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Poll

So which do you think ?

Woodland Mills
0 (0%)
Woodmaxx
1 (25%)
Frontier
2 (50%)
Save my money and buy lumber..
1 (25%)

Total Members Voted: 4

Voting closed: February 08, 2018, 03:01:27 PM

Author Topic: Baby mill reccomendations??  (Read 150201 times)

Offline A.O.

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #300 on: March 16, 2018, 06:54:48 AM »
One more thing, your compost piles will likely get a lot bigger than you are thinking. lol
That sawdust adds up a lot quicker than a guy thinks it would.

Yes, I was thinking about that last night. My compost pile gets pretty big now what with leaves, grass and pine needles.. maybe I could sell compost instead..

I could burn it but I'm thinking it would just smolder forever.. so...

What does everyone do with their sawdust??

Offline drobertson

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #301 on: March 16, 2018, 07:41:22 AM »
If I were you I would find a good spot for piling it up, keep it clean as possible,  many folks use it for animal bedding, seeing the amount of horses around your area, you might have an out for some.  It takes a while to break down for compost, it needs help with heat,(manure), oxygen,(flipping/turning) and soil added, then soil sampling.  If it were me, I would be visiting some neighbors with horses and bringing back the manure, and mixing the two, I can see that happening if it were me, you could grow broccoli and other plants all year long, if done right,

Offline Ox

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #302 on: March 16, 2018, 09:37:18 AM »
Some fellas hang a bucket under the discharge side and after a cut or two fills it, quick take and dump it into a _____ and then haul it away to a pile.  Saves from scraping so much up off the ground.

With mine, I've top dressed over our leechfield after refilling with gravel.  Grass is slowly gaining ground and in a few years you won't be able to tell.  Took quite a lot but now don't need any more.


Excess get piled up with pieces of bark and whatnot off to the side and out of sight somewhere.  One day it'll be mulch.  Make sure it won't set the woods on fire if it happens to want to spontaneously combust.  I've heard of piles sometimes firing up on their own, but only through hearsay. 

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Offline A.O.

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #303 on: March 16, 2018, 10:35:36 AM »
If I were you I would find a good spot for piling it up, keep it clean as possible,  many folks use it for animal bedding, seeing the amount of horses around your area, you might have an out for some.  It takes a while to break down for compost, it needs help with heat,(manure), oxygen,(flipping/turning) and soil added, then soil sampling.  If it were me, I would be visiting some neighbors with horses and bringing back the manure, and mixing the two, I can see that happening if it were me, you could grow broccoli and other plants all year long, if done right,

Here is my compost pile from last year, just about as tall as me to give you some idea of its size





I talked to a neighbor lady that has horses this morning, she says she doesn't use sawdust for anything.  RATS!

Offline A.O.

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #304 on: March 16, 2018, 10:39:30 AM »
Some fellas hang a bucket under the discharge side and after a cut or two fills it, quick take and dump it into a _____ and then haul it away to a pile.  Saves from scraping so much up off the ground.

With mine, I've top dressed over our leechfield after refilling with gravel.  Grass is slowly gaining ground and in a few years you won't be able to tell.  Took quite a lot but now don't need any more.


Excess get piled up with pieces of bark and whatnot off to the side and out of sight somewhere.  One day it'll be mulch.  Make sure it won't set the woods on fire if it happens to want to spontaneously combust.  I've heard of piles sometimes firing up on their own, but only through hearsay.

I've seen that bucket hanging thing and I may explore doing that.. still need and end use for it. or maybe I'll just start a large pile in the woods somewhere or something..

I'll just have to see how much I make.

Might also put an add in Craigslist for free sawdust and see if I get any takers.

Offline drobertson

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #305 on: March 16, 2018, 11:10:22 AM »
nice looking pile of crap! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:  and yea, its easy to forget you guys have mostly all sand, around these parts its hard clay mixed with rocks, hog farmers use it as well. It is a mighty fine floor dry that's for sure.

Offline A.O.

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #306 on: March 16, 2018, 11:57:54 AM »
Seems its mostly turkey and tree farmers around here..

I had to go back and look, you are in Arkansas.. for some reason I was thinking Missouri, and I remember black dirt in Missouri.

How far are you from the 11 point river? South of you yes?

Offline starmac

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #307 on: March 16, 2018, 01:34:10 PM »
From what I have heard is most people will not use sawdust off a bandmill for bedding, for horses and iirc cattle too, something about it is too fine, but they will use it from a circle mill.
Now I do not know if you will ever cut any walnut, but I have read that it is bad to use it even for compost.
Do you get any of that horse manure from your neighbor, it makes excellant fertilizer and most folks feed good weed free hay to horses, so it doesn't even have to be composted.

Offline drobertson

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #308 on: March 16, 2018, 02:10:16 PM »
there's some truth to band dust being too fine, but it's not written in stone for sure,, walnut  is surely bound for the where ever they take it, most mills that saw big time walnut,, dry their own, so all the waste goes into the furnaces that fuel the boiler.  Cedar dust is bad for fowl, so that's out, FFA that shows swine use it for shows and pre shows, it may be for nothing more than floor dry, not sure, I know I had one young lad come by and load up several times,  and another couple that raised goats, believe that?  I did keep the oak an pine separate mainly for my own uses. pine breaks down a bit quicker than oak, plus pine has a bit higher ph from the get go.  My place in Texas county Mo. Ozark plateau, upper end of the Jacks Fork, and National scenic riverways, not much black dirt here, plenty of rocks,  we are between the Eleven Point and Jacks fork, Eleven points south about 8 miles, the upper end of it, Jacks fork  bout a mile, use to be lots of turkeys and chicken farms, not much any more, cattle farms, some dairy, and homesteads, no need to mention sawmills, dime a dozen on every corner, pretty much. My wife says I ought to quit looking at these sawmill sites, saying its' causing me too much torture,, I'm thinking about putting together a CSM,  just a small one, the alaskan design or the panther one looks easy enough, other than the work it self, a little care, and I think it could happen.

Offline A.O.

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #309 on: March 16, 2018, 03:01:17 PM »
From what I have heard is most people will not use sawdust off a bandmill for bedding, for horses and iirc cattle too, something about it is too fine, but they will use it from a circle mill.
Now I do not know if you will ever cut any walnut, but I have read that it is bad to use it even for compost.
Do you get any of that horse manure from your neighbor, it makes excellant fertilizer and most folks feed good weed free hay to horses, so it doesn't even have to be composted.

I have not tried it.

Offline A.O.

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #310 on: March 16, 2018, 03:09:57 PM »
So I had a total of 2 oak logs, wife wants a table built for around the pool, and I'm looking for an au-natural bench.

So I've started. My first oak cant..



And her table and my bench in the works.



And the tarp drag for sawdust worked great.. doesn't have to go very far anyhow..



And is this bad??   :o >:( ::) ;D



Toast I'm guessing...






Offline furu

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #311 on: March 16, 2018, 03:23:59 PM »
Did you hit a backstop or is that from some metal in the log?  When I  hit a backstop that is the look I got from my blade.  (yes I hit the backstop)
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Offline starmac

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #312 on: March 16, 2018, 03:33:57 PM »
It is amazing how far one of those light bands can cut heavy steel isn't it. lol, And yep, I would call it toast myself. lol

Offline A.O.

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #313 on: March 16, 2018, 03:58:32 PM »
Did you hit a backstop or is that from some metal in the log?  When I  hit a backstop that is the look I got from my blade.  (yes I hit the backstop)

Yessir, I hit a backstop.. not even near the log I was cutting. I had been using that stop for a longer log.. it was farther down the track. When I got to the end of the log I was cutting, I pushed the mill farther down out of my way and GRGRGRGRGRGR I heard this evil noise!!

Oh well , lesson learned!

Offline A.O.

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #314 on: March 16, 2018, 04:00:38 PM »
It is amazing how far one of those light bands can cut heavy steel isn't it. lol, And yep, I would call it toast myself. lol

Yeah.. It buzzed right through it.. It would have gone all the way through if I hadn't stopped it!

Offline starmac

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #315 on: March 16, 2018, 04:07:27 PM »
Mine were pretty scarred up when I got it, and I added one to it.  My band guard vibrated loose one time, right after I had put a new blade on, apparently I didn't get the guard back on right, well  it made a terrible bang and the guard flew 15 or 20 feet, it cut into that light 1/8 in steel, probably a good 1 1/2 inches.

Offline drobertson

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #316 on: March 16, 2018, 04:22:45 PM »
 :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: I wish I could have seen your reaction!  the first time is breath taking, the second time more aggravating, and yea, there will most likely be a next time  :o ;)  sure wish you would have showed a few more picks of the oak boards,, just for drooling sakes, :P

Offline A.O.

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #317 on: March 16, 2018, 08:44:52 PM »
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: I wish I could have seen your reaction!  the first time is breath taking, the second time more aggravating, and yea, there will most likely be a next time  :o ;)  sure wish you would have showed a few more picks of the oak boards,, just for drooling sakes, :P

HA!! my reaction is there 3 posts above..  ;-)

Offline A.O.

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #318 on: March 16, 2018, 08:46:00 PM »
So I threw a new band on, but the tracking is way off seems like..  project for tomorrow

Offline starmac

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #319 on: March 16, 2018, 09:39:04 PM »
Oh wow, mine didn't mess with the tracking any, but then I didn't try to saw the thing plum off neither. lol
Just for fun, if you want to make some rustic benches, saw some crooked logs, the crooked the better, makes some neat looking benches, and them logs isn't much good for anything else except firewood.

Offline A.O.

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #320 on: March 17, 2018, 08:48:37 AM »
Oh wow, mine didn't mess with the tracking any, but then I didn't try to saw the thing plum off neither. lol
Just for fun, if you want to make some rustic benches, saw some crooked logs, the crooked the better, makes some neat looking benches, and them logs isn't much good for anything else except firewood.

It didn't seem like it put much stress on it when I hit it, but when I put the new blade on and hand spun it, the blade goes right off the back of the left wheel..

Just went out to work on it , I had just enough time to get the cover off when it started raining.. Grrr

Did the first oil change on the motor yesterday.. ;-)

Offline drobertson

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #321 on: March 17, 2018, 09:41:49 AM »
yea, its hard to figure why hitting that back stop caused any issues with tracking. Unless the blade guides were not snugged up proper from factory,  and subsequently after hitting the object the band torqued enough to knock one or both off. It looks like you have some fun ahead of you when the rain stops. It looks like the time when you get a little more acquainted with the mill.  You might just back off the guides completely, and see if these are the culprits.  If not, then you for sure will become more familiar with the mill by the end of the day,
 

Offline furu

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #322 on: March 17, 2018, 01:39:32 PM »
It didn't seem like it put much stress on it when I hit it, but when I put the new blade on and hand spun it, the blade goes right off the back of the left wheel..

Just went out to work on it , I had just enough time to get the cover off when it started raining.. Grrr

Did the first oil change on the motor yesterday.. ;-)


How many hours do you have on the mill now? 

I agree it does not make sense that a light impact from the blade with a log stop would effect the tracking that much.   
The suggestion that it may not have been tightened enough is worth looking at. 

Are your wheels all steel or belted?  If they are belted inspect them carefully to make certain that there is no damage to the belts.  Your blade did not break or come off the wheels if I understood your post on the incident.   It just chewed up some teeth correct?
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Integrity is not just doing the right thing when no one is looking.
Integrity is doing the right thing when no one else will ever even know.

Offline Cutting Edge Saw Svc.

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #323 on: March 17, 2018, 02:01:39 PM »

It didn't seem like it put much stress on it when I hit it, but when I put the new blade on and hand spun it, the blade goes right off the back of the left wheel..


Take a look at the blade weld.  This is  COMMON problem with all of these imported sawmills.  The movement of tensioning the blade and the tracking on the right side of the head are directly dependent on each other.  They happen simultaneously because of the bolt the idle wheel assembly pivots on.

Even the slightest difference in blade length (at the weld) changes this relationship.  Slightly longer/shorter and you're chasing tracking/tension on every blade change.  Common problem with certain brands/sources of blades.   :-X

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Offline A.O.

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Re: Baby mill reccomendations??
« Reply #324 on: March 17, 2018, 03:32:31 PM »
yea, its hard to figure why hitting that back stop caused any issues with tracking. Unless the blade guides were not snugged up proper from factory,  and subsequently after hitting the object the band torqued enough to knock one or both off. It looks like you have some fun ahead of you when the rain stops. It looks like the time when you get a little more acquainted with the mill.  You might just back off the guides completely, and see if these are the culprits.  If not, then you for sure will become more familiar with the mill by the end of the day,

I had readjusted the guides before I ever started it up..

Its all back up and running now, and yeah, I didn't mind .. gave me practice in doing it.