Thread: I have a question about Bandsaw mills

Originally Posted by T91

Dave_Stanton
"The electric woodfast is definately an option. I hear people have had issue with the 3 TPI blade and replace with a 1 TPI for better gullet clearance. How has the club found it as far as maintaining a straight cut without the blade twisting or wandering?"

The main problem you will find with the woodfast are that the guides are designed for a 1" blade with a lot of little teeth and small gullets. The machine is more for sawing guitar backs. If you want to run a 1TPI blade you can, but you would have to fabricate your own pillow blocks. We manufactured our own from turpentine and grey iron bark. Our wooden guide blocks perform quite well, but they do wear so you will have to maintain/flatten them to avoid wandering cuts. Personally, I'd recommend a 3/4" 1.3TPI bimetal blade.
Another trick with the little woodfast is that it has no blade lube system. I use a 600ml water bottle with a hole drilled in the cap, which I squirt on the blade. It definitely cuts better if you bother to keep the blade cool. You will also find the dogs are totally unsuitable for sawing round logs... We fabricated our own.
Anyway we can explain all that stuff while pointing out local modifications.

"ok for a raincheck" Absolutely.

But my recommendation is not to get a mill.
If you are only doing a bit now and then, find someone in your local area who already has a suitable mill setup, maybe swap them something for the odd bit of milling. With our members, we swap them half the output, and charge $120 for every time we hit any steel (& stuff the blade) on the bigger machine. I have attached our members log milling policy document for you to have a look at. There would have to be some sort of woodies service somewhere in your area that you could use that has similar arrangements.
And always remember, it is not so much about operating the mill as it is moving material to and from, then storing the output *correctly*

My wife is the best! She suggested I demolish my timber rack which is around 25 years old and has developed a nasty lean. Level the ground and build a new timber rack, incorporating a bandsaw mill and a cover for the dingo! Might be a while off yet but wow!