Band Mill Owners What Do You Think Of....

[Minnesota_boy]

Before buying a mill, I think a person should know what resource they will be sawing and what is the market for the finished goods.  Both of these are as important as to which mill to buy.  The mill is simply one of the tools to take logs into lumber and will be determined by the answers to what resource and what market.

Boy is that ever true!  Only problem is that in this area, one runs into so many variations that one would need different mills to best accomplish the job.  Sometimes those variations are all in the same pile of logs, so we do the best with what we can afford.  I cannot always saw perfectly flat on all species.  Some just won't allow that with the bands I have, but I cannot afford to be prepared for all the possible variations, so I and my customers have to accept that life isn't perfect and neither is my product, but that I do the best I can and it is usually pretty acceptable.

[isassi]

I guess my moral tot he thread would be my flawed reasoning for a circle mill over a bandmill. I did very little research on bandmills, but when I was a kid, my grandfather owned a home built circle mill. He grew up here, same as me, and reference materials on sawing were not around ( I think the internet would have amazed him). My journey back into sawing came when we removed a huge pecan tree to make way for construction, and rather then make firewood out of it, I called a sawyer and hauled the logs in for cutting. He runs a TK 1200, all manual, and it took him all day and 4 bands to cut the pecan logs. He had trouble turning and handling them, and consequently, did not utilize the logs correctly. Needless to say, my judgement on bandmills came from this one exposure, and eventhough the waste from a circle kills me, I considered the time factor a killer. My own goal for milling is to do all the interior finish, paneling, and beams for my new house. I can also say I prefer the rough sawn look from a circle mill. Now that I am getting calls to saw for others, all word of mouth, and I have learned volumes since, I would love to have a bandmill. Since I gain experience with every log I mill, and I have great background with woodworking and construction, I will gain the competence to become a good miller. As Arkansawyer and I agree, experience counts for everything, the machine is a factor, but a WM LT40 in the hands of novice does not make great lumber, but I bet many of you with the cheesiest bandmill can make fine lumber.  :P

[ronwood]

joasis,

I could not agree with you more. Even with my Woodmizer I can make bad boards if I don't change the blade soon enough or am careless. Alot has to do with the sawyer.

Ron