25". We recommend either a bi-metal or carbon steel blade 93.25" by 1.25" wide with 1.3 teeth per inch with a thickness of .045 inch.

We didn't think folks could over-tighten the blade, but some do! If you over-tighten the blade, you will burn out the idle wheel bearing and/or break the blade. Follow the blade tension instructions and put a few drops of oil around the bearing before each day of us.

Bandsaw sawmills are inherently dangerous, and must be handled accordingly. No amount of caution is unfounded. As a condition of sale, Woodwrights LLC accepts no liability for injury to persons or property beyond the purchase price of the saw. Portable Sawmill returns are accepted within 30 days of sale, no questions asked (see our home page for details or call 804-577-7398 to clarify any question about our warranty or return policy).