Heh. And people think collecting machinery is odd. Imagine collecting burls.
With regards to your question Mcgyver, I would think that the primary reason would be handling the burls. I used to run a big upright bandsaw to rip down larger rough-sawn boards. About 8' tall, blade was about 2" wide. No matter how you tensioned it the blade would wander without constant attention, and any imperfections were amplified. A bandsaw-type mill gets over this with the rigid frame and the log fixed solidly. It's going to be hard to get the burl up and secured on the mill compared to a log, easier to take the saw to the burl and mount up the track in the best spot for the grain figuring. Plus you'd be generating some serious heat cutting through a slab that thick. The chain saw is going to be less likely to wander and the thicker kerf with less contact area will keep the heat down.
I got a bit more work done assembling my BC Ames together. Found a couple issues tonight - I had been working on restoring the original Ames headstock, but discovered that the Elgin cross slide that came with the lathe sits only about a 1/4" below the center of the spindle. Not sure that's going to work with most tool holders, so I've installed the shop-made headstock for now. Going to need to decide whether to start looking for an Ames cross slide and cough up the cash for that, or just work with what I've got.
With regards to your question Mcgyver, I would think that the primary reason would be handling the burls. I used to run a big upright bandsaw to rip down larger rough-sawn boards. About 8' tall, blade was about 2" wide. No matter how you tensioned it the blade would wander without constant attention, and any imperfections were amplified. A bandsaw-type mill gets over this with the rigid frame and the log fixed solidly. It's going to be hard to get the burl up and secured on the mill compared to a log, easier to take the saw to the burl and mount up the track in the best spot for the grain figuring. Plus you'd be generating some serious heat cutting through a slab that thick. The chain saw is going to be less likely to wander and the thicker kerf with less contact area will keep the heat down.
I got a bit more work done assembling my BC Ames together. Found a couple issues tonight - I had been working on restoring the original Ames headstock, but discovered that the Elgin cross slide that came with the lathe sits only about a 1/4" below the center of the spindle. Not sure that's going to work with most tool holders, so I've installed the shop-made headstock for now. Going to need to decide whether to start looking for an Ames cross slide and cough up the cash for that, or just work with what I've got.

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