I have been using a chainsaw mill and I am thinking of upgrading to a small portable bandsaw mill that I can move between some remote site behind my ATV. I have looked on the internet and they do not seem all that complex.

Has anyone here used one? Building my own is not out of the question but why reinvent the wheel right?

The main reason for the switch is I hear that a bandsaw will mill smaller diameter logs, create less sawdust, is easier than the chainsaw mill, and produces more wood at a better quality than the chainsaw mill?

Thanks in advance.
SJ

 

I have no experience with a bandsaw,but I was raised around sawmills. Great Northern Tools sells one I think. Also,the band saw is the way to go if you want good sawn lumber.The chainsaw rig is just that,a rig...no waste of lumber.

 

Yeah any sort of bandsaw mill would be an improvement of the chainsaw rig. they're about the most wasteful and inefficient way to make lumber there is. Terribly rough on saws too I'm told. You can do some real work with a good bandsaw mill from what folks who have them have told me. A lot of guys will go in with their sons or brother's in laws or son's in law etc to buy one and cut lumber for a few years and then sell it so you can find used one really reasonable sometimes.

I've been really tempted at times to invest in a bandsaw mill but I've never taken the plunge. It's an awful lot of heavy work and my back has a hard enough time getting enough firewood stacked and split without trying to start cutting dimensional lumber to the mix. Speaking of which I haven't hardly got started on firewood. Thankfully most of it is dead and just needs to be cut and split or I'd be in real trouble.

 

The chainsaw mills are a good way to burn out a saw if you use them to any degree. Wastes a fair amount of wood, too.

I've been looking at portable sawmills. Timber King makes a good one, but like any commercial grade gear, it's expensive, like $3k to $4k for the smaller ones. The band blade definitely cuts neater and with less waste. In the heavily forested areas, you can rent them. Real problem there is wrestling the logs in place. Suckers are heavy!

I got to start on firewood soon. Got four big oak trees down on my farm. The king of firewood, burns all night, but it takes a while to cure. Don't want to end up like I did last winter, splitting it thin, drying it in front of the wood stove, and having the house stinking of sour milk. Well, it beats paying $2 a gallon for propane.

 

I had dead timber come down all over my farm this spring and summer so I've got relatively pre-seasoned firewood laying all over the place but I have to get out there and cut it and worse yet split the stuff and I haven't even started. Heck, I've got some left over stuff in my woodpile that hasn't been split. I desperately need a log splitter.

I was told there was an antique saw mill set-up that went at auction around here fairly reasonable. It wasn't good for high production lumber work but for someone who just wanted to tinker with it would have been ideal. You would have had to have rigged up a belt system or ran it from a tractor.

 

Been looking at a 20ft long portable bandsaw mill. It has its own trailer axle and weighs about 500lbs. It is towable behind a snowgo or an ATV. It is $2600 new and will cut logs up to 20ft long and 18inches wide. Figure I should be able to recoup that in lumber costs fairly easy.

Tinkering is not an issue, getting it shipped to Ak is. I also want one that will not need much tinkering as I will be using it approximately 30miles from the nearest road.

I will try to get some pictures of it up here as soon as I pick it up at the end of the month.

Chainsaw mill is not bad for small quantities of lumber as long as the chain is kept sharp and the riders/rakers are filed properly.


SJ