Advice from Trak Met bandsaw users please...

[Mikesmill]

17 hours ago, Big J said:

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.

How much is the 1300 Mebor Big J? I'm in a similar situation as you Tom, with 3-phase at the yard and a hankering for oversized slabs. I've been searching high and low for a forestor 150 but am on the verge of giving up

[Big J]

6 hours ago, Mikesmill said:

How much is the 1300 Mebor Big J? I'm in a similar situation as you Tom, with 3-phase at the yard and a hankering for oversized slabs. I've been searching high and low for a forestor 150 but am on the verge of giving up

I had quotes from them back in early 2015, and only for the 800 and 1000. The 1000 was around £40k with the few options, not including delivery.

[Graham w]

Another thing we're looking into is a silver back band. This is a blade that has teeth to the rear of the blade that cleans up after the main cut in the same pass by creating a vortex that removes sawdust and tearing- could be good! 

[farmerjohn]

On 29/10/2018 at 23:11, Mikesmill said:

How much is the 1300 Mebor Big J? I'm in a similar situation as you Tom, with 3-phase at the yard and a hankering for oversized slabs. I've been searching high and low for a forestor 150 but am on the verge of giving up

That makes 3 of us!!!!

I have been cutting with my chainsaw mill with old 075's and we practically do a day milling and a day re-building / fixing saws.
i am very seriously looking at a 1200mm wide hydraulic mill thinking around march april 2019 if all goes to plan.
the main of what i will cut will be wither the odd oversized 3-4ft oak logs around 3" thick or 2 to 3 ft hardwood planked around 1.25 to 2" thick.
I am thinking due to budget of a 600 model rather than a 800, does anyone run a 600 with wide head?

 

also BigJ, out of interest, your 800, did it have 1 log roller or a number? u mention in a post you were milling pretty huge loge 4T+ im just wondering if 1 log roller, did it manage to roll the log?

also, hoe did you go on with import tax etc? did trekmet sort all that out so you just had a bottom line figure you knew it would cost?

 

if anyone else seriously thinking along the trekmet route early to mid spring next year PM me.

[Tom at Heartwood]

Thank you for all the information and advice, I appreciate your time, experience and expertise.  It has confirmed my thinking that a wider band is better suited to my needs and that Trak Met are good value for money.  I have also been in touch with Mebor and met with their sales people at the APF,  I await their quotation.  Thank again.  Tom.

[Big J]

On 07/11/2018 at 15:39, farmerjohn said:

 

 

also BigJ, out of interest, your 800, did it have 1 log roller or a number? u mention in a post you were milling pretty huge loge 4T+ im just wondering if 1 log roller, did it manage to roll the log?

also, hoe did you go on with import tax etc? did trekmet sort all that out so you just had a bottom line figure you knew it would cost?

 

if anyone else seriously thinking along the trekmet route early to mid spring next year PM me.

I had two log rollers. You really need two for larger logs and they still won't roll the largest logs. I'm sure that they will have updated it by now, but they didn't really uprate or enlarge the hydraulic tools for the wider head. So yes you can mill larger logs, but the hydraulic tools aren't ideal on logs over about 1.1m.

 

No import tax as imported whilst still in the EU. I am not looking forward to importing machines after Brexit.