What Kind of Production Can One Expect from a Manual Bandsaw Mill

[H60 Hawk Pilot]

I have Read a number of post's on this subject but the reply's did not cover the subject for my set up.

The Mill is a Manual Mill, 25 & HP+, (LM 2000) and has the 4 ft. extension & toe board & log repositioning.

Support equipment (currently in FL) IHC 300 Utility Tractor that I will add a 3 point hitch lift to it. The IHC 300 has a bucket system but light duty and would lift only >> tie cut logs at best.  I have >> chainsaws, chains, blade sharpener & setter, cant hook(s) about everything needed for a small operation.

Also. 24 box truck with a HD 2000 lb. lift lift gate. I'm considering it's >>  use to load logs >> on & off bear sawed lumber back to the lift gate.

Back to my Question:

(1) How much lumber (Bd. Ft.) can one man process in 6 hours of (actual) milling time per day and 5 days per week, bad weather (not too often) days in FL will be made up on Saturday.  Figure on (mostly)  SYP Log, 12 to 18 feet in lengh. min. dia. is 12 inches and Up to ____ X (to 20 inches in FL ?). The logs are cut to 6 X 8 size for Log Home Building.

(1 a.) Add -- 2nd man (my 15 YO) for off bearing.... will increase by --  _ _ _ Board Feet (asking for best estimate on all question(s).

Note: This Estimate does Not include.. Stacking the lumber, just off bearing & loading logs on the mill in 6 hours of milling time.

(2) Figure for -- WPF 827 Swing Blade and milling the same logs (above).

(2 a.) Add -- 2nd man (my 15 YO).

3. When Starting Out, Production (my) will be lower due to >> lack of experience. Figure your (estimate) for man with one or two years of experience under his belt.

I desire this Information to have an Idea of what time (req'd days) frame I need to process 250 + Logs to Stack & Air Dry the Lumber for use in the fall of 2011.


H P

[pineywoods]

My question is this, board feet of what dimensions?? Saw nothing but 12X12 timbers and you can do a bunch in a day, especially if you have help doing material handling. Now say you are sawing 1x4 boards. thats a bunch of sawing for a few board feet. In a situation similar to yours, manual mill, one helper, I once cut just over 1000 bd ft of 1x4 in a looonng day. The worst I have ever done was about 350 bd ft of 1X1 5' in nearly 8 hours. Sorry I can't give you some more concrete answers, all I can say is try it and see, put a stop watch on sawing a log from start to finish and you should have some idea.

[H60 Hawk Pilot]

Piney Woods

The Stuff I'm Sawing for is There >> it's 6 X 8 for my Log Home.  Anything else that is cut off would be boards as the log is sized to 6 X 8's X's 250 logs for what I (est.) I need in Oct. & on in 2011.

[terrifictimbersllc]

Which one is the LM2000?  What's the involvement of the 827?   

[H60 Hawk Pilot]

The LM 2000 will be trailer mounted and the 410 Moulder will be added to my equipment at the end of November.

I thought the LM 2000 would do a complete operation with the cuttting of 6 x 8 cants & processing for D Logs at the same time. However, Do you Process the Log's (D Logs)  when they are just sawed or wait until they air dried ?

The 827 came in play as a mill that might >> speed up my mill time, the Log is turned one or two times and grade ? lumber.

Just looking at what (equip.) I have to work with and the fastest way to get there with 250 (est.) logs to be sawed.

[kelLOGg]

My experience is about the same as Pineywoods except that I have "beat" him on the low end . I have actually sawed 250 bdft in a day that was particularly trying  ;D - all short small stuff that was far more handling than sawing.

Bob

[Planman1954]

I'm glad you have a good tractor. I've been cutting (and manually handling) a lot of 4"x6" x 8' long fence post material on my LM 2000. I'm sore all the time!  :D My production capacity is not 6 hours...it's about 4 hours. That's all I can take. Hope you're in great shape...or..eventually...you will be!

[Jeff]

 You are not going to find anything on the forum or anyone on here that can tell you what production will be because YOU personally are the ultimate determining factor.

[H60 Hawk Pilot]

Rodger that Jeff

I was hoping that I'd hear some value's kicked out there from folks with manual mills. I read that Piney got 1,000 as high & low at (lots of boards) 350 b. f. in a day; kelLOGg got 250 B F with a lot of short stuff.

[Brucer]

Working with a manual mill, one truckload (22 logs) of 52' D-Fir logs with 12" tops  in six weeks. That was producing a mix of timbers and side lumber. "Somebody else" took care of the slabs, and move the timbers and lumber to a storage area. So, 1144 lineal feet in six weeks, or about 16 - 12' logs per week. That's after one summer's experience running a hydraulic mill and half a year part time running the manual mill.

Don't count on more than 7 hours per day for full time production.

Material handling -- logs, lumber, slabs, timbers, sawdust -- take more time than sawing. The faster your mill saws, the more of this stuff you have to deal with. Material handling is where you can speed up your processing time.

[weisyboy]

on the 8-25 Lucas mills i have,

we cut mainly 4x1 floor stock from HARD wood.

a good operator operating on his own can cut 3 cubic meters of log in a 8 hour day, thats rolling in logs by hand and stacking at the end of the mill. from that they will produce about 1.2 cube of good quality boards and .5 cube of second grade timber (heartwood and wane) or in your speak thats about 755 BF of sawn boards

a good operator with a tailor out can cut 6m3 plus in a day.  and get about 2.4 cube of quality timber and 1 cube of second grade timber. or 1500bf of boards.

in pine or other soft woods we would increase that by half again easily.

[carykong]

I have a LT 25,manual in everyway.  Per/hr production varies over a wide range depending on my help and quality of logs. The actual saw rate through the wood is relatively fixed. Its all about efficient loading and off loading that is the big variable

[bandmiller2]

Cuss me if you like but trying to make a living with a manual bandmill is the road to slow starvation.For your own use and hobby, manual is dandy,to turn a buck you need a faster hydraulic  assisted mill. Frank C.

[WDH]

I have kept detailed records of the logs that I have sawn, and on the LT15, I have averaged 108 BF/hour for 4/4 hardwood.  That is a mix of sawing alone and with a helper, and it is sawmill run hours, not elapsed time.  With a helper and the logs staged for sawing, I can get 1000 BF in a long long hard day of sawing 4/4 hardwood.

I consider custom sawing with this mill at prevailing rates to be a charitable contribution to the customer.

[paul case]

dont ask me why  but i can get a lot better than that on my mill. it has a 20 hp honda and will cut36''.  i work alone and do most of my unloading with the tractor and all the log loading is with the tractor. with logs about 20'' and 10' i can get 1000 bd ft of 1.5'' framing lumber out of oak in 8 hours of actual work time.
i had a cedar job once where i cut 110 - 1x12 - 10' and 25 1x8- 10' and 14 1x6- 10' and 8 1x4- 10' in 8 hours. thats almost 1350 ft.
btw that was a good day and i didnt use quite 4 gallons of gas.
motor size on the mill and loading and unloading makes quite a difference. doing this with the tractor gives me a breather. pc

[Qweaver]

I have kept detailed records of the logs that I have sawn, and on the LT15, I have averaged 108 BF/hour for 4/4 hardwood.  That is a mix of sawing alone and with a helper, and it is sawmill run hours, not elapsed time.  With a helper and the logs staged for sawing, I can get 1000 BF in a long long hard day of sawing 4/4 hardwood.

I sawed from 2005 to 2009 with a manual LT15 and I would usually get 700 to 800 BdFt a day with pretty hard sawing and almost always with a helper.  It was the log handling and resaw time that was the big slow-down.  On my new LT26 with the logs in the yard and ready to load, 1500 BdFt days are common but only with a helper... two helpers are even better.  I have sawed 10 logs in one day when I had really good help.  Good help is the key to speed.  Clean, properly stacked logs also keep things rolling.  Me and my helper are both old and a young crew would be much faster.  I now consider the LT28 with log turner, toe boards, power feed and fast resaw to be the minimum saw for doing commercial sawing.  I'm happy that I had the LT15 to build my house but don't try running a business with one.

[WDH]

Paul,

Cutting 1" veruss 1.5" makes a significant impact on BF production.  The time to cut the board off the log is fixed, so there is a production premium with the more BF in each board cut.  Grade sawing in hardwood where you are turning the log to always cut the best grade off the best face also slows production versus just slicing off the boards as fast as you can.  I know that you know this, but everyone reading this might not understand that board feet are not equal.

[paul case]

wdh,
right o.  the density of the wood affects cutting speeds as well as many other factors like having to take your shoes off to do all the math involved in some cuts.pc :D

[Nate Surveyor]

How well thought out the layout of whole operation is, will also affect the time.
Sit down, and do a bit of thinking about the path of
Logs
Loading into mill
finished lumber stacking, and location for final drying
Scrap (waste)
sawdust
Cleanup
It can make a difference on the overall project, if you have ONE item out of location.

Kind of like the time spent, looking for your glasses, and you cannot see to find them!

As Jeff said, YOU are a big factor.

N