Big J

And it is now in my yard: And with 2m + of me infront of it for scale: It barely fits in the barn! About an inch of clearance all round - no exageration! It will be fired up tomorrow, but probably won't be used until Tuesday.

That is perhaps why it's easier to be a sawmill up here than in most other parts of the country. AJ Scotts are charging £135 a tonne delivered in for crappy quality. Good quality is double that, top quality triple. At £45 a tonne, I'd haul it up here for that. No estate/contractor is going to make money at £45 a tonne - what's the point in felling it?

Would that be 14 to the US gallon as well? If so, that's 16.8 to the imperial gallon.

Yep. I've discussed it quite extensively with them. Frankly, I'm not in it for the money. I think they make good machines (which is why I've bought one) and would like to see a bit more competition in the UK sawmill market. It shouldn't cost as much as it does for a good solid mill. Clive, I'll give you a buzz in the morning.

Really enjoy your videos and admire the camera work, but I must ask - why did you go for an M8 rather than a small bandmill? With all the different heads/attachments, you must be up to bandmill money, and it's a good deal slower and more limited. Just a question, not a criticism!

I have a Citroen Relay, long wheel base and high roof (not extra long or extra high I should say) 2.2HDI, 14 plate. Wonderful to drive - most comfortable driving position for me yet. With a mixture of unloaded, loaded and towing (in equal amounts), I've averaged 32.7mpg over the last 10000 miles I've had it. Mostly extra urban - I avoid cities. It will do 40mpg unloaded on a run as well. With bluetooth, sat nav and a good stereo it's a nice place to be. Much better than the bloody Navara.

Trak Met produce nearly all of their own parts (bearing blocks, band wheels and quite a lot of other stuff you'd expect them to buy in) so product support is excellent. 12 month warranty, and I'd need to hammer out the details of how that would be administered. I'm happy for it to go through me, and given that I'd have both a bandmill and processor, I should be in a good position to help.

I am looking to bring a lorry load of the processors over if anyone wants one. I want one, I have a second sold, but could do with another 2-3 sales. Price for the processor with trailer package, diesel engine and hydraulic slewing conveyor would be £13500 plus VAT. The powered log deck would be an extra £2500 plus VAT.

Trak-Met : Pilarki, Owijarki, Traki : Pilarki, Owijarki, Traki - Home

That's the one. I'd be a lot cheaper than that as well. The mobile version weighs over 2 tonnes.

Built like brick outhouses and much less expensive than you would think. Very nice company to deal with too. If you're looking to purchase a static sawmill (of any size really, from small manual to large hydraulic), you'd be very wise to seriously consider them. Like for like, a little over half the price of the leading competition. I'm also badgering them to produce a mobile diesel powered machine, and their firewood processors are incredibly solid (anyone interested in one, please let me know. I need to fill a lorry with processors!).

A couple of pictures of the new sawmill in Poland, with me in the second one getting shown how to use it. Quite simple operation really - nothing new! The sawmill is a modified Trak-met TTS800 standard. It has a throat of about 115cm (120cm, but 115 is what you'll realistically get through) and a maximum log capacity of 135cm (the head will lift to 120cm above the bed). 11 hydraulic back stops, twin hydraulic chain turners, twin hydraulic clamps, twin hydraulic (driven) toe boards, board drag back, sawdust collection bucket (which I love!) and computer set works. Runs a 60mm band, cuts 10.5m lengths and has a 30kw main drive motor. Not much else to say really other than I'm very much looking forward to it arriving on Friday!

Nice of you to think of me, but I don't actually employ anyone as yet. Just subbies. Delaying the inevitable....

Scots pine is used by the big mills (BSW and the like) but it's in very little demand amongst us little fish. Stains too quickly. Whereabouts are you?

Just checked my inbox but nothing through from you?

Seconded.

That first, larger butt in the stack would be £140 a tonne roadside if it was a fully load of that quality.

Don't bother. Another Scottish sawmiller cut a whole load of greenheart from pier pilings and he got about 2 cuts per band.

£45 is taking the piss. Even fairly poor quality oak up here will make £100. Very low quality 'fencing' grade will make at least £60. Post some pictures and I'll try to give you a rough value.

Just finished the second cedar cutting job. 140 tonnes this time. 5 weeks (with a few days away for various things) and a lot of effort, but 93 cubic metres of sawn product out the door. Today was the last day's cutting, and the last day with the Logmaster mill (which goes out tomorrow on a low loader up north). I will bid a sad but fond farewell to the mill - it has been excellent and is particularly quick on small logs. I think this is because you operate everything from one position (hydraulic log handling and sawhead movement). With a Woodmizer you're walking up and down like a numpty and having to lean over to operate the log handling hydraulics. Today we had a stack of average 9-12 inch 3 metre cedar logs to cut (some a bit bigger). We cut 82 logs on a 8.5hr cutting shift - 10 logs an hour plus band changes. That's cut to 102x160, 102x203, 102x217, 102x242 and 25mm edging boards. All logs pressure washed quickly prior to cutting. 2 guys working with me. Might take a little while to beat that log tally PB - it was 56 before today!

Hire a mill with an operator. You will get much much more done and no mill owner/operator in their right mind will hire you their mill. It is so, so quick to do serious damage to it.

Granberg electric grinder for the teeth, angle grinder for the depth gauges.

I disagree. Overall, electric grinding will maintain a better edge. When doing a lot of milling with a 1/2 088/MS88 set up, we were cutting some fairly hard timbers, doing some quite wide (up to 65 inches) cuts. Resharpening is required every 3 cuts. It takes about 3-5 minutes to freehand electric sharpen a 7ft chain. How long do you think it would take with a hand file and gauge? When milling with less power, it's especially important to sharpen extremely regularly. Say for instance you were doing a 10ft cut 30 inches wide with an MS880 cutting ash. I'd sharpen every second cut, though only a tickle. The two minutes it takes to sharpen you will see back in quicker cutting and you will save the fuel and excessive wear on your chain/bar/powerhead.

Alaskan milling is tricky on small diameters. 12" and up can be handled with a stand to hold the log. Small logs are the domain of bandmills though -we had 45 average 11-12" cedar logs through the mill today on a fairly easy 7hr shift. J

Chainsaw mill is slow and tedious (when considering a project the size of a house) with an MS880. If you wanted to give yourself PTSD, reacting with horror every time you heard a chainsaw start, try chain milling with an MS250! As a minimum you need an MS660/661. Absolute minimum. Cutting speed increases logarithmically with an increase in power. An MS250 has about 3hp, an MS880 has nearly 9hp. The MS880 does not cut 3 times as quickly, but at least 10 times as quickly. Strap two MS880s to a bar and cutting speed increases 3-4 times.