Wide cutting manual bandsaw mills

[Big J]

After a difficult week of chainsaw milling, I've resolved myself consigning it to my sawmilling past. It's a great way of producing timber if you don't cut timber all day, every day, but I'm pretty wrecked from a week of it, and a lot of things broke. It's not a productive way of cutting in a yard where you have forklifts and other machinery - it's best for breaking down logs in gardens and fields etc.

 

So I'm looking at wide cutting manual mills for those occasional oversized logs that we get. A bit like the largest offering from Hud-son, but hopefully cheaper. I'm starting to look online at various US bandmill producers, but would anyone else be in the market for a wide cutting (I need 48" really) static bandsaw mill for about £7-8k? It's not going to be a fast mill at that price, and it will be very manual, but I figure it has to be quicker than chain milling and on a 4ft diameter log cut at 2", you end up with an extra 2 boards.

 

So the mills I've found so far are:

 

Turner Mills - I spoke to them a fair bit about my original needs for a bandsawmill, but went with Logmaster in the end. Nice folk and do wide cutting mills.

 

Turner Mills - Home

 

Sequoia Mills - just found them today, not sure I like the look of them but worth an enquiry. In budget.

 

SM-145 - Sequoia Mills

 

Hud-son do a couple of wide cutting mills, but they are out of (my) budget really:

 

Oscar 52 Portable Sawmill | Hud-Son

 

It would make sense if I were to order one to share a container with a few other folk.

 

Thoughts?

[se7enthdevil]

buy yourself one of these.

 

 

 

CROSS SAWMILL  EQUIPMENT

 

 

 

 

Hull-Oakes Sawmill | THISisCarpentry

[Big J]

The Cross sawmill looks like something out of Mad Max!

[agg221]

buy yourself one of these.

 

 

 

CROSS SAWMILL* EQUIPMENT

 

 

 

 

Hull-Oakes Sawmill | THISisCarpentry

 

Oh yes, I want one!

 

Alec

[se7enthdevil]

here it is in operation

 

 

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[ame]

[/ame]

[Copford sawmill sussex]

http://www.woodmizer-europe.com/Products/Industrial/Sawmills/WM1000

Don't overlook these either 👍

[Big J]

WM1000 Sawmill

Don't overlook these either 👍

 

Good mills, I know, but way out of my budget. I don't have the cash and I don't have enough of a market for wide boards either.

[wills-mill]

That sort of money gets you into Forester 150 and Trekkasaw territory. OK, you're then on a wide band and more complex saw doctoring, but they stand up to heavy wide work....

Would a 2nd hand Lucas with slabbing attachment be too wasteful? If you've already got a bandmill in the yard, then I think a swingblade is a great compliment.

[skyhuck]

The Cross sawmill looks like something out of Mad Max!

 

It does, the barrel fuel tank is ace

[Big J]

That sort of money gets you into Forester 150 and Trekkasaw territory. OK, you're then on a wide band and more complex saw doctoring, but they stand up to heavy wide work....

Would a 2nd hand Lucas with slabbing attachment be too wasteful? If you've already got a bandmill in the yard, then I think a swingblade is a great compliment.

 

I had considered a swing mill, and the wide slabbing attachment would produce the kind of board I need sometimes, but they aren't cheap and the slabber is still a chainsaw (wasteful, and chainsaw chains are prone to snapping). Given that I am doing more softwood, the swing mill would be handy, and easy enough for me to allow someone else to use.

 

It's the waste from a chainsaw cut that bugs me as much as anything - 2 cubic metres of sawdust from that big elm log the other day. That and the fact that 3 1/2 days of hanging onto that mill has left me fairly well broken!