Vallee sawmills

[Alex123]

Good day everyone,

Looking for some of your inputs on a sawmill I'm looking to purchasing.

Vallee equipment 'Little blue" sawmill.

https://valleeforestryequipment.com/product/little-blue/?v=3e8d115eb4b3

What are your thoughts?
They are made only a few hours away from me.
20hp honda engine
The frame is 2x6 3/16 welded. Strong enough?
I don't seem to be able to find the blades anywhere else other then from the dealer. 

Any input from seasoned sawyers would be much appreciated

Thanks

[barbender]

You can buy blades from most any blade manufacturer if you know the specifics of the blade- length, width thickness etc.

[fluidpowerpro]

I suggest going to the main menu and click on search. Type in Vallee and you will be able to read about others experiences with their mill.

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Welcome to the forum Alex.  I don't think Ive ever heard of this mill.  Good luck with it and keeps us posted when you start sawing.

[Gere Flewelling]

Alex123- I have not operated any Vallee mill but have studied them over at the North East Forestry Equipment Shows in the past. They seem to be pretty well built and have a lot of features that are quite clever in my opinion. There was one feature that raised a bit of a red flag for me. The roller guides that support the band didn't seem to have as many adjustments as other US made mills. A quick look at Cook's You-tube videos on how the build, install, and adjust their roller guides will educate you to the common practice of roller guides are used and properly adjusted. I remember discussing this with the Vallee Salesman who had a very different opinion on what the roller guides purpose is on his mill.  I didn't argue with him and we just agreed to disagree.  Many US mills use the roller guides to put some down pressure on the band to make it cut straight and true. I am not saying the Vallee mill doesn't cut straight, just saying they don't apply down pressure on there bands according to their sales representative.  You will need to form   Your own opinion on the matter. Good luck!

[MaineMilling]

Don't know what the new setups are, but never really liked how they went about their band wheel setups, that being said guy I work with in distant part of the mill has the green monster, uses it for home use and likes it for what couple projects he's used it for.

Frame that you spec'd will def handle any log that mill is capable of

[fluidpowerpro]

Get as heavy of a frame as you can get otherwise you might end up posting about hourglass cuts like another recent post on here....

[barbender]

 I haven't looked closely at a Vallee- I will say I think where the men are seperated from the boys with sawmill manufacturers is the adjustments for tuning and wear on the machine.

 I started out on a shop built band mill that used trailer tires for the band wheels, and bearings for guide rollers. It was frustration with lack of adjustment on those guide rollers that made me decide to sell it and get a different machine. 

 Any well engineered equipment has adjustments for making things work their best, and to make up for wear on moving parts. I've seen many sawmills that had kind of a "me too", kinda like "heck I can build one of those" where all of the basic parts are there but they don't quite hit the mark.

[thecfarm]

Welcome to the forum.
I have never seen one up close.
But have drove by a couple places that sell them.

[Alex123]

Thanks for the info.

I really like the Cooks Mp-32. I never really thought about them. 

[47sawdust]

No buyers remorse with a purchase from Cook's!
Where are you located?

[DanielW]

I know two people with them (though they have different models than the 'Little Blue' you're looking at). For the size of them, they're very well built and solid. They don't have a lot of fancy bells/whistles, but everything they do have is done properly. I'd take one of their mills over a mill that has more add-ons but is built less robustly. Not only are the Vallee ones built with North American steel, but because they're built in Quebec much of the steel will likely adhere to the Canadian CSA 44W code (44 ksi yield strength, versus the 36 ksi yield strength more typical in the US with their A36 rules).

From what I've seen, they're certainly tougher than the Woodland Mills 130 we use for resawing. Not that I'm complaining about the Woodland: It's a great mill for our re-sawing purposes, especially for the price. And Woodland has great customer service. But it's certainly not a robust as the Vallees I've seen.

SMG Champion is a similar manufacturer you might check out.

[Tom K]

they're built in Quebec much of the steel will likely adhere to the Canadian CSA 44W code (44 ksi yield strength, versus the 36 ksi yield strength more typical in the US with their A36 rules).

Not that it really matters that much, but the US steel standards changed a years ago for hollow structural and wide flange shapes. The new standard for hollow structural is ASTM A500 grade C, wide flange is A992, both of which are 50 ksi. Angle, channel, plates, and bars still follow the A36 standard.

[DanielW]

True. And to be fair, much of the plate from steel mills in the US is also made to conform to the 44W standard anyway for both strength and elongation. In my experience it's only the plate and bar from the steel mills in the Southern states that strictly follows the A36 spec.

[Alex123]

I assumed that a welded 2x6frame is much stronger then a bolted one as I need this sawmill to be mobile.

A sawmill that allows for adding a up and down power head in the future would be nice. 

[RAYAR]

The Little Blue seems to have a powered up/down. I also see some of their mills can be ordered with a 1/8" frame, too light weight for strength, stay with the 3/16" thickness.

It seems you may be in the NW of the province, I'm in the SE. Welcome to this great forum, Alex123.

[Alex123]

NE region.

Thanks

[Alex123]

SMG sawmills seem good as well. More people around seem to have these in my area.

[Gere Flewelling]

I have a saw blade customer that I have sharpened for that has a SMG Champion  mill located up in NS that he speaks very highly of. I believe it may be an older mill. He is a machinist and says that his mill is very rugged and well built.

[Nebraska]

I have a Vallee magnetic lumber scale on my old timber king, I like it, but that's all I know about them. If you were closer to Missouri I'd tell you to look at an Ez Boardwalk, it was so tough even I couldn't break it. 

[memopad]

Overall I like my Vallee Green Monster but I don't think I'd buy it again. 

I'm not sure how it compares to the other models, but everything is adjustable on the mill. From the wheels to the roller guides everything is fully adjustable. The problem is Vallee gives zero instructions or anything with the mill. For a noob like myself, if I didn't have this forum to gain knowledge and pick the experienced sawyers brains, I would've given up in frustration. Calling Vallee isn't the best experience either, and purchasing parts from them is even worse. 

I bought the mill because I could get a custom bed length and still get it with the trailer axles. I think Cooks might do the same and maybe EZ boardwalk? The price on the Vallee was really good when I bought it and I let that sway my opinion. 

If I did it again I'd buy a woodmizer and pay the premium for their customer support. Possibly buying a Vallee through a local dealer would be worth a shot. The US dealer network was sparse when I was mill shopping so I bought it from the factory.