Little Ripper Sawmill......Any experience with this equipment?

I did not see reference to this item through a forum search and was wondering if anyone had experience with it.  Essentially a jig that afixes to a stationary shop band saw for milling dimensional lumber from roundwood.  I realize there are many other versions of bandsaw- or chainsaw-based sawmills, but had not seen this particular unit before.  

It appears to come out of Canada.... don't know if US distributors exist.  It certainly would increase my interest in getting a bandsaw for the garage.  Plenty of YouTube videos on the item if interested.  Opinions welcomed.  Thanks!

https://stockroomsupply.com/collections/little-ripper-mini-sawmill-1/products/little-ripper-sawmill-package-to-cut-up-to-8

I have never seen one, but its principle is neat.
I assume the extension arms allow the timber to slide past the vertical bandsaw blade.
My ony concern is the weight of big loads at that height.
If a lifting mechanism could be set up that problem mat disappear.

It would require an extremely powerful handsaw to do this at any significant scale, in addition to questions of raising logs of any significant size up to the bandsaw table.
The bandsaw's throat height is another limitation. 14 inches is a large bandsaw throat, but a small log for milling.
I got the Granberg Alaskan mill and am building a 105 cc saw to use in it. My 76cc Husqvarna can do milling work but I wanted a bigger one to dedicate to the mill.

I'll be looking into this further ... thanks for the tip!

I have a need to "build my own" sawmill, and just have too many problems with a purchased (big expense) or home-built engine-based (yet another engine) bandsaw version (like most commercial sawmills).

So, I was considering building a "circular sawmill", electric-motor driven ...

I actually have a vertical bandsaw ... now I am inspired to experiment with that ...

Shouldn't be too hard to lower the work area "cutting portion" of the sawmill (where operator stands), and have infeed and output areas level to the ground ... once timbers roll off the assembly line, a nifty shed roofing the whole thing is within reach! Most of my immediate need is square timbers (4x4, 6x6, 8x8 ...)

Thanks again!

If pine with pitch is the wood to be cut, what all has to be cleaned to get the pitch out of it?

I've heard of this. It is called a resaw sled. There are a number of DIY instructions for building those. But that product looks pretty nifty.

Instructable Band Saw Log Sled

I had a longer post lined up but my HP laptop is so wiggy it ate the contents and spat it into a worm-hole spitoon of some galaxy or another ! :-/

My main interest is in potentially milling some cottonwood and elm and possibly ash for on-site use....just a few boards here and there for small framing projects and not enough for larger building plans.  In particular, we have a lot of elm that grows to about the 8-10 inch diameter size before getting hit with Dutch elm disease.  The idea would be to fell these while they are still green, but at a time when we are darn sure they won't be recovering from disease.  Can anyone recommend a vertical table-based wood-shop bandsaw with decent horsepower and a guide that can adjust for to a ~12-14 inch opening?  Most good ones seem to be above $1000 USD....but maybe I've not looked hard enough.  We do have a decent wood planer that I might be able to use to smooth down boards the come from the rough cut of an aggressive band-saw blade.  Thanks for comments here!.....

Jt Lamb wrote:I'll be looking into this further ... thanks for the tip!

I have a need to "build my own" sawmill, and just have too many problems with a purchased (big expense) or home-built engine-based (yet another engine) bandsaw version (like most commercial sawmills).

So, I was considering building a "circular sawmill", electric-motor driven ...

I actually have a vertical bandsaw ... now I am inspired to experiment with that ...

Shouldn't be too hard to lower the work area "cutting portion" of the sawmill (where operator stands), and have infeed and output areas level to the ground ... once timbers roll off the assembly line, a nifty shed roofing the whole thing is within reach! Most of my immediate need is square timbers (4x4, 6x6, 8x8 ...)

Thanks again!

It's entirely possible to have an electric motor on a bandsaw mill. Commercial versions offer them.  Your best bet on a vertical bandsaw that might do what you are looking for is to find an old industrial model.