No telling what that set up costs. And for what it costs, I would want the operator to be on the opposite side of where the dust is blowing out.
Pretty much all band saws I've seen have teeth on one side only. It would take some fancy work to make the machine swivel around and the time it takes would probably be about the same as bringing it back. Perhaps the bigger problem with these types of mills is that the saw has to come back and clear before someone can remove the slab or lumber so the sawyer has to wait while it is being removed. That is hard work removing it too. If the band saw runs vertically (there it is again) then the slab can fall off onto a conveyer and not have to be lifted off and the sawyer does not have to stop to wait which saves a lot of time.
Well seeing how most saws could be interchangable (directionally) i Would have thought a machine this loaded up would have just rotated its saw so it would have flipped over 180 via a simple axle gear and never had to do anything super complex. The part about that is that there would be two exposed cutting areas but as long as the moving part is well away from anyone and the operator is well shielded, they just have to afix a simple motor on it and there's no wasted time or energy.
Band saw blades are supported by bearings on both sides of the blade and also behind the blade, on both sides of the cut. Having teeth on both edges would make the bearings behind the blade impossible, and without those the pressure of the cut would push the blade out of position and the teeth would be destroyed when the points hit the side guide bearings.
3 feet of 4 inch rubber tubing hose clamped to the discharge would allow the operator to breathe after completing a full shift. That poor guy is going to be hacking out sawdust all night.
