Band vs Radial vs Granberg: your advice is needed.

[Den]

Hi,
I'm getting ready to start building/buying a sawmill for my personal use. Also getting a nice running 3 cylinder Yanmar diesel engine with radiator, wiring harness, etc. About 23 horse power. Not quite sure if this little diesel has enough power to run a 48" radial mill in big red oak. Yet it is too much motor for a band saw. I'm at the point I need to ask advice from folks who have a lot more experience than I do with milling.
1) I've kind of ruled out a Granberg/Alaska saw mill because of the cost of the saw, maintenance, chains, bars, bar oil, etc. Long set-up time. Not to mention the waste from each cut do to the wide kerf.
2) A band saw seems like a good choice. I can run it with a fairly small engine if necessary. Blades are relatively inexpensive. No oil required on the blade. Not much wasted wood from the width of the kerf.
3) The giant radial blade saw mill seems appealing to me. Say about a 48" round blade. Seems simple to construct, durable, low-maintenance. Only thing I'm concerned about is power plant requirements to adequately operate a radial mill with a 48" cutter wheel. And also the safety of a radial mill... seems kind of risky.

What are the benefits and drawbacks of each type?
Thanks.

 

[Brian72]

That engine will be fine for a bandmill. I don't think it would nearly powerful enough for a circle blade. The only real advantages of a chainsaw mill is portability and cut width. You're only limited by how much you want to spend on saws and bars. I enjoy running my chainsaw mill but it's certainly not for production. Mainly just wide slabs or breaking down big logs to fit on my buddy's circle mill.

Sent from my Moto E (4) using Tapatalk

 

[blades]

that 23 hp would be better on the band mill. Band mill best for slabbing, circular for cants. 48" dia carbide tipped circular saw with inserted tips will run in the neighborhood of $1700. Likely a max cutting width of apx 18". Tips will need to be sharpened and the blade body tension-ed every so often. Band blades in some cases can be sharpened and reset. Safety wise the are about a horse apiece. Break a band blade and it can come feeding out like a giant snake in the blink of an eye. I do not have a guess on the circular HP but I have never seen one of that size less than apx. 50hp. 48 inch blade is going to be between a 3/8" to 1/2" kerf. Body of the blade will be close to 1/4" thick by itself. The steel saw blades are less costly but higher maintenance ie require sharpening and setting more often
On either it is best to run a lube of some sort , 1 to cool blade ,2 prevent or reduce pitch build up. pitch build up creates friction = heat, heat is your enemy.

 

[SeMoTony]

One of the benny's of Alaskan style is seen in my avatar; only way to get that close to the ground with ability to cut a parallel edged slice. i got a 56" diameter sawmill blade for $65 at auction a few days ago. Just to "rub" the edge of boards to give the impression of old style posts, planks and the like. Production cutting of cants and smaller diameter live edge slabs a person is better off building a mill, with a chainsaw to trim oversize logs to the size limit of the band saw. The widest cut bandsaw I've seen around here is 32". My longest bar will reach across 67" on the Alaskan frame, til a 1/4" hole is drilled center of tip sprocket for the far post.
Then 69" should be possible. With 2 70cc saws and 2 90cc saws, bars ranging from 18" up to 72" I have about $5300 tied up including the 2 reels of chain. I don't include the Simmington grinder because most of that will come back when sold, and the quality of cutting edge can't be had locally. With care most of the money spent on the powerheads may return just like a commercial BS mill.
Comes down to what are the priorities

 

[Franny K]

How is a 48 inch diameter going to work in big red oak? Probably need two a high one and a low one set in the same plane.

I have only experimented in the 1 1/4 wide band mills. After a while the drag back to an edger seems sensible.

I would recommend buying a product as opposed to constructing one.

There are quite a variety of swing blade mills as well. Smaller ones use a chainsaw power head. They are not really limited by log size.

 

[Mad Professor]

I worked in a commercial mill years back.. The size circle you describe was run by a 300 hp 3-phase 440V electric. I saw it stall when it went into a big old oak full of horseshoes left from a split rail gate. 23-hp ain't near enough.

 

[Den]

Great advice fella's.
I think "Franny K" had the best advice of all... buy an existing product and don't attempt to construct one.
When am I going to have the time to construct one?
How much of the build will I have to farm out since I've already sold my welder, torches, and chop saw years ago.
How much money will I have in it when I'm done constructing, as apposed to simply finding a deal on a used one?
Will the unit I design have properly engineered safety features? (You all know as well as I do how fast things can go sideways... at the drop of a hat).
There are a lot of functions/forces taking place on any mill. If safety is not foremost, then an enjoying day cutting slabs can turn into severe injuries or worse.