The second question I’d ask someone looking to buy a mill would be about the primary use of the mill. I say primary because most all mills are pretty versatile and can make a lot of cuts with some creativity. It’s about what you plan to do day-to-day that really should be the focus. This will make it far less confusing when shopping for a mill as the different mills have clear strengths.
BANDSAW MILLS ARE GREAT FOR LARGE BEAMS.
For us lumber is important, but not as important as the beams we’d be using to make our Douglas Fir timber frame outdoor learning center.
Then let’s look at the largest beam we’d need to cut at 8 inches by 15 inches. Even for the largest, non-production circular sawmill available, 15 inches is a substantial cut and would require creativity to produce. With a 10″ kerf you’d need to make two passes and hope they’re spot on! We needed 8 of these pieces… So while it’s within the abilities of the circular mill, pieces this size are by no means a strength. Most entry level bandsaw mills have no problem with this beams of this dimension.
For lumber production a bandsaw mill often requires more steps to produce lumber than a circular saw. Additionally the circular sawmill can cut in both forward and back passes (bandsaw mills cut only on the forward pass) cutting operator fatigue in half.