Thread: Opinions Please.

Lucas

go to some of the field days and have a look at the mills in operation

Some questions to ask yourself - Carl and others can add to this list - then the answer of what to buy might be more obvoius.

Are you going to move the mill to the logs or the logs to the mill?

Do you want a chainsaw mill or a complete setup?

How big are the logs going to be? Diameter and length

Do you only want slabs or some boards as well? Quartersawn or backsawn?

How much/many trees do you think you will mill in a month?

Are you on your own or will you have a helper?

Where are you going to stack/store the timber?

What other equipment do you have?

How are you going to move the mill around?

Cheers

And how much dosh do you have to spend?

LUCAS, They are easy to cart around, unlike others

Hi Mathewd,
Only new to this but gave you some info in the "intro" section-whoops,
anyway you might still check it out , and the Oregan chain for slabbing large logs is 27RX.
Cheers Ed wood

Originally Posted by Matthewd

Hi i am an Arborist (at Diploma level) and own a small Tree business. I am over climbing. Any way i want a slabbing mill that will slab some of the big trees i do so i can make cool stuff out of them. Looking at expanding the business and slabbing will be a long term project. Also will i get contract work to just slab all day long? i only want to slab for now and expand later if it works out. need some info? What mill should i buy? I am also willing to get new to take advantage of the governments 30%. i have one in mind but want your professional opinions. Thanks.

The Govt is giving 30% rebate on new saw mills ???Where do I sign up and is there a limit per customer??Why didn't anyone tell me??

if your'e slabbing all day long get a back brace. the lucas dedicated slabber is the way to go for slabbing big trees 1.5 mtr wide no problem.like calm asked. do you have room for storage truck to move timber.for small trees i'd prefer a bandsaw to slab.there's a heck of alot of dollars that can be thrown at milling trees and then wating for them to dry,finish then sell. but if your'e in it you will see a return.personally i'd stay climbing,pick the quality trees to mill and firewood the rest.

Thanks for the info. What about moving the wood? After i slab the timber on site is it safe for transport without it cracking it on a truck with a hi-ab to my shed? I know it would be better done at the yard though but if i want to transport it in slabs would it be ok. Again thanks for the info the mill i had in mind was the lucas dedicated slabber. I have many more questions.

Moving slabs after it has been cut is fine, if it cracks whilst moving it with the Hiab it was going to crack anyway.

I've moved hundreds of slabs green and dry and have rarely split one, most split whilst you're slabbing or drying them.

Matt, I am a dedicated Lucas owner - for me, no other choice. I replied to your Lucas finishing thread, but will say it again here, if you want any info, from operating/business point of view feel free to email me, [email protected]

BUT be warned, I'm a talker, you'll most likely get a bit of a gutfull concerning how great the Lucas mills are

They even work underwater !!!

Yeah as DJ said slabs are fine to move after being cut wether it be a dry log or a green one they should have enough structural strength to be moved without fear of cracking or they were gonna go that way anyway and would need to be cut and re joined anyway(unless they were crap and full of rot or something- beware of milling B-grade logs , they are to much work to finish and no-one will want to buy them in their raw form) I used my Hi Ab to sling each slab up onto my truck after i cut it. You can either strip them out on the back of truck by turning each slab upside down and unload the whole lot in one go or load them one at a time without flipping and then unload in reverse one at a time - stripping out then.I used two round slings to move each slab with the Hi Ab.
Milling is best done in the cooler part of the year if posssible to ease the wood into its new form.

Originally Posted by Matthewd

Hi i am an Arborist (at Diploma level) and own a small Tree business. I am over climbing. Any way i want a slabbing mill that will slab some of the big trees i do so i can make cool stuff out of them. Looking at expanding the business and slabbing will be a long term project. Also will i get contract work to just slab all day long? i only want to slab for now and expand later if it works out. need some info? What mill should i buy? I am also willing to get new to take advantage of the governments 30%. i have one in mind but want your professional opinions. Thanks.

If your doing high quantities of slabs you will get the best results by using 4" vertical bandsaws. You will however need to take the log to the mill.

Cheapest are the Alaskan type slabbing mills which as they are attached to the log are limited in what they can do. Good place to start however.

As slabbing mills go Lucas and Peterson have ONLY one size bar and cannot follow the shape of the log but can slab reasonably large logs.

The Wombat is very promising for a low cost, easy portable and easy to use chainsaw mill. You should be able to slab in both vertical and horizontal modes.

As we manufacture mills I would be pushing the EcoSaw slabbing mills for all their advantages but they also cost more than the others. Our slabbing mills are very portable, very easy to setup and use and upgradable to whatever you need from chainsaw to hydraulic self feeding multi bar slabbing systems. Our new slabbing bandsaw also fits on the same milling system.

You need to visit a few shows or manufactures. If your spending the dosh its worth taking the day trip.