Advice from Trak Met bandsaw users please...

[Tom at Heartwood]

I'm looking to replace and upgrade our sawmill next year and have been looking around at some options.  We've got a perfectly good Lumbermate 2000 which has done us very well  and for the money is an excellent machine.  I would like to continue to scale up production, we mill a fair amount of larch as well as hardwoods from our own jobs and some that we buy in - quite a mixed bag but often large diameter butts.   I want a significantly larger diameter log capacity (1m +) and electric/hydraulic log handling.  We have a three phase electricity supply and don't need to the saw to be mobile.  I saw the Trak Met bandsaws at the APF and recently went to see the importer in Herefordshire (thanks Pawel).  I like the look of them and I'm thinking through which model would suit us best and am interested to hear from Trak Met bandsaw users.

 

The TTP-600 Premum has the option to be set up to work with 1200mm logs and can take a band width up to 55mm on 600mm guide wheels (I think).  The TTS-800 will also mill 1200mm log diameter and will take up 80 - 100mm bands on 900mm wheels.  The motor size is 11 or 14kW on the smaller model and 22 or 30kW on the larger one.  The beds are essentially the same on each.  We have plenty of room in a suitable barn so the physical size difference is not an issue.

 

What I'm trying to work out is whether, on balance, it would be an advantage to go for the larger saw with wider bands and bigger motor. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Graham w]

no experience with trak met at all but what i can say is the larger your saw the better your cut 

we have 125mm saws and 37kw that is in my opinion inadequate for oversize timber 

Edited October 28, 2018 by Graham w

[Squaredy]

Look into price of wide blades and sharpening.  I remember seeing a 4 inch wide blade struggling on two foot diameter Larch yet I know similar logs cut with a 32mm wide blade with no problem.  

 

Yet wide blade cost £120 each and £30 to sharpen.

[Graham w]

it depends on the quality of the mill, kw/hp, tension, angle of tooth, type of tooth, spacing of tooth, gauge of band = strain over saw and whether the blades have been sharpened correctly 

 

a good 125mm balde for our saw is £350+vat and £20 to sharpen if you put in 10 each time. good quality blades will last forever ours are over 20 years old

 

[se7enthdevil]

i think big j had a trakmet from poland and he did some very big logs on there including a big beech tree for my skittle timber which was 4 1/2' at the base.

 

he seemed a happy customer so could probably help you make some decisions.

[Graham w]

I will try to explain wide bands and what makes them. 

 

A wider band has more strength therefore can be strained more than a narrow band (wide = more metal) this means that the teeth are less able to move side to side when cutting irregular timber.

 

as the teeth are less likely to move in normal logs you can cut faster or cut very ugly logs slowly, to do this you want more power

 

the diameter of pulley is very important as you can run a thicker gauge band on a larger pulley because the blade is not stressed round a tight circumference i.e. it dose not flex as hard causing less fatigue damage to your blade = thicker gauge band= stronger band = greater straining potential= a faster straighter cut as teeth are less able to deviate = happy customers then you can push your prices up because they will keep coming back!  

 

to do all this you will need a high quality mill with lots of power, good bearings and guides 

what i would recommend is that you go for the best mill you can with the largest trakmet spec as a minimum  

 

[Big J]

I had the first Trak Met sawmill in the UK and they are good mills. Not amazing, but then very cheap. I visited the factory twice too. What they lack in engineering precision they make up for in steel. I only had one major issue with mine (bearing collapse at the top of the spindle with the head goes up and down on) but they've since changed that set up completely and now the head runs up and down on chains like many other mills.

 

Go for the widest blade. The 55mm blades (especially the ones supplied) aren't great and on a full width cut they can deviate unless your blade set up is absolutely spot on. It's a 1.15m unsupported length of steel about 1.1mm thick, which is worth remembering.

 

If your budget allows, I'd recommend Mebor instead. If it doesn't, go for the TTS800 Premium.

[rich crowther]

We run a trak met, never had any issues with it, strong reliable piece of kit you won’t get better value for money

[Old Lands]

20 hours ago, Tom at Heartwood said:

I'm looking to replace and upgrade our sawmill next year and have been looking around at some options.  We've got a perfectly good Lumbermate 2000 which has done us very well  and for the money is an excellent machine

If you don't mind me asking, what are you intending to do with the Lumbermate, would you be selling it?

[topchippyles]

I have used the-trak met pawel has in the yard and what a fantastic bit of kit,I would have bought the ttp-600 but it is between 3 and 6 months delivery time and i needed a mill straight away,Went for the woodland  hm 130 in the end as was available from sweden in 4 days,Not a patch on the trak-met but for the price i am well ,happy,Pawels saw is available last time i spoke to him.Some toy that is and towable allowing the option of mobile work.Think it was around 17K but depends on your budget,If the ttp-600 would have been available asap with the hydraulic loader i would have gone for that every time.His is a 3 phase saw so would suit you and has the capacity of 10 m long logs if i remember.

Edited October 29, 2018 by topchippyles