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What is a realistic goal for BF output on a manual bandsaw mill?

Started by Smakman, April 14, 2005, 09:49:31 AM

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DanG

Smakman, I'm pretty sure that Cook's products are upgradeable. Southern Saw is another that is designed to be upgraded with hydraulics.  Also, Woodbowl added hydraulics to his non-hydraulic Woodmizer lt40.  If you're handy, most any mill can be upgraded, but you might be better off to start out small, then trade up.  Another option is to go with a used mill.  I got mine for $9000 and I'm really happy with it. Its a Mobile Dimension 128 that has enough automation to make it a one-man operation.  I'm thinking of adding automated log clamps, but everything else I could want is already there.
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

Brucer

Quote from: Smakman on April 14, 2005, 07:47:23 PM
The reason I asked was that I am wanting to buy a mill and have it paid for outright, but I don't think I will have what I need to buy a hydraulic mill that way. Are there any brands that are upgradeable to hydraulics later on?

I'm in a similar situation, Smakman. I bought an LT-40 manual mill. The rated capacity is 150 - 200 BF/hr for all the different horsepower options. Kinda backs up what DanG said earlier.

My experience running an LT-40 hydraulic last year is that when you're working alone, take the low end of the saw's quoted capacity and divide by two. That's a good day-after-day number. You can easily meet the quoted rate if you only saw for a day, and all you do is saw. When you also throw in staging the logs, dealing with less-than ideal logs, getting rid of the slabs, scanning for metal, shovelling sawdust, stickering the lumber, sharpening the blades, dealing with customers, etc, etc. -- that's when the quoted numbers turn out to be very optimistic.

I believe you can get close to the quoted numbers after you've got some experience, if you keep trying to improve your system of sawing. For business planning purposes, be conservative. I didn't have much control over the sawing environment when I ran someone else's saw. I know I could have improved my output a lot if I were able to re-arrange the milling site.

BTW, Wood-Mizer now offers a bolt-on hydraulic loader for the LT-40. You're still stuck with the manual clamp, manual side stops, and manual turner. The price for the upgrade is considerably less than the cost difference between a manual and a hydraulic mill.
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

Smakman

Thanks folks.  I don't know, I may use the money to put a down payment on a hydraulic and finance the rest.  Keep my day job until I am comfortable going full time....if I ever do.  I have my eye on a fully hydraulic mill I could get for $10,000 right now, but it's just a little beyond my grasp financially.  Maybe I need to borrow on the car or something.....
Cooks HD3238
Bobcat T320
Kioti 7320
Stihl 550i
Stihl 044

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I have an LT40 manual, and in my opinion, I wouldn't even concider trying to make a living with it. Just way too labor intensive. If you were going to saw only small, light stuff, like cedar, and buy the cants and just saw them, that might be a different story.

Paschale

Y'all can pronounce it "puh-SKOLLY"

MemphisLogger

Paschale,

You wouldn't believe how many of my customers will have a cooler of beer on hand because of it  ;)

Of course, we stick to coffee and /or iced tea until we're on the last log or trimming flitches.  ;D 

Scott Banbury, Urban logger since 2002--Custom Woodworker since 1990. Running a Woodmizer LT-30, a flock of Huskies and a herd of Toy 4x4s Midtown Logging and Lumber Company at www.scottbanbury.com

JP

 :(Hi all: heres an example of bf per day on a manual mill
I loaded a 26" 10' log with a lima bean shape- (one bad side and a little ? punk going into the middle--all set at 9"00 am- at 1:00 I went to lunch with about 3/4 of the *DanG thing cut. Another 45 mim and it was finally done.
4 2x4s 10s, 2 2x6 by8' (bugs got 2'), 6 1x18" boards, 2 1x16' boards and about 500 lb of slabs etc
160 BF in4.75 HR = 34 Bf per hr
some days the gold some days the shaft--JP
still love it/// ;)
Norwood lm2000,Newholland 30 hp tractor, log carrier/winch, log arch  JP

leweee

JP...Nice photo album ;) That saw shed gives me insperation to replace my tarp with something more perminent. ::)Manual mills are not for the faint hearted. ;) The older I get the more the ARMSTRONG options aren't that appealing. If you are as strong as a bull already , it will keep you fit. ;D
just another beaver with a chainsaw &  it's never so bad that it couldn't get worse.

Russ

I always work alone. I'd say if my logs are debarked and on the skid way, a 100 bf a hour is posible, with debarking , stacking, cutting stickers, moving loggs I seem to average 300 to 400 bf in a 10hr day. I think with two people you could triple on a manual mill. My hats off to those folks that are able to do more.
Good luck !

Norwiscutter

Today started at 7:30, hooking up mill to truck amd heading to job site.
Get to site at 8:30, after stop for gas, ice, and coffee.
8:45- back to house to pick up loader and blades.
start sawing at 11:00am after unloading F.E.L., and sharpening 5 blades.
Cut straight from 11 until  5:00PM, scaleing 1380 B/F of two inch wiith one board puller.
Load up and leave site at 6:15.
6:30 drop off mill and loader at tomarrow's job in one trip because board puller showed up with his truck.
7:00 visit with guy who is giveing me some trees if i just cut him a few boards( heard that one before)
only problem is they are still standing and by power lines and etc., etc.
7:30 pull into my drive way.
So, with twelve hours in, I scaled over 100 BF/ Hour for the day.

- That was kind of depressing now that I think of it...
Si vis pacem, para bellum.

Smokey

Quote from: Norwiscutter on April 18, 2005, 11:57:18 PM
Today started at 7:30, hooking up mill to truck amd heading to job site.
Get to site at 8:30, after stop for gas, ice, and coffee.
8:45- back to house to pick up loader and blades.
start sawing at 11:00am after unloading F.E.L., and sharpening 5 blades.
Cut straight from 11 until  5:00PM, scaleing 1380 B/F of two inch wiith one board puller.
Load up and leave site at 6:15.
6:30 drop off mill and loader at tomarrow's job in one trip because board puller showed up with his truck.
7:00 visit with guy who is giveing me some trees if i just cut him a few boards( heard that one before)
only problem is they are still standing and by power lines and etc., etc.
7:30 pull into my drive way.
So, with twelve hours in, I scaled over 100 BF/ Hour for the day.

- That was kind of depressing now that I think of it...

I Know this is an old post but ....This is the most realistic board footage calculation I've heard for a days work!


And yet you still had time to
Reality is just a figment of my Hallucination

taschmidretired

If you go to the Home Page of www.taschmid.com it shows the average production rate of the Maximizer Head (20 HP) 1" sawing, 8 hr day, one man operation. The "Shootout " contest  production more than doubled that advertised production rate partly from adding a second man as a tailer/helper, partly because we never tried to over sell what could be expected from regular daily use.
If You go and check the numbers at the site you will see there is a typo where the 8 is missing as in, 8 hr day.  Other than that you will see numbers basically aligned with previous posts on this subject.
But we have used a mulitple log system that put out some higher numbers that breaks through the averages.  But not useful for moving from one small job to another.
"Until I had turned Thirty Five, the longest I had ever stayed in one place was my Mother's womb."

"Beware of the man that shoots his arrow first, and then paints a bulls eye around it after."

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