Probably a Belsaw. They sold a ton of them as a portable sawmill. Look here http://crowsnest.us/sawmill/m14.htm for some information. I too passed on one that was set up and working for $500. The gentleman ran it with a AC WD.
Circular saw mills
- Thread starter camel2019
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camel2019
ArboristSite Guru
Would have been a awesome thing to have not only for making my own lumber but for engine shows.
Was a time when I would have 3 or 4 of those 30" -50" buzz saw blades here in the shop for tune ups. Haven't had one come in for 6 or 7 years now. All hand work. Don't really miss them as they were a lot of work.
I just do my own on occasion. Been several years since I gummed,shapened and set the teeth. AND I DON'T MISS THEM EITHER. Not the blade but the way they would come in all buggered up with grinders and no clue to what they were trying to accomplish.
I have an early belsaw. Babbitt bearing had A 48" F style blade which is way mire than I would feel safe on a 1-3/8" mandrel .. Mine has a cast iron tool holder with Belsay cast in and serial 14 0000029 I think been a while since I looked at it, It was put onto 10" channel for a frame by previous owner. and driven with an early 50s' pontiac .. theright rear wheel jacked up and a drive shaft attached to where the wheel bolted. I remember it in the timber along the road and saw Lorraine Frank running it a few times. that was when it was on wood and somewhere around Later 60s'. His daughter helped the mill look good too.
I gave 500 for it as scrap price I wanted the blade and the cast tool holder.
This sort of circle mill won't light the world on fire. but it will be fun to run some day. I have to many other saw mill projects to be working on. A band mill is easier to keep tuned and make uniform lumber. The dollars invested on a used circle mill and the production you get will will offset the 9/32" kerf if you are running a 8/9 gauge blade and if you have sandy soil conditions they will do better and if you can have both then use the circle to break down the log and resaw the cant/timber. Workmans comp is a VERY BIG factor as a band resaw is considered a remanufacturing process and is -here in Nebraska- usually just lumber yard rates where a sawmill gets effed over even with never having a claim..
I gave 500 for it as scrap price I wanted the blade and the cast tool holder.
This sort of circle mill won't light the world on fire. but it will be fun to run some day. I have to many other saw mill projects to be working on. A band mill is easier to keep tuned and make uniform lumber. The dollars invested on a used circle mill and the production you get will will offset the 9/32" kerf if you are running a 8/9 gauge blade and if you have sandy soil conditions they will do better and if you can have both then use the circle to break down the log and resaw the cant/timber. Workmans comp is a VERY BIG factor as a band resaw is considered a remanufacturing process and is -here in Nebraska- usually just lumber yard rates where a sawmill gets effed over even with never having a claim..
The metal merchants (that supply mainly big stuff for the mining industry) and where I buy my stuff from all use bandsaws. Not that I buy anything big, most of the stuff I buy is from their scrap bin, Stainless, Bisalloy plate, ally etc.
Their bandsaw setups are large (typically 30" deep throats). They bundle up 6x6" tube into packs of 16 and use upright power feed saws to cut trough the entire pack.
The speciality steel merchants I go to all use power feed bandsaws even to cut single pieces. They do have a cold saw in a corner covered in dust and I have never see it in use. A smaller scale supplier of steel for local fabricators, and my mate that runs a steel fabrication business use cold saws. Every now and then my ute calls me and says they're having a clean out and I come before a certain date it save him sending it for scrap. Last year I got bunch of stainless angle which has come in really handy. I made a small log frame out of some of the SS angle to hold logs shorter than the distance between the bunks on the BS mill.
I have a $100 metal cutting bandsaw that I bought 10 years ago and it was probably 20 years old when I bought it. Its slow BUT it's quiet, no sparks and can be left to cut and turn itself off while I do something else. Using a bimetal blade it cuts stainless really nicely.
I do have a small home made abrasive table saw that uses a 5" thin kerf blade that I use to cut small still or rip longer pieces. It has a mitre slide and is driven by a 1HP variable speed 3P grinder motor. The mitre and table are made of stainless and most of the sparks are caught by dust extraction and the baked bean can under the table.
Their bandsaw setups are large (typically 30" deep throats). They bundle up 6x6" tube into packs of 16 and use upright power feed saws to cut trough the entire pack.
The speciality steel merchants I go to all use power feed bandsaws even to cut single pieces. They do have a cold saw in a corner covered in dust and I have never see it in use. A smaller scale supplier of steel for local fabricators, and my mate that runs a steel fabrication business use cold saws. Every now and then my ute calls me and says they're having a clean out and I come before a certain date it save him sending it for scrap. Last year I got bunch of stainless angle which has come in really handy. I made a small log frame out of some of the SS angle to hold logs shorter than the distance between the bunks on the BS mill.
I have a $100 metal cutting bandsaw that I bought 10 years ago and it was probably 20 years old when I bought it. Its slow BUT it's quiet, no sparks and can be left to cut and turn itself off while I do something else. Using a bimetal blade it cuts stainless really nicely.
I do have a small home made abrasive table saw that uses a 5" thin kerf blade that I use to cut small still or rip longer pieces. It has a mitre slide and is driven by a 1HP variable speed 3P grinder motor. The mitre and table are made of stainless and most of the sparks are caught by dust extraction and the baked bean can under the table.
camel2019
ArboristSite Guru
I have over 2 ton of angle iron plate and square tubing that always comes in handy when needing to build something. Was thinking maybe a 2 man Alaskan style mill for now with my opposed twin Briggs I think it’s a 20hp should be able to run a decent sized bar with it.
It depends on the size of the trees you have.
Even if you have a two manner, lumping around a steel framed Alaskan, a long bar and heavy power head gets boring very quickly.
I have 4 CS mills, the smallest is for trees <20" it uses a 441 with low pro chain with extra low rakers and on 20" wood it cuts as fast as the all ally frame mill with the 880 and the 60" bar.
For something with a 20HP motor you might be better off building a rail mill.
camel2019
ArboristSite Guru
Unfortunately won’t have the space for a rail mill till I get a chunk of land (was given the big no by my grandparents for building one there). Soft woods don’t get too big here biggest that I could harvest would be maybe 32 or so on the stump. hard wood much bigger some of them old oaks and maples are 5 foot and bigger on the stump these are old growth nothing I’d want to cut unless I had too.
If you take the dogs off a CS a 32" log can be milled with a 36" bar. If a "mount the Alaskan to the bar bolts and hold the bar at a bolt at the centre of the nose" method you can mill a 33.5" log with a 36" bar.
20HP for a 32": softwood is going to be overkill ie a lot of weight for not a lot of gain in cutting speed. Actual cutting times are often not as important as you think. Preping the log , refuelling and sharpening, living mills on and off the log, and handling lumber can be just as time consuming.
Of course if you don't have a medium/big saw on hand that is another issue.
camel2019
ArboristSite Guru
Only big saws in the stable are pioneer 620’s and I don’t think they would be well suited to milling slow chain speed heavy the manual oiler would be a plus in my books but not to others. I’m young but kind of have a depression era mindset use what you have fix/make what you need. good example of that is in my landscaping/property maintenance business I needed something more then a weed whip for cutting the overgrown stuff(3 foot plus grass/weeds) I built a walk behind sickle mower out of an old echo hedge trimmer blade(engine was toast and only paid $5 for it) and a old power washer with that had a pump that no longer worked(got 3 of them for nothing) I may have all of $25 into it.
Manual oiler can be a PITA - slow revving is not a problem those old saws have plenty of torque so they just need lower rakers than usual.
I'm the same - If I can make I will usually do this
Good luck with whatever yo ego with. .
camel2019
ArboristSite Guru
it kinda works his has a few more HP then my engine but chain chain speed can be adjusted by different size pulleys. I got this 20hp Briggs for nothing cost me maybe $5 in fuel to go get it.
I work for a timber frame company and we use an old Frick sawmill from the early 1900’s with about a 5ft circular blade powered by a Detroit diesel 471. It’s an impressive machine and we can produce a good amount of boards and Timbers in a day. There’s somewhat of a niche market for them but you can find them for sale relatively inexpensive.
camel2019
ArboristSite Guru
Pretty much a thing of got to get it when you see it
camel2019
ArboristSite Guru
Seems bandsaw mills have been around for a good while was looking around through crosscut saw catalogs and found band saw blades right along with gang saw blades and circular saw blades.
Tom Mitchel (Wheaton MO.) Had 2 mills for tie timbers in the late 70s' One was a 6L71 (235HP.) and the other was a 8V71 (Detroit 318 HP.) The feed rate was so fast the gullets couldn't clear the saw chips fast enough causing the blade to crowd out to board side, Cork screwed a 2-15/16" mandrel once to my knowledge They were running F Style 60 in 8/9 gauge blades (Right Hand Mills) Both mills really needed to be running 2-1/2 style shanks and teeth for the production/speed/feed they were running .. was a challenge keeping his blades running true at 9500 ft. rim speed on 8" collars. I learned a LOT the first visits to his operation.
Back in 1984 I bought a new Belsaw M-14 with the small 40" ip blade and pto drive and used it quite a bit. When I got down and couldnt run it myself, it sat for 6 years and ended up getting sent to chimna and melted down. -- I do still have the blade to it.
I now use a Timber- Tuff bandmill. I can get small logs once in a while and I can get a lot of lumber without much waste.
Big circ. mill wastes too much and you cant cut small logs on them. The one that we have at our club show grounds has a 56" blade on it and only cuts the big stuff.
I now use a Timber- Tuff bandmill. I can get small logs once in a while and I can get a lot of lumber without much waste.
Big circ. mill wastes too much and you cant cut small logs on them. The one that we have at our club show grounds has a 56" blade on it and only cuts the big stuff.
camel2019
ArboristSite Guru
The one at our steam museum has a 60 inch blade it was powered by steam till their boiler split it now has a bus engine from one of our old GM city buses.
used to do cold saws for a company. the cuts were more accurate than the bandsaw units although not quite as fast. but the extra machining required of the bandsaw cuts negated that differance +. Now they use water jets and lasers, accuracy is unbelievable, eleminating some 90% of secondary machining. There are limitations to each cutting process of course, lot of variables to deal with.
