# Interesting portable mill option



## jeffreythree (Jan 9, 2008)

I just found this while cruising the 'net today. LumberSmith Sawmill I am not sure how you would check that the two boards are on the same plane so that the wood does not have a twist cut in, but it is 4 stroke(purchased seperately) and rolls on its guides unlike my Ripsaw. The videos are not bad either, especially the autofeed how-to:thumbsup:.


----------



## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

That's what I call a truly portable bandsaw. Looks cool.


----------



## mics_54 (Oct 28, 2008)

> Just drop the tree and anchor some straight boards next to the log and push the saw like a lawn mower.




Hah! I assume they use a different saw to get some straight boards!

it is interesting tho


----------



## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

mics_54 said:


> Hah! I assume they use a different saw to get some straight boards!


, that is my thoughts on it too.


----------



## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

jeffreythree said:


> the videos are not bad either,


I like the one on the home page "walnut like this can easily bring $15 bft..." :laughing: MAN I need to raise my prices.


----------



## dirtclod (May 7, 2008)

jeffreythree said:


> I am not sure how you would check that the two boards are on the same plane so that the wood does not have a twist cut in


The solution is to level the two end cross members independently of each other. It's not so important that the mill be level end to end. You simply don't want the mill to be canted one way on the near end and the other way on the far end or you will end up with a twist in your boards. While making it level end to end simply makes it easier to push/return but is not critical to making flat lumber.



Daren said:


> I like the one on the home page "walnut like this can easily bring $15 bft..." :laughing: MAN I need to raise my prices.


I noticed that also. My thoughts are: Send some customers my way...I'll beat that price by at least 10%." :laughing:

Did anyone notice how thin they were making that board?


----------



## mics_54 (Oct 28, 2008)

although the setup is rather unorthodox and simplistic, the price for what you DO get is pretty reasonable. a functioning band head with an engine ready to set up on a carriage for $1479.00 ...looks like the drive wheel is direct drive


----------



## dirtclod (May 7, 2008)

I watched the rest of the videos. The one on the home page shows a decent base rail setup. But in the rest the rail setup looks like it would lead to twisted boards and inconsistent cuts from board to board. I also see problems with sawdust buildup on the broad-contact flat surfaces of the rails under the wheels. This is where most bandsaw heads run on a narrow edge that sheds sawbust. They should have a better rail setup. [...*and get our optional rail set for only an additional arm and a leg more!]*

Movable scales on the posts for setting the depth of cut would be a good idea. So would replacing the standard bolts with T handles so you could set the depth without needing a wrench.

They left the part out on edging the boards. :laughing:

I guess no matter what you do if you want to build a product in this price range there will be a lot of things you have to compromise on or exclude all togather.


----------



## mics_54 (Oct 28, 2008)

True that! It's obviously intended for the bare bones hobbiest, working on a budget like mine! :laughing: "haul only the boards home" pretty much says it all. the tree they cut up in one of the videos looks like it rotted and fell over ten years previously. I kept waiting for a raccoon to run out of the other end. "cut it where you fell it"...indeed.:laughing:


----------



## Oscar (Jun 7, 2008)

Daren: First thing that got my attention to was the "$14 a bft Walnut" secondly, I wonder about tolerances and lastly I'm too damn old to be bending over pushing something like that Looks too much like work:thumbdown:


----------



## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

mics_54 said:


> I kept waiting for a raccoon to run out of the other end.


Hey that happened to me not long ago! I think I made a post about it here. I was asked to drop a big rotten tree for a local township that did not have a saw large enough for it (I think it was a Pecan) but I had to wait until after dark because it was full of honey bees. 

They had the beekeeper and some off-duty EMTs there, my VFD buddy and some other bystanders. The bees never gave much of a problem, but before we knew a family of bandits was in there I sawed one of the kits smooth in half.

My buddy, or was it me haha, nearly had a heart attack when the momma **** came flying out like a Tasmanian Devil. I brought one home and we raised it for a couple months before turning it over to a lady who runs a State-funded operation for raisng them up and turning them back into the wild. 

We learned a lot about ***** in that time. We did a good job raising ours, it was twice the size of the other two that one of the other guys took home that night. The lady had asked me to call him and get him to let her have those as well, and they all too happy to do so. They had not fed them enough and my wife said when she and the boys met her to turn over all the baby *****, she was fit to be tied because the other two we didn't raise were so malnourished.

So there, a **** story in a sawmill thread. Man there is no hope for me. :surrender:


----------



## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

I don't know anything about milling, but at $1500 I'd consider buying one of these for my hobbiest applications.


----------



## edp (May 25, 2007)

Unless I missed something, the $1,500.00 plus freight does not get you anything other than the saw frame with "A" blade. You still need to buy and ship the motor seperately.

Ed


----------



## jeffreythree (Jan 9, 2008)

edp said:


> Unless I missed something, the $1,500.00 plus freight does not get you anything other than the saw frame with "A" blade. You still need to buy and ship the motor seperately.
> 
> Ed


I saw that to, no engine. They also sold one on ebay yesterday that was at $951.00 with 3 hours to go that had a motor.


----------



## mics_54 (Oct 28, 2008)

hmmm missed it.


----------



## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

*I had to drag this back up*

I saw this maker as a sponsor of a large wood forum, so I revisited their homepage and watched a couple youtube vids...Stop the video at 2:17...that board is noticeably thicker on the viewers right side :huh: That is not an "optical illusion", something is wrong.


----------



## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

Daren said:


> . . . Stop the video at 2:17...that board is noticeably thicker on the viewers right side :huh: That is not an "optical illusion", something is wrong.


The cant isn't square. I sometimes do that even with my mill getting in a hurry to knock the slabs off, and I make a thin truing cut (looks like that's what they were doing but it sure is thick for a truing cut) but I sure wouldn't have shown it in my "best foot forward" video. :no:

But as for the mill itself, I know it's easy to criticize any product from just a video, but that thing looks real squirrelly when running. Vibrates like the dickens. I noticed they don't show it running for more than a second or two either. 

And what that part about the "optional" up and down feature?  What's the alternative? :laughing:


----------



## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

TexasTimbers said:


> The cant isn't square. ....
> 
> I make a thin truing cut ...
> 
> ...


I know what you mean. I have to true them up too sometimes. I really think the cant _was_ square on the deck and this was not the first pass...maybe this model did not have the "option" needed to raise and lower the head evenly :blink:.
I guess I am nit-picking, but as a sawyer that jumped right out at me.


----------



## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

yeah you could be right, it didn't even cross my mind that the *machine *might be that inaccurate! Woe if it is. :thumbdown:


----------

