laimet 120 sawmill

[thecol]

ng for info on a laimet 120 sawmill I just bough one im in ny anybody running one ?

[longtime lurker]

I've got a fair bit of time on a Kara - green paint instead of blue. It's a Ford/Chevy debate.

[dgdrls]

Very cool.  Where are you in NY??

Post some Pics,

D

[5quarter]

made in Finland...here's their website:

http://www.laimet.com/yritys/

[ozarkgem]

Just watched a video. How do you dog the logs?

[longtime lurker]

Theres a couple manual dogs that swing over the side for the first cut, and a (at least on a Kara I assume Laimet is the same) pop up dog that drives into the butt of the log. Have a look around the 27 second mark here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb6PFr1Az4M 

and you'll see the butt dog go in. That full Kara master system is an awfull nice piece of integrated sawline for a small operation isn't it? That guys only some factory weenie playing in that video, they'll punch some timber through a day/week/year when you know how to drive one. I'd give one of them a home real quick...

You only dog them for the first cut and then downturn onto a cut face and use the Hob to hold them for the rest. Thats why the things are so accurate on sizing... the hob holds the log to the sizing fence rather then dogs holding the log in a line and hoping its a parellel line to the husk.
Hob speed is synced to the table speed so its actually a hell of a lot safer then it sounds.Of course it also means you can cut a perfectly thicknessed end to end board with a bend in it but thats avoidable if you know how.

They're a good mill. Kara are very popular here with the small hardwood guys like us, and Laimet are well regarded but dont have a dealer in the country so not as common.

[ozarkgem]

Guess I don't understand why it is build so complicated and what the advantage is over a regular circle mill.(Hurdle,Frick ect). Seems slow for a circle mill. Does look very well built though. Looks like you would pay for a lot of expensive engineering that may not be needed. But I would have to see one up close and see production numbers at the end of the day. I am sure its still faster than a bandmill.

[longtime lurker]

Different mills, different sweet spots, different applications is the best way to put it. 42"saw, handle a log out to about 2' max, (3' with the topsaw fitted)... but its sweet spot is in the range from about 12-20". A carriage mill as configured here the sweet spot is usually 24-48" logs.

In Australia most hardwood is eucalypt - its a lot harder, logs tend to have a lot of spring, many species have very high shrinkage rates that mean much is quartersawn to reduce drying collapse.

Hardwood mills here are nearly all circle mills, and its incredibly rare to see a conventional carriage mill working by itself... I've heard of it but never seen it... we use carriage mills for primary breakdown only and then feed flitches to the bench. If the conventional has headblocks and a linebar the flitches might be sized, if not then its just used to break the log into halves, quarters, six... whatever size the bench can handle. The bench does all the work of producing accurate dimension lumber.

Hydraulic rack benches like the Laimet/Kara/Slidetec wont produce like a one man linebar bench... not much will,  a big Grey or similar automatic bench is the circlular equivalent to an 8" band resaw... but they are a bit more versatile with the ability to process small logs in the round, and a bit better equipt to produce accurately sawn straight timber from springy logs.
And the output capacity is about right for a 2/3 man operation, it's as pointless having a high output hydraulic or air bench that'll throughput 50 ton a day as it is owning an 8"band resaw if you've got logs and manpower sufficient to feed an Lt70

All the complexity hanging off the side? Thats the part that replaces labour with automation, which in any sawmill is where the money comes from. If you look that log gets split six ways... sawdust, edgings and trimmings to chipper, loop back for resaw,  live edge timber to the automatic edger, plus two different output lines. All achieved by one guy whos sawing the log at the same time. Makes for very efficient small scale operation - any time you can replace an LCD guy (Lift, Carry, Drag) with a machine you get more profitable.