My girlfriend and I just purchased 30 or so acres with about 20 acres of woods on it. We a drawing plans for a heavy timber shop (30' x 60') and a house down the road.
I have started twitching logs out for the shop since the ground has frozen.
I had thought about using a chainsaw mill to prepare the large timbers then getting a friend of her fathers to bring in his LT40 (maybe it is a LT30?) to saw the cedar siding and the smaller lumber.
So now we are thinking some type of manual band mill in conjunction with the borrowed LT40 would be a wise investment as the borrowed mill would only be available every few months.
It doesn't need to be trailered, we can use our terrain to have the deck level with ground for log loading, and the largest tree on our property is probably 32" diameter.
I'm pretty handy with my torch, welder, plasma cutter, chop saw, drill press etc and have access to a mill and lathe. I know I can easily build a mill.
But... if I could buy things like the saw carriage and dogs, it would save a lot of time. Someone with jigs somewhere must be cranking those out?
Any home built sawyers out there wish they hadn't? Anyone think I should just buy one of those low buck Hudson mills http://www.hud-son.com/portable_sawmills.htm and get sawing?
BTW I'm in Canada so many brands aren't available here.
What does a bottom end Woodmiser go for in Canada?
Thanks everyone, I'm definately new to the world of sawing.
An option would be to purchase a mill then sell it when you're done.
It doesn't sound like you have more than an LT15, Timberking 1220 or a Norwood, like my friend has,will do. They are not production machines but work great to build a barn or house if you have the time to do it 5 or 6 logs a day.
I've always been leary of a small machine because I know how I was inundated with calls to saw when I got my LT40. I couldn't say "NO" and maybe you can. :D
A push mill like that will get you in business for 5 or 6 grand and do everything. A mill that has log handling and hydraulics and setworks and stuff like that will have you shelling out more than 15 grand. It's just that you could work faster and take care of the custom sawing business that you are destined to run head-long into. :)
Yes, I found a huge demand for sawing logs when I bought my mill but a small demand for paying to have me saw them. :D
Wood-Mizer has pretty good coverage in Canada. Here is their Canadian web site address.
Wood-Mizer Canada (http://www.woodmizer.ca/)
In fact, they have three locations in Canada – two in the east and one in the far west.
Wood-Mizer Canada Locations (http://www.woodmizer.ca/support/serloc.html)
On their main web site, they have the LT15 listed to be purchased online. The price is listed at $5,495 USD + shipping. They have a promotion where they are including a box of blades.
Wood-Mizer LT15 Promo (http://www.woodmizer.com/promo/LT15online.html)
A couple of things I like about the Wood-Mizer LT15 are, the way it come in sections and could be stored in a small area like over winter and such. You can add as many sections as you need to saw long beams.
Also, it is available with an electric motor – maybe not important in your case but that's the one I'd get. ;D
I bought my LT15 in Manilla, Ontario.
Picked it up with the trailer package fully assembled and hauled it home.
It's a great personal mill.
slowsuki,
may be you should have a look at www.gilbert-sawmill.ca before you make your choice.
their 20HP mill has been a participant in the Great Portable Sawmill Shootout in Bangor at two occasions and it demonstrated consistant production outputs.
and the prices are still attractives despite recent decrease in exchange ( US dollar versus CAN $ ).
/ LMG
So what makes the LT15 worth the extra over some of the 2000$ mini mills I saw discussed in my searches here? They seem to be similar (please don't yell WM LT15 owners! Just curious!)
I got to thinking after that very few of my trees will be over 24", maybe only a dozen.
Thanks to all for the pictures and emails I've received.
It appears a wiper motor with cog on it and a length of chain could quickly make a variable speed power feed, on the cheap.
Ken
slowzuki
I don't know that much about many of the smaller mills on the market. One of the things that I looked for was the customer service and its resale value. When I bought my LT40 those were two factors that I looked at. I 'm sure that other mills will work fine.
In my opinion how well any saw (bandsaw, circular, swinger) will cut has a lot to do with the sawyer, how well the saw is maintained, and the quality of the blades.
You always get what you pay for!! Sawmill exchange has many used mills, that would be my suggestion!
My son bought a LT 15 in the summer we had been using a procut chainsaw mill before that. We look at a lot of manual mills before he bought the LT 15 The woodmiser people let us try out the 15 at a open house that they had. This is one of the best manual mills that you can get . Carl B.
Ken,
You got 20 acres of trees and want to build a timber frame shop. Before you skin the cat you have to catch him. So are you going to be able to saw down the trees and move them to the mill site? Now that we got the cat what do you want? Meat or hide? What length do you wish to saw these timber to? Can the mill you are looking at cut that long and can it hold up the weight of the log. So many times I have gone to saw for owners of small mills that can not saw a 28 inch 20 ft log. The mill would sag under the weight and they could not turn it after they got a flat side down. EZ can tell you about having a mill without enough frame under it.
I would look for a name brand used mill that I could get service and parts for in your neck of woods. If they do not have a Canadian office then I would not even consider the mill. Now my blood runs orange and I think the LT 15 is a good mill but you should play with one before you spend any coin no matter what type you buy. Maybe you should call WoodMizer and find out if there are any local sawyers for hire because $5 grand can buy alot of sawing and a hydralic mill can take alot of work out of it for you. Snorting to much sawdust can be a hazzard and it will interfere with hunting and fishing.
ARKANSAWYER
A cheaper mill(around $5k) will saw good lumber,IF, the ground where it sits is solid. With my old mill I spent more time releveling then sawing, then at the end it just gave up. If I was to do it all over again in the beginning I would have bought a lt30 or lt40 WM. Check them out, the frames are very tuff.
EZ
ARKANSAWYER,
Luckily I recently purchased a Stihl MS260 that I have been felling trees with. The other lucky thing is I have 2 x 52 hp tractors available to me, one is 4wd with a loader. I have been twitching trees out with them.
Haven't looked at any particular mill yet so I don't know how stiff any of the mill frames are. I assumed mine would be setup on the slab of the shop we are building (32' x 64')
The longest timber so far is 8, 18 ft long, haven't calc'd the dimensions needed yet.
I hear you about the service and seeing one in action. I visited a WM mill on the weekend but it wasn't in action. I think it was a LT40 but looked short? Maybe there are extensions for it. We are hoping to rent the mill or hire the owner (friend of my gf's father)
Ken
I also took a look at the SMG - Gilbert bandmills before buying a swing blade.
Nice mills. Nice engineering. To top it all off, Canadian for you too.
Captain
Ok, our friend with the LT 40 manual mill doesn't want to move it off his property. It is a trailer model but he does not move it, so...
We are looking at mills again. The Norwood 2000 and the SMG are two Canadian models. Have read lots about the Norwood, anyone have an SMG? Can't seem to find much about them.
Ken
I've seen both of them mills saw and did a good job at that. If your going to saw on a slab, I'd say grab a coin and flip it in the air. But I would still consider a LT-30 or 40. ;D
EZ
slowzuki,check these guys out http://www.enercraft.com/docs/sawmills.htm havent heard too much on here about enercraft/baker but we have an older model that we got from our aunt after our uncle passed away,and he bought it used as well.It has a rigid frame and still cuts very well,ours is red though,not sure about the blue ones i guess they are still made the same,but they're home office is in Canada.
Just had the Enercraft / Baker price list faxed to me. The Model 18 would be the setup appropriate for me but the price is quite high, 8700 Cdn$ for the 13 hp all manual model. On par with the WM LT15 more that the Norwood.
Ken
Quoteslowzuki,check these guys out http://www.enercraft.com/docs/sawmills.htm havent heard too much on here about enercraft/baker but we have an older model that we got from our aunt after our uncle passed away,and he bought it used as well.It has a rigid frame and still cuts very well,ours is red though,not sure about the blue ones i guess they are still made the same,but they're home office is in Canada.
I have the 15hp on my LT-15 and I wouldn't want anything smaller.
Kevin, I've seen some neat pictures of your LT 15 in action. Do you saw only for yourself or are you in it for some $$?
I'm shying away from the high priced mills as I have to sell it to my gf too :D She gets scared enough when I mention tractor!
I can see it becoming addictive, so I need a mill small enough to ensure hard work when using it and dispell ideas of sawing full time :D :D :D
I think I'm going to prep a spreadsheet up soon and post it.
Ken
Cooks saw sells a lot of prefab parts, and if you don't mind spending alot of time building one, and depending on how much you can find by way of parts, you can build a good manual mill for next to nothing.
take a look at my post "the band mill that i built" should be on page 1 or 2 of the sawing forum. It took me a year total to collect parts and build and test/adjust it. I probably have around 100 actual hours in it to get from an idea to good lumber.
Re building my own:
Would love too, but time is the problem. Also the building it is going to be sawing is my shop... I have a plasma cutter, welders torches drill press chop saw etc but would eat up all my time that could be used building the shop!
I mill primarily for myself but I have done a few loads for others.
The frame on the LT-15 is solid and the cutting accuracy can't be beat.
I'm very happy with it.
Slowzuki,
I ran across a guy on the yahoo.groups milling forum who bought an SMG milll last year. He seems to like it. Sorry I don't have his email address, I think I found his post while randomly reading through their archives.
I've been looking at the SMG too, and it seems like a good machine, just hard to find references on.
Bob
A fellow board member was kind enough to send references of a few SMG mill owners in my area so I could see one in action.
It seems to have a few nice design features lacking in the price range including hydraulic tensioning. There is another mill manufactured in Quebec with hydraulic tensioning that I'm looking at too. Still waiting for the info to come in the mail.
Ken
QuoteSlowzuki,
I ran across a guy on the yahoo.groups milling forum who bought an SMG milll last year. He seems to like it. Sorry I don't have his email address, I think I found his post while randomly reading through their archives.
I've been looking at the SMG too, and it seems like a good machine, just hard to find references on.
Bob
Slowzuki,
I ran across this Canadian mill, "Mr. Sawmill", last fall:
http://www.butterwoodfarm.netfirms.com/favorite.htm
It has some interesting features but is evidently a very small company. There's another Mr. Sawmill produced in the states, but it's a completely different mill and company.
Bob