My Adventure in Sawmilling: Ongoing Story of a Beginner Sawyer

[jdonovan]

4. The mill will need to pay its operating costs after 12 months

depreciation, maintanance, insurance, fuel, spare parts/repairs ? Does the mill have to 100% pay for all of its costs, or are you only looking for it to cover a portion of its costs?

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.

WAY too small IMO.

Figure an acre at 200'x200'. I would expect any property you can do an industrial/AG use on, you are going to have 50' or more setbacks from your property line. This would leave a 100x100 area in the center that could be used... which is 1/4 of a 1 acre lot. You need large areas for truck unloading, truck turning, equipment storage, equipment operating area, log storage, lumber drying, lumber storage, a kiln etc...

Plan on needing several buildings as well. Kiln dried lumber needs to be held indoors if you want to keep low moisture, and to keep the bugs out of it.

Also on a 1 acre lot in an residential area there is no way you'll meet the noise restrictions at the property line.

I would figure on more like 5-10 acres at a minimum.

As an example, Zoning in my area requires sawmil log/lumber storage be 100' from the property line... and the mill needs to be further away than that!

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.

The only dimensional/structural lumber they can use, is mandated by building codes to be graded, stamped lumber. Something you will not be able to produce economically, unless you are a certified lumber grader.

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.

Sounds like uses that require naturally rot-resistant wood, or treated lumber. Thoughts on how you plan to treat your lumber for rot resistance?

What do I do with all the waste, buy a chipper and make mulch for my yard?

Don't under estimate the volume of waste. Between sawdust, bark, slabs, etc... a tree could be 20% waste.

[WDH]

Two thoughts.

1).  The support equipment (tractor with FEL, shed for lumber drying and storing, etc) can cost much more than the mill.

2).  Your biggest problem might be your neighbors, so locate wisely.

[thecfarm]

And future neighbors.  :  A present neighbor may not mind the so called noise, but when a new one moves in things can change. A FF member just had that happen to him.
I only saw for myself and I bet I am using up that 200X200 all ready. I only have about 3-4 differant stacks of lumber that I am working from and a slap pile that keeps growing and a sawdust pile too. You do need room to get trucks in and turn around too. Good gravel is a must. Some truckers only have trailer trucks no straight jobs,so they need more room to turn around in. It's hard to get the logs you want too.

[WDH]

Yep, the sawmill can be the least expensive cog in the wheel.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Yep, the sawmill can be the least expensive cog in the wheel.

No truer words have been typen.

[Leigh Family Farm]

This week was filled with research, reading, and some reaching out for information. I was planning on writing out the rest of my game plan but the comments posted brought up too many new questions for me to go further. I really appreciate all the comments and the helpful directions they have led me.

I realized that my "original game plan" might be a little under estimation when it comes to running a sawmill in the 'burbs. Lets chalk that up to youthful exuberance and newbie inexperience  ;D but thats why I have this great forum!  smiley_reading_book If you live in a suburban area outside of a major city, some of the local municipalities might not like a sawmill in the neighborhood. I read most of the Urban Logging Forum to learn as much as I could about running a small sawmill operation in a suburban setting. I started with a few questions, based upon some of the comments I received...

How much space can I reasonably dedicate to the sawmill?
I spoke with FF member Daren via email and went to his website to learn about how much space I would need to even run a small operation. (in no way is Darren's operation small, just fyi) Needless to say, Daren was very helpful by giving me some other options to accomplish my goals. After looking for some houses online and talking with a realtor, the most amount of space I would be able to initially dedicate to the sawmill is the size of a two car garage. This fact alone was very disheartening and humbling, but something I needed to understand. My house budget won't allow for a 5 acre plot in the area I am looking, so I have to readjust my initial game plan.

Working out of a two car garage will be constraining in both size and capability. I have already started to sketch out ideas on how to accomplish this, but any helpful comments or ideas would be appreciated.

Where will I get the logs and store them?
My first thought is the local municipal dump. A few of the local municipalities have dumps that offer free mulch for residents, so I figure they get the trees to mulch from somewhere. My second option is to contact tree service companies to see about paying for a log or two to be delivered to my house. The log would be ones that they could not process easily, like 24"+ diameter. I think that instead of the tree service company paying the local dump fee or the costs of processing the tree into firewood, I could pay them to deliver. Is this a good option?

I would store the logs behind the garage so they were out of sight from the street. The moving equipment would be a log arch or something similar. I then could move each log into the garage for milling when I needed them.

What is the end product I am looking for?
I like finished wood for my projects. I am currently building a coffee table on the balcony of my apartment. Also, I just read a post on the Full Member section ("Vertical Integration"), that really got me thinking about some of the things I want to do with my wood. The original plan called for selling lumber to construction sites, but as pointed out by a fellow FF member, this lumber needs to be graded. I am not a grader, so thats out.  :(

As I mentioned earlier, this was a very humbling week of realizing my dreams and ideas of becoming a sawyer might not be obtainable right now. No I am not giving up the dream. I am just adjusting the dream to fit in with what I can do now, and expand later when what I can do will fit the dream. Next week, I will have a new game plan that will answer some of your past questions (covering operating costs? waste products? equipment available? etc.). Back to the drawing board  Thanks again for all the comments!

On another note, TWelsh has invited me up to see his mill and setup in a few weeks which I am totally stoked about!

[redbeard]

Kilgrosh have you searched surounding area to maybe set up on 2nd party land like a farm,nursery or even a tree removal service property. This could work out for land owner and you. They could have support equip available for til you get things going. Baby steps is the key start small. Just thinking.

[Leigh Family Farm]

I've spent many recent weeks planning, dreaming, and replanning how I would get my sawmill up and running. There was so much that went into this that I became overwhelmed. It probably didn't help that I am also busy with a full time job and organizing a wedding that is four weeks away. I took the week off from thinking about my sawmill which I could not act on at the moment, and focused on something I could. I started building a coffee table for my wife on a 4 1/2 ft. x 6 ft. balcony in my apartment.

I didn't complete the whole coffee table (I broke a router bit that I need to make 1/4" dados) but I did realize what I love to do. I am going to take the next couple of weeks to finish my coffee table (pictures will be posted), get married, and figure out how to make what I love to do work with what I have.

One day I will have a sawmill, I just might have to wait a little longer...

[Sixacresand]

As for cost, you can buy a mill and some support equipment for what some people pay for a 4 wheeler, bass boat or golf cart.  Learn to weld and buy a welder or vis versa and build your own equipment.  If you want a production mill, you might need to go the bank and borrow some money.  Of course you can't do any of that in a gated community with restrictions.  So plan on being rural.  I can kick myself for not buying a mill 30 years ago. 

[slider]

I'm with sixacreand,get your self out in the country away from zoning and gated anything.Don't let your dream get squashed by a bunch of by laws that drag you down.

[thecfarm]

Rural is not an acre of land either. I had a customer from Kittery,ME. He has a WM that he can't even start on his land do to regulations. But his neighbor can use his 24hp Craftsman lawn mower all day long.

[Bandmill Bandit]

I Have been doing mostly mobile sawing and have come to the conclusion that i would need a minimum of 3 acres for the mill set to be as reasonable effective and that assumes that 90% of my sawn lumber will be shipped once a week and loading the cut lumber directly onto a super B trailer as I have a buyer that will buy everything I can produce in 3",4",6",x6",8",10",12" X, 8' 12' 16'   

Ideally 5 acres would work real well with meticulous site organization and management for the type of operation I have now decided to set up. This does not include a shop and storage for support equipment. I would like to set up so that I have 2 truck loops, 1 for recieving and 1 for shipping that use a common drive way. We will see how it ALL evolves.

I am looking for a minimum of 10 to 20 acres and hope to find 40 to 80 (Dreaming).

I have learned a lot from experience and from reading here. Thanks to everybody here on FF.

I have done a few jobs where I lost money but those can be counted on 1 hand with a few fingers left.

I have paid for my  saw mill in just over 500 hours of sawing.

Planning on being stationary with in year. I think this year will turn out to be a the best year so far.

[Leigh Family Farm]

I got to see my first mill in operation this weekend!   8) All thanks to Tim Welsh (aka TWelsh) of Welsh Tree Service. It was awesome to see the whole operation and how a mill runs. I now fully understand why it is important to have ample room for a good mill set up. Tim was kind enough to walk me through his operation and explain some of the finer points of milling. The amount of information I learned in the few hours I spent at the mill, was invaluable. For example, I never had seen a Doyle Scale ruler before and Tim showed me how to calculate the approximate board foot for the log.

I really enjoyed Tim's method of getting the best lumber out of a log: take a grease pencil, draw as big of a square as you can fit on the end of the log, cut accordingly! :D Tim took the time to full explain to me what a proper sawmill operation needs and how he went about getting it. The big items on the list were not the mill...it was the space and support equipment. Tim was able to move and buck a log in no time because of his support equipment. He explained that if he was doing it by hand it would take him almost an hour just to get the log ready for the mill. I learned that a mill might not be in my near future, but its in the future. I'm very thankful for Tim taking the time to let me come and see his shop.

If there are any other members in the Philadelphia area, please PM me because I would like to come and look at your set up as well. I can provide free offbearing labor on most Saturdays.

Here are some pics from the sawmill visit:


 
TWelsh moving logs around to the mill


  
Loading the mill


  
Bucking the log to the right length


 
Lining up the first cut

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In answers to your comments, I would like to go rural. The wife does not want to go as rural as I would like. We are still working on the terms of the peace agreement on this issue ;). The bright side is that we talked today about building a vacation house up in the Poconos (pronounced poke-o-nose) Mountains on a few acres of woods. Maybe I can do a sawmill in a remote location and drive there on the weekends? Thoughts on that one?

I did some looking into the zoning regulations, and like others have said just because you have the space might not necessarily mean you can use the mill on it. I think that it will be more fruitful doing the end processing work (drying, planing, molding, etc.) in the beginning and moving up to a full mill when the time is right. Although seeing TWelsh's mill this past week has made me really itching to buy a mill... ;D