Thread: Swingmill advice

save yourself the heartache, buy a lucas or a peterson, at the end of the day they are not that expensive and by the time you factor in all of your time spent on trial and error etc. you would find it more economical.

just buy one mate

Originally Posted by swingmiller

Good day guys,I am new on this forum so please excuse me if I place this thread in the wrong part of the forum.
I have been working and cutting timber with bandmills for a while now but I am interested in the swing mills since I mostly work with hard woods.
I was thinking of building my own on the farm and from the videos I have seen it cant be too hard to build.I would appreciate any advice on plans and where I can get them and blade speed etc.Any advice welcome

It wouldn't be hard to make but making a swing mill that is safe and accurate would be the hard part. Portable mill manufactures like Peterson, Lucas etc spent years perfecting there machines.
I would look to see if you can purchase a 2nd hand mill if possible to save your self lots of head aches as posted before.

Swingmiller, what part of SA are you in? I was born in Zim (well not really - wasn't called that back then, but anyway...)

I have to agree with the lads about making a swinger would be easy enough, once you have one to 'copy' off, but to get it cutting well, accurate and safely... that is the biggest challenge.

I understand the satisfaction of having something you built yourself (I'm building our house using my Lucas to get all the timber and it is certainly satisfying/gratifying)but imagine all that time you invest in making the mill is time you have lost using it

One thing I liked with my new model 10 is that right out the box, it cut fantastically and I've done some adjustments cause I put the planer head on it, but recently at a sawmill comp Carl (aka Weisyboy) and I cut timber well within the plus or minus 3mm grading tolerance, we ended up with no more than 2mm variation and only plus 2mm.

I'm not saying you gotta go get a new Lucas, a 2nd hand one will work just as well, Carl has been using his for a few years now and he got his second hand. Lucas are so good with service, they will have you cutting in no time

(now you watch, although other fellas have said exactly what I just said - I'll cop some smart alec comment about me lovin my Lucas mill... )

looked at doing that 10yers ago bought a lucas and couldnt make one for the price ! you need jigs so everything lines up and works right . not much material in them but a lot of know how . if your tempted there is a build it yourself site on the web .what brand of mill do you use and how do you find it ? cheers bob

What is wrong with a bandmill in hardwoods? Even though im a woodmizer owner, im on team Sigidi on this one, buy a Lucas, new or second hand. Great value for money, parts and service is said to be great and your not going to lose sleep over a demon youve created yourself

Oky guys I get the picture,thanx for all the advice .
I went to see a guy that has a lucas mill around here and I must say I was Impressed.

If I can find a secondhand one I will definitly buy one!

Sigidy,I am in the northern province of south Africa bordering Zimbabwe.

So far I have used the woodmizer and the Pezzolato bandmills for cutting with the Pezzo doing a better job