Best small mill option

[agg221]

Thanks for the replies Alec.

 

It's one of those hard things - what is harder to mill? Some softwoods full of sap are quite fibrous and sticky and so perhaps are harder to mill....

 

What's the smaller bandsaw you have going there?

 

It could be the sap - there were certainly a couple of pockets where it felt like milling in water, very strange sensation. It was also much worse the further I got from quarter sawing - the outermost boards were really bad.

 

The small bandsaw is a Ripsaw - the chainsaw mounted one. I really like it for production speed and efficiency of kerf - I reckon I can nearly keep up with a normal portable mill. Unfortunately though they're currently only available from the US - I think you should start importing them to complement the Alaskan so I could get the bits more easily!

 

Alec

[Rob D]

Sounds good but I've got my boots really overflowing with new projects at the moment...

[Rob D]

Managed to find a vid on youtube on the ripsaw.

 

Would go well with the Alaskan mills etc as you could break a log down into big posts then use this to cut your boards.

 

Do you know if it's CE marked?

 

How long have you had yours and how much have you used it?

[agg221]

Managed to find a vid on youtube on the ripsaw.

 

Would go well with the Alaskan mills etc as you could break a log down into big posts then use this to cut your boards.

 

Do you know if it's CE marked?

 

How long have you had yours and how much have you used it?

 

I've had mine about 18mnths. I've had the Alaskan about 13yrs I think, but most of what I need is plain constructional oak, in reasonable quantity, for boats and now the house, and I got fed up with milling 1-2ft wide x 20ft long planks with it as it took too long and the kerf was too wide, so I stopped using it and hired in a sawyer with portable band mill when I needed it. I've now got access to a regular supply, and bought the Ripsaw as I couldn't extract them. I've used it fairly heavily by my standards over the last winter - probably run about 50l of fuel through it. To put that in context, when I was milling the spruce it did about 8off 14ft x 8in average width boards to the tank of an 044 (0.9l?). This took about 20mins and each board was a 90second cut (I timed them).

 

I'm milling the timber for a 12x12ft extension at the moment - joists, rafters and beams for the first and second floor openings, (the spruce is the floorboards for the first floor). I reckon it will need about 5off 2ft dia x 20ft long butts, which will take me about 3 days work (partly due to trying to get perfectly square beams which is much more fiddly than slabbing) - I would estimate it would have been over double with the 066M on the Alaskan and used an extra butt in sawdust! Where it's really come into its own though is that with a simple tilt jig I've milled a load of feather edge cladding, 8in width and tapering from 3/8th to 7/8th (to be planed down to 1/4 to 3/4 taper once dried). I don't think there is -any- other way of doing this so efficiently, since it's even higher yielding than the traditional way of splitting square sawn planks on the diagonal.

 

In summary, it's made milling the sort of timber I use pleasurable again! You do need the Alaskan with it though, as you say, to break logs down first. I'll have a look for a CE mark.

 

Alec

 

p.s. I've done the cost calculations too, and they do stack up, but I'll leave it for now as this has become a rather long answer to a short question!

[Rob D]

Thanks for taking the time to answer Alec.

 

It looks a good product and would certainly compliment the Alaskan well.

[offgridchris]

alec how did you get hold of your ripsaw? i tried to contact the company earlier this year with no luck. good luck with the extension.