Things change in a hurry ...

[TexasTimbers]

LordKenny,
Yes, I have a distributor here that delivers what we call Farm Diesel in Texas. It's alot cheaper though I can't say how much right off. Also yesterday I just picked up two 250 gallon propane tanks on wheels and one 50 gallon that were being used for something else (dont know what) and I'm going to use one for diesel for my skid steer and sawmill and gonna convert the other into a nice smoker. Haven't figured a use for the 50 gallon yet but it'll get job doing something .....
Don't know the HP on that big Mack truck engine. It still sits in the truck frame though. It was never taken off the engine mounts. Looks like they just cut it out of the truck as most of the frame is still there just welded into the the big cradle that holds all the guts to turn the blade...

[Jeff]

Actually, my understanding is that the Cheapest bandmills, bandmills with manual feeds that sit flaton the ground, are the ones that can most easily be set up to saw long, long timbers. You can add unlimited length of track as you dont have to worry about wires and chains and hoses.

A circle mill's one big limitation is length you can cut by the length of the track and carriage. You can cut timbers much longer then your carriage, but not if you don't have enough travel on the track.  

[Buzz-sawyer]

My diesel is ecomonical. If cutting mixed cants and ties,with the side wood,It is capable of cutting 8,000 bdft in 8 hours. It will use about 1 gallon an hour or 1 gallon for 1000bdft in this scenario.
My saw blade IS as old as I am, :D and as far as teeth I use chrome and they LAST a good while. I am guesstimating 60-80,000 bdft on dirty logs.(probably more)
This is far bellow pennies a bdft for teeth. And if a person is fortunate, and they keep that disk spining COOL and not binding , or hitting REAl bad things the blade will run true indefinitely..........which means till something bad happens........can be years.
Once a circle mill is running true and straight, blade nice and cool.............there is VERY little maintenance. And at $2,500 you already made back your money on the sawing you will do , only on those timbers. The bonus is that saw will run the rest of your life.
As far as cutting edges, I do it every day I saw, it uses little to no energy as I see it, I can run through 6 2x8 in about 1 second and have the carriage back to the bunks for another log.
A circle saw is pretty good for some things , no doubt about it ;)
But I DO not like cutting high dollar wood on one.

[Ernie]

Si

Youre right on the money there, after Alf and I convinced Jan that we really did NEED a mill, We developed a whole new appreciation of the drive into town.  How many cube do you reckon there are in that tree, I never noticed that big Macrocarpa over on that far hill, It'll be great when the slabbing bar arrivees and we can see if Richard is going to take down those big trees that he's got at the back of the farm  and stuff like that.

It has been like moving into a whole new area.  no longer just the mountain views and how's the surf.

Ernie

[Rockn H]

This post has got me to thinking back.  My dad had a circle saw for years.  Quite a bit of lumber came off of it.  He did quite a bit of edging on the mill itself.  Most of the fletches went right through a foley resaw, though.  Now I have the bandsaw and I do a lot of sawing at different locations.  What I'm saying is that in my opinion if you are sawing your own logs or have logs brought to you the circle saw should not be sold sort and you should definately take the time to work out the bugs and the saw marks :D.  You should see my bandsawn boards when the tooth set is wrong.
You really feel like you are sawing lumber when you pull back the clutch on a big circle saw.  Just be sure and use a shield between you and the saw.  A nail can sure send those teeth flying. ;)