Lucas video

[delabodge]

Fair point regarding milling inaccessible logs. It just pains me to see lovely big oak logs chopped up into wee little planks.

 

hi Big j,,,,I own a woodmizer and plank most stuff myself, but on ocassions I get a lucas in as the tree is in the back garden and cant get it out,

from past experience the lucas is pretty accurate for say 8x2`s,etc,,and you get some uniformity, which is good for picnic benches/sheds/log stores etc,,but a ball ache on larger stuff,,,in the ideal world i`d have both,,but that would = DIVORCE.....

[agg221]

Beyond access, a related factor is the plant you need to move things. Over and above the issue of the maximum size you can get through the throat of a bandmill, you also don't have to move the butt. If you're having butts delivered, or doing a reasonable amount of forestry, you have kit on hand, but if you don't then moving large logs on and off mills requires additional plant so cost/space/maintenance. We once rolled a 3ft dia x 7ft length oak butt onto the hydraulic forks of a band mill, but that took two of us and I don't want to do it again! I think anything where you have to roll it up ramps would be impossible.

 

Alec

[delabodge]

I got the Lucas out just before Xmas, first time for months I have had anything to mill.

It's alot easier putting it together with someone to help but it can be done on ones own.

 

 

 

how much room do you need to set up the lucas? have oak take down coming up,In small back garden?

[scraggs]

Just out of interest.

Can any peterson owners tell me how wide a gap you need to get the saw carriage through a gateway, as the peterson frame looks quite wide.

[John Hughes]

The Lucas frame measures 6m by 3m without the extension rails. the saw head is about 1meter wide as far as I remember..

 

I have a very understanding wife , so when I spotted the Lucas on the Woodlots website for under £5k I could not resist it. It will hold it's value and I will be able to sell it for what I paid for it.

I now keep the Woodmizer permanently in it's saw shed in our Welsh woodland, where I try to add value to the spruce.

 

The Lucas I keep here in Essex where it is more suited to the smaller gardens.

I like the naroow boards that the Lucas produces. They are easier to handle and when planed and glued up make a more stable board.

Wide boards off the mill tend to cup or have checks along the pith so end up being ripped down the middle before being planed anyway.

 

I use the bandmill with it's narrow kerf to cut thin boards and the Lucas to mill 2 inch thick and over.