Forestor Pilous Bandmills

[Rough Hewn]

[skc101fc]

Ok what's going on here?

[wills-mill]

On 4/2/2018 at 16:28, skc101fc said:

Ok what's going on here?

The electrons are not pleased. We must make a blood sacrifice to the great Cloud.

 (bloody technology)

 

In fairness and as a counter argument, I have a Trekkasaw and am thinking of heading the slabbing bar route, driven by a firewood processor motor or harvester bar motor, as the band head is hydraulically driven from a 3 cylinder diesel powerpack. They are still a pretty physical beast to operate (and need 2 people as standard to push), and I think that a Lucas is a more user friendly and better thought out package overall.
The head is sturdy but a little bit crude and the bands are expensive too. The advertised cutting width is our old favourite where it's counting log diameter rather than cutting width. Trekka's will cut about a metre wide board edge to edge.

 

 

[Squaredy]

13 minutes ago, wills-mill said:

The electrons are not pleased. We must make a blood sacrifice to the great Cloud.

 (bloody technology)

 

In fairness and as a counter argument, I have a Trekkasaw and am thinking of heading the slabbing bar route, driven by a firewood processor motor or harvester bar motor, as the band head is hydraulically driven from a 3 cylinder diesel powerpack. They are still a pretty physical beast to operate (and need 2 people as standard to push), and I think that a Lucas is a more user friendly and better thought out package overall.
The head is sturdy but a little bit crude and the bands are expensive too. The advertised cutting width is our old favourite where it's counting log diameter rather than cutting width. Trekka's will cut about a metre wide board edge to edge.

 

 

I agree the Lucas Mill is a good option for converting large logs so long as you are OK with 9" wide boards (or 8.5" or whatever depending on the model).  I would offer to swap my Lucas for your Trekkasaw, but as you say the width of cut is in fact 1m or so which actually is not wide enough for me.  I have started the plans for building an add-on to my Lucas to get it to power a bandsaw blade.  The plan is to use the existing track and engine and raising and lowering mechanism, so I just need to build a frame for the wheels and get it driven off the existing pulley.  Simples.....  

[Squaredy]

On 4/2/2018 at 15:29, Rough Hewn said:

Big J is correct of course, for bulk milling any bandsaw wins hands down.
If there's access.
Often I mill for clients and it's one big log, in a garden or other inaccessible place.

I have made a decision - I am going to try to build a bandmill on to my Lucas MIll.  Plan is to use the existing 27HP engine and clutch so I just have to build a new frame to sit in the tracks to hold the bandwheels, then work out the best way to drive them.  I am upgrading all the chains that take the weight of the tracks so they will cope with the extra weight (they are pretty ropey so this is a good investment anyway).  

 

I am hoping I might find someone who has a knackered or broken Lucas Mill they can sell me cheap as this would be a huge help for parts etc.  Anybody know someone who is sitting on a broken one?  I have posted an ad on Arbtrader.

 

I will post some photos as work progresses......