Harbor Freight mill on hardwoods?

[Yoter]

Possibly a stupid question but how does the Harbor Freight mill do on hardwoods-very hard woods like locust?  I have a lot of it as well as some oak, maple and walnut.  A lot of the YouTube videos I see show Harbor Freight mills running through softwoods pretty efficiently but not a lot of hardwoods.  Would a power upgrade help in this regard?  

[Southside]

You get what you pay for with a sawmill.  I would look at the sponsors here on the FF, they all offer entry level, manual mills, which perform very well and stand up to the rigors of being a sawmill.  

[WV Sawmiller]

   I can't answer anything about a HF sawmill but I am confident more power would help.

   Are you sawing green or dry locust? My experience with green locust is that it saws pretty easily anyway. What diameter locusts are you anticipating sawing? Mostly when I'm sawing locust I am just squaring up posts or poles for barn or shed building purposes.

[esteadle]

Locust needs sharp blades, and a lot of them. It has a high mineral content and tends to dull quickly. So you will need to change blades a lot. If you are just sawing a few logs, spend all your money on blades, and cheap out on everything else.

But sawing is a bug. Don't get a cheap mill if you think you might like it. Get a good quality mill, because you might get bit by the sawmill bug, and you might regret not getting a better mill. Check the sponsors. Those are the right folks to buy sawmills from.


Best of luck,

eric

[charles mann]

As others have said, check with the sponsors. for 1000-2000 $$ more from a sponsor, you can get a mill that is built better and parts are more readily available, and better customer service/warranty since this whole plandemic has caused businesses to go wonky with shortened staff and such.

[SawyerTed]

The cost of the better mills includes things like customer support and parts inventory.  You get what you pay for.

[DanMc]

Use a blade with a lower tooth angle.  If you use a 10 degree blade, then it will have a tendency to bite in and it leads to a rocking motion in the mill.   I have this issue when milling red oak on my HM 126. 

As somebody previously said, be careful.   I got bit, and now I want a Woodmizer LT35 with hydraulics.  That's a bit irrational, but it's how emotions are. 

[sealark37]

Keep in mind that the tech service at HF consists of the the inked girl at the register, and the tweaker in the back warehouse.

[Southside]

But she has blue and green hair.   :D

[WV Sawmiller]

  Be nice! The manager at our local HF is a good customer of mine.

[Crusarius]

[blanket statement] a sawmill is a sawmill[/blanket statement]

ok, with that said, simple explanation is a band saw can cut anything if you get the blade, blade speed, and feed speed correct. 

The better sawmills will be better built making them stiffer and stronger and many with larger engines. The harbour freight bandsaw mill will more than likely be able to cut what you want to cut. It is just not going to be super efficient.

The thing with that sawmill is its going to take longer to cut a board due to many factors. see sawing will be one of the big factors. This can be remedied by adjusting feed speed. However, when slowing feed speed now you have excess heat build up in the blades. Now you need more lube to keep the blades clean and pitch free, and you also need to keep an eye on your tension because as the blade heats up it stretches and loses tension causing waves in cuts. 

You also need to worry about the stiffness of the bed. If the bed flexes at all during the cut it will effect board quality.

Part of the reason I built my own mill was because I could not afford to buy one. I understand the want to get a cheap mill. I feel the HF mill will cut what you want but I feel you will be wanting more. I know even after I thought I overbuilt mine I would still like more


Just a disclaimer: I am relatively new to sawing. The above observations are from my personal experience. They may be right or wrong. The more experienced guys are the better ones to listen to.

[Polish Hammer1]

So I own the harbor freight saw mill have for about 2-2.5 years am I am by no means a Sawyer but love make boards bench's live edge whatever.. Having said that my only other real experience with a band mill is with an lt40 hydraulic worlds apart I've obviously ran both and now don't like mine as much (go figure) but my bigger complaints with the HF is it doesn't have a hardwood or softwood scale comes with like a 10" sticker ruler not even realevent to the machine and doesn't scale the whole travel of machine you have to move a slide like thing.. the other n probably my most disliked thing is it doesn't have moveable blade guides so if your cutting a 4" can't the band has no support idk if all cheaper manual mills r like that but that really drives me crazy

[KenMac]

So I own the harbor freight saw mill have for about 2-2.5 years am I am by no means a Sawyer but love make boards bench's live edge whatever.. Having said that my only other real experience with a band mill is with an lt40 hydraulic worlds apart I've obviously ran both and now don't like mine as much (go figure) but my bigger complaints with the HF is it doesn't have a hardwood or softwood scale comes with like a 10" sticker ruler not even realevent to the machine and doesn't scale the whole travel of machine you have to move a slide like thing.. the other n probably my most disliked thing is it doesn't have moveable blade guides so if your cutting a 4" can't the band has no support idk if all cheaper manual mills r like that but that really drives me crazy

Cook's and probably most other mill manufacturers provide scales that should be compatible with your mill. Some mods may be required but surely they would be better than what you describe.

[farmfromkansas]

16 years ago I bought a used Cooks mill, mp32.  Expect is still worth about what I paid for it.  New keeps getting higher, and I mill about twice a year.  Rest of the time it is in the shed. Try selling your used harbor freight mill for what you paid for it.

[hunterbuild]

I put a 13hp predictor electric start on my 6 or 7 year old HF saw. It cuts wood. almost a bolt on job. for me and my skid steer it's all I need. I'm not trying to make a living with it for sure. 

[Polish Hammer1]

I put a 13hp predictor electric start on my 6 or 7 year old HF saw. It cuts wood. almost a bolt on job. for me and my skid steer it's all I need. I'm not trying to make a living with it for sure.

Was the hp up grade worth it ? What do you do for a log scale I ended up making one for hard and soft woods

[RepairMyWiFi]

A larger engine will help a lot, but it will tax the existing clutch and probably kill it- I would suggest a new, larger clutch/pulley that will raise your band speed a bit to take advantage of the larger engines torque.  Tim Cook has an article about this - it really helped me a lot.