This saw differs from most others, in that the blade tension is controlled by raising or lowering the lower wheel / motor assembly. Between the mounting frame and the motor subframe assembly, I used drawer slides, to allow the motor assembly to move up and down to tension the blade. First step is to reacquaint myself with it – the pertinent details are foggy: how long will the blade be? How fast is the saw? So I take the time to make a ‘blade’ from edge banding material with a total length of 120 inches. In my case, I had to make it so it would push down against the motor assembly subframe for blade tension and also be able to lift it up, to facilitate changing the blade. Initially, I was going to make this one fixed as well – this band saw is meant to be for re-saw uses only, therefore I thought that a moveable upper blade guide was unjustified. The first piece of the upper blade guide is welded in place, this is made from 1/8″ thick mild steel that is fully welded to the end of the guide post and notched around the blade. For a band saw, there will be very little airborne dust – most will be pulled down with the blade.
If you don’t do much welding or fabrication, I wouldn’t recommend building a mill. From contributor R: I was thinking at one time of building my own mill until I came across a Turner mill. I would urge anyone thinking of building a mill to remember Murphy’s law and build to make a mill as safe as possible.