The Perfect Mill advice please

[old hand]

Serra offer an operators cabin as an option on their mills. Wide band cuts a lot faster and more accurately.

[Stephen Blair]

Cheers all, Rob I want to be able to make anything from the timber.

I am doing estate maintenance with a lot of timber lying doing nothing and I have spent over £3k on wood from fencing to sleepers and tbh it's not that great.

It's also having to rely on others , dealing with others and being confined to the size of conventional stock.

I want to be able to be able to just go and chuck a tree on it and make stuff, simples

[Rob D]

If it's fencing type material i.e. up to 8" then I'd go for a swingmill as they are fully portable, can at a pinch mill up to 6 foot diameter and are fast and accurate.

 

The down side is you cannot do wide boards. But if you only want a few wide boards just use an Alaskan.

[agrimog]

Stephen, if you want a go with a logosol m7, pm me im just down the road from you, and ive been through all the pros and cons of all the different mill types currently available

[Mike Dempsey]

Hi Stephen

 

Have a look at this website. Linn Lumber Mills (sorry cant post link). If I remember they can cut up to 36'' dia log. If you can weld and are handy with mechanics etc then this is much better than a woodmizer etc on both price and capacity. Dont know if if it is CE marked but if you are working on your own then it doesnt need to be.

 

Mike

[Stephen Blair]

Stephen, if you want a go with a logosol m7, pm me im just down the road from you, and ive been through all the pros and cons of all the different mill types currently available

 

:thumbup1:

[codlasher]

I was always told by my old friend that dropping a big lump of Oak onto a portable mill would cause problems......unless it was well sited on concrete.

This was in the days when Forestor was probably the only portable mill around.

I am interested to hear that W-M are having problems. I'm quite out of the milling loop now as my old friend has passed on and his mill has been shut now for more than a decade.

There are Stenner 48" band-mills advertised for scrap value. Why not consider something like that. They can't have all dissappeared! They will soon though as the price of scrap is making the castings very valuable which is not good for your quest. Guilliet is another one to look for, v similar to Stenner, although these were mainly 36". If you can find an old Stenner they will be able to provide you with the base plan for the pit, where the bottom wheel will go. With a Guilliet.....you will have to be inventive. Robinson were good too but I don't have any experience with them.

The APF this year will no doubt have many portables to look at. Well worth a visit:001_smile:

codlasher.

[delabodge]

Scraggs, both the hudson range and the norwood range would address all your issues. My hudson is portable, and the length you can have is theoretically infinite- you just keep adding lengths of track. Mine is 21 foot long and will cope with 36" logs. I have been taking more and more custom from woodmizer owners due to inaccuracies from their mill. (usuallly the lt40s BTW).

 

we seem to disagree again,,my lt40 cuts perfectly well and all be it only 28" cut,,works a treat,,,has paid for itself over and over,,,did check out hudson first and had a demo,,,in fact guy who gave it took the head off the mobile unit and made his own bed,,so on that point its probably just as good! and like you say possible longer cut,,but i rarely get asked for 18` beams and over,,all in all my lt40 has been great,and cuts just about everything I need,,now with the addition of a 48" alaskan,,,got it all covered,,,

[delabodge]

Its like asking what the perfect chainsaw is, there aint one cos you need 3 different ones to do every job..

 

You have to decide what your priorities are- is it portability/size of cut/log handling/efficiency/accruracy/set up time????????

 

What will be the bulk of your milling ?

 

Personally i use a Woodmizer (LT70 now) i have owned the 25,30 and 40

 

Woodmizers are very accurate if they are set up correctly. If the heads arent set up or the blades are not sharp then there are issues. 90% of cutting/accruacy problems are blade related.

 

I have not used other mills, but i have looked into them, and for my application the woodmizer is the best.

 

If i have to do big wood then i use a logosol and 880 to break it down.

 

To choose the right mill you need to narrow down your appliction. By the sounds of it you dont want a particularly mobile one if you want to be under cover on wet days, and probably one with one handed operation ()

 

a wisw man speaks,,,

[John Hughes]

I have to agree with delabodge. My lt40 cuts very accurately. It is 22 years old and will go on cutting indefinetly. All parts are available, it is easy to set up, blades are cheap and it has full hydraulics. I could sell it for what I payed for it.