Need honest opinions..

[Wood Hick]

I am a long time log cutter/ tree dropper/ firewood man but have never thought about milling, until now. I need some advice. I've looked at all types of portable mills. Primarily I would be milling for my own use, and mobility of the unit is not a big deal. Here is what I have narrowed it down to:

a) rebuilding my old 084AV and buying an Alaskan Mill. Would have less than a grand in it, but I am concerned about how slow these work.

b) There are a few old stationary blade mills for sale around here. Belsaw,etc.
Probably need to put in under roof and power it. Three or four grand.

c) Buy a portable band mill. Medium capacity, Manual feed. Seven to ten grand.

My main ideas are hobby milling and sawing out everything for a new barn here at my place. What do you fellas suggest?

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

I am a long time log cutter/ tree dropper/ firewood man but have never thought about milling, until now. I need some advice. I've looked at all types of portable mills. Primarily I would be milling for my own use, and mobility of the unit is not a big deal. Here is what I have narrowed it down to:

a) rebuilding my old 084AV and buying an Alaskan Mill. Would have less than a grand in it, but I am concerned about how slow these work.

b) There are a few old stationary blade mills for sale around here. Belsaw,etc.
Probably need to put in under roof and power it. Three or four grand.

c) Buy a portable band mill. Medium capacity, Manual feed. Seven to ten grand.

My main ideas are hobby milling and sawing out everything for a new barn here at my place. What do you fellas suggest?

Check out Woodshops posts. If you're on a budget and will only mill occasionally for personal use, a CSM and Ripsaw would be a good option.

BTW, a good 084 with 36" bar and good ripping chain isn't as slow as you may think but you will lose a lot of lumber to saw dust.

 

[dingo]

I am a long time log cutter/ tree dropper/ firewood man but have never thought about milling, until now. I need some advice. I've looked at all types of portable mills. Primarily I would be milling for my own use, and mobility of the unit is not a big deal. Here is what I have narrowed it down to:

a) rebuilding my old 084AV and buying an Alaskan Mill. Would have less than a grand in it, but I am concerned about how slow these work.

b) There are a few old stationary blade mills for sale around here. Belsaw,etc.
Probably need to put in under roof and power it. Three or four grand.

c) Buy a portable band mill. Medium capacity, Manual feed. Seven to ten grand.
My main ideas are hobby milling and sawing out everything for a new barn here at my place. What do you fellas suggest?

Really it boils down to what you can afford. The bug will usually bite after milling a while and something better will come to mind, either modifying your present equipment or up grade. I started with Alaskan and went to band mill, but still enjoy using the Alaskan for cuts the band mill will simply not do.:3grin2orange:

My main ideas are hobby milling and sawing out everything for a new barn here at my place. What do you fellas suggest?[/QUOTE]

 

[flht01]

I would recommend rigging out the 084 on a csm regardless of your decision if you have access to trees over 30" dbh. Big slabs are nice and a csm is one of the most economical ways to get them, especially since you already have the 084.

I followed Woodshop's methods and set up a Ripsaw to compliment a csm. It's a very compact system capable of doing more than you might expect. Perfect setup for someone wanting to mill their own lumber to support a woodworking hobby. Add a solar kiln (or dh kiln) and you can cut enough hardwood to more than pay for the equipment in one summer.

It sounds to me like your intentions may be a little more directed towards framing lumber if your milling for a barn. In that case, I think you'd be better served with either a bandmill (if most of your logs are under 30" dbh) or a swingblade (Peterson or Lucas type) if most will be bigger than 30" dbh.

Just be warned, milling can be very addictive. More than you could ever imagine

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I started out with a CSM long ago, but i could see right away that it was too slow and hard of work for my back. Years later i bought a bandmill...

Starting out today, knowing what i now know, i would look at the Norwood Lumberlite 24 as a hobby mill... It's a LOT of bandmill for around 4K, and it does a great job...

Next step up, for bigger logs is the Lumbermate 2000 for less than 6K, and it will handle 32" logs and you would have no problem sawing out a house or barn with it...

Best part is, if you decide you don't want it after sawing out what ever you want, it has RESALE... Also, it saws fast enough to saw a few logs for others if you want to make a few $$ on the side...

Lastly, it saws with an industrial OHV 4 stroke motor that will "last" a long long time with just gas and an occasional oil change... NO fumes, and it's "quiet"... And with the thin kerf of a bandsaw, every 5th board is FREE as it's not turned into sawdust..

Rob

 

[Semi-Hex]

I went with the Logosol and the chainsaw I have now. I do have other hobby's going on too, so I figured if I like what I'm doing I could easily upgrade. To me, this has been the right decision. I work for myself, business has been booming. I volunteer with Scouting, that has taken up a bunch of time. I mill as often as I can, so I don't look at my rig and shake my head, thinking "wow, I just spent x thousands on this rig that I hardly use". I have been upgrading bits and pieces (you can't believe all the bits and pieces there are) and have been very happy with the way I work.

 

[Rodney Sinclair]

I to use the Logosol. In my case, it's the M7 and the Big Mill with a 385 husky. And it does get the job done. While it's true you have a "little bit larger kerf", you also have half the cost. Using the Picco chain gives you a 1/4" kerf, or about the same as the round blades. And it isn't as slow as a lot of folks here would have you belive. If you don't have support equipment, it will do more than you will want to in a day.
Rodney

 

[MJR]

I went through the same process last winter you are going through now. My 385 goes through the wood “fast” but the CSM wasn’t for me. Maybe if I had more large trees (28’ Plus) I would have stuck with the CSM. After spending some time on a LT15 I was sold on the band mills. I made the newbie mistake of under estimating the weight of the log once it was on the ground and for that matter on the mill. If you go the band mill route you need a means of moving the logs. Also, you can purchase just the cutting head from most band mill manufactures. If you are building a barn, build the barn around the mill.
The Woodmen’s, Days in Boonville NY have different mill manufactures you can demo. I believe it is in June? If your in the Syracuse NY area stop in and you can try my little Lumber Lite 24 ($2900 8hp BS - Lenox blades $17).
Good Luck.

 

[woodshop]

As was said, there are pros and cons to every type of mill. Csm's, the Logosols... all of them have a niche. If I had the room for one, I would probably own one of the Norwood bandsaws. The more I read about them, I think they give you the most bang for the buck. Alas... I live in the burbs, not on a farm. Also I don't have anything like a tractor or ATV to bring the log to the bandsaw. I needed something I could throw in the back of a van and carry to the tree, but yet have it take care of 36" dia logs. I mill 3-4000 ft of mostly hardwood a year. Thus I use the csm/Ripsaw combo which allows me to mill 3-500 ft in a day. They compliment each other very well. Pros are the whole system fits in the back of my minivan, and the heaviest piece is the actual Ripsaw bandmill itself at about 50lbs. Thus you do get true portability. You can simply carry the saws/mills to the tree and start milling with only 10-15 minutes of setup. Jump on ripsaw.com and click on the "read the story" at the bottom of the page. Although I have no affiliation with Ripsaw other than being one of their customers, I wrote that article and allowed them to use it on their site. It explains my system pretty well. Because it's so portable, I would keep it even if I did eventually get a full blown larger bandmill. With a lot of extra putzing around using the 36" csm, you can even take care of very large logs like a 48" tree with my system. The downside of my csm/Ripsaw combo is that it is a lot of work compared to a larger bandmill and it is not designed for production work. If you are slicing 5/4 boards for example, you will be hard pressed to mill more than 400 ft of lumber in a day. You will also feel like you worked hard all day, because you would have.

Tell us what you eventually get if and when you do decide to do some milling. I see you are in PA, if you are near the Philadelphia area and want to see my setup I would be glad to show you.

 

[Wood Hick]

Thanks for all the good info. I still do not know what I am going to buy, but at least now I am a little closer to a decision. The barn I have planned is an a replica PA bank barn, all beams and mortise and tenon. I will probably have the Amish do the frame, I will do the rest. I can cut all of the beams off my own properties, and honestly I will probably buy the sheeting boards from a local mill. At about 27 cents a bf I can't see milling them all out will save me anything. I will keep ya posted!