I bought a couple of lots of old circular mill parts, put togather just what I wanted for a mill,junked the rest got enough to pay for everything,plus new bits and shanks and two saws hammered.All I'am into the mill for is my labor.what I'am saying is an old handset mill can be the cheapest mill you can find if you have the room and the ambition to to set it up. Frank C.
I've been tempted to find an old hand set mill and set it up, but I need another project, like, well, another project. :D Some day I'd like to find a Forestall mill and set it up. Might even put a log on it. :D
Dave a good project makes it's own time,go for it.Frank C.
Dave, let me suggest that you not wait too long to look for an old mill. The way scrap prices are today, they may get real hard to find.
Gday
Frank your spot on there again Mate as usual ;) ;D ;D 8) 8)
Ive noticed alot of good looking mills Auto and Manual coming up for sale over your way at some pretty unreal prices ;) :o Pitty i dont have the spare cash to do anything about it atm ::) :( Id even consider buying one and finding somewhere to store it untill i wanted to import it ;) It might be easer to just come over and settup shop there ;) :D ;D ;D 8) 8)
The problem overhere with American style mills its there aint many of them to raid for parts they are all still working ;) theres only three handsetts that i know of Downhere and mines onea them but ill get ther oneday ;) :D ;D ;D 8) 8)
Regards Chris
Plus it make you feel younger when your behind that big spinning blade. I'll be wacking out some 1" boards on Saturday. I should feel younger up till noon. Have lost an inch off my waist by 5pm and by 9pm feel an extra 10 year older but sleep well. Sweat is good.
Theirs nothing like the sound and smell feeding fresh cut pine through a circle mill you can even feel the spray.Oak leaves something to desire in the smell dept. but its all good.Pine and diesel exhaust even smells good.John we're going on a trip this sat. or I'd be up to help.Frank C.
I did not get as good of a deal as bandmiller did, I didn't have very many spare parts left over for scrap :(. But, I still think it was a good deal. And as a matter of coincidince (if that is a word), myself and a friend were both considering buying the mill. So, we split the expenses of the mill and hope to split the profit soon. So, that helps. Keep in mind that we had to buy everything to set this mill up, and lumber is expensive. We paid $1000 for the mill, really we overpaid since the blade was not in as good of shape as we thought at the time. Right now, we've got about $3000 into the mill. So, we could have bought a small woodmizer for that price, But, we've got a circle mill, :) and not a reall small one at that. I'm sure that once we get this thing tuned and running well it will outproduce a bandmill that we could have bought for the same price. And, it's so fun to run. I think the amount of fun that it is has something to do with the amount of work that it took to get it to run though. ;)
Its only work if someone pays you to do it - you have just been playing :D :D