I was talking with a local lumber guy who was telling me about this circle sawmill he got that is one of those all inclusive units. It sounded like a slide tec but he said it was called a le mar or a le man or something. Made in finland. Said that you square up a log to a cant and it has a fence sorta like a linebar resaw that you can slice cheese with. Has a mud saw that swings down. He said theres a video he has it came with and he dont think they make em anymore. Wondering if anyone knows I wanna try and find the video. I seen this mill when he got it a while ago but it was dusk out and I'd since forgotten about it
I bet this is it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exNhC5SJViY
PC
Laimet make a good saw. They're still in business so far as i know. I priced one a couple years back and optioned the way i wanted it was about 35k Euro + freight.
The Slidetec guy is son or something to the Laimet people... very similar design but the Slidetec table travels on runners whereas the Laimet or a Kara table runs on rollers.
Buy it, usual caveats around condition and price,but hard to go wrong with any of them. Itll keep that resaw fed easy enough.
Thanks guys, knew I could count on ya lol
It's not for sale he's been meaning to set it up but he just finished getting his dry kilns up and running and just built a new very fancy retail store. The store is gorgeous. He stole that sawmill, said he got it, a mack truck to run it, a cat payloader, and something else for 10 grand. :o he said the guy was old and kept pestering him about selling it and he didnt want it so he said hed give 10 grand and the guy said deal haha.
I wish a deal like that would find me for once. We paid $45k for the Kara with infeed, outfeed and power plant (about 1/3 replacement cost) and she got some miles on her. Worth every cent though and I'm not complaining.
My wife always wonders why i watch sawmill videos. At around the 1.30 mark in the link from Paul theres a separator between waste and greenchain moves forward. Mine has no provision for waste off the right side of the table. I see an upgrade in my future....
I wish Kbeitz lived next door so upgrades happened in days not decades
Quote from: longtime lurker on July 20, 2017, 06:44:51 PM
I wish a deal like that would find me for once. We paid $45k for the Kara with infeed, outfeed and power plant (about 1/3 replacement cost) and she got some miles on her. Worth every cent though and I'm not complaining.
My wife always wonders why i watch sawmill videos. At around the 1.30 mark in the link from Paul theres a separator between waste and greenchain moves forward. Mine has no provision for waste off the right side of the table. I see an upgrade in my future....
I wish Kbeitz lived next door so upgrades happened in days not decades
Lots of room here in Pa...
Come on over...
Quote from: Kbeitz on July 20, 2017, 08:27:24 PM
Quote from: longtime lurker on July 20, 2017, 06:44:51 PM
I wish a deal like that would find me for once. We paid $45k for the Kara with infeed, outfeed and power plant (about 1/3 replacement cost) and she got some miles on her. Worth every cent though and I'm not complaining.
My wife always wonders why i watch sawmill videos. At around the 1.30 mark in the link from Paul theres a separator between waste and greenchain moves forward. Mine has no provision for waste off the right side of the table. I see an upgrade in my future....
I wish Kbeitz lived next door so upgrades happened in days not decades
Lots of room here in Pa...
Come on over...
You can't get there from here lol
That thing ain't nuthin special. The medows next door could run circles around it. Just imagine what a cleereman could do.
What's with the massive slab cuts? Seems like a huge waste..?
My guess on the slab cut is hes sawing for a target cant size. Slabs get held on a short set of chains opposite the infeed for processing later.
Technically these are a "hydraulic rack bench" FWIW. Compared with a carriage mill.... depends on log resource, overall mill setup, manpower as to which might be more productive. The carriage - assuming decent setworks etc will do more per shift in bigger logs with plenty manpower.
The rack bench will be more productive short handed, and cut a better board either way.
My rack sits behind the carriage headsaw ... mostly mine works as a resaw but a resaw with small log capacities the headsaw lacks. So i have the best of both worlds.
It aint so fast as the big Gray it replaced. .. but it cuts a better board and for a small crew or working alone. .. the only thing id change would be to buy a new one.
Good vid of one from the business end:
https://youtu.be/Re9RwB8WmnE
Wow that Kara is impressive. Much faster than the ole WM
Usual story with sawmills.... they're all a series of compromises. The Kara as shown has the standard saw so will cut 14"deep max... real good in logs to 16-18"or so but after that you got to whittle them down a bit. Limits around the 24"mark (Or break them on a bigger saw like most Aussie mills would then feed flitches cants and slabs to the bench.)
The Laimet above has the topsaw fitted to handle larger logs. I dont really know what the capacity becomes then but I imagine its around the 32"mark.
And usual story with sawmills... kara/laimet/slidetec is pretty much all the same regardless of manufacturer. Individual machine configuration and operator ability will have more impact on production then whether its red or blue or green. Or orange lol.
If you punch through a lot of logs in that size range I'd look real hard at that Laimet if the price was right. You'll lose some to kerf compared with your bandmill... but the production increase for a one or two man show will compensate for it. Nothing leaves the mill except sawdust, waste, and accurately sawn lumber. No edging, no slab pile to process, no removing wood to reload it again later.
And its blue... it'll match that fancy pants resaw you bought.
I still don't see the point of these mills. A cleereman w/ vertical edger and silvatech setworks would consistently out produce these mills. But alas to me the only reason to have a circle mill is speed.
Quote from: JB Griffin on July 22, 2017, 02:10:11 PM
I still don't see the point of these mills. A cleereman w/ vertical edger and silvatech setworks would consistently out produce these mills. But alas to me the only reason to have a circle mill is speed.
I imagine price has alot to do with it...also its better suited for a one/two man setup...
I don't think theyd really work very well for me..I saw crooked knotty junk logs and make 3 sided cants as quick as I can...
The guy who has the laimet just wants something to make circle sawn boards for the builder or customer who wants it. he has a million dollar milling setup he buys more lumber in than he saws he makes his money with trim
Quote from: JB Griffin on July 22, 2017, 02:10:11 PM
I still don't see the point of these mills. A cleereman w/ vertical edger and silvatech setworks would consistently out produce these mills. But alas to me the only reason to have a circle mill is speed.
As a general rule you'd be right. A decent carriage mill with good setworks is going to outproduce a circle rack. However what you aren't taking into account is cost of production and scaleability. In this industry two types of operation survive: efficient big ones and efficient small ones. A carriage mill with all the bells and whistles running at full capacity is no longer big... compared with even a small quad it's got limited capacity and requires a far higher labour input per unit of production. At the same time the need for a crew of 5+ to run it stops it being small. Efficient small operations survive because while their cost of production is higher then the big guys, they have the ability to belt tighten effectively when required and because they can respond to small or odd production requests promptly in a way the real big guys cannot.
Everytime theres an industry contraction it weeds out the inefficient operations of all sizes... and then the guys in the middle start to fail. Too big to be small and too small to be big. A carriage type mill puts you squarely in that middle bracket.
Speed in a mill relative to capital outlay and operational cost is where its at: fundamentally a board isnt worth more because it took you longer to cut it. There are exceptions around high value species (walnut for example) where cost benefit of kerf vs speed favours a band. Even then it favours a 2½-4" band rather then a thin band. Same again - the higher filing room expense is still covered by the production increase of cutting faster with the same crew.
In all other case circles win hands down... the lower running cost and higher throughput of a circle relative to a similar sized band operation means the circle makes more money even though the sawdust pile is bigger. One day I'd like to be able to saw for the fun of it but for now.... I'm all about the money.
Quote from: longtime lurker on July 22, 2017, 05:48:58 PM
Quote from: JB Griffin on July 22, 2017, 02:10:11 PM
I still don't see the point of these mills. A cleereman w/ vertical edger and silvatech setworks would consistently out produce these mills. But alas to me the only reason to have a circle mill is speed.
As a general rule you'd be right. A decent carriage mill with good setworks is going to outproduce a circle rack. However what you aren't taking into account is cost of production and scaleability. In this industry two types of operation survive: efficient big ones and efficient small ones. A carriage mill with all the bells and whistles running at full capacity is no longer big... compared with even a small quad it's got limited capacity and requires a far higher labour input per unit of production. At the same time the need for a crew of 5+ to run it stops it being small. Efficient small operations survive because while their cost of production is higher then the big guys, they have the ability to belt tighten effectively when required and because they can respond to small or odd production requests promptly in a way the real big guys cannot.
Everytime theres an industry contraction it weeds out the inefficient operations of all sizes... and then the guys in the middle start to fail. Too big to be small and too small to be big. A carriage type mill puts you squarely in that middle bracket.
Speed in a mill relative to capital outlay and operational cost is where its at: fundamentally a board isnt worth more because it took you longer to cut it. There are exceptions around high value species (walnut for example) where cost benefit of kerf vs speed favours a band. Even then it favours a 2½-4" band rather then a thin band. Same again - the higher filing room expense is still covered by the production increase of cutting faster with the same crew.
In all other case circles win hands down... the lower running cost and higher throughput of a circle relative to a similar sized band operation means the circle makes more money even though the sawdust pile is bigger. One day I'd like to be able to saw for the fun of it but for now.... I'm all about the money.
IN addition to what Longtime said, this type of saw(linebar) is super accurate. If everything is working as it should with an experienced operator, these mills will make accurate lumber out of stressed logs without turning, flipping, yadda. Our slightly modified Kara can cut a 35 foot 1x6 with no variance... Make for an interesting fence..
I'm starting to understand I think. One thing I KNOW is there is NO one size fits all sawmill.