Building a cabin: buy lumber or buy a mill?

[Merlin]

Hello Chugiak,
I went through this exact dilemma a few years ago and I am still "working" on the building, but it is more than usable. I first bought a piece of land 150 km form my current home and cleared the spot for the camp, put in a driveway and cleared the building spot. The previous winter I spent most of my weekends in the woods cutting and hauling out the trees. There are a few pics in my album the farm but here are a few.



 



 

After that work, the real time consuming part began. Milling all the wood. Here is a pic of the wood to be milled, not all of it went to the camp, but quite a bit did.



  

  

  

 

All of this was done a manual mill and I only ever had one other set of hands to help at times, other times just myself.
Here are some of the fruits of my labour. 

  

  

 

In the end, to answer your question of should you buy your own mill. I believe yes, but I was able to borrow a mill when I needed it. I was able to build my camp for around $14000. That was including the concrete, driveway, electrician and such. But it was a crap load of time. I also milled all the interior wood and the siding. The interior stuff was all planed and ran through the table saw to make a shiplap edge as I didn't have anything else available to make t&g.



  

  

  

  

  

 

It was livable for the winter snowmobile season, but not finished inside. That got done throughout the year when time permitted.



  

  

  

 


And the finished product, well not quite "finished" looks rather good. Most of the creature comforts of home, without all the things that MUST get done on the farm. The last project is installing a shallow well so that we have a bit of water for washing dishes and flushing the toilet. It is almost done.



  

  

  

  

  

  

 

The experience was great and it is very satisfying to be able to say that I was able to take the trees from my land and build this completely. It will be there for years and my kids love "PICNIC LAND".



 

The only caveat would be if you are able to work for money during the time it takes to do all this work and be ahead money. I unfortunately do not have the luxury as I'm a salary person. But since I teach high school, I have some free time during the "hot" months when I don;t need to be working on the farm.

[ChugiakTinkerer]

  If your not dead set on post and beam. You can build a frame structure with smaller logs. Which means less support equipment, easier skidding, lighter lifting. Consider how much help you will have around when lifting beams. Just food for thought. I have always thought, if building in a remote location I would go with cord wood cabin. Dennis

Funny you should mention that.  I'm scratching my head looking at alternatives now.  Thanks for the suggestion.

[ChugiakTinkerer]

Merlin,

That is a fine looking camp you have made for your family.  Thanks for sharing the pictures of your journey to Picnic Land.  I'm a salary person too, but don't get as much time off in the summer.  For my arrangement I will be able to do most of my logging and milling in the winter, assuming I go that route.  My thought process seems at the moment to be driven by whichever direction the weather vane is pointing, but I'm looking at changing my cabin design to make much more use of sawn lumber.  Oddly enough, the magic 8-ball is saying buy the mill!  :D

[pine]

get the mill, then mill what you need. then mill more for future use, then double it.
house, outhouse, smoke house, food storage to keep bears and ? ? ? out,

and get a 4x4 tractor with a PTO logging winch.

then if you need to get your $$ back you should have no problem since as you stated, "the pickings in Alaska are slim"

i am surprised these old pickup snowmobiles do not have a modern day equivalent
http://gomotors.net/photos/38/5b/ford-model-t-snow-machine-conversion_d19d4.jpg?i

Who says there's no modern day equivalent?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwpKjEa4LYY

Since you posted this in your own topic, I can only respond with:
NOW THAT IS COOL

[SkyDoc]

Chugiak,

I was born and raised up there (Petersburg) and my parents now live in Houston (AK not TX). I am quite familiar with the terrain, challenges and goals. I bought a Lumbersmith Bantam 26 for my personal projects. I am really pleased with the mill.

I would suggest that you took at look at their mill but buy your steel for the track up there and fabricate a sturdy track system with a sturdy base on your property. Their stock track system would be fine if you had a cement slab to work from but working in the tundra you are going to have challenges keeping things level.

The suggestion to take a log arch and put some ski's on it is pretty genius. If I was working in that terrain thats exactly what I would do.

Best of luck with your goals. If I can help in any way, please drop me a message.

Doc

[ChugiakTinkerer]

Chugiak,

I was born and raised up there (Petersburg) and my parents now live in Houston (AK not TX). I am quite familiar with the terrain, challenges and goals. I bought a Lumbersmith Bantam 26 for my personal projects. I am really pleased with the mill.

I would suggest that you took at look at their mill but buy your steel for the track up there and fabricate a sturdy track system with a sturdy base on your property. Their stock track system would be fine if you had a cement slab to work from but working in the tundra you are going to have challenges keeping things level.

The suggestion to take a log arch and put some ski's on it is pretty genius. If I was working in that terrain thats exactly what I would do.

Best of luck with your goals. If I can help in any way, please drop me a message.

Doc

Hola SkyDoc!  Your point about the rails is spot on.  I'm pondering if I shouldn't just have two sets of rails, the factory ones I set up at home and some home-made ones that are long enough to cut the length of timbers I need.

I'm thinking I should proceed with caution on this 'buying a mill' thing because I'm not the young man I once was.  I reckon I'll spend some time in December cutting and hauling logs to the property and assess from there if I've got the starch in me to follow through on the cutting and milling required for the entire cabin.  If I decide I'd rather buy lumber then I'm not out anything except for some log handling equipment, which I'd probably get anyway just for cutting firewood.  I know that's my wisest plan going forward, but the part of me that says BUY THE MILL NOW! isn't too happy.  I'll keep my eyes open on the local used mill market and be ready to place an order in January should I still be committed to milling my own.

[never finished]

 Merlin, that's nice.

[Kbeitz]

I was 63 before I built my mill. Dont let your age slow you down...

[red]

www.cabinporn.com 

[ChugiakTinkerer]

www.cabinporn.com

There goes the rest of my month's bandwidth allowance!

[timcosby]

im thinking lumber and everything else in alaska is much higher.

[ChugiakTinkerer]

Some things are the same as you'd pay anywhere in the states, such as dry goods and household items.  Other stuff, it's a puzzlement why it costs so much.  I'm no expert on lumber pricing, but it just seems to make sense to cut and mill my own.  Okay, maybe it's just a rationalization for what I want to do anyway.  8)

With the money we "save" I can pick up a little loader to make the job go quicker.

[Kbeitz]

The best part is that you can make lumber thats not sold
just anywhere. Odd sizes...

[ChugiakTinkerer]

The best part is that you can make lumber thats not sold
just anywhere. Odd sizes...

Just read most of your build thread.  Very well done!  I didn't get to the end though, have you built a log arch?  I'm thinking about how to make one with skis.

[Kbeitz]

The best part is that you can make lumber thats not sold
just anywhere. Odd sizes...

Just read most of your build thread.  Very well done!  I didn't get to the end though, have you built a log arch?  I'm thinking about how to make one with skis.

Yes I did... Thats another build thread.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,84323.0.html



 

[ChugiakTinkerer]

Holy smokes!  That looks like it will be an enjoyable read, thanks!

[ChugiakTinkerer]

So I've been like an ADHD squirrel on speed for the last couple of weeks, trying to figure out what to do.  Buy lumber or buy a mill?  Buy new or buy used?  Buy a Cadillac or buy a Chevy?  I've hopped from one option to the next, convinced that each was the best way to go.

I finally decided to stop dithering and just buy the best mill within my budget.  Shipping kicked it a little over my target of $5K but I've just purchased a Woodland Mills HM130 bandsaw mill.  The green machine is due to arrive in about two weeks.  Will call Kasco next and get some blades.

[Magicman]

 8)

[plowboyswr]

 smiley_clapping now instead of being the squirrel you'll be a kid at christmas! Don't forget a cant hook or peavey to go with it also, them logrites are hard to beat.

[ChugiakTinkerer]

smiley_clapping now instead of being the squirrel you'll be a kid at christmas! Don't forget a cant hook or peavey to go with it also, them logrites are hard to beat.

Yep, I'm thinking two cant hooks.  Or maybe one cant hook and one peavey.  I am a poor tractorless waif, so will have to use mine and my wife's grunt power for moving and rolling logs.

[ozarkgem]

congrats on the mill. You will be hooked on sawing. How much was just the shipping that far?

[ChugiakTinkerer]

congrats on the mill. You will be hooked on sawing. How much was just the shipping that far?

A mere $1150 if I pick it up at the port.

[ozarkgem]

congrats on the mill. You will be hooked on sawing. How much was just the shipping that far?

A mere $1150 if I pick it up at the port.

would that be in Whittier?

[ChugiakTinkerer]

congrats on the mill. You will be hooked on sawing. How much was just the shipping that far?

A mere $1150 if I pick it up at the port.

would that be in Whittier?

Nope, Anchorage.  Or as some call it, Los Anchorage.  Chugiak is a community within the Municipality of Anchorage, which is like a combined city and county.  Because Alaskans like to be different, we don't have counties either.  We have boroughs.  Which probably have some legal distinction from counties but I don't know what that is.

[starmac]

Well you probably made the right decision, at least I hope. I don't know how far off the road system you are, but if very far you will likely save the cost of the mill just in transportation cost of hauling all your lumber in versus utilizing logs close to the site.

I have an old alpine, not the fastest, most comfortable ride, but once a guy makes a pass ot two to pack the trail, it will pull some good size logs. Just fashion a piece of uhmv to keep the end of the log from digging in.

As far as selling it when done, when does one ever get done. lol I have a friend that pulled in an old circular mill, industrial planer/moulder (to make his tongue and groove) many miles up the salcha with a dozer. This after he built most of the place with a homeade chainsaw mill. This old stuff got flooded at some time in the past and has sat for a number of years, now he has bought an lt40hd and fashioned some skis to it todrag up there with his snowcat.