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New forum user looking for info on small personal sawmills

Started by tomb, August 03, 2008, 09:42:03 PM

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tomb

Hello everyone, i am new to your forum but not to wood working.  I was directed to your site by someone at wood.com.  I am looking to branch out into milling lumber for myself.  I live along the Maummee river in Northwest Ohio and we have quite the diversity of trees here.  As lumber prices continue to climb in our area i am proactively looking for ways to lower my costs for lumber and possibly sell some on the side.  I currently have a small workshop in my garage and it is packed to the rafters with lumber of all kinds.  I am in the process of purchasing a small storage building to store lumber i have at the sawyers.  After this project i will be searching for a small personal mill for myself.  I have received the brochure and DVD on the woodmizer LT10 and would like to know your oppinions and suggestions on this and other sawmills of this size.  Thank you in advance for your thoughts and advice!

WH_Conley

Can't help you with that size mill but welcome, pull up a stump and have a seat. Help will be along shortly.
Bill

JimBuis

Welcome Tomb,
Certainly Wood-mizer builds wonderful mills. You might also want to take a look at the Peterson Skillmill. It is reasonably priced and Peterson builds a good mill.

Good luck,
Jim
Jim Buis                             Peterson 10" WPF swingmill

adrean louis

welcome tomb, i have my 2nd  woodmizer lt15 i use for nursery business and i saw about 45,000 bd ft every winter and i thing it works great

sgtmaconga

you might want to look at a timberking 1220 also. i love mine and it came with enough track to cut 12' long.
Measure twice cut once

Toolman

Welcome to forum Tomb. I owned a Timberking 1220 for 6 yrs. and can tell you it was one nice mill. I sold it and went to a Turner Hydraulic Mill, which is one heck of a nice mill. This is a great forum loaded withn alot of knowledge. Good luck with what you decide because you are gonna be ambushed with alot of suggestions from some very knowledgable people .
"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have" (Thomas Jefferson)

thecfarm

Welcome to the forum,tomb.Those small ones cut as good as those big ones.Just not as fast and ALOT more work.Too bad you couldn't wait to saw out your lumber to store your lumber in.Get a Logrite peavey to turn the logs.They are a sponsor on the left hand side.The smaller ones needs to be treated a little more gentle than the big ones.Not about to drop a foot and a half through log on and expect it to take it.Where will your logs come from?Good luck.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

jwoods

Tomb,

I live not too far away from you in Paulding County.  There is a wide variety of mills out there for sale, it depends on your forecast end result.  What trees will be at your disposal?  how big, or how small?  In our neighborhood, as you know, there's a lot of large diameter trees available. I was at least 1 year looking at all the mills, and finally I went for the biggest capacity (tree diameter)  for the $$, and I'm not sorry that I did.  I ended up with a TA Schmid, and I'm quite happy with the machine.

Joe

Daren

Quote from: jwoods on August 04, 2008, 07:42:48 AM
.  I ended up with a TA Schmid, and I'm quite happy with the machine.



That makes 2 of us  ;)
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

Bibbyman

It's nice to have your own mill but time and money wise,  it may be better spent getting someone local with a bandmill custom saw the logs you have found.  Wood-Mizer and others mill manufactures can help you find a mill that will saw your logs. 

There is also a "Find a Forester or Sawmill" here on the Forum (upper right).   You can get a lot of custom sawing services for the price of a mill.

Besides,  buying a mill leads to all kinds of life changing events.  :)

P.S.  Welcome to the Forum!  8)
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

metalspinner

Tomb,
Welcome to the Forum!

You're situation sounds a lot like mine. :)  I am using Bibby's idea for the time being.  The size and amount of the urban logs I am collecting are just too great for a smaller mill to cut efficiently.  The larger tricked out hydraulic mills, or the swing mill with slabber options just are not in my budget.  But hiring a sawyer with the expertise and equipment certainly are!

I do dream of owning a mill in the future. Preferably a smaller band mill and a swing mill with slabber. There are several used bandmills in the For Sale section here.  You should get much more bang for your buck in the used market. :)
I do what the little voices in my wife's head tell me to do.

shinnlinger

Tomb,

I think my Turner is a fine machine, It has saved my 10's of thousands, BUT in my case I am surrounded by free, high quality trees and have the time to PLAY Paul Bunyan and Super SAwyer.  If time is to be considered I think having some one come in might be a smart idea.  At least for the first structure.  You can learn alot and see if it is for you....It is ALOT of work....but fairly rewarding.

I will say don't even think about it if you don't have a decent sized tractor W/forks or some other way to move logs/lumber.

If you are actually thinking of making $$$ with it, I think you need to step up to a mill with hydraulics. but also what is the need for lumber in your area?  If all anyone wants around you is 2x4's then you won't be competitive with Home Cheapo.  On the other hand if there is a strong timber framing community and you have access to big trees and can saw 30 ft 10x12's then you may have something.

I am guessing you are more of a wood worker so perhaps if you can get for cheap to free decent sticks of hardwood and have some buddies in the craft you may be onto something there as well, and perhaps a small manual mill would be sufficient.  But I will suggest again that unless you can get the logs to your mill for next to nothing (include your time in this)I doubt you will come out ahead.  DO you have a rig that can haul a trailer?  (there are some nice homemade trailers on this site that can self load logs for not alot of $$$)

You may also want to look up on this site the diferent ways to preseve and store logs/lumber.

Good luck and welcome!
Shinnlinger
Woodshop teacher, pasture raised chicken farmer
34 horse kubota L-2850, Turner Band Mill, '84 F-600,
living in self-built/milled timberframe home

gizmodust

Welcome to the forum, Tomb  8).  A lot of good advice here.  I have a Norwood 2000 and really enjoy it.  Like Bibbyman says, owning a mill is a life changing event.  Pretty soon you start looking for other toys as well.  Take your time and really think about it.  When you finally come to your conclusion, you'll be glad you did.  What ever you decide.   Again, welcome and good luck.
Always liked wood with alot of character

timberfaller390

The cheapest mills I could find were the Norwood and Hudson I was going to buy a Norwod but found the deal of the century on a hydraulic mill
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Stihl MS390
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John Deere 440 ICD dozer

abnorm

Hi I own a Hudson 28 and am pleased with the results if i had a few more Bucks I would look at a woodmaster  the hudson will do the job but alot of manual labor but my wife likes the guns of Steel that developed so it works out

The thing with norwood and hudsons is that they are  portable enought to move from site to site on the back of a truck or small trailer not too expensive to start up I purchased mine on Ebay for a very reasonable cost with extra tracks and dogs etc,  and i worked out a deal with my local iron shop to build a trailer for sawing wood in exchage for sawing some logs (alot of logs and splitting fire wood ) I think he got the better of the deal but I got a 24' trailer for near nothing but winter sweat.

So i have my trailer in Pa at home for doing local cutting of yard trees etc and then i trailer the mill to Tennessee where i set up on a 32' slab where i cut what i need and trailer the wood back to Pa for drying in my garage ( yes have a garage in Tn but like to watch the wood dry)

I think that this mill the hudson 28 is about right for personal mill I would hate to slice 2000 bbft per day with it but then again i don't have too

Hope this helps

Randy

tomb

Thanks everyone for welcoming me to your forum, I appreciate all the advice you can give me.  I will check out the huson 28 and others this evening, and I will try to find those trailors you mentioned too.  I will try to upload some pictures as well if the computer will let me!  TECHNOLOGY IS SOMETIMES A PAIN!  Anyway about my area we have quite the abundance of trees of many species that are continually taken down in storms.  People are just giving them away for fire wood and that makes me sick knowing what wood goes for a board foot.  I have made some contacts with local park officials and some heavy equipment operators for loading up storm damaged trees.  For me its not about making a living selling the lumber but having a continual source on hand and supplementing with an occasional sale.  My wood shop is therepy (most of the time) and i amtrying to be in there more often. 
I have tried a couple of local sawyers and I enjoyed the experiance however it is quite a haul to take a trailor of wood to them.  Im not looking to cut lumber as an every day thing but on occasion when a tree becomes available to me.  At the momment I have a 36" diameter, 9' long honey locust tree awaiting milling.  I know the small mills wont cut this size log but this size isnt the norm for around here.  So this is why im here to get as much knowledge about this craft as possible before diving head first into it.  So thanks and keep the info coming! 

timberfaller390

If you go with one of the smaller mills then a handy addition would be an alaskan chainsaw mill made by granberg. You can use it to square up a log that is too big for your mill like the locust you are talking about.
L.M. Reese Co. Land Management Contractors
Stihl MS390
John Deere 50G excavator
John Deere 5103
John Deere 440 ICD dozer

crtreedude

Quote from: timberfaller390 on August 04, 2008, 03:25:20 PM
If you go with one of the smaller mills then a handy addition would be an alaskan chainsaw mill made by granberg. You can use it to square up a log that is too big for your mill like the locust you are talking about.

This is a very good suggestion. Realize as well that if you aren't doing slabs, there isn't that much value in cutting something 3 feet across, unless you like hernias of course.

We will use an 090 AV Stihl (speaking of hernias) to split logs into bite size pieces. Works great.
So, how did I end up here anyway?

ADAMINMO

You got some small manual mills don't ya CR? I know you have one and the others will be shipping soon.

jwoods

Tomb,

Quote: "I know the small mills wont cut this size log but this size isnt the norm for around here."


This is one of the things you need to check on the small mills.  The TA Schmid will swallow a 36" diameter log, and it came from the factory @ 10hp. -just about as small as they get.

Honey Locust?  I've cut my share.  Don't let it dry out and then try to saw...... Good Luck.

Joe

Tim L

I also welcome you,

          I have a Turner that I like just fine . As you can see many brands are represented here and folks are generally satisfied .My advice is find the best deal amongst the top brands that you can and start sawing .

                                 best of luck,

                                                      Tim
Do the best you can and don't look back

Daren

Quote from: jwoods on August 04, 2008, 04:30:11 PM

Quote: "I know the small mills wont cut this size log but this size isnt the norm for around here."


This is one of the things you need to check on the small mills.  The TA Schmid will swallow a 36" diameter log, and it came from the factory @ 10hp. -just about as small as they get.


I just have a 13 hp Honda, here is a 28" wide hard maple live edge slab sawn 10/4 on my Schmid a few weeks ago. Is a little manual mill alot of work, yes. Have I done things with mine I maybe should not have, yes...In going on 5 years I have replaced the starter rope, that's is. They are built to take a licking. Not knocking any other mills, most guys are having good luck with your major manufacturers, just saying look at them all. I did, chose what I chose and have been very happy with it.







Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

milling man

you definatley(spelling?) want to shop around and look at all the mills. i wish i did before i bought mine.

Handy Andy

  Don't overlook the Cook mills, they are heavy built and simply designed, easy to operate, but just wish I had a hydraulic turner on my mp32. When you get a big log on your deck and try to roll it 90 degrees, you need about a 6' logrite.
My name's Jim, I like wood.

shinnlinger

Tomb,

Reading your response and thinking of your situation(wood worker), I will refine my earlier remarks a bit.

I think if you have space in your yard to set up a log deck next to your mill that you can pull a trailer alongside and roll the logs onto, you can probably forgo the tractor because I bet you wont be dealing with anything more than 8 footers (but get a long peavy)

I would think you would want to build/aquire a self loading trailer (again there are some inexpensive ideas on this here) so that you could easily go get logs as they turn up without involving anyone else.  These trailers can be configured so you could roll the logs onto the deck (To protect the mill and allow you to stockpile a bit) and then onto the mill when you are ready and then you can custom dimension what you want on a fairly inexpesive band mill (they all seem fairly similair and capable).

Next thing you know though, you will want to build a solar kiln (lots on that here alos) next to the mill so you can dry your stuff .  As mentioned earlier, a mill can change your life!

And since we are probably talking mostly hardwoods, if you burn wood (or find some one who does) you can easily deal with the slabs and bark.

I think you might be onto something.
Shinnlinger
Woodshop teacher, pasture raised chicken farmer
34 horse kubota L-2850, Turner Band Mill, '84 F-600,
living in self-built/milled timberframe home

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