Mobile Mill for Milling Reclaimed Timber??

[Stompy]

The Lucas doesn't have the width capacity I need...... It's gotta be 500mm cut or wider.

 

I Agree the ripsaw gives a great finish but when I have 3 m3 to rip down it's hard work with the amount of timber handling. Plus some of the beams are just to heavy to lug about.

[growforest]

You can get a slabber for the Lucas. Swing arm would be handy for your joinery timber and flooring up to 200mm. Peterson double cuts. Have you looked at Turbosaw Warrior?

[se7enthdevil]

does it have to me 100% portable?

 

an old stenner sounds like it would be great for what you are after.

[Stompy]

Cheers chaps.

 

Is the slabbed on the Local basically a chainsaw Mill?

 

I'll have a look at the Peterson and turbosaw.

 

Has to be 100% mobile or it defeats the object. As I said we are buying a huge horizontal wide band Mill next year so no use for anything stationary.

 

I had a look at resaws, always wanted a Stenner but they don't deal with twisted and bowed timber very well.

[wills-mill]

The beauty of a narrow band is you don't cry every time a band is wrecked by a hidden bolt. £20 odd for a WM sized blade, up against minimum £80 for a Stenner resaw, £120+ for a Stenner band rack size. Wravor/ Serra/ WM1000 band prices are presumably similar.

 

Edit: Stenner type resaws need a really spot-on initial flat surface to work from, and you're still faced with lugging the timbers back and forth over the mill. And they tend to get very grumpy and gummed up doing lots of deep cutting in reclaimed timber.

 

Exotic tipped wide bands are generally double that, they'd last longer but aren't entirely nail proof, by the time the base steel has sheared off with the stellite tooth attached and it all tumbles around in the cut, there'll be sobbing in your cornflakes.

 

For resawing beams you'd not need need too many exotic gadgets and hydraulic handling, but a debarker head would be very handy to clean a slot for the band to enter into the wood. Years of dust and grime blasted into the surface is a killer for tooth life.

 

I've always done WM mills, they are nice and rigid and quick to set up, I've had a play with a few simple cheap saws and think everything cuts fairly similarly, but it can be a bit of a ballache getting (and keeping) a light ladder framed mill aligned.

 

For recutting dense, dry timbers you need something that'll hold the band tidily, so a good stiff head, well fixed and engineered blade guides, good band cooling and lube. Other than that, it's all down to keeping the bands up to scratch, local support, and personal preference.

 

Some of the simpler mills lack much ability to compensate for wear and tear over the years, in many ways longevity is down to being able to keep them tight to the original build spec. As you know from joinery kit, sometimes cheaper isn't necessarily any worse.

Edited November 21, 2015 by wills-mill

[Stompy]

Hey Wills-mill, thanks for the info, muchly appreciated....

 

I'd already discounted a resaw and anything with a narrow band as it just won't do what I need it to do.

 

I've looked into Swingmills and they seem closest to what I need but the width of cut is not enough. Most say you need to make 2 cuts to get the full 250mm and having to double cut for anything over means I may be making 4 cuts to get 400 - 500mm. It's just not efficient. I like the look of them and get offered a lot of timber in the round for practically nothing so something I will put on the wish list for the future for producing dimensioned stock.

 

Today I went out to look at an old beast of a mill near Zagreb. A horizontal Lipovsek, prob 25 years old but still in great condition. 1200mm wheels, 1400mm cut, 14 metre track, 120mm bands. Blade lubing, electric guides but manual dogs. Electric rise and fall, electric drive and, may favourite part, a drivers bucket seat with a cup holder.

 

Comes with an seperate automatic blade grinder (stick the bands on the machine and stands, set to tooth pattern,turn it on and have a cup of tea as it works it's way round the teeth). Also a tooth setter and a couple of spare bands.

 

Not at all portable unless I had an artic but at just shy of £3000 it's a steal. This will do what I need no problem and allows me to handle some of the big Oaks I get offered. It weighs over 5000kg and is built in true Yugoslavian style, over engineered and able handle huge timbers all day long.

 

The guy and his father were really helpful and plied me with home brew moonshine but really knew their stuff. He was suggesting TCT tipped tooth blades which I have seen before here. Takes out the on site maintenance but they swear that is the best way to go for very hard and dry timbers.

 

For now I've kind of given up on the mobile idea as it just seems there is nothing out there big enough but portable to do what I need it to. The guys today suggested shortening the tracks and putting their mill on a farm trailer and pulling with a tractor. That way I can legally move it around as I can pull whatever weight I want with a tractor around here. Then loading with loading tines on the tractor....... worth a thought.

[agg221]

Today I went out to look at an old beast of a mill near Zagreb. A horizontal Lipovsek, prob 25 years old but still in great condition. 1200mm wheels, 1400mm cut, 14 metre track, 120mm bands. Blade lubing, electric guides but manual dogs. Electric rise and fall, electric drive and, may favourite part, a drivers bucket seat with a cup holder.

 

Not at all portable unless I had an artic but at just shy of £3000 it's a steal.

 

At that price, don't suppose they have a second one going do they - be worth crating up and road hauling here!

 

I think the real limitation on portability will be the length. The longest portable mill I have hired in was a Forester at 20' max capacity with 36" through the head and about 14" depth. Great piece of kit when it was working but the owner did swear about it a lot (partly when I had him bring it round the M25 at rush hour!)

 

Only practical option I can think of is to use a chainsaw mill to break down lumps into something more manageable and bring them back for milling - beams ripped to a third of their thickness or butts quartered would be realistic on speed (each cut is not going to be more than 30mins even on 600mm wide x 8m long dry oak). Chains are reasonably cheap and assuming labour isn't too expensive out your way it should be viable.

 

Alec

[Stompy]

At that price, don't suppose they have a second one going do they - be worth crating up and road hauling here!

 

Alec

 

At that price the horizontals pop up now and then..... plenty of verticals going for less. Recently looked at one, 120mm band, auto drive carriage, also came with a seat and a 120 Hp diesel motor to drive the mill and carriage. Was on for £1900 but would prob get it for £1500.

 

This is only £6800..... thinking about it PILANA WRAUOR

 

Or this for around £8700, comes with everything for blade maintenance, grinder, welder, hammering jig, setting machine, 100metres of blank banding... POKRETNA PILANA

 

Anyway. The weight is the main issue for moving it around as I would need a generator also, a big one.

 

The size of the timbers is not really the issue, it's the quantity. If I were milling for some of my suppliers then it would be at their yards and around 20m3 of old beams and slabs. Saves a lot of shipping there and back being able to mill on site.

[Dean O]

I'm sure you've already considered it - but would you not be better off investing in kit to transport large heavy beams to your base for converting on the static mill your setting up there?

hi-ab lorry could be an inexpensive option, or loader tractor and trailer might be more costly but give other options too?

 

although it still means taking stuff backwards and forwards could it be a stepping stone/ stop gap while your looking for a suitable portable mill?