I appreciate the advice, logger coffee, will sit down and order those items on Thursday. About to fly to The Village of Bethel, then get on a boat on the Kuskokwim River, and go to the Village of Napakiak, where I'll be helping remodel the old National Guard armory into a church. I'll be busy till Thursday, else I would order those parts now. I did get two spare drive belts, but not having ran a bandsaw mill before, I didn't know about the rest.
I wish I could cut standing beetle or fire kill, but there is little good timber close by here, and when there is, It's on Native Corporation land, and I respect the treaties, so I don't log on Native land. The Bible actually talks about treaties between nations, and the consequences from God when they are broken. I would have to go quite a ways by boat or snowmachine to fall standing timber, then float it back by boat, or sled it back by snowmachine, and would more time and fuel money than it is to buy new blades. I have paid $8.00 for an 8' 2x4 out here before. To mill thirty two 9' 2x4's, thirty four 8' 2x4's, and twenty seven 9' one inch planks that are between 16" and 8" at the but end, I've spent $77.00 dollars in fuel and oil for the boat, ATV, chainsaw, and mill. Gas is $6.16 a gallon right now.

I have a band mill., not able to lug lumber, like I used to. If I could suggest something. If you have lots of room , I would turn your mill 90 degrees and keep it further from your building. , load your logs from the opposite side, so the operator is not working over incoming logs. Stack and sticker your lumber as you take it off the mill so you don't move it twice. Don't let your slabs , build up , keep them cleaned up. I built an 8 foot saw horse , that you can put them on and run a chain saw down through , to make fire wood. If possible have your sawdust discharging on the normally down wind side. A fellow can have a good time sawing , set it up handy and have fun. old243

Glad your there and also glad to have a trapper showing us the country. Seems to be quite a few "Catholic" villages with a second church. I have a house in Ruby and their 2nd church was rebuilt this summer. My friends said Franklin Graham was there.
Like white said, drift wood is known to be sandy and hard on saw chains/blades. It is pretty handy tho. Ruby has a mill but it hasn't run for years. Green logs would be cut upriver and a raf floated down to the mill.
Looking forward to trapping stories and pics.
MT

Those gas prices scare me spitless.

If you are isolated, I would look into getting a proper blade sharpener and a setter. so you can maintain your own blades. Mine is built in new Zealand, there is a dealer in British Columbia, Will provide info, if you want it. Someone mentioned a Woodmizer dealer in Alaska , they would likely do blade sharpening. . Have fun old243

I'll take your advice on spraying it down with WD40, White17. You ain't joking about releveling it! Constantly releveling the building out here, I wish there was good bedrock under this building, just tundra. I have to relevel myself when I get out of bed in the morning it seems nowadays! Thank God I can still get around after having a broken back, three hernias, terrible injuries to my legs, mysterious ailments from a tick bite and brown recluse bite that had a reaction to each other, a heart that has stopped working before, and enough other injuries that needed surgery to bore you to death. Every day is a gift from God, I try not to take them for granted. I'm 33, hope to be as spry as the 76 year old man who helped me set up the mill when I get to be his age.

That's all good advice old243, I'll take you up on as much as I can. Don't know a whole lot about milling yet. Please get me the info on the sharpener, I would love to have it. Thanks for the info.

The corp. land around KSM likely belongs to the St. Mary's village corp. Thecorp wasn't created by treaty. It was created in 1971 by an act of congress. ANCSA. The corp. is a for profit corporation. Have you tried speaking to whoever runs the Corp.? Perhaps they would let you cut logs on their land for a percentage of the lumber. The local housing authority builds new homes in the villages. You and the mill could become pretty popular.
MT

Would digging for pillar's filled with concrete or a foundation of sorts help with keeping it level? I have no idea if it would help up there or not with the weather. I really enjoy your post and wish you all well.

I am still learning the laws and customs out here martentrapper. Will see about what you suggested. The permafrost in the tundra prevents having a fixed foundation, Catch22. I have seen few buildings in a bush village with a concrete pad, it is doable, but only at terrible great expense, and in the right conditions.

If your engine doesn't have a fuel shut-off valve.....I would install one. That way you can just shut the fuel off and run the carb dry before storage.

Do NOT use any sono-tube type of foundation in those soils. Bad results wherever I have seen it out here.

Fortunately, it does have a shut off valve, that is a good idea, to run it after shutting off the fuel. Will do.

Before you start selling wood I would suggest you look into it. The village corp. controls the access. Once you start selling a product of the land it then is controlled by the Regional Native Corporation which owns the subsurface rights. People in the south east went to court over this a few years ago. No I don't have a link.

I don't sell any wood, just use it for the church and people who are church members.

Hope to use the mill to build a youth camp for kids who come to church, just have to find a piece of land suitable for such a purpose.

Trees are a "subsurface" product? Haven't heard that one yet.
mt

I can only cut 9'3" logs on it right now, but plan on getting some longer pieces of angle iron so I can cut 20 foot pieces of lumber. I want build a roof between the two containers, leaving the space between them open for the mill, with enough space to pull my Honda Foreman along side the mill. I'm going to put an Ibeam from the roof of one container to the other, and put a chain fall on it to lift logs from my log trailer and lower them onto the mill. This way I don't have to work in the rain.

I won't be using the mill all of the time, so going to park the Skidoo and Honda alongside the mill under the roof when the mill's not being used.

Going to keep the short rails for when we build the youth camp, I can put the mill on site, as it's not that hard to put in the boat, and it will be better to have it where we are building, rather than boat lumber to the youth camp.

Cracker, Following is the info on band blade profiler, and setter. Got mine about 20 years ago Just got a part so they still make them. Available from ,Western
woodlot equipment., po box1214, Lillooet BC Can.V0K 1V0
Dinasaw Bandsaw sharpener, modelPF 12v sharpener mine advances blade with hand crank

Dino bandsaw setter ,Manual crank , sets blade after sharpening

Made by Dinasaw, 13 industrial ave. Caloundra QLD4551 Australia web www.dinasaw.com.au

Woodmiser, cooks, as well as several others have sharpeners as well. You can downlad the manuals on line.

They are quite expensive, but you need some thing to keep your blades working properly. Good Luck old243