Question for BobL

[smithie55]

Hey Bob,
First wanted to say that I enjoy your posts and the sharing of your wealth of CSM knowledge.
1. What is the weight of your mill w/fuel & oil?
2. It looks like you do alot of milling, do you do it as a hobby or do you make money at it?
3. Or are you just addicted to making boards and sawdust like everyone else on this site!!:greenchainsaw:

Keep On Keepin On

 

[BobL]

Hey Bob,
First wanted to say that I enjoy your posts and the sharing of your wealth of CSM knowledge.

No worries, glad you like em.

1. What is the weight of your mill w/fuel & oil?

~70 lbs with the 42" bar,

2. It looks like you do alot of milling, do you do it as a hobby or do you make money at it?

Even though I have sold a few slabs, milling is only one of a bunch of hobbies and a bit of respite from my paper/email pushing day job. My main hobby is designing and making wood working tools so this is why I like designing mills. I mainly mill to test mill modifications and improvements and haven't really done a lot of milling compared to many people on this site. My guess is I have milled about 100 logs in 2.5 years - I have had to slow down because I have run out of room to store timber. Currently I'm working on setting up a slab sander and a ww jointer to process some of my slabs into lumber.

3. Or are you just addicted to making boards and sawdust like everyone else on this site!

That's about it!

 

[Old Hilly]

Hello Bob and others,
I have been thinking of building a mill for a couple of years now, mainly to slice up some Palowinia logs that I have access to. One of the things that has me a little confused is the diference in waste between a chainsaw mill and a bandmill. My feeling is that a bandmill would have a thinner kerf than a chainsaw mill but is that the end of the story? Are there other factors that I should consider, such as straightness of cut, sharpening of a chainsaw chain versus sharpening of a bandsaw blade etc?
Price is probably another big factor in the equation and I already have a 396XP sitting in the shed.
Thanks,
Dennis.

 

[BobL]

Hello Bob and others,
I have been thinking of building a mill for a couple of years now, mainly to slice up some Palowinia logs that I have access to. One of the things that has me a little confused is the diference in waste between a chainsaw mill and a bandmill. My feeling is that a bandmill would have a thinner kerf than a chainsaw mill but is that the end of the story? Are there other factors that I should consider, such as straightness of cut, sharpening of a chainsaw chain versus sharpening of a bandsaw blade etc?
Price is probably another big factor in the equation and I already have a 396XP sitting in the shed.
Thanks,
Dennis.

How many logs and how big are they?

 

[Old Hilly]

Bob,
In total, there are about 900 trees in the plantation. Some are about 600mm diam at the base and about 6M of clear timber. Many are smaller than this and a few are larger. Being close to 60 means that I won't be doing this little lot on my own in a few weeks and I would venture to say that the job will take some years, and if the trees regrow from the stump I could be doing this untill I am 110 years old and in a wheelchair!
The idea is to thin the plantation selectivily and chip the heads to use as mulch to keep some of the weeds down.
With a bandmill running at somewhere around the $8,000 and up mark, then add the band sharpener ($1,000?) and a heap of bands, a chainsaw mill is starting to look pretty cheap, especially if we can build most of it ourselves. The big question is the amount of waste from the sawcut. Is there really that much more waste from a chainsaw versus a bandsaw?
Dennis.

 

[BobL]

Bob,
In total, there are about 900 trees in the plantation. Some are about 600mm diam at the base and about 6M of clear timber. Many are smaller than this and a few are larger. Being close to 60 means that I won't be doing this little lot on my own in a few weeks and I would venture to say that the job will take some years, and if the trees regrow from the stump I could be doing this untill I am 110 years old and in a wheelchair!
The idea is to thin the plantation selectivily and chip the heads to use as mulch to keep some of the weeds down.
With a bandmill running at somewhere around the $8,000 and up mark, then add the band sharpener ($1,000?) and a heap of bands, a chainsaw mill is starting to look pretty cheap, especially if we can build most of it ourselves. The big question is the amount of waste from the sawcut. Is there really that much more waste from a chainsaw versus a bandsaw?
Dennis.

I don't think a CS mill is the right tool for your situation.

The main reason is boredom - the thought of being 60 and milling a couple of hundred "of the same tree" with a CS mill leaves me decidedly bored and aching all over. CS milling is fun when you can mill all manner of different trees, different colours, grain, hardnesses, sizes, shapes, travel to different sites and meet new people. The idea of milling the same type of tree in the same location leads me very quickly to doing it as quickly and efficiently as possible - hence a BS mill.

You can work out wastage for your self. A 3/8 chain on a CS cut is about 6 mm whereas a BS can be as little as 1 mm

If you cut 25 mm boards with a CS you waste 6/31 (19%) of the wood if you cut with a BS you waste 1/26 (4%) so you save 15%, this means after you mill 100 trees you will have turned on average 15 of them more into sawdust than if you had used a BS.

If you cut 50 mm stock with a CS you waste 6/56 (11%) of the wood if you cut with a BS you waste 1/51 (2%) so you save 9%, this means after you mill 100 trees you will have turned on average 9 of them more into sawdust than if you had used a BS.You can then resaw the 2" using a conventional bandsaw but the thought of wasting 9 trees out of every hundred still leaves me disturbed.

Before you make a decision I reckon you need to spend a day or two having a go with both types of mills.

 

[Old Hilly]

Aaah, mathematics. I was never much good at it at school and I don't think I got all that much better after I left there. I knew there had to be more waste with the chainsaw mill but I didn't realise there would be as much as that. Based on those calculations and allowing for some errors (say there were only 7 trees instead of 9 wasted) the band mill is the way to go. I guess I needed to have someone work it out for me and put it down in front of me where it is obvious.
Thanks for your time and advice Bob.
Dennis.

 

[BobL]

Aaah, mathematics. I was never much good at it at school and I don't think I got all that much better after I left there. I knew there had to be more waste with the chainsaw mill but I didn't realise there would be as much as that. Based on those calculations and allowing for some errors (say there were only 7 trees instead of 9 wasted) the band mill is the way to go. I guess I needed to have someone work it out for me and put it down in front of me where it is obvious.
Thanks for your time and advice Bob.
Dennis.

No worries, the cost of this service is is a 6 pack which I will share with you but if you have my 3, I won't be too upset!

Cheers

 

[Old Hilly]

Well, If I send your 3 bottles back to Alice Springs with my Son when he comes over here for Christmas, you could always pop over and pick them up. It's only about 1,000Km so you should be thirsty when you get there!
Now I have to find a big, old bandsaw to modify.
Dennis.