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Sawmill
- Thread starter Martin w
- Start date
Martin w
Super User
Well a bandsaw mill. Don’t look like much yet. Have a 14 hp Wisconsin to power it.
Martin
140mower
Don
I know right..... I looked it up, they're for wood.....
I want one
I want one too. They are like 20 grand or more for a good one. I always thought I could make one like you are doing. Nice project!
My house is surrounded on two sides by old growth Carolinian forest - mostly Walnut and Wild Black Cherry. When they die they are wasted. I'd love to be able to cut them into slabs and boards.
Bandsaw mills are popular in the east where trees are only 120 ft tall.......
Dan Dubeau
Ultra Member
Nice mill Martin. I started building one a few years ago, but just can't seem to work my way back to finishing it. I've made the bed, and accumulated all the parts, wheels, bearings, engine (kubota 16hp), and material to finish it, but other more pressing projects seem to get my attention. One of these days, I'll get back to it.
historicalarms
Ultra Member
My daught & sil have a comercial bought bandsaw mill that will cut 26" butt logs and as long as you want to make the track, I think they have only 6 grand total into it.
Yer lookin at the Grandpa model then!
Check out the Woodland mills machines. Not all hydraulic and wheelchair accessible, but pretty well built and supported.
As if it matters, I bought a HM 126!
You don't need to have cut very many special sized beams to exceed the purchase price, in value!
Martin w
Super User
In retrospect, I should have done the same thing.
This saw has been a chore! I noticed yesterday one of the cast iron wheels has a crack. One more thing.
How do you like your saw? What size engine?
Martin
I actually looked at the Woodland sawmills when we first bought the farm. They are not nearly big enough.
A typical hardwood at the end of it's life here is over 3 ft. Some are over 4 ft.
I bought the small engine, figured for my needs it would work just fine. Can always use the small engine for another purpose and graft on larger, whether gas, or diesel!
Life interfered. It's sitting in the box still, but I have a trailer home frame awaiting conversion into a sawmill trailer as well...
I have some veteran Douglas Fir around here that are as large. Figure if I ever get to the point where cutting those seems a great idea, I can always slab off enough with a chainsaw mill until I get a remainder than can fit. But the headaches and infrastructure to handle lumps that large are also a factor.
Fella named Matt Cremona on youtube has a pretty decent saw that he made, and deals almost exclusively in stupid-large slabs and the like, but the 'normal' wood around here is much more manageable.
Spot on, I bought a WoodMizer. Then an excavator to move the logs, with grapples of course, then a Hiab to move lumber. Then a lowbed to move the hoe. By then you got so much invested you have to work it full-time along with the other two full time jobs.
Then our local Federal penitentiary buys two WoodMizers to rehabilitate their inmates. Free wood, free labour, hard to beat that.
A long time ago i met this old cat, he was 90, he made mills like this as a hobby. He had three of them in various stages, one completed, they looked really well done, he knew what he was doing I think he said he made 10 of them sold for $10,000 each at the time which seemed like a lot, but they sold.
He had no lathe.
He machined the band wheels on the floor of his shed with a real simple 2x2 angle frame, a couple pillow blocks piece of threaded rod a 1/4 hp washing machine motor, a v belt, small piece of hss tool bit and not much else. I was completely amazed.
He had no lathe.
He machined the band wheels on the floor of his shed with a real simple 2x2 angle frame, a couple pillow blocks piece of threaded rod a 1/4 hp washing machine motor, a v belt, small piece of hss tool bit and not much else. I was completely amazed.
If one freezes the inmates solid first, they are much easier to cut and a lot less mess to clean up.Spot on, I bought a WoodMizer. Then an excavator to move the logs, with grapples of course, then a Hiab to move lumber. Then a lowbed to move the hoe. By then you got so much invested you have to work it full-time along with the other two full time jobs.
Then our local Federal penitentiary buys two WoodMizers to rehabilitate their inmates. Free wood, free labour, hard to beat that.
A job best done in the winter
140mower
Don
....... they chip better when frozen as well. Don't think I would feed them to the fish though, they're having a tough enough go of it already.
