Thread: logosol bandsaw mill

Isn't the Logosol mill made by a US manufacturer, someone like Norwood? The Hardwood mill has been around for quite a while, seems simple enough to maintain but are you going to be cutting native hardwood or softwood? Once you buy the mill you will need something to sharpen and set the bands and probably something to join them as well. It's not unusual for a band to break long before it's worn out so you need some way of joining them. If you are cutting trees that you don't know the history of you need a metal detector to look for hidden potential disasters. This does nothing to help when you find something like a glass bottle that got left in the fork of a tree about 100 years ago, or the wool sweater that some kid sat in the fork of a Camphourlaurel while he was waiting for the school bus 50 years ago and never collected when he came home.
At least with Logosol you have the backup of an Australian importer for spare parts and with the little Hardwood Mill you should be able to make or buy anything needed if they go out of business. Just be careful, bandsawmilling can be addictive and like Pringles, you just can't stop at one (sawmill)!

I got that email too. Looks interesting. Logosol gear seems decent quality. I actually just bought a Woodland Mills HM130, it has some design features that I like. I compared the specs on all of those brands mentioned (except the logosol) and taking into consideration my budget of course, settled on the HM130. I will start a thread when I get it set up shortly. Pretty excited to start milling I have some very choice Fiddleback Blackwood logs lined up.

Hi all

Sounds like you fellas know your way around a bandsaw mill, which is great because I don't! Even though I'm a dedicated Lucas mill guy and have been for over 15 years, I am toying with the idea of getting a bandsaw for a particular job. We just finished a tree removal project for an airport expansion and I have around 300 tonnes of ironbark barrels fresh from the bush ranging from 300 to 600mm diameter and 3-6m long. All the smaller logs will be cut into 200 & 250mm square posts, but I would like to slab the larger ones for bar tops and craft slabs. I have a dedicated slabber also but feel it may be too slow for the volume of timber to process. I also have a good supply of redgum and sugar gum logs at that size I would like to slab, but I figure the ironbark would probably the the most challenging. Do any of you guys in the know have some recommendations for this particular application, i.e., brand of mill and type of blades that can handle ironbark with relative ease? I am happy to spend $15-20k for something that is efficient and productive.

Any suggestions or advice will be much appreciated.

Cheers

James

I have no experience sawing large quantities of hardwoods but I would be looking for tungsten tip bands to extend the periods between sharpenings. The only bands I have seen came from a commercial mill at Walcha were 150mm wide not including the teeth! That mill was powered by a 100HP tractor driving the bandwheel via the PTO shaft. I bought a section of a condemned band (gullet cracks) for knife making. One of the problems you have with a bandsaw is that the blade gets fatigued and starts to crack at the narrowest point, the gullet. To counteract this you need to minimise the amount of bending of the band. This means you need big wheels if you want to run big bands. Big wheels mean a longer band which costs more money, is a pain to handle and takes longer to sharpen. My memory is a bit cloudy but the mill at Walcha used wheels well over 48" (1200mm) diam, probably closer to 1800mm.
To save money......consider building your own mill. There are plenty of youtube vids. of mills using car, 4WD or truck wheels ant tyres as bandwheels which would give you the larger diameter you need to run a 50mm wide band with big teeth for ripping hardwood in a hurry.
Good luck!

Originally Posted by tassietimbers

Any suggestions or advice will be much appreciated.

Cheers

James

James, get in contact with Colin from Premier Timber Milling, he is the Australian agent for Woodmizer and there are a few options available in the price range you've quoted.

PREMIER TIMBER MILLING
3045 Warburton Highway
Millgrove, Victoria
Australia
Mailing Address:
PO Box 172
Warburton
Victoria 3799
Australia
Fax: +61 (03) 5966 5371
Email: [email protected]
Colin Goldsmith Tel: 0407 662 866

Woodmizer have a great reputation in the US but they cut mainly softwood so you need to see a mill working on the type of Australian hardwood that you intend to cut. Then you need to consider the life expectancy of the bands/blades and the time it takes to get the band off the mill, sharpen it and get it back on the mill and tracking true so you can start cutting again. If your previous mill was a Lucas where the sharpening is done on the machine and there are only a few teeth to sharpen then you are in for a surprise when you look at a bandsaw blade! Get a demo of blade removal, sharpening and re-fitting.
You also need to consider the type and size of the bandwheels the blade runs on. Some machines use an aluminium "V" pulley with the blade running on the back of a "V" belt as the band wheel which will work but there can be problems with wear on the non-driven wheel due to the v-belt being loose. Go for a machine with proper cast iron wheels with rubber/urethane tyres.
Find out the price of all the "accessories" needed to make the machine work, things like band blade sharpeners, tooth-setters and blade joining jigs. While I made my own out of bits I had around my workshop it took lots of time to get right and my time cost us nothing, whereas your time may be more valuable than mine!
For production work, hydraulics on the mill may be your answer to log loading unless you have a "bobcat" to load your logs. Unlike a "Lucas Mill" the majority of band mills run on elevated tracks so you need something to get the logs up and onto the mill bed. We use an electric winch that runs off the mill electric start battery but a winch needs a solid anchor point that you may not have or be able to install where you are.
And finally, as it's breakfast time, will you get $20,000 worth of slabs out of the timber you have at hand? Would you be better off spending the extra time and cutting that timber with your Lucas Mill slabber? It may be slower but it's a machine you already own and know how to use. Bandsaw mills have a learning curve that can be quite steep at times......Don't ask me how I know about steep learning curves, there have been too many of them in the last 40 years!

Not bagging you or putting you down Old Hilly, but Woodmizer have come along way and cut Australian h/wood really good now. They have put a lot of research into making blades for our woods, in fact they sent some reps from their blade department out a few months ago that visited several sawmills around Australia of which other woodmizer owners also attended to give feedback on the current style of blades and to see what more development could be done.

I regularly cut dry Redgum on mine, even resaw railway sleepers and also Jarrah beams. Blade changes are quick and alignment rarely needs to touched if ever, haven't had to touch mine since I checked it out of the box. Tensioning is a snap to do, wheels are heavy duty cast steel with easy to replace rubber.

Colin also keeps a good stock of spare parts and he has been using their sawmills for along time, I've known him for about 17yrs and he is a honest and genuine bloke.

Hi fellas.

Thanks very much for the info. Loading logs of any size is not a problem, as Acco may remember from some of my posts a few years back on big log salvage! I have a friend in Daylesford who has a Woodmizer so I have the option of doing a few test logs at his place, but I will talk to Colin about blade selection first. I also have a stash of ridiculously high figured logs, being solid birdseye and intense wool-like fiddleback, so I was planning on cutting 10"x10" billets on the Lucas and resawing them into sets of matched boards on a bandsaw. I reckon if I started milling tomorrow I wouldn't be finished my logs in 12 months, so the investment will definitely be worth it one day.

I understand about learning curves and milling, made my share of milling mistakes over 20 years, but I've always been one for biting off more than I can chew, then start chewing like buggery!

Thanks for advice, will take it all on board.

Cheers

James

Well, that's good news Acco. Just as long as he knows that bandsaws are not as simple as their (USA produced) advertisement videos make them out to be all will be well. Bandsaws are not quite as simple as a chainsaw, you need a few more essential accessories other than oil and a chainsaw file to make them work. Unless you have a saw sharpening service that actually knows how to sharpen a bandsaw blade properly close handy you could be in trouble. It all depends on his locality. Time is money. He should look you up and see your machine working then he will know what he is getting into and also check out the local sharpening services.
As for advertisement videos, I hope my little Lucas Mill is as simple to operate as the promotional videos make it look!

Hi Stevo and co.

As soon as the new Logosol BAND751 bandsaws land in Aus we will be giving them a thorough testing on Australian timbers. Can't wait!

Our new bandsaw is not the same as the Norwood, but I'll provide some more details in upcoming weeks if anyone is interested. The version we are bringing in to Aus will be electric start, not pull start like the below videos.

Here is the current teaser video...



And more detailed video, but still in Swedish only right now...

Looks good, some good ideas in the log support and clamping areas but how it works on our hardwoods will be the big question.

Old Hilly makes a good point. Blade sharpening locally, retipping etc. are crucial. Particularly if you plan to bandsaw iron bark. It will take the edge of quickly and your saw will wander. Horsepower is also important for larger slabs.

On the subject of blade sharpening, most of the band mill manufacturers have automatic sharpening machines available. I bought one with my machine from Woodland Mills. Its a re-branded a grindluxe. A blade setter is next on the list.
Jason.

As many below mention. Blade sharpening solution needs to be considered by anyone thinking of getting a new band saw mill. Some are lucky enough to have the option of a local pro sharpener, but these are getting few and far between these days. Sending blades to a faraway sharpener is an option, but it usually costs as much to ship and return as the sharpening service itself. And the total cost is like buying a new blade. Your own blade sharpening solution is often the only solution for many, so this should be considered. A band sharpener and setter are a bit of an investment, but considering the number of blades you will sharpen and how long it will serve you, and how on top of blade sharpening you will be, it's a good investment.