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Bandsaw mill guys on here?

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Tracy Martin TN View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tracy Martin TN Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Bandsaw mill guys on here?
    Posted: 24 Aug 2025 at 5:26pm
Any of you guys have a portable bandsaw mill on here? Looking for advise on a building for one. Thanks, Tracy
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acjwb View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote acjwb Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Aug 2025 at 8:54pm
If you use Facebook, search for Woodland Mills.  The group has several posted.

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DaveKamp View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DaveKamp Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Aug 2025 at 7:44pm
I was gonna build one, then I came upon opportunity to acquire one from the estate of a close friend.

It's a Woodmizer LT40, towable fully-hydraulic loading, log turning, clamping.

Glad I didn't build one, this towable got me operational and making lumber much faster than if I'd built my own.  I now see all the mistakes I WOULD have made... Wink


Edited by DaveKamp - 29 Aug 2025 at 7:45pm
Ten Amendments, Ten Commandments, and one Golden Rule solve most every problem. Citrus hand-cleaner with Pumice does the rest.
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jaybmiller View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jaybmiller Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Aug 2025 at 7:12am
Make the building 10 feet longer and wider , taller too ! NOISE will be a huge issue as it bounces off the walls. Lighting will also be a challenge. Consider room needed to clean up the floor.
Mine was outside so easy for the A-C forklift to lace logs onto the sawmill.
Really miss the mill..it was fun to operate even though it never paid for itself.....
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Les Kerf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Aug 2025 at 9:06am
You need either a building huge enough to get all the way around the sawmill with a front end loader to handle logs, lumber, slabs and sawdust, or a tiny shed just big enough to park it out of the weather.

Any compromise will result in frustration, so think carefully about which item you are most willing to deal with the frustration.

We currently are running a Woodmizer set up in an open field with ample room all around. This allows a truck to sit behind the mill to pile slabs and edgings on, and we have a flatbed trailer sitting on the end to pull the good boards onto. This leaves the infeed side open for loading logs.

We do have three of us keeping things moving so it works out quite well.

A tiny shed with an opening just large enough to feed logs in and remove lumber out through the same opening can be used, it just slows things down and requires extra fiddling around.

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DaveKamp View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DaveKamp Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Aug 2025 at 11:07pm
Either that, or the building needs to have an overhead gantry with log clamp, and a floor with conveyor or auger.  The sawdust is generally easy, and my Kubota BX1800 makes quick work of cleanup, helps push logs onto the lift, and carry cut pieces off to dry, but Lots of bark accumulates around mine.

Mine DOE have the carbide-tooth debarking motor, which I didn't know anything about when I got the mill, and I didn't think it'd be very necessary, but after the first few, I realized how much it helped the blade stay sharp...  Hydraulic loading and turning are a MUST!!
Ten Amendments, Ten Commandments, and one Golden Rule solve most every problem. Citrus hand-cleaner with Pumice does the rest.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BuckSkin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 9 hours 19 minutes ago at 12:34am
I have had a band-mill ever since the 1990s.

First, if you have any idea of making money custom sawing for other people or on order, tear up the order blank and don't take out the loan === there is no future in sawing for others; they want your prices as low or lower than what the real mills charge with them having to haul in the logs and haul away the lumber.

I did not buy my mill with custom sawing in the plan; however, "helpful" others kept volunteering that I would do it and I ended up doing a bit of custom sawing and soon gave that up as a joke.


Now, about the building; what others have said about make it huge or don't make it at all is good advice.

However, if you live in a place like broiling HOT Super-Humid Kentucky, you either need to NOT saw at all from mid-May until mid-September, or get that thing under some sort of a shed.

One idea that I have played with but have not yet got it in the works is to build a railroad track along and beyond the mill.

Brace up one of those portable carports and put it on wheels that will ride on the track.

Roll the carport down the track away from the mill for loading a log onto the mill.

Once the log is on the mill, roll the carport back over the mill and plug in the many big fans hanging under it.


With a stationary shed, follow the lead of the big circular mills = they don't place the logs directly on the mill with a loader - and you should not either.

Use the loader to place the logs on an elevated rack that extends outside the shed.

With a band-mill, you will need flip-over "bridges" to bridge the necessary gap between the log rack and mill.

I have had a setup as above described and it worked very well; however, I sold that place and have not yet built one where I am now.
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