Eddiebo
Care to do a little Q&A ?
What species of wood are you cutting ?
Do you work alone ?
What common max length ?
What mill do you currently have ?
Where in the world are you located ?
I had plans in my fogged up head, to place a band mill head on the carriage of my Peterson WPF, which is a carriage type Swing Mill, where only the sawing parts move up-down. The frame just supports the sawing parts and has the winch for up-down.
You might consider a framework of a gang saw, where you saw a large 2" thick slab, and, offbear it right into a gangsaw. Have it set for whatever you want the most of, like 28" wide slab will make 6-2 X 4's and 2 pieces of 2" side slabs, that would make stickers, all in 1 pass. They could be sent down the line on a roller table and deposited in a pile for stacking or whatever. Power feed the slab and gravity feed the sawn 2X's down the rollers. Have them drop onto forks or in a bin of sorts, so the forks can pick up a load all at 1 lift and move them.
Depending on whether you are building your own house to live in, or, are in the house building business, would help to know.
I would hate to give up the bandmill for sawing table slabs and weird shaped logs. Them are all big $$$ lumber, made in 1 pass.
I love automation, and, have plans in my head to build a small log processor. I have a tree farm with trees nearing 10" DBH that will need thinning next year.
My Peterson works fine, but, it's all foot powered, meaning, I have to push the thing through the log. The older I get, the heavier this thing is.
A used Lucas or Peterson or a brand X swing mill is not expensive, IF you need a lot of 2X's sawn. They just cut one piece for pass if you work alone.
I built a bandmill to saw 36" wide table slabs. Once the slab is sawn, and I want studs or joists, I slide the slab onto the loading forks and saw some more. Then, I slide them back over to the log stops and stand them all on edge, sorting to size roughly, to avoid as much waste as possible. Then, I rip down 6-8 slabs in one pass to get studs or joists. This does require a GOOD helper that has a thinking brain. Mt son was that man, and, could handle nearly anything I could throw at him, alone. THINKING is the key to handling big heavy stuff, NOT muscles.
We build a couple of portable rollers and positioned them where all was required was pushing stuff around.
Maybe I have oversized your plans, but, you provided minimal info. Talk to us.