Used Norwood Lumbermate Pro MX34, thoughts?

[Lostinmn]

I'm a new member and have found the site to be very valuable for research, big thank you to all the members!  We have a farm in northern Minnesota with lots of tamarack (eastern larch).  A bit hard, but very beautiful wood with decent natural moisture resistance.  We also have a fair jag of red oak along with serval pine types. A few years ago my father and brothers harvested enough lumber and had it cut by a local sawyers to build a new garage with cabin on one end at the lake, interior and exterior siding used a lot of the tamarack.  That project I'm afraid has infected us with the sawmill virus (not to be confused with corona!).  We have a couple more projects in mind and would like to take the leap to processing our own lumber.  This would be for our personal hobby use and as a family weekends projects. (Adding a pole barn, shed, future hunting cabin/bunk house, and etc. over the years)

We've been looking at a good used mill for our needs.  We are ok with manual as we have equipment for moving logs, although after seeing some members winch powered log turner... going to be fabbing up one of those for sure. Based on our needs we have been looking at some used mills such as timberking 1220, Norwood 2000 or LumberMate Pro MX34, or woodmizer lt15's. I've done quiet a bit of online research including this forum on sawmills, reviews and user's thoughts.  But hit a block on this one:

I've come across a Norwood Lumbermate Pro MX34, trailer kit with vanguard 23hp for around 6K.  The ad says its a "Norwood Lumber Mate Pro", but from what I researched it would be the MX34, based on photos and etc.  I haven't been able to find a ton of information on it after searching this site and others, which is likely due to according to Norwood site: "LumberMate Pro MX34 Portable Sawmills (2010–2013)" it appears to have had a short run before being replaced by new model.  This of course raised my concern that this was due to issues, performance or failures with this particular iteration of the model.

Most of the info I've found is very old, from the 2010-2013 era and mostly related to new/recently acquired set up. Was really looking for recent experience/owners who have run them can to speak to the reliability, longevity and any issues/concerns specific to the model. Anyone have experience with this particular model and/or insight as to its short run of only 3 years?

Your expertise and experience is greatly appreciated!!

-Shane


 

[Bandmill Bandit]

I did Not own one but a friend of mine did own 2011 for 3 or 4 years (till the LT35 came out) and then moved up to a hydraulic LT35.

I worked with him to get rolling with the milling and taught him to be a good sawyer.

We both liked the mill for a manual mill BUT it wasn't quite enough mill for what he needed and was to much mill for an acreage type mill. He could have added upgrades and built material handling equipment but the cost and the labor do that would have made the investment for him about the same as he paid for the LT35 after selling the MX34. He got 500 less than what he paid for the MX34 when he sold it. It was a good mill.

A big part of the reason he went to the LT35 was that he worked for me tailing my LT40 "almost Super" for about 2 weeks on his farm one summer when they were building new cattle shelters and corals and decided it was more efficient for me to do the milling while they did the building. Most of that lumber came off the mill onto the fork lift and nailed in place before the sun went down.

With his 300 Acre wood lot he definitely wanted the hydraulics and he really got to hate the 4 post system because it just made everything a bit more of a pain to deal with or work around.

He owns and farms over a 1000 acres with a cow herd of about 250, so equipment of every sort is readily available to handle logs/material but when he is sawing he wants to be able to get to it and get done with some decent productivity too.

Now he is looking at moving up to an LT50.

You can start with a smaller mill and move up like he has done OR you can bite the bullet and get the mill that will get the lumber cut quickly to build your projects with out the mill capacity being the choke point of the projects.

Welcome to the Forum and good luck in your endeavors.  
         

[RAYAR]

The MX34 Pro is suppose to be a decent mill. It gave way to the current HD36. They were both Norwoods top end mills.

[cutterboy]

The mill looks very clean for being 7-10 years old. It doesn't look to be abused at all or even used hard. I think 6k is a good price if there are no major issues with it.
 I own a 19 year old LM2000 that I bought new and have sawed lumber every year with it. Norwood's mills are built strong and last a long time with few problems. If my mill wasn't sawing as well as it is I think I'd be interested in that mill myself.

Good luck in your search, Cutter

[Lostinmn]

Looks like I dilly dallied too long and missed out on it. O well, the search continues.

[barbender]

Where are you located if you don't mind sharing, lostinmn? I'm in the Deer River area, west of Grand Rapids.

[Lostinmn]

Where are you located if you don't mind sharing, lostinmn? I'm in the Deer River area, west of Grand Rapids.

I live in Rosemount, SE Metro Minneapolis/St. Paul, but our family play properties near Barnum and Moose Lake about an hour south of Duluth down I35.  We have a couple cabins on the moose horn river along with a small private lake near Barnum and a few hundred acres of hunting land east of Moose Lake full of Tamarack which caused the start of the sawmill bug. 


We rented a cabin last summer not to far from Deer River, Buckhorn on Caribou Lake in Marcell.  Really gorgeous area, handscibed log cabin and fishing was decent.  Kids loved it and are really jonesing to go back.

[Lostinmn]

The more I've been reading on here, the more we are thinking a used mill with hydraulics might be right up our alley.  While we are just looking for hobby use, Dad is getting up in years and would like that better I think when we aren't at hand to help.  While my brothers and I still enjoy a good workout, we are not against the work smarter not harder school of thought. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   If you are just using it as a hobby mill just remember the hydraulics will make it a lot more fun to use. JMHO. I was going to buy a manual mill and wife and neighbors talked me into hydraulics and I doubt I would have stuck with it not.

[Stephen1]

You will never regret hydraulics, but you will wish you had purchased a mill with hydraulics when all you have is manual. If you are travelling to your property, your time there is limited, having hydraulics increases the productivity and fun factor by huge  8) amount!

[barbender]

Caribou is a gem, a really beautiful lake! The whole highway 38/Soumi hills area is pretty stunning. 

I'm going to differ with the others a bit-maybe? I have an LT40 Super Hydraulic, diesel engine, and setworks. It's a nice machine, but it's also a lot of machine to leave sitting about 10 months out of the year, as it happens for me. There's more to go wrong, and for some tasks I miss the simplicity of the manual mill that I used in some ways more like a shop tool, like a table saw. I could go out and pull the 13 hp Honda over and fire it up, let it idle 30 seconds and cut a straight edge on a couple of boards, or some other simple task that I'd hate to fire the big mill up for. Don't get me wrong, I love the capabilities of my mill when I'm jumping out the lumber. Just some food for thought, sometimes simpler is better.

[Lostinmn]

Caribou is a gem, a really beautiful lake! The whole highway 38/Soumi hills area is pretty stunning.

I'm going to differ with the others a bit-maybe? I have an LT40 Super Hydraulic, diesel engine, and setworks. It's a nice machine, but it's also a lot of machine to leave sitting about 10 months out of the year, as it happens for me. There's more to go wrong, and for some tasks I miss the simplicity of the manual mill that I used in some ways more like a shop tool, like a table saw. I could go out and pull the 13 hp Honda over and fire it up, let it idle 30 seconds and cut a straight edge on a couple of boards, or some other simple task that I'd hate to fire the big mill up for. Don't get me wrong, I love the capabilities of my mill when I'm jumping out the lumber. Just some food for thought, sometimes simpler is better.

It a valid point!  It was the original thought that my brothers and I would do most of the felling and milling, but now dad is more interested in the hands on parts again, which opened up the hydraulics side.  Lots to ponder...