# bandsaw vs. circulier saw mills



## Rex Bloem (Oct 6, 2007)

I had a guy tell me that boards cut on a bandsaw mill will not dry as fast as boards cut by a cirulier saw mill. Has anybody heard this or is he blowing smoke?


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

Does he have a circle mill :laughing: ? Yea, blowing smoke.


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## Handyman (Jan 2, 2008)

Rex Bloem said:


> I had a guy tell me that boards cut on a bandsaw mill will not dry as fast as boards cut by a cirulier saw mill. Has anybody heard this or is he blowing smoke?


Well I am no saw miller and I can tell you, he was blowing smoke. I will tell you one more thing I do know. You get more boards out of a tree when cut on a band saw mill. The blade is thin. I live next door to a Circular mill and his blade is about 5ft tall and over 1/4 thick. When I needed trees cut up I did some trading with a band mill owner.


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## Kirk Allen (Nov 7, 2006)

I have to say I have never heard that one before. Definatly smoke with lots of hot air!


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## dirtclod (May 7, 2008)

He may be thinking that the rougher surface, having more surface area, would wick moisture faster and thus dry the board faster. At one time I would have thought this way. But I found out that many large mills skip plane their lumber as soon as it comes off the mill. They then air dry it. They claim it dries faster and straighter. I'm guessing the rougher surface acts like insulation...holding the moisture in longer. So then it stands to reason that the smoother surface a bandsaw leaves would result in faster drying than a circle mill.


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## joasis (Sep 15, 2006)

I strongly doubt you could pull that off in a controlled environment.....in other words, no. 

Although there are a few more boards per log when using a band blade as opposed to a circle blade, the circle mill will beat a band mill (except for the high horsepower.high production mills) every day.....but it takes more gas....my 125 hp Hercules burns a lot of it compared to say Darin's 9hp mill....


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

Rex Bloem said:


> I had a guy tell me that boards cut on a bandsaw mill will not dry as fast as boards cut by a cirulier saw mill. Has anybody heard this or is he blowing smoke?


Maybe what he is trying to say is 1000BF cut on a circular mill will be cut hours faster than 1000BF on a bandmill so it will dry hours faster. :laughing:

Of course it will take an extra log to cut the 1000BF on the circle mill because a lot of what would have been boards will end up on the ground as sawdust.


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## red (Sep 30, 2008)

Blowing smoke for sure. Red


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## Rex Bloem (Oct 6, 2007)

Well I thought that he was blowing smoke but I had not heard of it before. Thanks for the replies.


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