Baker sawmills

[Herbettehunter]

On a previous thread titled Cooks Sawmills I received a lot of good feedback about this company and its products. My own research has shown that there have been a number of quality control issues with Cooks Hardware of late. So I'm now looking at Baker sawmills and asking anyone to provide Pro/Con comments as I'm looking to upgrade to a fully hydraulic production model sawmill next spring. I greatly appreciate all the help this forum has provided me to date which for a newbie like me is so invaluable.

 

[Franny K]

Did you put your quality control issues with Cooks in that thread?

The large Baker band mill is the most impressive at the Paul Bunyan show. How it works not in drag back mode should be evaluated. I bought their demo board edger saved on shipping but I can't allign the belts with the blades, the boards were moving away from the guide at the demo. I will discuss on phone if you wish. The tax business changed also after the sale.
The small Baker mill is someone else's design, maybe the big one too.

 

[Herbettehunter]

Did you put your quality control issues with Cooks in that thread?

The large Baker band mill is the most impressive at the Paul Bunyan show. How it works not in drag back mode should be evaluated. I bought their demo board edger saved on shipping but I can't allign the belts with the blades, the boards were moving away from the guide at the demo. I will discuss on phone if you wish. The tax business changed also after the sale.
The small Baker mill is someone else's design, maybe the big one too.

Thanks for responding Franny K. I did not list the quality control issues because they weren't mine they were other people who had Cooks equipment in the last couple of years and the issues that they've been experiencing and the poor customer service they've been getting. I would be happy to talk to you on the phone about that but I didn't think it was right to blast it out in the public forum since its second hand. I very much would like to talk to you on the phone regarding Baker. My email address is [email protected] if you would like to set up some time and a contact number.

 

[Franny K]

Here is a picture of my issue with the Baker edger. What this picture shows is the under color of paint where the pillow blocks for the drive belt roller were as delivered and where I moved them to, as far as possible without dis assembling and modifying holes and slots. Yes the other end was pushed as far as possible as well. One would think the blade arbor is supposed to be parallel with roller shaft, the drive one. On the input one the distance is still about 3/32" from where I want it. I assume they got the vertical spacing of the roller spindles right and the issue is only horizontal, but It works ok at this point. If someone is to order one of these things there is a longer belt variant or option which I would recommend.