Looking for Small Sawmill for slabbing large firewood size pieces

[Woodcarver62]

I'm looking for a cheap, small wide sawmill that can slab out large diameter firewood rounds of hardwood chunks that are easy to find from tree guys and homeowners around most cities.  Will use slabs for small furniture items.  Logs would be 24-60" long and 24-36" diameter. Even wider would be better to utilize some wide but short crotchwood sections of trees.

I'll be getting a replacement for my LT30 stolen out of Grandview Missouri last year but I'd rather have a second small cheap unit described above shortened just for the tree company firewood stock.

[SawyerTed]

Sounds like a Peterson slabber mill could meet your needs.  

I don't have any experience with one other than watching logs like you describe being cut with one.  

There are others here who use them. 

[Ron Wenrich]

Maybe a chainsaw mill if you're not looking for anything that needs production.  Very portable and cheap.

[Ianab]

Problem I see is Wide / Cheap / Easy to Use - pick any two. 

A dedicated chain slabber like the Peterson isn't cheap. Would do what you want, no problem. Likewise WM make a LX250 that can go to 55", but that's getting pricey too. 
 
A basic chainsaw mill is cheap, but not so so easy to operate.

If you are replacing your main sawmill, have you thought about upgrading to one that will handle 36" plus cuts. LT15 Wide can handle 36" logs. Or a swing blade mill with clip on chain slabber giving you 5+ foot log capacity. 

You would probably need to fabricate some extra log clamping kit for the short sections, but that would apply to whatever saw you are using, and you have a sawmill to cut some lumber to make that. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Guys,

  Either I or some of you are misreading this request I think. I read it as the OP wanted to cut out big cookies not vertical slabs like typical lumber or live edge slabs. Is that what you are reading and basing your suggestions on? I am basing my understanding on the term "Firewood rounds" which I interpret as cookies.

[doc henderson]

Howard, I thought maybe we were all wrong, but I was wrong... .    He mentions logs up to 60 inches long to "slab out" and make furniture parts and legs. He had a wood-mizer sawmill stolen and is going to replace it, so hope his verbiage is similar to ours.  would be great for a hobby guy.

I took it to mean, wood rounds that would otherwise be firewood, turned to treasure.

[WV Sawmiller]

Doc,

   I could be wrong. I was once before. (One time I thought I had made a mistake. )

    Hopefully the OP will clear things up for me/us.

[Ianab]

I was thinking short "logs". Tree service guys often break logs down into small sections so they can be hauled out of a site, maybe with small skid steer type machine. They don't have the gear or space to haul out 8ft+ long x 3ft dia logs. But a lot of smaller furniture only uses parts that are 2 or 3 ft long, hence the idea that you could use those basically "free" shorts, if you had a practical way to saw them. 

Of course anything that was able to live edge slab a short 36" dia log would also be able to cut cookies, again assuming you are able to clamp it in place. 

But also anything that can handle that sort of cut is going to want the sort of hp that a LT15Wide uses (25hp), so it's not going to be cheap. Hence the idea of upgrading from the LT30 to something that can handle larger logs (and still works fine for regular logs). My personal bias is for swing mills because of their versatility. Not the cheapest option, but can cut pretty much anything, anywhere.