I am looking to start up a more professional mill. Icurrently saw part time with a bandmill.Love it but it is notreally suited for full time operation. I am looking at either a Kara Circle Mill or a Woodmizer LT300 band mill. Has anyone used these and if so how did you find them.Any comment would be of interest
Paul
Try contacting WM for the LT300!!!! They may have used, or know who is selling one! That's big machine, I would imagine they keep track of things like that.
AS for the circle mill SORRY??? ALthough you could by a Peterson ASM 10". This is an Awsome machine, not to mention fully automated. I am getting the WPF 8" next week, and if I was not buying a tractor too, I would get that mill. It really looks like and awesome machine built for the long haul ;) ;) ;) I think you would be hard pressed to find better for the money ;)
they are a big industrial saw but what are the speed of sawing as compared to say a 20 hp gas bandmill, this mill we are planning is to saw softwood mostly 2x4/6/8 etc.
Paul
I am not sure of the complete specs, but I believe its around 3000-4000ft a day. You can get it with a 35hp engine. This would be perfect for what you are trying to do. 8)
I am doing the same thing. I currently have a bandsaw as well, but its just not made for production; hense the Peterson. ;)
Hi Paul
You should certainly look at the Peterson ASM or even the WPF mills for sawing 2x s out of softwood.
Thats what they really excel at.
Other members are currently using swingblades to break down oversize logs into cants for resawing on bandmills or resaws, so that might be another option.
Ian
Paul,
I have seen a few Kara mills around Australia and I know of a number of others in conventional mills used with great success.
They are a real good mill.
I am going down this path now, in fact i'm flying over to the UK on Wednesday to buy a band headrig (72" stenner).
My descision was made easy by the fact that in Africa where I am going, there are no sawdoctors who can work on circle blades only bands.
I think the Kara mill is best suited for uniform sized and lengthed logs up to about 26" - 30" diameter and about 20' in length.
I know from personal experiance that a circle mill will cut much straighter timber in dense or abrasive hardwoods then any narrow band mill and do it longer and with less fuss, especially in wide cuts. This is the reason for going a wide band (10" on head rig and 6" on resaw).
Either way, both mills are good - so you can't go too far wrong.
Simon
For production purposes, with a one man or two, I would suggest that you take a close look at a Mobile Dimension Mill. I can produce a good 2,000ft. a day when sawing logs that are at least 12" and up. The two mills I operate are set up to saw at least a 4 1/2' log ( one at 18' and the other up to 26'). For precision in dimension, it is a great producer of right on dimensional lumber.
I'm getting the impression from my friends inside Wood-Mizer that the LT300 system is being received quite well as a primary breakdown mill and has been replacing a lot of circle mills.
They are rated by Wood-Mizer at 800 to 1200bf/hour of grade lumber. If used just to cant out the logs, it should do even better.
There happens to be a used 2003 LT300 listed on the Sawmill Exchange and it's in Ontario.
http://www.sawmill-exchange.com/band4.htm
sawmillsi
is the mill the stenner 72" that TCR have had for sale for some time. It might be worth your while to contact sawmill- solutions at Longtown in Cumbria as they can supply quite a range of machinery.
It seems that your going to have to spend quite a bit on foundations and installation costs. Why dont you get a French horizontal wide bandsaw [LBL Brenta- CD Bandsaw??] They probably have agents in French speaking Africa, can be driven by electric motor or diesel engine, similar to the old Forestor 150 wide bandsaw. Easy to install, not needing very expensive set up
regards AOM
AOM
I need to be able to cut logs up to 2 meters diameter (about 7'), our average log is about 4½'.
Will that bansaw do that wide?
Simon
I know the MD mill will do that size. Infact they are right now building a mill or two that will accomodate up to a 7' plus log, 30' long.
sawmillsi
Not sure if the french mills, can cut up to 5'6" diam. Another possibility is to use an automated chainsaw mill to break down extra large logs i.e. to split and quarter them into cants which can then be resawn on smaller headriggs, with less kerf less waste etc. A large headrigg is exellent for breakdown, but to produce 1" boards there is considerable waste some time back in Nigeria[?] Forester installed a horizontal bandmill with 4' throat to break down logs up to 5' and then used a multi head narrow blade resaw to lessen waste. There are considerable Forester 150, 180's in Asia and africa, they are basic driven often with diesel engines, cheap and easy to install, and can be easily set up to cut very long lengths. If you contact sawmill-solutions, I think the guy to talk to is Norman[?] The other possibility for a large headrigg would be some of the companies in the pacific North West, as many of the mills are downsizing their machinery.
aom
Aom,
The large band headrig i am going to look at runs a 3½mm kerf. A 3/8" pitch chainsaw chain runs a 8mm kerf, but I would have to run a 72" bar with .404" chain with a 10mm kerf.
How can a chainsaw have less kerf than a bandsaw?
I don't want a portable mill, I am setting up a fixed mill.
The headrig I am talking about will take at least 300m3 of cement for the foundations, let alone the resaw and in the future a frame saw (the same frame saw installed locally took over 160m3 of cement).
Easy to setup or move is not an issue for me. Throughput of timber, quality of cut (I need a wide band to cut wide boards - 4" is not enough) and longevity of machines (portable mills are not built strong enough).
Simon
Sawmillsi.
Perhaps I didn't explain myself well. A chain mill would purely be used for breakdown of extra large logs. Currently this is the procedure with the few remaining mills in the redwood region cutting old growth, chainsawmill to trim or split/quarter extra large logs then these cants are transfered to the bandmill for further processing. I believe Prinz, an austrian company manufacture such a mill. So the chainsawmill would not do all the processing, merely a breakdown. This way a smaller headrigg capable of a smaller cut 4-5' wide could be used for faster production. But if you go down the framesaw route I doubt if you can beat it, they cut very well even on dense tropical timbers. Perhaps something to look at is not only the headrigg, but also the carriage, as commonly here in the UK they match a large headrigg to a smaller fast softwood carriage, thus the carriage will never be able to carry a large enough log to match the headriggs capability. I understand that you want heavy duty machinery, and I doubt that you will improve on a large cast Iron headrigg with large frame saw leading off from it. But if your getting a company such as Stenner to install the machinery, the cost will be considerable, but if you expect production no doubt it should be ok. But if you intend to cut 100-150m3 a day into cants to be resawn the Forestor 150-180 would be ideal[ very similar to the french mills mentioned earlier] Likewise another company selling mills into Africa is PEZZALATO, they make both horizontal and vertical mills. I believe one of their mills has an 8" wide band and they used to make the mills for Forestor many years ago. www.pezzalato.com
regards AOM
Paul,
If you are talking about primary breakdown of logs, How big are the logs? If you are doing small (less then 20 inches primarily) a scragg mill and resaw will do the most production. A scragg mill has two circle blades (they do make them with bands) that can be adjusted apart and you can cut 2 slabs off at one time. Run it back through and knock off the other 2 and you have a cant. Set up the resaw to cut your 2x heigth and make sure your cant is 4,6,8 wide and you are in business.
Circles are fast for primary breakdown and there no more waste then a band as the slabs should be thinner. Resaws can make boards faster then most main head rigs. If you had a multi head resaw then you could really spit out production which is what the large mills do.
sawmillsi
following might be of interest
www.lbl-brenta-cd.com check out their cd mill
www.pezzolato.com range of wide horizontal bandmills, also sister company which make/sell vertical headriggs
dont know if pezzolato deal direct, contact for one of their agents is info@logsplittersuk.co.uk
regards aom
Arkansawyer
I like your idea of scragg mill. We currently own 2 bandmills we could convert them to electric and feed the output from the scragg mill to them. 95 % of the logs we will saw are under 20" for sure. The most thing we want to produce are 2x4/6/8/10 etc. Sound like a plan???
Who makes th ebest scragg mills IYHO?
Paul
Baker makes one in both circle and bands. Morgan Saw makes one that is circle and is portable. You can get them in diesel and electric. Baker is a sponsor here on FF. I do not remember what Morgans web site is and do not see my paper work on them. They are in Louisiana.
With a scragg mill you can bust cants faster then two band mills can saw them. You can place 2 or 3 cants at a time on the mill. A resaw can split them pretty fast. Get Baker to send you the video of ther set up where they have a scragg mill busing cants and a multihead resaw busting up the cants. It really spits them out.
Use you band mills to saw larger logs and have the scraggmill and resaw do every thing under 12 inches.
ARKANSAWYER
We use a Baker band scragg at our mill in Indiana and also Alabama. Our Indiana was the 2nd or 3d and could use some updates, but we can saw a log a minute without problems. The centering system needs to be redone to a modern version. Also we have to toggle the widths which slows us down.
Our Alabama mill has computerized sets and a much better centering system. It is not unusual to saw a log in 20 seconds. The nice thing about a scragg like this is that we can cut any width and also just saw 3 sides if we want.
Our average log size is 7 inches, we saw from 5 inches on up to about 12 or 13 depending on the amount of butt flair.
Visitors welcome.
Thank you both for all the info I will contact Baker they have a branch in Canada through the company they bought called Enercraft. its the same company I bought my first bandmill from. By the way just got a new Dig Camera. Hoping to post pictures of hauling logs by snowmobile this winter in a week or so when I get back home from Montreal
once again thanks Paul
tried to place my pin for location but no luck am i doing something wrong