Sawmills

[Rich Riddle]

Tell me the ins and outs of sawmills. I have a friend considering one and just starting to look up information. There are some posted on the Internet of the home-made variety that look like examples of future Darwin awards. He would prefer not to achieve that status.

[Mark Bolton]

There is endless information on the web, archives here, and on woodweb.com in the sawing and drying forums. It's a very big subject and has been very well covered as an overall topic. Specifics may get you a bit more useful info.

[Rich Riddle]

There is endless information on the web, archives here, and on woodweb.com in the sawing and drying forums. It's a very big subject and has been very well covered as an overall topic. Specifics may get you a bit more useful info.

It might indeed, but I don't know where to begin. So the introductory things might prove most useful.

[Mark Bolton]

Right, was just mentioning there is massive amounts of information addressed to this very question. For instance I punched "im thinking of buying a sawmill" in to google and came up with everything from trying to quantify business or hobby, capacity, custom sawing or a mix, other peoples property and insurance, and so on.

I can only imagine it will be hard to give useful information without a bit of specifics simply because there are many preliminary details that will very quickly steer your friend in a specific direction. Most of the manufacturers cover these as well.

We own a small mill and perhaps 60% of what I may tell you may not be applicable.

Is he/she thinking of sawing a log of two here and there? More? Steady work? Will they be felling trees and bandling logs? For pay?

[Kevin Bourque]

I'm also looking for a portable sawmill. The choices are:
1) High dollar $$$, high production, fully hydraulic mill with all the bells & whistles. $35-70k+

2) Much less expensive manual sawmill where you practically need to be Hercules if you have big logs. $10-20k

3) Stationary mill that you can pack up and move to another location in a few hours. $3-7k

4) Chainsaw mill. Under $1000 not including chainsaw

5) There are also kits available that you can put together and customize yourself.

I've used a top of the line, fully hydraulic Woodmizer in the past. it's pretty hard to mill wood with anything else after using a machine like that.

[Matt Day]

Great reply Kevin.

Rich - can you be more specific as to what your buddy wants to do with the sawmill? Start his own business with a kiln and all, or more of a portable and personal unit? As others have said, there is a TON of information on the internet about it and forums dedicated to it. I suggest putting in some leg work and research the topic a bit more on your own.

[Keith Hankins]

A guy I use to get all my wood from in IL, had a mill that was unique. He would collect the logs and once a year have a sawyer come on site with a big bandsaw mill and cut. He then stacked on the property for a year to air dry then to the kiln. Was great. I volunteered a couple days of vac every year to help when he did it and he taught me how to cut a log. I even asked why he did not just buy a mill and he said it did not make sense. With depr and maint it's still cheaper to have a guy come on site and do it. Its cool process and if you don't know what your doing you can really screw up a good log. It was close to st louis across the river and he knew most of the areas and with all the storms he was kept in supply of many good logs.

[John Bailey]

http://www.norwoodsawmills.com/porta...FQWEnQodXSEA-A

http://www.woodmizer.com/us/Portable...FQyEnQod_DQAMg

http://granberg.com/

http://www.arboristsite.com/

I don't know much about anything but the Granburg Alaska Sawmill. That's what I've got and its great for what it is. I've got the Alaska MK III 30" and the Mini Mill that was about $320 total with shipping at the time. It would be about $400 now unless you could find a sale like I did. I've got about 1,000 bd. ft. of walnut, cherry, and sycamore that didn't cost me a dime. I just take it to wherever the log is, cut it up into boards and haul the boards out. It's slow and hard work, but I can't think of a cheaper way to get wood. Of course you've got to have a chainsaw.

[Peter Kelly]

There's also the Logosol M8 system which can be had for around $3,500 including saw, ripping bar and chain for the basic package. Will handle up to a 36" diameter x 15' long log. Electric powered versions also available.

http://www.logosol.us/sawmills/m8/

[Jim Matthews]

Our own Rich Perry runs a sawmill.

He's got a recent posting with a small box made from his Quartersawn Sycamore.
You can drop him a direct line, clicking his name on the first submission, by PM.

[Luther Oswalt]

You owe it to yourself to look at the Peterson Mills. I don't have one if I needed to buy a mill this would be my choice .... IMHO it is the tops! Much better than the small Band Saw Mill! http://petersonsawmills.com/ There are dealers in the USA I think!
Leo

[Richard Coers]

Just how old of a fella' are you? Less than 45, you can consider a manual mill. Much over that and you should consider a hydraulic. I owned a manual Baker bandsaw mill on an axle, and it came close to killing me from the incredible long effort it takes to work that heavy timber and wet wood. I mean LOTS of work! I once broke a 3" diameter hard maple handle on a peavey rolling a big log. Imagine what it did to me! I owned it for 3 years, cut a mountain of wood, then sold it for $300 more than I paid for it. I bought it at a timber show, so bought it as a demonstrator. That's the way to really see what you want. The timber shows will be starting back up soon. Look at tests in the magazine Sawmill and WoodLot Management. https://www.sawmillmag.com/app/home/index Another great online resource is a forum called The Forestry Forum http://forestryforum.com/

[george newbury]

I'm also looking for a portable sawmill. The choices are:
1) High dollar $$$, high production, fully hydraulic mill with all the bells & whistles. $35-70k+

2) Much less expensive manual sawmill where you practically need to be Hercules if you have big logs. $10-20k

3) Stationary mill that you can pack up and move to another location in a few hours. $3-7k

4) Chainsaw mill. Under $1000 not including chainsaw

5) There are also kits available that you can put together and customize yourself.

I've used a top of the line, fully hydraulic Woodmizer in the past. it's pretty hard to mill wood with anything else after using a machine like that.

Kevin has it pretty much correct. 3) is a little low, most of the GOOD bottom line manual mills are now above $4K by the time you add fuel and blades. http://www.arboristsite.com/milling-saw-mills is a good site for a blend of info.

I've got 2 Stihl 660's and a Stihl 088 for milling, with two Alaskan Mark III's, so CSM can be addicting. However I've also got a Woodmizer LT10 for a BSM.

For ANYONE seriously interested in milling their own wood I strongly advise getting a 80 or 90CC saw and either buying or building the equivalent of an Alaskan Mark III. The saw will be needed if you graduate to a BSM. I got my first Stihl 660 (90cc) saw for $500 off ebay a few years ago, and a new Alaskan Mark III for $200 so the entry cost to milling isn't always real steep.

For a truly cheap BSM check out http://woodgears.ca/bandmill/backyard_milling.html.

[Tom Fischer]

For a truly cheap BSM check out http://woodgears.ca/bandmill/backyard_milling.html.

Wow, that is really wild. Didn't that that was even possible, given how companies like Grizzly talk about their cast iron wheels, saying that's the only way you can rip.
Kind of reminds me of what the locals had to do in America two hundred fifty years ago and back, building water powered mills.
Had to make everything by hand, make up your own design. I think the stuff was actually illegal (or plans were illegal), folks in Britain wanting the monopoly on manufacturing.

[Jim Shockey]

Rich;
I got interested in sawing my own lumber when I was sixty-five years old and I loved it. I started with the small Alaskin mill and it whent so good that I got the longer bars for it for the bigger logs. As time whent on I buillt a home made mill from the "PRO CUT" plans I bought from a company out of Canada. I've got 2 or 3 thousand board feet of Oak and walnut, all kiln dryed and stored for future use. I sold the mill and got most if not all my investment back and still have all the lumber left to use . Once you get started in milling ,you will never be with out logs.When the word gets around that you are milling poeple will always want a log or two removed from the yard or some place. I would tell them if they would get them on the ground that I would mill the lumber and take the fire wood but they would have to deal with what was left.I sold the mill when I had no more room to store the lumber. I still have the Alaskin and all the things that goes with it so if a spiel log came up, but at close to seventy 74, I'm giving that idea up also.. Tell your friend to go for it,slow and think it out real good be for time and he will have a nice setup that will give him a lot of good lumber and will injoy the hard work that is involed. Jim Shockey