Thread: Portable Sawmills

Lucas mills with circular blades are excellent rigs.
I had a bandsaw mill years ago and sold the infernal thing even though I am a tool junkie

i have a band mill. always have a problem with the band wanting to follow the grain, radiata is the worst, redgum is ok, milled green stringy bark for 4 hrs without changing the blade, with dry stringy the blade didnt make the end of the log. get my timber milled now with a 8inch lucas, much faster and more accurate than the band mill. wish i had my own lucas.

Reeves,

Are you looking to buy a unit, or do you have some timber you would like milled?

Either way go for the Lucas mill, the reason being theat even a very average operator can get good straight cuts with it as oposed to a band mill where you have to be a very good operator to stop the band from following the grain.

BTW, I don't own either but have seen both in action as well as a chainsaw mill (I have an Alaskan small log mill).

Himzo.

thanks for the replies...

ye si ma looking to buy a unit, tho not imediatley, just gatheirng info.

Most people seem to say the Lucas is the way to go, tho i have seen a band being used well.

The woodmizers look really good as well.


cheeeeers

G'day Reeves,
All mentioned so far are good & the lucas is used as the standard of comparison, however having said that the Petersen is a joy to behold in action and is very user friendly. Check out Stans Mullum woodworks site which is linked to Ubeauts.
(I will not no matter how tempting make any smartar5e comments about banjo playing men and large musical woodies, no I'll refrain from that )

yes thanks, i have checked the mullum site the petersons look pretty good...
have u come across the woodmizers ?

as for

(I will not no matter how tempting make any smartar5e comments about banjo playing men and large musical woodies, no I'll refrain from that )


well i am glad u can restrain yrself mate...more like balsa these days anyways

;-)

No, not personally but one of our local artisans has one and I've been meaning to go and stick my nose into his shed and have a yarn. is brother reckons its the daffy's colon though.

Reeves,
It is horses for courses, both bandsaw and circular saws have their pluses and minuses.

I have a Dinasaw bandsaw (the mid sized model, cuts up to 600mm in width), it runs a 3" blade (stellite tipped) and and I am happy with it, no wandering of the blade at all unless you drive the saw through the timber too quickly. With a bandsaw you need to ensure that your blades are always sharp, as if they lose their edge they will start to wander. We have 8 good blades which we rotate. Have also purchased a professional sharpener to ensure that blades are sharpened correctly. The bandsaw is certainly the way to minimise your losses to sawdust as it leves a kerf of around 2mm. A bandsaw mill is the best method of cutting slabs.

A circular saw setup is a much better setup for cutting square edge boards. Saw a Peterson in action at the Tasmanian Timber and Working with Wood Show at the weekend, impressive but that model cost over $40k.

What you need to do is determine what size timber you need to cut and then spend some time watching the mills in action that you are contemplating buying. With our bandsaw prior to purchase, I looked at around 30 tonne of timber which had been cut up looking along and across the boards for quality of cut.

regards

Kev M

G'day Reeves I have recently purchased a Lucas8 with slabbing attachment and am suitably impressed. The chain saw mill is to slow and fatiguing not to mention very hard on chainsaws. The smooth action of the Lucas carriage is easy to manoeuvre repetitively as long as it is close to level ( depends on your mill site).
The circular saw handles cranky grain well if you go easy on the feed rate. Have noticed with large cuts (over 140mm) that two passes are best. Quarter sawing on the return vertical (large cuts) go easy on entering the cut as it has caught me out a few times riding up lifting the carriage. All in all I think the package is good and can't wait to head for the hills again and get cutting.
see ya when I'm lookin at ya. Simo

So what's the approximate new price of a Lucas mill? There was a used one advertised in The Land newspaper last week for $14.5K but it was described as "Lucas Mill slabber, spare blades, plus accessories". There was no comma between "Mill" and "slabber", so I was not sure whether this was a slabbing attachment or the whole kit and kaboodle.

Mate from my research of these things Lucus Bushmill Woodmiser etc... the price would depend on several things

1) Size of the machine... blade and motor size

2) Any additional extras... extra track extra blades etc

2) Regardless of which machine you get the mill and the slabber are separate... you can buy either a dedicated slabber which attaches to the rails and is a totally separate machine with its own motor or you buy the slabber attachment which simply replaces the blade on the standard machine with a long chainsaw like blade...

3) Depending on several factors one being the age of the unit being offered and the second being your need... that seems a fair sort of price given a small Lucas mill alone starts at around 9000 without any additionals I think from memory the largest is around that price you quote bare.

With a dedicated slabber you can add another grand or thereabouts with the slabber attachment you can add another half grand or slightly more.

You will however get a great response and also a free video and price list if you go to their site and request one {sent postage free at a great price of... Free!! } this would give you the new price of all the Lucas gear which you can then use to compare whats on offer with the new price... they also list the shows that they have them at and if ones available which if it is you can get at a discounted price pay a deposit and pick up and finish paying at the end of the show

If its the bigger machine Id say youve got a bargain! grab it!!! or grab it and send it to me as an early Chrissy pressy!

Of course this is all said from memory as all the paper work is in the shed and Im inside and its dark and cold out there and Im warm an comfy in here but... sigh... I could go get it and quote it if you... sigh... wanted I suppose... sigh or if you like I will do that tomorrow when its warm and I gotta go out there to do some work anyway... tomorrows good? great! I will get back to you with that in the am no worries!

Cause clause (a) is that if someone else comes up and gives the good oil on it Im excused from all the above and can go back to me cuppa

oh! I had a swag of Tuart cut into planks 3mts long a year and half ago and the woodmiser was a hoot to watch with minimal effort on the opperator the only problem I could see was the blades he went through about 15 of them over the day and it wanders! Ive a mate that got a Lucas mill just on a year ago and its the ducksnuts! ripper of a thing to use and cuts anything with ease also theres no restriction on the size of the log only the length but buy a couple of extra extrentions and bobs yer uncle problem solved... with the slabber he rips something shocking! a pleasure to see curley Jarrah show through on the width of the plank brilliant

On re- reading your post without the comma it could be just the dedicated slabber but Id say not since 14k would be the price of the lot rather than just that... Id say it would be the whole shebang!

Dang I want one of them things!! And by gar we ever sell this place Im a gettin me one!

Shane, thanks for that. A ballpark figure was all I needed. In that case I will ask about new ones. Was a bit reluctant to do so in case they started at 50K or something.

Just looked up their web site: http://www.lucasmill.com.au/

Jeez, lookit them slabs! Drool, Drool!

So, Shane, no need to go out in the cold. Cold in W.A.? I've only been there once (twenty plus years ago) and it was 112 degrees F. in Perth, three days in a row.

Mate it does still go up into the 100+ just not right now... here it is for example 9.30am and its raining! dark clouds and looks feelas and smells like the middle of winter IN NOVEMBER!!!

I would check it out at that price as if its the whole sheebang plus extras and if its the larger motor and blade setup it could be well worth grabbing! you could be saving yourself a few grand... I will get out and check those prices for you later and post what I have.

Have a great day!

The only time I have seen these mills was on New Yankee Workshop where it was a three man job.
The portable bandsaw had a depth stop built in so 2 men held it, one either side.
A third man was dripping oil on the blade constantly during the cut.