Bozeman Sawmill from Princess Auto in Canada

[CJMurf]

Hi folks,

I picked up a sawmill on sale recently and I wanted to see if anyone else here is using one of these too.

Princess Auto is basically Canada's answer to Harbour Freight (maybe folks in the US spell it Harbor) and, well, you know... I'm usually a buy-once, cry-once guy, but getting my better half to let me "invest" even 3 g's was a dicey bit of business. So I've taken the chance. Never heard of "Bozeman" before, but YouTube had a couple of vids that didn't say bad things. Honestly, I'm pretty certain it's made of Chinesium, mostly because it's all metric hardware and there isn't a brand name to be found on anything, anywhere. But the instructions were good, and clear, which is atypical so I'm reserving judgement until I've given it a run for its money.

Anyway, I've assembled it carefully in the garage, adjusted the wheels, and fired it up. So far, the 1-1/4" blade tracks smoothly, so when the snow melts and I can get it into my back 40, I'll move it and get it sawing soon.

But if anyone has advice on this specific model, particularly any "gotcha's", I'd be very grateful. (Luckily, I can weld, because some of the welds I saw when I was assembling it weren't anything to write home about.)

Thanks!

 

[JustPlainJeff]

I've never heard of that brand, but then I'm not a sawmill guy. I have been watching some YouTube videos of the Woodland Mills sawmills lately though, as I've been considering giving one a try. From what I've heard, the Woodland Mills mills are made in China as well, but I've seen very few complaints about them. I don't see any reason that you'd be "doomed to failure" with yours.

Good luck, and I look forward to seeing some of your slabs.

 

[CJMurf]

I got it all assembled and running. Had to replace the blade because I had dulled it when fiddling with alignment settings in the garage. However, with a new blade, it cut like a laser beam! Very happy with what I've done so far (which isn't much, admittedly.)
Here's a YouTube vid of me zipping up my first maple log:

 

[djg james]

I got it all assembled and running. Had to replace the blade because I had dulled it when fiddling with alignment settings in the garage. However, with a new blade, it cut like a laser beam! Very happy with what I've done so far (which isn't much, admittedly.)
Here's a YouTube vid of me zipping up my first maple log:

Congratulations on your purchase. Wish I had bought one when I was younger. I could never justify the cost because there isn't much demand for lumber around here. Uncle may correct me.

On another forum, there's a thread about Harbor Freight's sawmill that's like 100 pages long. Lot a good info on how to upgrade the deficiencies of the cheap mill. If you start having trouble with yours, I could dig it up and PM you with the link.