Slowzuki's mill progress.

[jpgreen]

There of course is another option.
You can buy a beater LT30, or 40 like I did and rebuild it.

I bought mine cheap and went through the whole thing, and I don't think you can loose money on it. Even with a hydraulic mill the big labor factor is downing trees, moving logs, then cut lumber obvioulsy, but I was fortunate to eventually aquire an ASV skid steer.

Now we're talking production for a one man home operation. I move, mill, and have a pile of lumber ready easily for building.

3 years later for myself, I think I made a good decision.

[SwampDonkey]

Depends on where your located and what you will be charged for parts. If building a sawmill is like building a brush saw all over by yourself, it will cost you about $500 more in these parts than buying a new one. No kidding. An angle gear assembly is about $400 bucks and that's nothing more than a housing, a gear and a sealed bearing. Not including the plate and spacer to mount the blade onto. Don't even include the blade guard for another $75 bucks. DOH!  :

[slowzuki]

I never got back to see the responses!  I don't think I have a house/shop thread on here, I should put that together someday!  I'm still working on it, recently built a stair case and laid a mess of t&g 2x6 flooring.

I still haven't touched the mill.  I've found I like logging much more than sawmilling just due to the time factor.  I have so many backed up projects now it gets downright frustrating.  I'm just keeping up with maintenance of equipment and not getting through the backlog.

A lot of my log supply was cut up for fire wood this fall since it was garbage for mill now.  I cut 4 cords and have probably 4-6 left to do in the spring.  The advice to store your trees on the stump is wise.

I'll toss some more specific mill building advice out too:
-try the rubber tires on your first mill.  My sheaves are expensive and I don't think run any truer once the belts go on.
-Don't use one 10 hp electric, use two smaller motors slaved together.  Saves a pile of pain starting the darned things.
-Make the frame between bearings straight.  It will make a sliding type tensioner balanced and slide better.  You still get lots of throat.
-You don't need to fit super huge logs.  I thought I needed to fit 40" logs and built the frame for it.  Well, the guides can't go out that far if you want to have close support of the blade behind the backstop.  Don't build with centering everything in mind, focus on the backstop since the log will never be outside of that.
-Make it weather proof or at least smooth on top.  I can't keep the thing covered for long as the wind destroys tarps on the sharp edges.  I walk out once a month and have to retarp the thing.

Embarassingly, a cheapskate like me ended up spending about 5000$ building the mill.  Steel was at an all time high then and the 10 hp weather proof electric motor was almost 1000$.  The sheeves added a pretty penny too.  Thats probably why I'm kicking myself for not going the LT-15 route!

Ken

[customsawyer]

Sounds like you need to go down to the lodge and have a cold one with my FIL. ;D

[bandmiller2]

Slow Z,quite a story kinda like a TV soap.Really on building bandmills if a person has the tools and the ability and most of the material its worthwile.If you have to buy everything your better to buy,preferably used.Mayby when/if things slow down you can update your mill you will always need wood.Where are you located in NB,I used to spend summers at the family homested at Turtle Creek,had two uncles that were dairy farmers. Frank C.

[slowzuki]

I'm from the Fredericton area, along the Saint John river.  I sound bitter about the whole thing but really I've just been so busy my ever optimistic internal scheduler is constantly out of time!

If only I could quit my job so I could get some work done!