Saw choice

[SDB777]

Not sure I can agree on the 880 vs. band sawmill?
880's go for what? >$2K
WM LT15Wide is almost $10K. Even my WM LT10G10 is almost $3.5K.


Still would like to hear from the OP about:

What size timber?
What are the goals you intend to have for the flitches/slabs you mill?
What's wrong with the Makita?(logs will be there waiting)





Scott (pickles are fun, not if you're a dog though) B

 

[mdavlee]

Not sure I can agree on the 880 vs. band sawmill?
880's go for what? >$2K
WM LT15Wide is almost $10K. Even my WM LT10G10 is almost $3.5K.


Still would like to hear from the OP about:

What size timber?
What are the goals you intend to have for the flitches/slabs you mill?
What's wrong with the Makita?(logs will be there waiting)





Scott (pickles are fun, not if you're a dog though) B

880 if your dealer isn't gouging for full msrp is around $1600. A 60" bar is $350. A 3120 can be had for $14-1500. Bar is the same.

My only thing with a band I'll is having to buy more equipment to use it. When I got to a place that has no equipment and is 75 miles from it the fuel costs making 3 trips with a trailer loaded with a tractor just adds to the cost.

 

[SDB777]

880 if your dealer isn't gouging for full msrp is around $1600. A 60" bar is $350. A 3120 can be had for $14-1500. Bar is the same.

My only thing with a band I'll is having to buy more equipment to use it. When I got to a place that has no equipment and is 75 miles from it the fuel costs making 3 trips with a trailer loaded with a tractor just adds to the cost.

You could always get the band mill that has its own axles? Opens a lot of doors for milling at other people's places...and leaving the mess there.



Scott (hate cleaning up) B

 

[mdavlee]

You could always get the band mill that has its own axles? Opens a lot of doors for milling at other people's places...and leaving the mess there.



Scott (hate cleaning up) B

Yes if you have land flat enough to set up near and load the logs. I'll have a band Mill one day when I can afford a bobcat or 50 hp + tractor to go along with it. I live 70 miles from the farm so it's not a short little jaunt with 17k lbs of trailer and tractor.

 

[BobL]

Where did you find a lopro drive sprocket/rim for a 441?

I made it from an 8 pin 404.

 

[CR888]

An eight pin 404 sprocket has a greater diameter than a 9 pin .325 sprocket so running a 441 with lo pro chain and a 404 8pin would have FAST chain speed and be quite a combination. I wonder if Bob modified the 404 sprocket or not because its quite a good fit but not perfect. l am off to give it a shot on my 660.

 

[fatgraderman]

880 if your dealer isn't gouging for full msrp is around $1600. A 60" bar is $350. A 3120 can be had for $14-1500. Bar is the same.

My only thing with a band I'll is having to buy more equipment to use it. When I got to a place that has no equipment and is 75 miles from it the fuel costs making 3 trips with a trailer loaded with a tractor just adds to the cost.

That's about what I was expecting price wise on the saw. My experience with the chainsaw (and bandsaw mill as well) were two Jober mills. There was a dealer close by. The 660 with a chain as sharp as we could get was slow pushing through a log. We seen a twin to that mill but a bandsaw version (but the honda was swapped out for a vanguard) and it made a lot better time. It's not that I don't have respect for what the versatility of a chainsaw mill, just don't care for 8hr days packing a 660 around. And if you end up having a dedicated saw for the mill, then something comparable in a band might not be that far off price wise was all.

 

[BobL]

. . . . there's not a huge difference in price between a 880/ mill and a bandsaw mill. I see why they like the 660 on mills, it's docile, easy to start, runs cool and the air filter stays pretty clean.

That depends on how the mill/saw combos are arrived at.
CSMs are much easier to roll your own than Bandsaw mills and a used 880 or 084 makes more sense than a new one for CSMing.
A BSM is much harder to make than a CSM and used ones are not all that readily available.

 

[Yellowbeard]

I love my 084 for milling. It's a bear to use for bucking/felling. My 028 is what I normally use for that kind of job but then we're talking about much smaller wood, usually.

I've used a 440 for bucking/felling and it worked well. I borrowed it from a buddy who uses it for milling. It wasn't too bad in terms of weight. Personally I like my 084 better for milling (liked my 075 better too).

What I did when I started out not that long ago was to buy a used 075 because I could get it pretty cheaply and it has a load of power. I tried it and decided I loved milling. I also decided that it (the particular saw I had) needed too much work for me and was, consequently, dangerous for what I was using it for. So I sold it on this forum (with a clear indication of the work it needed) and bought my current 084, again on this forum, for a great price.

I've heard an MS880 fired up right next to my 084. They're nice (because they're new) but the one at my local dealer was triple what I paid for my 084 (about $1600 as was mentioned up thread) and I don't think there was much, if any, more power coming out of it.

I would buy used/cheap first to make sure you want to do this (unless you're already sure somehow) and I would tend to go with a bit more grunt rather than a bit less, because you will quickly find that you turn an awful lot of your lumber into sawdust, so it quickly becomes clear that a CSM is best used on pretty large (for me, over about 24") wood. That means a bigger saw.

This, of course, is all just my 2 cents, and may not even be worth that.

Good luck!

 

[mad murdock]

Siz eand species of wood is a big consideration as to what size saw to get. I do not do a lot of slabbing, so I mill most of my stuff with a 372 XPW, set up with Stihl's 63PMX ripping chain. If I do have to go big, I have an 075 that I can put my Alaskan mkIII onto and go up to 32" or so( 36" rails on it for now). With the picco chain, the 372 does very well in Douglas fir, and WRC.

 

[j.kleijn]

I have a 36" rail also with a Grandberg ripping chain. I currently have 2 poplars of 30" diameter and an apple tree of 20"

 

[mad murdock]

Will you be slabbing with live edges? or milling beams/boards? If you are wanting live edge slabs, and not be milling much dimensional stuff, you want more cc's than you have in the Makita. If slabbing is an occasional thing, you may get by with less cc. It really depends on the main focus of what you are trying to do. I get by with my 372 for 95% of what I do, and it does very well. I only make wide cuts once in a while. Essentially, the wider the cut the more cc's you need to put behind it. If you will be milling over 20" wide slabs on a regular basis, you want something in the 100+cc csategory.

 

[mdavlee]

I've milled some with a 7900 at 22" wide and it does better than other 70cc saws with the longer stroke. I never tried it on wider stuff since I had bigger saws.