band sawmills

http://www.arboristsite.com/community/forums/milling-saw-mills.62/

you should ask these boys that question

I have run quite a few board feet on my grandpa's Wood mizer. The thing is awesome: hydraulic roll/maneuvering of the log, accurate (for rough sawn). Also, it's very portable, towed easily with his 1/2 ton truck. He cut all the hardwood flooring and trim for my parent's and sister's house over the years. His mill is going on 22 years old with no major problems, even the 26 HP gas Onan (they use a lot of diesels now).

Dave, are you looking to just do your own or go into the business?

I'd be looking at the smaller manual mills then Dave, like Hudson, etc. The Cooks, Woodmizers, etc. certainly are nice but the prices are steep. Options like computer setworks are really not needed to make good lumber. If you go with one of the smaller manual mills, take care of it, if it's something you want to go bigger & better someday, you can sell it & upgrade. One thing really important is a way to move logs, without dragging them in the dirt. Bandmills absolutely need clean logs, as the bands are dulled in one pass through mud, dirt in bark, etc.

Sawmillexchange.com is a good reference on used prices. I have found fairly few folks who can justify the purchase of one of these. It sounds great and if you have 20K for a hobby it beats a boat but the reality seems to be that you can buy the raw wood for less than the interest payments. In addition to the mill you need mobile stock, usually a tractor with forks to move the logs in and the wood out and one big truck (3/4 ton) to haul it around.

I bought a used Woodmizer LT40 hydraulic about 10 years ago with the same thoughts as you have. First and foremost, the mill is great, easy to learn how to use, and easily handled by a single person, although for any serious production an operator plus 2-3 helpers are needed.

Sawing for others? I looked into insurance to haul the mill and cover liability, also workers comp for employed helpers, and the cost was so high that not worth it unless making it a serious business, which was not what I wanted. I will cut for others if they haul the logs to my site and I cut, they do not help (liability exposure, probably low risk but big loss potential), and they load and haul away their green cut lumber. I will not travel with the mill. I will keep slabs without charge or they can haul them away. And I charge by the hour, not board feet. Since I want a life, I don't advertise, but some cutting on word of mouth.

For personal use, great. I hired a guy with a Woodmizer to cut up a big white pine I lost in a storm, over 1000 board feet of lumber out of that one tree, 18" wide rough cut planks which are now the floor in one of the rooms of our house. With that my wife said I needed my own mill, thus found a used one, she bought it for me, story told. So I cut from our own land diseased and storm damaged trees: (pine - white, red and jack), birch, red oak, aspen primarily. For own uses: 2 x 6 studs for home addition; joists/heavy stock 2 x 8", 10" and 12"; 1" x widths 6" to 18"; oak, birch and pine furniture; birch, pine and aspen paneling; miscellaneous.

Cost effective? No, but convenience level is extremely high. And if you have lots of trees, as we do, extremely useful to put some of those to use other than firewood. I maintain a stock of pine, birch and oak for personal uses, also sell some to local carpenters for finish work. Carpenters/builders won't buy construction lumber because not graded (building codes and mortgage company don't permit ungraded lumber).

Rough sawing is very accurate, and I have done rough sawed planking and paneling used as is; also have cut thickness down to 1/2" rough for planing and use as thin paneling (5/16" finish). Edging I use for kindling; slabs for the gasification boiler. Also built a solar dry kiln. Be aware: you need space to dry and store lumber.

Final thought: think this through carefully, do lots of research, not an easy or quick decision on this one.

I used to run an LT40 back in my high school days for a guy, I was the operator and had 2 buddies to buck the lumber/slabs. Guy that owned it loved trees and cutting but his back was shot. This one had the manual log turner, and manual toe boards and we got along ok, no big board feet numbers like a production mill. Running it takes a bit of skill, knowing when to turn it to keep the stress in line and as many knots out as you could, people would bring in storm damaged logs what had so much stress the board would practically jump off the cant. Or logs from in town that had so many nails in it you had to scrap it. Wood mizer has a re-sharp program where you send in your bands and they sharpen/set them and ship em back. I ran dish soap/water to keep the sap off the blade, would spend a good day once a year and align everything and it cut like a dream, wood workers just love quatersawn oak! Bottom line, its a great hobby if you can afford it, you can cut lumber wood workers drool over, I know I sure miss running it, the guy passed away, I started a career and I'm not sure where the mill went but you have inspired me to perhaps track it down! Cheers!