Thinking of selling Logosol M8 and buying a Bandsaw

[OliB]

I've had a M8 from Logosol for nearly 2 years, it's been great. I run an 880 on it. Very clean cuts when maintaining bar and chain (I got a Granberg 12volt sharpener from Rob at Chainsawbars.co.uk/alaskanmill.co.uk (no affiliation), which btw is awesome)

 

BUT, .404 kerf on the 880 and manual handling, vs much smaller kerf on a band saw, speed of cutting, and hydraulic log handling capabilities are making a bandsaw very appealing, and obviously means more productivity with less effort.

 

So... anyone want to sell their band saw? Anyone want to buy my M8?

 

I'm not sure what a used M8 is worth, any advice? Can't find any on ebay to compare to. Is that because they go very quick? Logosol website claim they are the most sold chainsaw mill, so abit surprised there's no other used M8's for sale. Do they tend to go quick, or does everyone tend to hang on to them? (For that matter I haven't found many bandsaws for sale anywhere near)

 

I'm near Ludlow in Shropshire if anyone wants a look.

 

I'm pretty new here, so no pics yet. I can upload some pics of the beams and boards I have produced if anyone is interested.

 

Mills I'd be interested in, or similar, Woodmizer Lt15/LT20/Lt40, Norwood MX34/HD36. Nothing smaller than 70cm dia logs, preferably 60cm+ cants.

 

I like the versatility of the Norwood HD36, as it can be purchased static and manual, but upgraded to fully hydraulic, mobile, power head etc. Woodmizer obviously a bit more heavy duty, but you can't start off at the bottom and make additions as budget permits

 

Any advice appreciated, and any offers to buy my mill or sell me another would also be great.

 

Cheers,

 

Oli

[OliB]

Here a couple of pics of the m8. Anyone bought one second hand before, and know what they go for?

 

Cheers,

Oli

[difflock]

Olib

I would prob have bid on your M8 cept i bought a Farmers M8 on the 25 year promotion deal (and with the way the £ is moving against the euro) prob be cheaper again in the forseeable future.

What your mill is worth I cannot speculate though.

good luck

Marcus

[OliB]

Hi Marcus,

 

Did you make any decisions on what saw to buy to go with your farmers mill after we spoke a couple of weeks ago?

[difflock]

Ah! The Penny drops.

I Ordered a 391 stihl c/w matching bar and 325 pitch chain to the 026.

So two interchangable powerheads for "cuttin" sticks but mostly run the 391 on the Mill. (only cutting Conifer, so hopefully not be overloaded)

Then If I find I need (or want) a bigger saw for the Mill the 391 should not be a wasted purchase.

Cheers

M

PS

Currently sitting in work attempting to prep for an interview next Wed, which to date i have done diddy-squat about, despite a months notice.

Sigh.

[WoodED]

Oli b how much are you after for your mill?

[shavey]

could i have a price as well thanks

[3dogs]

It's probably only worth a grand! Otherwise buy a farmers and get the warranty and customer service. Which I have to say is superb

[OliB]

I can see 3dogs point. Thanks for the input.

 

I was hoping to get an offer around the £1800 mark, but didn't throw this out initially, as if it is only worth something like £1000 I didn’t want to be unrealistic, and couldn't pass it on for that price.

 

On first glance the two mills seem similar. So I just looked up the spec of the farmers mill. It retails at £1100 + VAT, whereas the M8 retails for £2150 + VAT. You also need to buy a chainsaw carriage £159+VAT or your saw won't mount on the mill. So a new M8 plus carriage would be £2770.8, and a new farmers would be £1510.80.

 

2 years ago the M8 was around £2400 inc VAT and chainsaw carriage. It wouldn't be worth letting it go for around the £1000 mark. But selling it on would help pay towards a bandsaw mill, so please forgive the following shameless attempt to sell it for more than £1000. It may be 3dogs is right, and it’s not worth more than £1000, but if I compare the 2 mills hopefully any interested parties will at least appreciate why I would be loathe to sell it for this price, even if they don’t agree.

 

Why the difference in price? I guess the farmers is the budget model. Logosol claim the m8 "is almost maintenance free, and it will work when you need it, for decades", but make no such claim for it's little brother.

 

The m8 as standard does logs up to 5.1m, and farmers 3.8m.

 

M8 is anodised, farmers "Mainly made of aluminium alloy".

 

The farmers mill doesn’t have the heavy cross beam at the front to steady the mill, and also doesn’t seem to come with the log ladder for loading logs, although it looks like it can be added, as I can see notches for the fittings on the pictures. They are £70 each plus VAT, bringing a farmers mill up to £1678.80 inc VAT, chainsaw carriage and log ramps.

 

But most importantly the M8 has a choice of 1/4" or 1/8s” scale, and "accuracy is impressive", farmers just has a scale of 1/4". This is the biggest sticking point for me, why? The kerf is 3/8ths (or .404), so with a scale of 1/4" you can't factor in the kerf of the saw!

 

So when milling 4"x2"s, for example, I can square a log to 12 &3/4s" wide by 15&1/4” wide (increments of 2" plus the kerf of 3/8s), so the next cuts are 15&1/4", 13&7/8s", 11&1/2", 9&1/8", 6&3/4s", 4&3/8s" and finally 2". Then I can resaw the seven 12 &3/4s" x2" I’ve got into 4"x2"s, and have twenty one 4"x2"s. To do this the two cuts need to be 8&3/4” and 4&3/8s”. You just couldn’t do that with the farmer’s mill. There’s a reason it costs less, and maybe some can live with it, but for what I’ve been doing it wouldn’t have been possible to achieve regular dimensions, everything would be 1/8” over or under specification on both measurements.

 

What I can offer is that if anyone is still interested, and don’t have any experience with the Logosol mills, they would be welcome to drop by when I’m milling, and see what it does, how I’m set up, and what I can produce.

Cheers,

 

Oli

[agrimog]

the 1/4" and 1/8" scaling are to suit the pmx chain setup that logosol recomend, and with it, its possible to take 1/8" slices over the full 5mtr if your m7/m8 is set up right, dont sell it, keep it as a means of sectioning up larger timber for a bandmill, (look up inverted milling with the m7, the only limiting factor is bar size!) you can have the best of both worlds