Recommend me a small bandsaw mill

[Big J]

As we are moving 430 miles south in July to Devon, I will be giving up full time sawmilling and moving back to low impact forestry. I'm unable however to not have some sort of sawmill. I've not bought sawn timber for the best part of 10 years now!

 

Anyway, I don't want to spend too much as it will only really be for myself as a hobby. I'll have the forwarder to load it, which will likely not move anything much over 60cm in diameter so capacity doesn't need to be much more than that. All I'm looking for is durability and performance. I've a couple thousand machine hours on sawmills, and I've probably milled 4000 tonnes in the past 7 years, so I need something that isn't rubbish or it will drive me nuts. 

 

If anyone can recommend a little bandsaw mill and give me reasons why it's worth considering, I'd be grateful. My experience is with larger, hydraulic mills so this is outside of my area of expertise!

[farmerjohn]

Hi jonathan,

i have access to a old woodmizer LT25, its hand wind, petrol engine.

as much as its old, it is easy to fix. any problems we have had we have fabricated stuff to fix it.

the 3 i can think of was exhaust off the engine, we got a genetic exhaust and had it welded to the manifold mounting of the old one.

the rope on the hand wind snapped and we put some blue draw rope on (and that was 2 years ago)

the 3rd item was the tensioner on the band failed so we made a bracket with U shaped bracket and a threaded bar to tension the band with a wrench.

it does not look the tidyest but it cuts logs steady away.

the thing about a woodzmizer is the cantilever head, you can get larger logs on and take a bit off, turn it, a bit more until it goes through.

the only issue i have with my mates set up is the mizer is in an open sided shed with a roof to keep rain off. the roof is too low so we cant use his forwarding grab to rotate a log, and i cant get my micro JCB under otherwise i could do it with a strap and use the digger. its surprising even with 2 descent cant hooks and 2 descent size men on each end how much of a struggle and how much time it takes to manually manipulate a log when its maxing the mill out. a few foot on the roof would have allowed my digger to save us a lot of hassle, but it is not my building and am very greatful i am able to use the machine so am not complaining but if i was starting from scratch i would change this.

[farmerjohn]

i have found, as im sure you have, no matter what your capacity you always want a bit more. i feel although you can get a bit of head wabble if you are pushing it through too fast it does give you a bit more options as apposed to a 4 post frame.

[Big J]

I started off with a Woodmizer LT40 (second hand and middle aged with about 3000 hours on the clock) but hated it. Constantly required repair and maintenance and by the time I sold it, I worked out that it cost me £8 per machine hour in repair costs. By comparison, my Trakmet mill is less than a pound an hour. The cantilever head might give you a bit more capacity, but the flex means inaccurate cutting and the throat capacity is so small that you spend all your time shaving larger logs down with a chainsaw. 

I've had two four post head mills since my Woodmizer and would never go back. There is a reason that every other manufacturer in the world goes with posts on both sides of the headrig! 

 

I am glad that your experience with it hasn't been as negative as mine though  

[rich crowther]

Trakmet gets my vote, strong and practical and won’t break the bank[emoji106]

[farmerjohn]

If you can get a genny what about the smaller terkmets?

Though Halle of genny to maintain and keep.

I have been in touch with them and an trying to save up for a manual one but with a 1200mm capacity and I'll just turn them with my digger.

I'd just like to say mate. Good luck with your new business and a massive thank you as you really have given so much time and information and help to everyone in the milling forum and it genuinely has inspired and helped me so much.

[Big J]

Thanks John. That's very kind! I'll still be involved in the milling side of things for a while as I'll be supporting my friends to get to speed with my sawmill up here. 

 

I'll have a think about the little Trak met. I imported a couple for friends a while back and they are solidly built machines.

[hplp]

What about a Lucas/Peterson? They very very occasionally come up second-hand. They-re portable, have a decent log capacity and are accurate.

 

H

[SteveA]

Thats quite a move. Devon is a peach of a place to live, enjoy

Is a shame Trakmet dont do a petrol or diesel powerhead version. Presumably you would need quite a hefty generator to power their electric motors.

Are the Woodland Mills ones any good?

cheers, steve

[Big J]

7 hours ago, hplp said:

What about a Lucas/Peterson? They very very occasionally come up second-hand. They-re portable, have a decent log capacity and are accurate.

 

H

Not really my cup of tea if I'm honest. I think that they are better suited to larger logs, which I wouldn't be able to load. 

 

I also don't need (or want) portability. Mobile milling is hard work and I won't go back to that, and certainly not with a mill without hydraulics.

 

5 hours ago, SteveA said:

Thats quite a move. Devon is a peach of a place to live, enjoy

Is a shame Trakmet dont do a petrol or diesel powerhead version. Presumably you would need quite a hefty generator to power their electric motors.

Are the Woodland Mills ones any good?

cheers, steve

 

Thanks!

 

I've asked Trak met repeatedly about mills with stand alone power, but they aren't interested. It was the first thing I said when I visited the factory. 

 

The Woodland mill is perhaps not quite meaty enough for my liking. 

 

Has anyone seen the new range of Logosol bandsaw mills in the flesh?