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Anybody else running Select, Heartwood or other double cutting Bandmill?

Started by slohand, April 19, 2010, 12:28:01 AM

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slohand

Newbie here. Just wondering if anybody else is running Select mills, or other similar double cutting wide band mills. It would be nice to swap some tips and ideas on these mills with other owners.

Tom

We've had very few over the years, but now and again someone shows up.  Stick around and join in.  All these conversations start with one guy.  If he leaves, you never get to the second guy.  :D  Welcome to the forum.

pasbuild

If it can't be nailed or glued then screw it

slohand

Thanks for the welcome. I'm not really surprised you don't hear much about Select mills since there aren't that many around, maybe 100 worldwide. I think by comparison there are over 30 thousand WM,  so it stands to reason that you get a lot more discussion on orange mills.
My mill is a stationary electric/hydraulic/air setup running the 6" double cutting blades, but I can assure you if I was looking at a very portable setup the Select 3620 diesel would be the only mill I would consider.  Very reliable and cheap blade costs which might surprise a lot of people. Yes the blades are $300 a pop, but we often can run 5000 feet or more on a $40 sharpening and they last for years... I recently replaced a set of 20 that were 3 years old and ground down from 6" to only 4.5" ... well over 100 sharpenings.
Anyway if anybody wants info...  I've only got a couple of recent pixs of mill, which has around 15
thousand hours on it. Guys nearby have one with over 30 thousand. They were *pithed that they actually had to change the main bearings recently... Another pix of a small local stick.

backwoods sawyer

I have ran set of twin double cut vertical bandsaw in a production mill for many years, and looked into the Select mill when I bought my LT-70, Good mills. There is one set up stationary about 30 miles from me, and it supports a fairly large operation. 
Glad to see you join us here, and look forward to hearing more about your set up.
Backwoods Custom Milling Inc.
100% portable. . Oregons largest portable sawmill service, serving all of Oregon, from our Backwoods to yours..sawing since 1991

shenandoahsawmill

Hi; Sorry about last post. Hit the go button by mistake. Hate when that happens. I am running a double cut Povlsen mill using 5" wide blades. I am still getting the bugs worked out of the mill. Saws great though. I brought it back from the dead as a basket case when I bought it. I am currently working on a jockey grinder for the blade so I can grind the blade in place rather than removing it. I am also looking into computer setworks and am checking out WM accuset. Don't know if it can be retrofit to an all hydraulic setup though. What are you doing with your old saws when they are in the 5" width range? If you throw them out I might be interested in buying them.   Gary

beenthere

Gary
You can always go back to your posted message and modify it.  :) :)

Would like some pics of your mill....we like pics  ;D
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

slohand

Shenando...

There were quite a few Polvens running twenty years ago and still some around up in this neck of the woods... BC.  In fact I think they were built up here. They were the first horizontal double cut made in North America as far as I know. There were a few European made horizontal double cuts including the Lindner, 30 years or so ago, but not many made it to this side of the puddle. They were normally used for making veneer flitchs, not primary breakdown.
The two or three Polven operators I have seen or heard of around here seem to have trouble running them as double cuts and usually give up and run them one way only.  I'm not quite sure why getting a double cut mill to work well both ways should be such a technical problem, but it seems to be. Both the Select and I think Heartwood seem to work just fine both ways though. If there is a problem sometimes it relates to a sawyer not used to cutting both ways... you should try and balance your cuts to even out the stretch and strain on the blade. Invariably, however, you will use the front edge more than the rear just doing opening cuts etc. A saw filer familiar with double cut blades will often put "back" in the blade to compensate for this difference.
Re setworks. The one Polven I have seen up close has Omron setworks over hydraulic. I thinkit was the factory setup.
My Select also runs Omron and has been pretty reliable.
Re my used blades... I like to keep them for training sawyers... when they crash one it doesn't cost you $300 out the window and besides you can use the busted parts for beating on them for bad habits acquired running $35 blades...

shenandoahsawmill

Slohand; Thanks for the great info. Where do you live? My Povlsen seems to cut great in both directions. I have a great saw shop. As for the photos someone requested, I have a few in my gallery, or you can search "Povlsen mill back from the dead"  Gary

slohand

Shenando..
I live up on Vancouver Island, BC . Cut mostly Douglas Fir and Cedar and some Yellow Ceder and Sitka Spruce.
A good saw filer is vital to any mill no matter what size, so if you've got one handy that is half the battle. If you have any problems cutting hard or very dry wood, let me know... I have lots of experience and some fixes that really work well, at least for swage tooth blades.
I expect by now you will have discovered one major advantage of a double cutting mill... they are also an awesome resaw.  Because you can cut both ways and rapidly, you can really pound out the boards. You can get the same production in one machine as a single cut mill with seperate resaw and go- around system.
If this recession thing ever ends, I'm actually considering getting a second portable style diesel powered Select to put in front of my electric mill. The diesel to do the primary breakdown and make cants and the electric to resaw cants into final product. If log runs are smaller logs, I'd pull the diesel off line and run them all through my exisiting mill and edger.
Anybody out there done something similar?


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