Mobile Mill for Milling Reclaimed Timber??

[Stompy]

Hi Guys

 

After a bit of advice from those far more knowledgable than myself.....

 

My business out here in Croatia is mainly joinery and furniture making but we also export a lot of reclaimed and new sawn timbers. These are either in their raw form or further processed.

 

Now, we will be getting a stationary wide band sawmill next year (Wravor 1000) but first we need a mobile mill to mill on site and for our suppliers.

 

We never mill anything over 600mm wide or over 8 metres long. Mostly old Oak but also reclaimed Elm and Pine.

 

Have been looking at second hand as haven't a huge budget (around £5000 - 6000) and seen a lot of Woodmizer LT40's but just wandering what else I should be looking at and the limitations of a narrow band sawmill.

 

So........

 

Will the narrow band (40mm) cope with hard 100 year old Oak without diving and producing a wavey cut?

 

What sort of diesel engine power should I be looking for?

 

Any add ons a must have?

 

Views on Woodmizers?

 

Anything other than a Woodmizer I should look at?

 

Anything in particular to look for on a used mill?

 

Basically I know my woodworking machines and so have a healthy knowledge of cutting tools and how timber behaves but know little more than I have read on here and on the internet.

 

You guys are the pros so any help would be muchly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance chaps

Edited November 18, 2015 by Stompy

[se7enthdevil]

i may be corrected but i think the view is that if you are looking at a woodmizer then look elsewhere first.

 

they seem to be expensive these days.

 

big j went to europe to see his mill before he bought it (their name escapes me) but they seemed to have a good product.

[Stompy]

Yep, heard a lot of bad things about Woodmizers... expensive parts, reliability issues.

 

Just wondering what else is worth looking at?

 

Trak Met is where Big J got his from I believe...... Look like good mills but still narrow band in my budget.

[Copford sawmill sussex]

Any mill should cope with the timber your looking at... But the biggest factor will be the blades. As long as the blades are set correctly and sharp, most mills will cope.

Personally irate wood mizers we have had then for the last 30 years so can't rate them enough and the amount of people out there with then speaks for itself. I personally use a static electric lt40hd and a wm1000 so don't have experience with the fuel engines. But there are plenty out there with advice. If you can dr your own blades like we do that will prove your best add on as you can then find the right blades and profile for your timber.

[agg221]

If you can get them in the right size, I would be tempted to try M42 blades from Tuffsaws. They cope really well with very hard, dry timber and will even survive the odd iron nail.

 

Alec

[Big J]

Narrow band will struggle desperately in very dry timber. Oak is nice enough to cut when wet, but I wouldn't like to think what it would be like on 100 year old beams. I hate cutting dry wood - the difference with elm fresh versus fairly dry is a quartering of cut rate.

[Stompy]

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated.

 

First and foremost my main concern is the narrow band...... Some of the old Oak we cut is concrete hard, I guess a result of 100 years of 40 degree summers and -15 degree winters.

 

I know cutting dry timber is very different to cutting green and I can expect slower timings but will I still get a smooth, flat cut?

 

I appreciate the blade can be main problem, as with all cutting tools, it must be sharp and set correctly. A wider band is much more stable but there is not much in the way of a wide band mobile mills is there?

 

I toyed with the idea of a mobile circular mill but the power required to drive it is 3 -5 times that of a bandmill. And they are lethal!

[Copford sawmill sussex]

The main pros with a narrow band would be the sharpening and setting yourself cheaper than a wide band. Agree with big j. That oak is going to be tough

[Stompy]

Yep, it's tough. We mill currently with a huge old 18Kw circular rip saw. It eats through it but it is hard work handling the timber and it's not at all mobile.

 

For big jobs we take it to the local sawmill which has no problems with it but then they have 120mm bands run on 60Kw motors.

 

Never tried a narrow band mill on Old Oak so was trying to see if it would be a viable option.

[se7enthdevil]

i have cut the odd bit of dry oak on my ripsaw and yes it goes through it like a hot knife through butter so why not get a lucas mill or similar type saw?

 

mine's only been 40 years old from a porch but it was bone dry 8" oak and it left a much better surface than any band saw i could think of.