Big Boy Sawmill

[Walnut Beast]

Did some checking on the Baker 3674D. 
Lead time is 12 to 14 months. The computer set works have same principles. But have been updated with a large touchscreen. Weight is 12k for the 20 ft model. 74 hp Diesel. It's a Beast!

[thecfarm]

I've only seen them things at a show.
I always thought they was built too!!!

[tacks Y]

I run the Baker 3665 so I wonder what they changed? Mine has the 3.3 (I think) Cummins non turbo. 

[KenMac]

I run the Baker 3665 so I wonder what they changed? Mine has the 3.3 (I think) Cummins non turbo.

Just adding a turbo would probably make your engine 74 HP. My Perkins 67 HP without turbo is 59 HP I think.

[Walnut Beast]

It cuts 36" through the center. The older ones only 28".  They updated the set-works when I talked to them today. They had beefed the whole frame up even more

[Walnut Beast]

There were several other things they did along with a really big fuel tank. The debarker they have is really slick

[Plankton]

A buddy of mine has one of those big bakers. Older so It has a john deere diesel I believe. Very heavy built and very reliable he saws 6 to 7 days a week on it and it doesnt break down hardly ever.  Im a circle saw guy but if i ever bought a band mill it would be a baker.

[YellowHammer]

I visited Baker and got the gold tour from them.  Their sawmills are impressive and they actually use them in their several sawmill operations.  They employ quite a few of the people in the local area, and those machines are made to run and run and run.  Their employee's wages depend on the mills running, and I would not hesitate to buy one.    

[Walnut Beast]

I run the Baker 3665 so I wonder what they changed? Mine has the 3.3 (I think) Cummins non turbo.

Does your head have the dual hydraulic cylinders for the lift ?

[SawyerTed]

Baker builds some great mills.  I looked closely at Baker's equipment at the Richmond Expo last year. 

The problem that prevented me from going with a Baker is the leap from a 3638G to a 3674D is a big jump.  Both are heavy machines and very capable but too heavy for portable sawing IMO.  

In my other operation a Baker stationary mill might be just right for starting out. 

[Walnut Beast]

Yes it is indeed. I've got the price with setworks and debarker . But there is no denying there is some meat there when you compare a Woodmizer 70 at 4,800 , Timberking 2,200 at 5,800 and the Baker 3674 at 12,000 for the 20ft and 13,000 for the 24' 

[E-Tex]

The Baker 3674D looks like a Beast of a machine.  I'm with SawyerTed in that it may not be practical to go mobile to often.  Its weighs 12,000lbs compared to my 4,500lbs LT-50.  And 4-5ft longer.

Questions for those that have run the 3665D or newer 3674D

1.  Portable milling  -  
**  how easy/difficult is it to set up?  (My WM LT-50 is set up in 10-12 minutes)
**  does it need to have very level ground?
**  It appears it may be difficult to set up in certain situations and get all the support legs below the milling deck.....??

2.  Set-works  -  
**  is it user friendly?  (I'm certain one would learn it pretty quick)
**  how easy is it to change setting (patterns, etc...) "on the fly"?  (the WM Accu-set is very easy to change in a instant.  My mobile sawing is always different and being able to quickly change settings is necessary).
**  the screen looks very small for my eyes!!!

[scsmith42]

I have Tom's old Baker and concur that it's not the best choice for portable milling.  Great mill but long setup time compared with a Woodmizer.

[tacks Y]

I run the Baker 3665 so I wonder what they changed? Mine has the 3.3 (I think) Cummins non turbo.

Does your head have the dual hydraulic cylinders for the lift ?

No, Mine has screws.  Sorry so late never saw the question.

[tacks Y]

The Baker 3674D looks like a Beast of a machine.  I'm with SawyerTed in that it may not be practical to go mobile to often.  Its weighs 12,000lbs compared to my 4,500lbs LT-50.  And 4-5ft longer.

Questions for those that have run the 3665D or newer 3674D

1.  Portable milling  -  
**  how easy/difficult is it to set up?  (My WM LT-50 is set up in 10-12 minutes)
**  does it need to have very level ground?
**  It appears it may be difficult to set up in certain situations and get all the support legs below the milling deck.....??

2.  Set-works  -
**  is it user friendly?  (I'm certain one would learn it pretty quick)
**  how easy is it to change setting (patterns, etc...) "on the fly"?  (the WM Accu-set is very easy to change in a instant.  My mobile sawing is always different and being able to quickly change settings is necessary).
**  the screen looks very small for my eyes!!!

Mine is a 3665D  11 years old. Weight 8720lbs and they list tongue at 720lbs so not sure if they add up or not.
I could set up in 20-30 mins have only done twice.
It has 7 tube legs and 1 crank up, legs all need to be down below deck height to saw a 1" board. So level ground or blocking.
My last mill had photo eyes so this is/was new to me and I learned alright.
Not sure of changing on the fly I cut mostly hard wood for my kiln and my use. For the hemlock/pine I use the large wheel/scale alot which I LOVE. 3" = about 1" so easy to see.
I saw this mill on FB market with a OH phone # just called to be noisy. They said it was in Pa and only 30 mins away, so I had to go look. The thing just followed me home.  

[mapleveneer]

Goodmorning guys,

I just thought that I would jump onto this thread for its information. My buddy and I have been operating a 3674D (24 ft) for a few months now, a couple days a week. We don't own the mill. We figure that we are in the 50K bd ft sawed range now. I can't comment on portability or setup as we haven't moved it. It has been a learning experience as an ownersmanual specific to this model apparently doesn't exist. 

[YellowHammer]

In my old job, I visited many well know aerospace and manufacturing companies to do engineering, manufacturing and quality audits for organizations and people as high as the Assistant Secretary of Defense.  I say this because after visiting Baker for the day when I picked up my edger, and seeing their staff and how they manufacture equipment, I was more than impressed.  

They build lots of machines, many of them are commercial and shipped overseas to a worldwide market, and are designed to run under real working conditions.  They had several very expensive laser and plasma machines in house, CNC welders, and a reasonable amount of robotic manufacturing equipment only seen in relatively high end and high output production houses.  They also had qualified machinists, welders, and floor people.  They had an integrated assembly facility with many machines being assembled at the same time, and their assembly tech and engineers in the same space, so it was easy if there was a problem, to ask for help.  No memos needed, just call a guy over.  I also noticed that they were all friendly with each other, lots of friendly chatting to each other when we showed up, indicating a healthy manufacturing and employee environment.  They gave me access to some of their engineering drawings and they were "real drawings" not chicken scratch and I picked up a few parts and miked them against the drawings and they were within spec.

I also toured their lumber production facilities where they use their equipment to make lumber all day every day, and if something isn't right or good enough, they under go a process to improve the design and incorporate in later models.

For those who don't know, I had ordered a custom designed edger from them because they were the only company who would take on the task, and I called all the well known sawmill and edger manufacturers.  Baker was the only company who said "It'll be hard, but yeah, we can do it."  They built and delivered the first unit on a semi truck and it didn't cut as well as we had contracted.  I called them up at noon, and they had a repair guy at our gate the next day.  From Missouri to Alabama in less than a day.  Name me one other company that will do that, won't charge for mileage, nothing.  Next day service call from several states away.  He wasn't in the "neighborhood" because he called me personally from Mo while he was packing his service truck to ask what was wrong.  The service guy spent the day here, called the head shed and said there was problem, and they sent a semi, picked it up, and took it back.  Then they tried to figure out what was going on, reached a few conclusion, made some adjustments to the design, and built me a new machine from scratch.  This one they put trailer wheels because I wanted to drive and pick it up at their facility to do acceptance testing.  Bottom line, it cut perfect, still does, and I've put out a few videos on the edger.  They have since assigned "my" edger with it's own product number and have sold several of them.  A person learns a lot about a company when things don't go right, how deep they are, management response, etc.  I was more than impressed on how they worked to solve the issues.  

No machine is perfect, and if I bought another, I would ask them to tweak a few things, but the machine has run flawlessly for several years now.  I would not hesitate to buy a Baker product of any kind, and if I ever need to replace or upgrade the orange sawmill I have now, it will be in a shootout with a blue one, and I'm not sure Blue wouldn't win.

[mapleveneer]

The Baker 3674D looks like a Beast of a machine.  I'm with SawyerTed in that it may not be practical to go mobile to often.  Its weighs 12,000lbs compared to my 4,500lbs LT-50.  And 4-5ft longer.

Questions for those that have run the 3665D or newer 3674D

1.  Portable milling  - 
**  how easy/difficult is it to set up?  (My WM LT-50 is set up in 10-12 minutes)
**  does it need to have very level ground?
**  It appears it may be difficult to set up in certain situations and get all the support legs below the milling deck.....??

2.  Set-works  -
**  is it user friendly?  (I'm certain one would learn it pretty quick)
**  how easy is it to change setting (patterns, etc...) "on the fly"?  (the WM Accu-set is very easy to change in a instant.  My mobile sawing is always different and being able to quickly change settings is necessary).
**  the screen looks very small for my eyes!!!

Well, here we are a year later and still operating the 3674 a couple days a week.  I thought that I would update the thread with some of our experiences now that we have surpassed the 200K bd ft threshold.  The majority of what we have sawed is White Pine with some hardwood mixed in.

We have moved the mill twice.  Takes about an hour to break down and a little more to set up.  The support legs near the axles are difficult to access, especially if there is bark/sawdust buildup.  Otherwise, it is pretty straightforward.  Some of the logs we are sawing have lots of loose bark.  Twice now we have moved the mill just forward to clean out under it then moved it back.  This clean-up is about a two-hour process.  Level ground makes things easier, otherwise you are going to need some blocking.

We use the setworks all the time. It is hard to make a comparison as we have no experience with others' setworks.  Once you train yourself to think like the computer thinks it is intuitive and easy to change.  However our sawing is pretty basic, not involving complex patterns.

One of our better days (in fact, the only day we really kept track) we sawed 49 logs for a total of something in excess of 4000 bf.  Two guys, one on the mill, one on the loader.  A lot of production rate is determined by downstream material handling rather than the mill itself.  We have no downstream conveyers, etc so all slabs/boards that come off the mill require the sawyer to handle them.  (Pretty good considering that the two guys are 70+ and 80+)

We have had various, relatively minor machine breakdowns.  A call to Baker and we have the part we need in a couple days, overnight if we really wanted it.  The most significant issue has been with wiring inside the control box for the Deutz engine.  Vibration has worn through insulation in several places resulting in electrical failures.  All have been fixed with tape and rewiring.  Twice the spade terminal connector on the end where it connects to a relay has broken right off.  Right now, the engine won't start and I am expecting to find another broken spade connector later today.

Overall, it is a solid machine and cuts well.

[jpassardi]

For those who don't know, I had ordered a custom designed edger from them because they were the only company who would take on the task, and I called all the well known sawmill and edger manufacturers.  Baker was the only company who said "It'll be hard, but yeah, we can do it."  They built and delivered the first unit on a semi truck and it didn't cut as well as we had contracted.  I called them up at noon, and they had a repair guy at our gate the next day.  From Missouri to Alabama in less than a day.  Name me one other company that will do that, won't charge for mileage, nothing.  Next day service call from several states away.  He wasn't in the "neighborhood" because he called me personally from Mo while he was packing his service truck to ask what was wrong.  The service guy spent the day here, called the head shed and said there was problem, and they sent a semi, picked it up, and took it back.  Then they tried to figure out what was going on, reached a few conclusion, made some adjustments to the design, and built me a new machine from scratch.  This one they put trailer wheels because I wanted to drive and pick it up at their facility to do acceptance testing.  Bottom line, it cut perfect, still does, and I've put out a few videos on the edger.  They have since assigned "my" edger with it's own product number and have sold several of them.  A person learns a lot about a company when things don't go right, how deep they are, management response, etc.  I was more than impressed on how they worked to solve the issues. 

New from scratch: that IS impressive.

[thecfarm]

I might be sawing at 80, but doubt I will find anyone to help. 

[Magicman]

I might be sawing at 80

I am, so don't give up on the dream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFfQDqY6mC4

[Southside]

I might be sawing at 80, but doubt I will find anyone to help. 

Maverick Ray, you will get your RIO tailgunner when you get to your ship mill, and if you don't, give me a call, I will fly saw with you.  

[thecfarm]

I don't have your number.