Sawmill vs Service

Garandman · Mar 10, 2019

We have 12 acres in NH. We are able to harvest more than enough hardwood firewood (Ash, Birch, Maple and Red Oak) for the stove. But there are a lot mature Eastern Hemlocks on the property as a lot of the big hardwoods were harvested in 1985. I am concerned they might be choking out the more valuable trees.

Eastern Hemlock seems to be an OK wood for rough construction: pallets, studs etc. Thatç—´ OK as most of the projects we have are rough: tent platforms, firewood storage, rough benches, etc.

Harbor Fright sells a sawmill that will do 20 dia x 9 long that would work OK. It is $2,000 and requires assembly, but I could probably resell it after doing all the projects. Or keep it and saw some hardwoods for nicer work.

Another alternative would be to make cut lists for all the projects, cut logs, then hire a service to come in and saw them for me. They would do a pro job, but once they are gone, they are gone so that is a one shot deal. Do they charge by the day?

A guy on Garage Journal bought a kit from Linn Lumber Sawmills - Home and built a really nice one himself. But thatç—´ probably more time and $ than is worthwhile.

Suggestions? I have an Alaska mill and ripping chain I’m going to try, but I understand that is very laborious.

Sawyer Rob · Mar 10, 2019

The HF mill works, but it's slow and some have had problem with stripped threads and other soft steel problems...

Buy a better "used" higher quality mill, and it will still be a high quality mill when you are done with it.

SR

Jstpssng · Mar 10, 2019

There are other low priced mills out there. You can buy the bottom of the line "Hud-son"]Hud-Son Air Stake Cutter - Hud-son for $2395. (assembly required) It won't have as much steel in it as the better quality mills and I could do without the "gimmick" paint job, but they are worth looking at.
The bottom of the line WoodMizer starts at $4000, and they wouldn't put their name on it if it wasn't a good machine. My friend has gotten a lot of use out of his over the years. Used bandsaws are hard to find. View Products >> Band Sawmills, Manual >> Sawmill Exchange I've even considered just buying the head and building the rest out of lumber and steel that I already have around, but don't see how that would save any money.

PILOON · Mar 10, 2019

Twice now I have hired a portable miller.

Very pleased with the results, In both cased it involved huge pine trees (26-28" in diameter) and the fee was $150/ hr with 2 hr minimum.
In both cases I came out ahead as the sawyer made me about $1000. worth (at retail) of pine boards that served me for many projects.

LOL, still have a nice selection on hand.

Just for fun I have a DIY mill that uses a 2 x 4 as a guide. Slow but effective especially if you use a special 'ripping chain'.
Buddy and I both have 'mills' and he actually made a log cabin using his. His joists, rafters and flooring are all 'milled' while the walls are rounds.

While not work for a 'pencil pusher' it is OK for a person that is in reasonable condition and not in a big hurry.
Certainly not for a picky perfectionist type of person.
Fun, yes and quite satisfying.

I dried in a DIY 'kiln' using old steel roofing that I oriented to maximize sun rays.

TnAndy · Mar 10, 2019

Garandman said:
Suggestions? I have an Alaska mill and ripping chain I知 going to try, but I understand that is very laborious.

I started with an Alaskan mill....they are great IF:

1. You don't need/use much lumber.
2. You don't have a way to skid out logs
3. You're want really long, big beams (the girder in my shop was an 8x10 x36' one solid piece)
4. You want to build a small cabin in the Alaska bush, no way to haul in a larger mill

Downsides are:

1. labor intensive
2. slow
3. lot of kerf loss compared to a band mill

Which is why I went to a Woodmizer in 1991. With 70ac of timber (and later 33 more) + I get quite a few logs from other sources, and the amount of stuff I wanted to build on my place, I felt I could justify the cost.....and that has sure proved to be true over the last 27 years......in fact, it's the only tool I ever bought I can say made me a quarter million bucks or more.......and been entertaining as heck to boot !

I could sell the mill today for about 1/2 my original cost (13k) if I chose to do so.

IF you can buy a used mill like mine, use it a while, you could sell it at no loss.....they depreciate to a certain point, and as long as it functions, that's the bottom. But you could probably lose very little on a Harbor Freight mill either, since the entry cost is a lot lower.

s219 · Mar 10, 2019

My Alaskan mill (with Stihl 461) is slow going on hardwood, but for pine and poplar it's quick. Hemlock should cut easy too. But I consider it a hobby setup and wouldn't want to use it for any type of production, even for my own lumber. I am starting to look into WoodMizers as I have 8 acres of Loblolly pine that needs thinning and it makes for some pretty nice board lumber. It would be a long term project and investment -- can see it being a 20 year sort of thing.

The nice thing about the WoodMizer mills is that they help you flip, position, and align the logs for sawing, and the mill itself handles linear motion and alignment for accurate and square cuts. With an Alaskan mill, there is a fair bit of setup before you can begin cutting slabs. I use a beam maker jig to square up the sides of the log and then the Granberg jig to cut slabs. You will need a way to support the log so it stays put during all of this work.

I use a 2" x 10" x 14' long LVL beam as my reference (screw it down to the top of the log with deck screws). It has the beam maker guide down one edge. So I have to mount it, cut one side, then rotate it 180 degrees to cut the other side, then flip it over to put the flat side up to run the Granberg. That is a lot of setup just to make each cut. It goes faster by the time I am cutting slabs, but getting to that point can be tedious. It's fun and enjoyable, but I'd lose my mind if I needed to do this for all my lumber.

Sawyer Rob · Mar 10, 2019

I think the small Norwood mills are better built than the small Woodmizer mills.

Mizer has been living on it's name for a while now, and hopefully they will get that turned around.

SR

Stimw · Mar 11, 2019

I've had the HF Mill for about 5-6 years and think it is well worth the money!
I did make a bed extension so I can cut 16' boards.
There is a learning curve but it's not bad and mistakes are not that expensive. (wasted logs)
I think it is fun to make boards out of logs. If you have an A M then you should know what I mean.

forgeblast · Mar 12, 2019

I have a chainsaw mill very labor intensive. I also have a Hud-son. Its an early hudson and it is awesome, my biggest problem is getting the logs to my mill as I do not have a heavy duty tractor. The log arch I have is great just not on heavy logs.