My Band Sawmill Information
New Hobby: Timberking B20 Sawmill
I’m sure I need one more hobby! Oh Yeah!!

Since I was a boy I have always been captivated, enthralled with sawmills cutting trees into lumber. Sawdust flying, blades buzzing, wood being shaped. What more could a young man ask for?

After years of thinking, this past January in the remnants of the worst snowstorm of the year, I purchased a sawmill that I found listed on craigslist. It had not been operated or maintained in years. Stored outside, it showed all the signs of many a season having passed it by.

This sawmill is a bandsaw that bears the name “Timberking.” The only part of it that is actually manufactured by Timberking is the 4 post that has giant screws that raise and lower the head, the actual head with blade pulleys, guides, bearings etc. It claims to be a Timberking B-20 also known as B20. After conferring with the helpful, kind, generous people at Timberking this may actually be an older saw that predates the B-20 B20 and was known as the B16 B-16. Not much real difference in the old models except for gas motor sizes

Bad News: This came with no motor to power the band saw. There were cracks in two of the four post. The hydraulic motor tried to run sort of and the hydraulics leaked everywhere!!! Most of the stuff was rusted and rusty. The 50 foot of #40 chain per side was frozen up. The guides need work. Bearings need work. Everything needs adjusted, aligned, repaired, welded, re-engineered, rebuilt or re-manufactured. The one who sold it to me thought it just needed a motor and “start it up.” Was he wrong??!!!

Good News: The home designed and built trailer is super heavy duty and as solid as a rock with its 8 RV screw jacks plus the heavy duty tongue jack with the big wheel. It has reinforced dual axels that will really hold it up and although heavy, it pulls well behind my 6 cylinder truck. The rails the head rides upon are straight, rigid and square.   The cross braces that hold the logs are true. Many of the B20’s I have seen in pictures only have one axel as do Woodmizer of comparable size. This thing is a beast which will make it capable of handling the load.

Edited:   It took me about 6 months in my spare time to get it to the place where it ran.   The solid steel wheels the blade rides on were removed and trued.  It got new 50 foot chains.   I found a 2 cylinder motor putting out about 20 hp.  (This was as small an engine as I would recommend.  Many times I wished I had more power!  I think a 35 to 37 hp motor would have been optimal!)

I got the 5 hp motor that ran the hydraulics running and the lines fixed so didn’t leak.  The hydraulics powered the forward and back of the head down the track.   The up and down on the head was powered by electric motors that ran off the 12 volt battery that was charged by the 20 hp bandsaw motor.  It worked.  Had to make sure the screws were clean and aligned or the electric motors would bog down.

What fun!!!