Small mill for occasional use. Recomendations?

[Lazurus]

Having been looking through what can be achieved with a chainsaw mill I am very impressed and feel it is something I could make good use of and expand my horizons.

 

So, what, how, and more importantly what not to get or do. This will be for home use only and will be limited by the size of butts I can manhandle myself.

 

Your advice would be much appreciated please.

 

Stu

[agrimog]

everyone is going to push you to go for an alaskan, but look at logosol's big mill system, right from the basic one through to the level just below the full blown M8 mill, they allow you a simple and easy way to produce accurate timber with very little effort, check the stuff on you tube

[Johnpl315]

Blatant plug here.

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/milling-forum/92503-any-interest-my-mill-sale.html

 

I started with an alaska mill but I very quickly got fed up, it's very slow, drinks fuel and oil, very high wear and tear on kit, back breaking, and massive amounts of vibration on your hands.

 

Depends what you are after I guess, if you just want to make some planks for personal use an alaska is probably the most cost effective option. I still have mine but I dread using it!

[beachbum73]

i almost bought a logosol m8 but the length put me off. i have an alaskan with varying size extensions, its hardly been used! i got this with a boat winch to assist in the drive of the saw to cut the wood

[agg221]

I use an Alaskan. Both the Logosol mill and the Turbosaw have their pros and cons (and their fans and those who dislike them!) but a lot depends on how much money you want to spend, how much time you want to spend milling, what you want to make and what sort of timber you want to access.

 

I won't comment on the other two mill types mentioned, or any of the other options you could go for but the pros of the Alaskan are that it is low cost and compact so it doesn't take much storage space, will use a saw powerhead you may already have and is not limited in length or throat so you can set up to mill pretty much any size tree into any product (obviously limitations depending on what you buy and what saw powerhead you have, but you can choose what you need). The really big win though is that ultimately I can stick everything for a day's milling in a car, then in a wheelbarrow and walk to the tree, even through a house carrying it, and come out with planks. I don't think any of the other options give that true level of flexibility.

 

Using it all day is certainly tiring and I wouldn't want to do it full time, but I certainly don't dread getting it out! It would probably be less tiring if I got round to fitting the winch. In a day, running with an 076, I get through about 10l of fuel and 2.5l of oil which I don't regard as too bad compared with the depreciation value of a more expensive mill.

 

Whether it is the best solution for you will depend a lot on your own answers to the above points.

 

Alec

[Lazurus]

Thanks for the replies, Alaskan looks the way to go methinks as it is purely for my own use to mill timber for turning blanks, and to use planks for furniture etc.

 

again my thanks.

 

Now to get this one past the little lady............

[Lazurus]

Blatant plug here.

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/milling-forum/92503-any-interest-my-mill-sale.html

 

I started with an alaska mill but I very quickly got fed up, it's very slow, drinks fuel and oil, very high wear and tear on kit, back breaking, and massive amounts of vibration on your hands.

 

Depends what you are after I guess, if you just want to make some planks for personal use an alaska is probably the most cost effective option. I still have mine but I dread using it!

 

 

 

Nice, but a tad above what I need.......

[kev_s]

where abouts are you based?

 

Kev

[Lazurus]

where abouts are you based?

 

Kev

 

North Norfolk....... Right on the Broads..... Bootiful. lol:biggrin:

[Big J]

If a small band saw mill could be considered, I'd highly recommend Trak-met's TTP600 standard. Built like a tank and very inexpensive.