Small band sawmills, anybody been around one?

Sycamore is more difficult to dry without severe checking. I used poplar for a post&beam (6x6, 6x8,6x10) building. Won't do that again. I've seen successful poplar beams, but I experienced a lot of checking. For thinner lumber, poplar is extremely easy, and fast, to dry. Around here it's commonly used as siding, but must be kept well-drained.

It's common to mistake veneer grade logs. They really are rare. But even FAS logs should be considered as to their use. Lower grades, worth much less, are easy to justify as post&beam material of almost any wood. Until you understand the grading, you're working in the dark.

I have my own woodlot to sell boards and bring in a portable band mill occasionally. Thought about buying one but I'm only paying $30-40/hr which translates into about $.25/sq ft (not bd ft). I get help, sometimes very skilled, sometimes not, plus the machine for that $30-40, which strikes me as cheap, considering the investment they've made. I don't enjoy the work enough to invest in the mill to use as a business and can't see spending the money for a better mill and have it sit around all year. I'm not familiar with the mill you're thinking about but can't imagine it could compete with a $30k mill. Should work, but you'll put far more hours into getting the lumber. Unless you don't consider your time worth much of anything, that gets expensive. Good luck with your decision.

It took some work to set up the sawmill and to get the track stable and level. It turns out very smooth lumber and I would guess that it could put out very consistant 1/2" boards. The saw blades do not have a whole lot of "set" to them and cut with a very thin kerf and the sawdust is quite fine. It seemed to me that it cut fairly fast, but probably it would be slow compared to a real production sawmill with a circular blade. My brother only has evergreen trees on his property, so that is all he has cut up. I have some mature birch trees that are starting to die. Maybe I will take them down and haul the logs to my brother's place so we can see how the saw works on birch.

There are probably less expensive mills available, but unless you have a lot of trees on your property and really want to do the work yourself, it might make the most sense to have someone with a portable saw come to your property and work over logs you have stacked. Like most things there is a definite learning curve in finding out how to work such a saw efficiently, and $10K would be a serious investment for me. I have seen advertisements where people offer to come to a customers property with their band saw mills, but have never called to see how much it costs. There probably is a set-up and transportation charge and then so much per cut or per thousand board feet cut.

My brother has thousands of trees on his property and wants to build a number of buildings. He also really likes working in the woods and with sawmills. He has some thought of producing some lumber for sale, but so far has only used it himself. He has another old circular saw that he fooled with for more than 10 years, but could never get working just right for any length of time, so he constantly had to tinker with it. The bandsaw mill does a great job and seldom has any problems at all.

Good luck, band saw mills are really neat!