M-14 Belsaw

My cousins and I have been looking at sawmills lately, nothing for mass production just a hobby mill. We are going to go look at it to see what its like. Any ideas as to what to look for? Or places to get info? It's got a 42" blade and 24' track. We are looking to saw down some logs for making a couple beams for a barn, and who knows what else we will end up doing with it.

search for m-14 foley belsaw , free pdf down load at the sits listed below

Belsaw Machinery Co. Publications Reprints M - 14 Sawmill
vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=1050 Cached
M-14 Sawmill Operator's Manual and Parts List: Manufacturer: Belsaw Machinery Co. - Kansas City, MO, San Jose, CA, Minneapolis, MN: Publication Type: ...

And visit the Sawmill section of the Forestry Forum , great site you can view or sign up to post questions.

In years past I've seen them go for $2-300.00...naturally when I didn't have $20.00 much less $200.00!!! :twisted: If everything looks decent, not set up or busted you should be safe. IIRC parts are pretty much off the shelf except for some castings.

I have seen many of these in the last year listed on CL locally, some very inexpensive, myself and a friend have been looking or keeping an eye out, timber going to waste on their farm. His wife works for a long time saw blade company south of here and knows the blade aspect of these quite well. That was the only concern, was the blade, vs a bandsaw mill with cheaper replaceable blades, but those Belsaws really are of interest to me, I watched a few working on you tube, would be ideal for what we have, between us 250 acres with some nice wood lots. There was at least one that was listed under 1k, another was $1500, I remember forwarding the ads to him and his wife, thinking some of these were within budget, but there was that blade concern, they are a little conservative, but theres mill logs on the ground that will go to waste, so I kept an eye out for anything we could source and use. Had I the funds, there is no doubt I would have went for one of those I saw listed. There was also locally a Belsaw sharpening machine, $400-$500, I barely remember the ad, it sure appeared to be something of interest, research etc. Was versatile. Also saw a complete set up of sharpening equipment in another ad, some brand name that I thought was professional, commercial grade, every so often you see some really desirable equipment like this, machine shop tooling, in a sizeable lot, wishing you had the funds and space for it LOL !

I had a Woodmizer bandmill. A friend down the road had a circle saw & would bring his top quality logs to me rather than butcher and waste them on his mill. When I sold my mill, I got back almost what I paid for it.