1st Post intro and sawmill planning

[tjwelchs]

Hey everyone, my name is Travis.  I am a pharmacy school student, live in the midwest, started woodworking about 1.5 years ago and it has taken off pretty well.  My main career goal is to finish school, be a pharmacist for awhile to pay off all loans, while woodworking and milling in my free time of course, and eventually aquire enough rental properties to do milling and woodworking full time in the future.  Even though my tables sell for a nice price currently, the slabs are pretty expensive, so the natural progression for me right now is to build a sawmill.  I know of numerous people who have big logs and tree services around here are willing to give up logs, so if I can build a mill, slabs in the long run will be much cheaper.  I would also like to be able to mill wood for other people for cash.

I wont be milling much volume, but I want to be able to mill WIDE slabs when the opportunities arise for myself and others.  As for as the mill goes, I am very particular that I would like a 40"+ wide capacity...I have the skills to build this (welding etc..) and want it to be finished for under $1,000...with that price goal being said, I am taking my time to source materials to ensure the best bang for my buck as possible...for example I have been looking for an engine for months and finally came across a used 25hp honda for $300 which I was ecstatic about, but only $700 left now.  I have been brainstorming ideas how I can build a sawmilllike this and I think it should be modular...since I cant fit hydraulics and a trailer into a $1000 budget, I was thinking I could fabricate the rails in such a way that I can assemble them onsite around the log on the ground, similiar to the lucas mills, which would also allow me to fit everything in the back of a truck, no trailer required.  Everything would be extremely simple, focusing mostly on maximizing the wide cutting action.  I am aware there will be a lot of manual labor with having to assemble and disassemble, and also push the mill since its not automated and I know there will be a lot of time involved since I will fabricate everything myself, but I have more time than desire to spend a lot of money.  I think I can accomplish this goal of creating a sawmill in the budget that'll mill wide capacity, but I would love all of your guys help in figuring out the not so obvious specifics like pulley speeds etc and share the process with people smarter than I... If any of you see any immediate issues or have any suggestions/comments, I would love to hear.   Excited to get to know y'all!

[mad murdock]

Welcome TJWelches!  The adventure begins.  If you are on a tight budget but want to get into milling, and are doing almost exclusively slabs, I would look at finding a used 80+CC chainsaw, and fabricating an alaskan style milling attachment to the saw.  That would be the lowest budget option, and the old chainsaw properly set up will slab quite accurately and effectively, though it may not be as easy as a larger piece of equipment, it is a lot less $$, then you will need some log handling tools, check out logrite for those needs, they will have you covered!

[WV Sawmiller]

Travis,

  Welcome and good luck with your plans. If you are going to be handling big slabs you better think about material handling equipment. They are heavy. If you have connections and sources for logs, until you are better able to finance more equipment you might check your area for mobile sawyers with the capability to cut the kind of logs/slabs you are talking about. Or if you have a decent trailer you could collect the logs and take them to the miller if he is not mobile of if it is cheaper to do so. You will likely need such a trailer to transport big slabs and furniture anyway.

   Good luck and keep us informed of your journey.