My Adventure in Sawmilling: Ongoing Story of a Beginner Sawyer

[Leigh Family Farm]

Hello Everyone! I recently read an article in The New Pioneer about owning a portable sawmill and immediately I said "I'm getting one of those for my house!" I then started searching the web for any information about portable sawmills. As luck would have it, I was directed to the Forestry Forum! Once I was admitted (the entrance exam is brutal), I started my adventure into becoming a sawyer.

That is what this whole thread is about. Each week, I will post about my road to becoming a sawyer. This thread will be geared towards those like me, the new guy who doesn't know where to start and is overwhelmed by the information out there. I encourage you all to comment and I will address as many of the comments in the following week's post. To start us off, lets set the stage for my adventure.



 

I am 30, married with no kids yet, work for the government, and live in Pennsylvania. My wife and I are planning our wedding (got civilly married first) for October and the hopefully we will buy a house in the following year. I love to sail, design, and build almost anything. Problem solving is a passion of mine and I enjoy finding the solutions to practical problems no one else has thought of. I do not currently own a sawmill but I am hopelessly awaiting the day I can purchase one!

What will I use the sawmill for in the beginning? What is my end goal with being a sawyer? Why do I want to become a sawyer? These are three extremely important questions when starting a new adventure. I don't have lots of money to spend so I knew that I would be starting small. In the beginning, I wanted to be able to take a few logs a month and mill them down into useable lumber. I would use the lumber myself or sell it to my neighbors. My end goal is that I would like to have my portable sawmill business provide half of my current income. This would allow me to cut back my current job hours and pursue a more fulfilling lifestyle. I want to become a sawyer because I love to be active and create things with my hands. Being a sawyer would allow me to be outside, providing a service to others, and giving me the fulfillment I need to create items from raw materials to finished product.

Now I have my short term goal (make lumber for me and sell extras), my long term goal (provide half my income), and my purpose (provide a needed service and create useable items form scratch). This was a lot harder than it looks to complete and made me really think about who I am and what I want in life. Some deep internal thinking on my part! I would highly recommend anyone looking to get into any new project to ask themselves these same three questions. Answer honestly and you will know whether its right for you.

Right, well thats enough for now. I look forward to sharing my adventure with all of you and please share with me your comments. Have a great week!

[thecfarm]

Sounds like a good thread. What will you have for support equipment for your mill? ATV with an arch,tractor,old truck? Where are the logs coming from? It's good to start small,hard to sell lumber to build with at times. Maybe to make furniture with too?

[Bandmill Bandit]

Welcome to the Forum.

The best piece of advice I got came from the salesman that I eventually bought my sawmill from.

Marv told me to go out and work with owners of different sawmill makes and models so that I would gain experience and understanding of the various systems and features, advantages and disadvantages.

The most useful and biggest piece of advice  I received when it came to buying a saw mill.

Good luck on your journey. AND do enjoy the trip. It can be a lot of fun.


 

[trapper]

Go to the Shows, Events and Places to meet area on the forum and get to as many as you can to see the different mills side by side in operation to get ideas and meet great people doing what you want to do.
PS welcome

[Thehardway]

Decide how hard you want to work
Decide how much time your new bride is willing to deal with you sawing
Decide how much you can afford to lose if it all falls apart in Money, girl and equipment.  (health is not a given, hard to handle logs with one arm, a broken leg or worse)
Decide what kind of lumber you want to produce.  This will dictate what kind of saw you should buy and what production rates you should expect.  Hardwood, softwood, dimensional lumber, mouldings, siding, posts and beams, exotic, table tops, QS, etc.
Find out what the area demand is for the services you will provide and what they are willing to pay.
Find a specialty product in demand you can make and sell with your saw to pay bills between jobs.
Take into account weather issues and mechanical breakdowns
Milling is hot (summer), Cold (winter), sweaty (all year), dirty and very unforgiving but some of us do find it rewarding.

Being a sawyer is about a lot more than equipement and work ethic, it's learning to read a log and how to cut it right!  Storage is a big issue if you are going to cut for later use /sale.  Where will you put your finished product.  Where will you get your logs and what will the cost of them be.  Do you have any land to stockpile and sort them on?  What will you do with your waste?

Lots of questions... but your young and motivated right!

My advice.  By a decent size wooded lot now with minimal zoning restrictions and a good Bandsaw using your present income and good credit.  Cut the trees and use the lumber to build a timberframe shack to live in.  If the common law girlfriend will put up with this then she is worthy of marrying, if she leaves you, you will still have your mill and your shack Which you won't have if you marry her and then she decides she doesn;t like living with a sawyer.  Once you have a base camp shack, build a dream house with all the lumber you cut and can't sell during the down economy.  If she stuck with you through it, she deserves a hard working husband and a dream house.  You are rewarded with both.  You will build equity in the house as you build.  You will have plenty of space to stock pile.

I started out very similar, at age 42 I now have 10 AC, a small timberframe house, a wife, a son and I had a bandsaw until it got stolen last week.  Best off, everything I have is paid for (except for the wife) ;D

[Kansas]

There is a lot of good advice here. Here is my 2 cents worth.

What are your resources? You mention portable sawmilling business, but that generally means you are going to cut up someone else's logs. If you plan on cutting lumber for your use and sale, that means you will have to come up with a source of logs. What kind of logs will you have to  work with?

You said you plan on buying a house. So the lumber you cut will be used for furniture, or maybe a barn or  something. Again, find the resources that you have for logs. That can tell you a lot of what you will be  doing. Selling the extras is something you need to plan for. Are you selling green lumber? Air dried? Kiln dried? Be flexible, but define your markets to your capacity with your mill, and again, what your resources are. You can cut green white oak for trailer decking, or something for horse stalls, etc, eliminating the air dry and and kiln expense. But, depending on what you use the lumber for, it may be you need the ability to kiln dry for your own use. And there are some fairly cheap ways to achieve that. If that is the case, you may want to gravitate that direction. You are asking the right questions.

[drobertson]

I have found that there are many folks that want, or need to build sheds, buildings and the like. If you could sit down and get some basic plans which include floor joist, trusses, wall studs and siding, add the total board footage required to complete the desired plan, then you can give your custormers an accurate estimate of what the job will require. some folks will have a material list, which is sweet, but many more will not.  You might make a small book on suggested plans and share this with a potential custormer.  The 16 X 20 smoke house I am cutting is going to end up using close to 35 logs. ranging from 8' to 12' in length.  It helps to know ahead of time how they plan on building, to make the most of the logs. 

[schakey]

Welcome kilgrosh 8)
I love The New Pioneer mag along with Mother Earth and Countryside.
I for one will be watching and looking forward to your post.
We plan on retiring and building on our land in West Virginia in a year or so.
The mill will be mostly for our own use so I am thinking of the LT15.
One thing for sure we like pictures and vidoes.
Any problems milling or building there is a lot of answers here.  ;)

[dboyt]

Kilgrosh,

Welcome to the forum!  Best advice I can give (you'll get plenty on the forum) is to find a niche, and don't try to compete with the big boys.  Pallets, for example, will run you broke, but you can charge a premium for small jobs, such as barn siding and trailer decking.  Find out who is cutting walnut (you're in great country for walnut), and come in behind the loggers to pick up the wood they leave behind.  The short pieces, and especially crotches will have a lot of value to woodworkers, and a band sawmill is perfect for slicing them up.  The idea of roughing it while building a home is good, if you can pull it off.  It is exactly what I did 35 years ago.  Take your time finding support equipment, and get the best tools you can afford-- I've never regretted having good tools (except for the ones I loaned out or lost!).  The most dangerous thing you will do related to sawmilling is using the chain saw, even if you are just trimming an odd branch.  Get yourself a logger's hard hat, chaps, and steel toe boots, and WEAR THEM when using the chain saw.

It is great to see a positive response to my article in New Pioneer!  I'll be at the Mother Earth fair in Seven Springs, PA Sept 21-23.  If you can make it out, stop by the Norwood exhibit and we'll talk sawmills!

[dboyt]

By the way, congrats on the upcoming wedding.  It sounds like you are at an exciting point in your life, and that you are determined to make the most of it.  Sawmilling will provide you no small number of opportunities to solve problems, and I have no doubt that soon other members of the forum will be learning from you.  I look forward to more of your posts.

[bandmiller2]

Welcome Kilgrosh, remember it takes a good job to support a sawmill,sad but usally true.All good advice given,consider it a hobby,and learn by cutting your own before hitting the road.Stick with known brands of mills,they didn't become popular by selling crap.Becoming a sawyer is like learning to ride a bicycle you just have to do it and expect a spill or two along the way.Put safety at the top of your list,good luck. Frank C.

[Dave_]

Kilgrosh,  there is an old saying that says, "You never see a hearse pulling a YouHaul trailer."  Which roughly translates, "Ignore those band mills and join the ranks of us cirlce guys" :D :D  Old circle mills provide the unique opportunity to rebuild old, rusty, worn out equipment and then fast and pray before you crank over the engine each time in hopes that you might make it through a whole day without a breakdown.  Although, if you happen to chew through a whole day, there is no greater joy than doing it the way it was done "back in the day." 

Good luck on your journey and just know that now you have been bit with a bug that you can't and shouldn't shake 8) 8)

[steamsawyer]

Kilgrosh,

Welcome aboard. 

Everything what Dave_ said... But, if you really want to take a huge step backwards, do what I did and get yourself one of these...



 

Proof that I was born in the wrong century.

Alan

[thecfarm]

Not much steam power stuff left here in the North. I always enjoy your pictures.

[jdonovan]

Make sure the property you buy is zoned to do what you want. Just because its 'ag' zoning doesn't mean forest products are OK.

[Cutting Edge]

Proof that I was born in the wrong century.

Alan, 'bout the only thing that would make that picture better is a pair of bibs and a nice straw hat.  The angle and lighting of the picture is GREAT!!  My mother always said the same thing about me....my century might be a little more recent though   ;D

[Solomon]

Dave, what size circle blade fits your saw?   Arbor hole size?

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Kilgrosh,

Welcome aboard. 

Everything what Dave_ said... But, if you really want to take a huge step backwards, do what I did and get yourself one of these...



Proof that I was born in the wrong century.

Alan

Wow Alan....I wish I had had one of these pictures of you and your steam mill when I was down there. I would have gotten you to autograph it for me. 

That's a cool picture!

[steamsawyer]

Thanks guys,

My son took that picture. He is a professional photographer, along with being a Baptist minister. I am really proud of the work he does... Both jobs... 8)   http://www.billruddphotography.com/

Richard,  I often wear a straw hat, but my good one got smashed in the truck not long before that pic.  :  I need to get some new bibbs, all my old ones shrunk up across the front. :D

David, Next time you get down this way I'll put you to work... and I'll se that you get all the autographed pictures you want. :D

Alan

[Dave_]

Solomon,  I'm running a 48".  I don't remember the arbor size, but I think it's 2", it's on an old Belsaw A10.  We plan to put a Corley up next year that will run a 56".

[drobertson]

I have got to say, I feel like, at times I am just starting a new sawmill business! There is plenty to learn, and it never ends. It really is one day at a time.  Be prepared to learn everyday, and enjoy the day. (sometimes hard when bills never slow down.)  Just delieverd the last of the smoke house lumber this morning, $$$, or should I say $. Still very rewarding,  would not trade this for anything else.

[Leigh Family Farm]

I received a lot of comments and I really appreciate them all.  This past week I came up with a game plan...well more of an idea of where I’d like to end up and a way that might work on getting there. Someone once said “All the planning in the world goes out the window when the first shot is fired”, so keep that in mind as you are reading. By that I mean, I don’t know if this plan is feasible for my area or if it will even come close to working but it sounds good in my head and is doable for me.

Here are the ground rules as dictated by my wife, my family, and future goals:
1. We need to buy a house first before I can purchase a mill
2. The mill cannot interfere with the house or more than half the yard
3. I have about 16 hours a week to dedicate to the mill and its operation
4. The mill will need to pay its operating costs after 12 months

Now for the plan...
Phase 1:
Step 1
As I mentioned before, I am getting married in a few months and then buying a house in the next year. I would like to purchase a house that has a large plot of land, ideally more than an acre. The goal would be to utilize a 1/2 acre for the house and house yard, and then fence in the remaining portions of the yard to create a separate section for the mill. This is for future tax purposes that I can write off half my property as a business expense should the milling go that far. I do not have the skills to build a house nor do I want to take that project on just yet, so a house on the property is a must.

I would place my mill near the back half of the property. This would allow for logs to be delivered to my house without having me to move them very far to get to the mill. Then the cut lumber could be air dried behind the mill. In the beginning, my plan is to produce dimensional lumber so I can build a pavilion to cover my mill. I would like to be able to get the logs from a local tree service company for free or a small fee but I am prepared to purchase the logs if need be. This will allow me to accomplish several things at once: learn how to use my mill properly without a large outlay of money, showcase a finished project for potential customers, and begin developing a relationship with local tree industry businesses, loggers or otherwise.

Step 2
While completing my pavilion, I would begin reaching out to the local lumber yards and wood shops in the area to learn what type of wood they are willing to buy and for how much. Where I live there is the Devon Horse Show and many horse farms around the county, so I would contact them about needing lumber for their farms and how much they would be willing to pay for it. Then I would reach out to contractors in the area and see what type of lumber they use the most for specialty jobs, like remodeling homes. After gathering all the local data on demand for lumber, I would search for the trees through my contacts with the tree industry businesses from Step 1.

I would begin to complete small orders for some of the local neighbors, like maybe a few boards to replace some decking on a neighbors patio, a 100 bf for replacing shed siding, or a couple of 4”x4” timber posts needed for a new fence. The idea is to start small and learn as I go. The goal is to learn how much it costs to get a certain type of log delivered, milled to specifications, and distributed to the customer.

I fully plan on taking almost a year to complete Phase 1. The timeline would be as follows:
     Months 1-3: buy a mill, purchase a few logs, begin building pavilion
     Months 4-6: complete the pavilion, mill for neighbors
     Months 7-9: reach out to potential customers, continue milling for neighbors
     Months 9-12: begin taking orders for customers, start stockpiling lumber

I also understand that there are a lot of variables to this plan. For instance, will the zoning laws allow me to run a small sawmill in my neighborhood? Since I don’t own a truck, will tree services actually deliver the logs to me? What do I do with all the waste, buy a chipper and make mulch for my yard? Is there a market for milled lumber in my area? Or will this just become another expensive hobby like golf?  ??? ??? ???

There are two more phases to this whole plan that I am writing out for next week. Some people say “over analysis paralysis”, while I say “prior planning prevents poor performance.” As always, I enjoy your comments and I will answer as many of your questions in the following post.

P.S. Special thanks to DBoyt for the helpful advice via email! Thanks David!!

[Chuck White]

Alan; The picture of you and your power plant is really nice, good angle and lighting.

It actually looks more like a painting to me rather than a photo.

[beenthere]

kilgrosh
Your lot size isn't near big enough, IMO.

I'd suggest 5 acre minimum, and maybe 10.

But then I wish you luck. But your list begins with way too many "ground rules" being dictated for me to see fruition in your future. However, great to have goals and a "plan".

But I still wish you good luck on the venture. ;)

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

You need to set your price(s) based on what your costs are and what level of profit you need to make to stay in business. If you ask your potential customer(s) what they're willing to pay you'll never get a figure that will make any sense. Your customer tells you what they will pay by purchasing your product.

Good Luck!

Herb