Single Phase bandsaw mill

[charlieb]

Hi Folks.  I've been milling estate timber very happily with a Timbery M100 for 5-6 years.  Super cheap and it's done me really well - several thousand tree stakes, rails, sleepers and a Dutch barn all cut - but I'm getting fed up now with engine issues.  Basically I can never quite be sure it's going to start. 

 

I'd really like to upgrade to a small electric woodmizer, but they're all 3-phase.  Does anyone know of a good cheap single phase mill?   It doesn't need to be super powerful and I'd actually prefer it not to have bells and whistles - I'm quite happy doing all the loading and adjusting manually and moving the cutter head  - the motor just needs to drive the band.

[GarethM]

If you're not moving around why not buy a cheap 3 phase generator, you can keep it away from the action and have modern comforts like heat, light etc.

 

6-15kva should do, 2-3 liters of red per hour at 82p and no petrol should pay for itself pretty quickly.

Edited March 23, 2023 by GarethM

[Dan Maynard]

Big single phase electric motors are expensive and not very efficient, so you don't really get them.  Do you know the 3 phase motor power? If you can get enough energy out of a single phase supply then may be possible to run from an inverter, but can be an expensive piece of kit at higher power.

[aswales]

Should be able to run the small woodmizers or other brand that have between 4 and 7,5 kw motors from a single phase supply using a transwave phase convertor or similar without any problems...will need a dedicated circuit breaker feeding the circuit from your distribution board (fuse box)...not difficult to install

 

[Dan Maynard]

4 to 7.5kW is the kind of range you could do.

 

Transwave good shout, cheaper than inverter at that power level.

[doobin]

Got to be cheaper to just replace the unreliable engine with a nice Honda or an electric motor? Especially as you say you are otherwise happy with the mill.

 

 

[Squaredy]

4 hours ago, doobin said:

Got to be cheaper to just replace the unreliable engine with a nice Honda or an electric motor? Especially as you say you are otherwise happy with the mill.

 

 

If you know someone with the right kind of knowledge to help, you may be able to fit a single phase electric motor to your existing mill.  I notice that the electric version of the timbery M100 only has a 5hp electric motor.  Even without a soft start you might get away with running that on a 16a supply.  To do it properly fit a soft start and it will draw very little once up to speed.  The running cost of this would be a fraction of the cost compared to a petrol engine.

 

 Years ago I converted a crosscut saw from three phase to single and this was 5hp.  Used it for many years without any issues.

[charlieb]

Thanks all.  

 

The timberey has enough niggles now that I want rid of it. It's mostly the engine but a few other things.  (Not really surprising given it's several years old and I haven't been the best for maintenance).

 

I'll ask Woodmizer about running their LT15 mill through a single-phase supply.  Seems to be 7.5kW.  I have a feeling they won't want to get involved with inverters or transwave thingmejigs though..

[charlieb]

2 hours ago, Squaredy said:

If you know someone with the right kind of knowledge to help, you may be able to fit a single phase electric motor to your existing mill.  I notice that the electric version of the timbery M100 only has a 5hp electric motor.  Even without a soft start you might get away with running that on a 16a supply.  To do it properly fit a soft start and it will draw very little once up to speed.  The running cost of this would be a fraction of the cost compared to a petrol engine.

 

 Years ago I converted a crosscut saw from three phase to single and this was 5hp.  Used it for many years without any issues.

I'd jump at this if I knew the right person.  (As most of the issues with the saw are either in the engine or the engine control).   Does anyone know anyone suitable in SE Scotland..? 

[Dan Maynard]

53 minutes ago, charlieb said:

I have a feeling they won't want to get involved with inverters or transwave thingmejigs though..

The transwave people are pretty helpful though, you could chat to them.