OliB

I've noticed most sharpeners on the market a quite a bit cheaper than woodmizer's. But woodmizer tell me the cheaper sharpeners/setters are awful, so I've been saving. Is your experience different? I'd be interested in something that does the job for less money!

I have one, and am considering adding a second so I can make a bigger box (for longer limbers). So if you can't sell the whole bunch, I'd be interested in just he VT3. I'm down the road nr Ludlow. Oli

Sawing managed logs into valuable and environmentally sustainable timber always made me feel quite positive. Very little "footprint" so to speak, especially when I use waste for firewood and woodchip. I'm in a rural farming area. A working landscape. It's very pleasant, but everyone is busy making a living. Lots of various machines, barns, workshops etc. But a while back a guy (admittedly a guy who moved from a big city to retire here) jumped my fence to comment on the noise. He agreed it's better since I stopped chainsaw milling and bought a woodmizer, but objected against the noise. I didn't think the woodmizer is particularly noisy, or that this objection was very realistic. (to be clear, any neighbours are separated by multiples of fields, and/or woodlands, not yards). But just wondered if others have had similar objections, or have a difference of opinion. I can't think of any way of minimizing the noise. I think it's more the zzzz mosquito noise of the band that upset this guy, rather than the petrol head. Not that I am hugely concerned. Both wild and domestic animals come very close whilst I'm working, so they don't care, or show any signs of distress. Everyone else who runs businesses round here are too busy to notice. I guess it's just the incomers who want their little patches of countryside to be retirement homes, not working landscapes. Oli

I got the woodmizer shingle / lapsider. It's already paid for itself just making feather edge boarding for my barn. It can do shingles up to 300mm wide and from memory 600mm long.

Hi, I'm going to be driving past hungerford on the M4 next friday evening or saturday morning. I'm already loaded with oak for my brother in law, so may be able to sort you out also. I don't have time to kiln dry before then, but I could get you a beam out of a fairly dry log. Would be about 20%mc. Let me know if that's of use. The sooner the better please, or I may not have time to do it for you. Oli.

If you don't mind me asking, what do you use to point your fence posts? Oli

I went thru a similar thought process, figuring out if I could make a profitable business out of sawing logs. I started in early 2013 with is Logosol M8 chainsaw mill for regular use up to 500kg, with an alaskan mill for occasional heavier/loger logs. I was keen to prove whether upgrading to a hydraulic mobile bandsawmill would be a risk. I kept a record of top dia and length of each log (hardly a noticeable expense of time considering the slowness of manual log handling and chainsaw milling), and the amount and quality of timber produced. I worked out what this cost, and what the end product was worth, and factored in other costs to see what the profit really was. I did 100 tonne of oak this way between early 2014 and mid 2015. In May I ordered a hydraulic, mobile woodmizer Lt40, which arrived at the start of september. I haven't looked back since! Milling oak beams and sleepers i often get no more than about 50% to 60% out of each log into the beams specified by the order. To be safe I always count on wasting 50% when doing beams and bigger timbers. BUT, the other 50% isn't waste. I mill the rest to 1",2", 3" and sometimes even 4" slabs, which I re saw on the mill into other products. The trick is finding a market for them, but if you can it's the difference between getting by and doing a little better. Then you get some logs that are no good for anything, but look ok. I had one day when the timber I milled cost more than the value of the beams produced because of various defects. Making feather edge boarding "wastes" 70% of log. Again, if you have other things you can use the "waste" for, then you doing well. The biggest caution I would say is finding a market at all. For main products or waste. That's one of the many reasons I started on a CSM before making a hefty financial commitment. There's no reason why you shouldn't start with a £30k machine. Just consider what market exists and what price you will need to charge per cubic meter (or whatever measurement you prefer) to get your piece of it. Oli

You will know whether you have enough of an existing market already so that's the first thing to consider, as there's no point making anything you can't shift. Then I would say there's 2 factors to consider. Firstly, if you bought in the timber to make the fencing could you make a profit? Then if you figure out all of your costs to mill and factor in the cost of the time to do it have you increased this profit by an acceptable measure.

Did you find the cause in the end?

I'm interested in getting one too. Woodmizer tell me the cheaper ones are no good for woodmizer blades, but I'd be interested to try one. If you end up getting one, and it can be used on Woodmizer blades I'd be interested to see the results. I'd be happy to pay for the service if I could drop some blades over. I know kennedy grinding in craven arms offer the service, but another mill owner I know was never happy with the results.

Don't have that make, but all depends on starting mc and desires mc, as well as if its hard or soft wood, and how thick it is. On mine fairly green 1"-2" hardwood boards take about 5-6 weeks to get to mc suitable for doors etc. I can only do 3.5 cu meters at a time (less if you count stickers). Then I need to leave another 2 weeks to allow to settle. I've never dried lower mc than that, but if it's for cabinet making you may need to add a week or 2 more, then allow to settle for longer. I would say it is most definitely worth it unless you use more timber than that in the 5 weeks or so it takes to dry. I've never stuck firewood in. The space is always too valuable for me, but depending on the size of kiln your thinking of, and how much space you need in it I'd say go for it. For the cost of mine, it paid for itself the first time I used it. Maybe stick firewood in during periods if it's not needed.

Thanks, I'm really liking it. steep learning curve tho. Also the logs I once preferred for the csm are very different to those I now prefer for the Woodmizer. Shorter, smaller dia logs that are slightly curvy are a waste of time, just got to finish the pile before moving on to my other pile of longer larger dia logs. Same amount of handling, a little extra time in the cut and many times the output. I think that may be the biggest difference between hydraulic bandsaws and csms. It takes me the same amount of time to mill a small 30cm log as a 50cm one pretty much. The 50 cm log yields lots more sawn timber with a proportionately lower waste, and a greater ability to get different dimensions of sawn timber to suit requirements.

I quite like the look of a standing Yew tree, and have been known to get my self in trouble walking in parks etc by commenting to whoever was accompanying me that "I love Yew". I've had a couple of very surprised looks before realising my error and correcting myself, "not You, Yew. Taxus, Taxus"!

Generally speaking I used to produce 12-16 8"x4"x8' oak sleepers in a day on my logosol M8 working alone with a tractor to tow logs, but no loader on the tractor. That's .576 to .768 cubic meters a day. Today I took delivery of a woodmizer lt40, and after completing the training day I milled 16 oak boards for the kiln at 1" by 14" (0.336cumic meters) plus some random width 1"boards from a log the logosol M8 couldn't even handle in under 30 minutes. That log would have had me reaching for my alaskan mill, and taken most of the day, and would have wasted a board in kerf for every 2.5 boards produced, giving more like 12 boards (.252 cubic meters). I honestly don't know how I ever lived without hydraulics!