Do I or Don't I buy the bandmill????????

[kabe1953]

G'day to all,
Before I committ the hard earned $$$$ I have some concers re band saw mill in Australian hardwoods.
G'day Mate,
I am seriously considering purchasing a portable band mill but have some reservations regarding their ability to handle our local hardwoods.
Does anyone have any experience with our timbers.
What width blades do you use.
We mainly mill forest redgum, iron bark and spotted gum 90% of which is dry timber, logs have been down for around 4-5 years currently with a 9 1/4"Lucas.
We have all size of logs from 250mm thru to 1.8m the Lucas isn't too bad on the larger logs however on the smaller stuff I really struggle with recovery rates and speed especially cutting 100 x 25.
I have had differing opinions on bandsaws for hardwood all of which are at the extremes,  "people either love em or hate em."
The saw I'm looking at is 800mm capacity, runs 100mm wide blade, powered by an Isuzu 80 hp diesel and is all hydraulic and incorporates a twin edger infont of the band.
I am (if I proceed) planning to run slabs out of the band straight into the Lucas and use it as a rip saw.
I would appreciate your thoughts.

[mikeandike]

Get a demonstration or go look at a similar mill working maybe.

What kind of mill is it? (brand and model)

[kabe1953]

The mill was built by Australasian Forest Products in New Zealnd before they went broke. It has apparently been cutting similar hardwoods.
A lot of the big mills here use vertical bandsaws on hardwoods instead of circular saws, but a lot of them have also taken them out and back to thin kerf circular saws or put ARI gang saws.
My gut feeling says that it should do the job. Using a 4" wide band should help eleviate the band wandering in the cut that I am told is the main problem with bands in our timber. The big mills all use 4'-6" bands.
The mill is currently running stellite tipped bands same as big mills.
It runs 36" solid steel wheels without tyres.
The whole mill is 10m long and weighs 4 1/2 tonne (about 10,000lb)

[Tom]

The main problem most folks have, sawing with a bandmill, is trying to saw too fast and using a blade that is not sharp.

A blade can be not-sharp and still not be dull.   It is just not sharp enough for the wood that you are sawing.  It might be because of dryness or hardness or knots or wavy grain, but, a sharper blade will usually get through it.  I have pulled blades that weren't "sharp-enough" before and used them on other logs later.  I know there are tooth materials harder, but, I use carbon steel blades with hardened teeth because I can sharpen them myself.  It makes changing a blade a lessor intimidating job because I can touch it up myself instead of sending it off.

I think you will be happy with a band mill if you let it do its job and not force it to do what You want.

Properly set guides will help a blade stay true as well.

You are talking about a mighty hefty saw.   I saw with an 1 1/4 blade and have good results when I keep it sharp and don't try to cut faster than the blade is capable.  Just remember that it isn't a shear.  It's a lot of little chisels.

[D._Frederick]

With a 4 inch band, it requires special equipment to keep the band tensioned correctly and also sharpened. This equipment will cost about 1/3 the cost of mill and require special training to operate.

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

As D Frederick says,  dealing with Stellite 100mm bands is another world from the typical band sawyer.  Wide bands have a certain shape to be maintained.  Hit metal and Stellite is gone and you are into big dollars.
:(
Can the forward running edger saws be adjusted "on the fly" (while turning) like they can on a good two-saw edger?  If not, that would be a productivity issue when running inconsistently sized logs, which is what most of us have to face every day.

Frankly,  I think that cutting big cants on a swinger which are then turned to a bandsaw running about a 35-40mm hardened steel band would be a better combination.  You can even cut three cants side by side on the band mill, if you take your time.  The carbide on the swinger can deal with bark, dirt, and the hardened outer layers of the logs.  The bandsaw then can deal with the tenderloin!  You can plan to put the smaller logs straight onto the bandmill!  Save the bigguns for the swinger.  Make cants.  Flip onto the band mill as a resaw.
;)
Phil L.