Sawmills

[ror76a]

I am thinking of buying a small protable sawmill (timberking, woodmizer) to do a little custom sawing on the side. Does anyone here run one? Every time I need some boards made the other guy's with mills they are too busy to do it, so I think there would be a good market in my area. How are these mills for maintanice?

[farmboy555]

I've been around them a little, not hard to keep up and running. But you need to go ahead and spend the cash for a fully hyd one, so you can produce some footage.

[Squizzy246B]

The widmizer is an OK unit but thickness control is not its forte....at least not on Australian Hardwoods. The portable mill of choice in these parts is:

http://lucasmill.com/

They have dealers in the states. We have hired these on a number of occaision and I know a guy down south who got the woodmizer....he went green with envy when he measured up the timber we produced.

[LowBoy]

I am thinking of buying a small protable sawmill (timberking, woodmizer) to do a little custom sawing on the side. Does anyone here run one? Every time I need some boards made the other guy's with mills they are too busy to do it, so I think there would be a good market in my area. How are these mills for maintanice?

We have a guy here in Vt. that has owned a Woodmizer for over 15 years. He's now on his second one. Tows it with a 1 ton to your site. I've worked on sites that he was setting up on. He handed me a diagragm of exactly how he wanted the logs piled, with 3 sleepers and the logs just so high, so he could winch them up onto the cradle. (Didn't have the fancy hydraulic version last I knew.)
The property owners loved him because he'd work for $40.00/hr. and give you a fair and honest day's work. The cost ended up being roughly half of retail, although you have to sticker it and let it dry of course. That's how he makes his sole living, so it must be working out good for him.

In terms of maintenence, I've never seen him do anything to it on all the jobs I've seen him on, and he stated it was really reliable when I asked that question myself. All it did was cut wood all day long. Most everything he does goes into roughcut boards that will be board & batting, camps, garages, etc., so precision isn't necessarily his primary concern, although he is a good sawyer and takes pride in his craft.

[Ford LT-9000]

Okay the first thing you should know is a bandsaw mill isn't a high production machine for doing 2x4s and other dimensional lumber. A bandsaw mill is good for finer cutting like cedar siding or lumber for furniture etc. If your looking at cutting 2x4s 2x10s etc you look at buying a mobile dimensional saw which is built in Oregon http://mobilemfg.com/

Things to consider with a bandmill

What size of wood you want to cut ?

The throat size on the mill limits the size of wood you want to mill

Length of wood you want to cut ?

Wood Mizer mills are limited to the length of lumber usually its 20' is pushing it.

Bandsaw mills need ABSOLUTELY clean wood no dirt in the bark etc.

The wood needs to have no wind twist if it does the blade binds and snaps.

If the wood your cutting has been skidded and it has dirt on the bark it kills bandsaw blades like crazy.

You will need a few spare blades I would say atleast a dozen you also need the sharpening set up along with the teeth setter. Before you start the day you spend a couple hours sharpening blades.

I have worked around a wood mizer for the last 10 years never got behind the controls but worked as a labourer. I haul wood from the guys with wood mizer mills.

As for brand of mill you really can't go wrong with Wood Mizer a LT40 would do good enough for basic milling.

Last thing to leave with you I hope you have a good strong back because milling wood is hard work. I know my back was screaming for mercy lifting some of those planks and timbers.

[atgreene]

He's correct about bandmills being slow.

As a kid my father bought a Lane/Chase Turbine with a Sawyers Favorite headworks, 48" blade and glover friction feed and was powered by a Detroit 6-71 bus engine (ran in reverse).

It was a brute. Took three of us to man it (my father, I and my brother) and would saw more than we could handle.

As us kids got older and found out about girls and other distractions, my father sold that and bought a small Thomas bandmill that he could run alone. That turned out to be too small so he sold that and bought a pto driven Belsaw with a 42 " blade. It can be run by 1 man and saws fairly good.

I guess it boils down to this, if you are sawing for yourself and want to do hardwood and fancy material, go with the bandmill, if you're for hire, and you saw by the boardfoot, a circular saw will cut faster but with more waste.

Here's a site with some used mills.
http://www.sawmillexchange.com/circula2.htm

[Ford LT-9000]

The difference in sawdust is quite abit. When my dad had a circular saw mill it used to cut timber fast but there was allot of sawdust which essentially is waste. The bandmills I worked with produce finer sawdust and considerably less of it.

Where the bandsaw mills work there best is fine cutting you get a circular saw mill they leave a fairly rough finish on the timber where as a bandsaw mill cuts a smoother finish. So say your cutting cedar decking or siding which is all what the mills really cut here with Woodmizers you get a nicer product.

To say cut 2"x6" boards to build a house with would take forever on a bandsaw mill.

You would need some kind of rough terrain forklift or a heavy skid steer with forks to man handle the logs. Trying to do things with a peevey is back busting and moving the milled wood around by hand is back busting.

One of the mills I worked in is how I really screwed my back lifting heavy cants off the mill. The cants weigh 400lbs so two guys one at each end lifting them.

One place I had to move some lumber the mill was cutting some wet hemlock the 2x4 by 16s must have weighed 30lbs a piece. They were so wet and heavy. I have encountered cedar can be like that. Over the last 4 years or so I probably moved 100 tons worth of lumber by hand. Load the truck by hand and unload the truck by hand.

Anyhow if you really want a mill I would probably go work for a guy with a woodmizer mill and see what its like. To make money with it you need to be cutting every day.

Would I buy a mill NO WAY its very hard labour its always a fight to get good clean logs to cut.



O

[atgreene]

A good 50 hp tractor with forks works great for moving logs and lifts of lumber.

As far as lumber, most stuff on the east coast gets planed either way after it's milled, so finish is not an issue.

If your sawing for someone else you need production to make a living. You aren't concerned about leaving them a pile of sawdust in their yard, you're there to make money. The kerf of the bandmill is nice if you're doing valuable wood, but at that point you need to either saw by the hour to be able to make a living, and I don't know anyone around here who does, or charge enough to pay for the slower speed of a bandmill. Last I checked, pine was around 200-225 per thousand, hardwood was 250-300.

I have one friend with a Hud-son bandmill and he sends his blades out for sharpening, my other friend with a Wood Mizer does a lot more sawing and I think he does his own blades. A sharpening set-up is initially expensive but will pay for itself over time. An inserted tooth circular saw is easy to sharpen. The former owner of Chase Turbine who lives in Vermont (I forget his name but my father is friends with him) invented a file that works great on circular blades.

Either way, as LT says, spend some time sawing with a sawyer who is experienced. Learning the tricks of how to get the most out of the logs will make you more money, and make life easier.

[Leckster]

...:beatsme