Portable Sawmill or stationary sawmills

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skyhightree1

skyhightree1

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Does anyone have a sawmill on there farm? How often is it used ? Is it worth buying or is it better just to pay someone to custom cut your logs? I have unlimited access to logs but wondered whats everyones opinion on a sawmill at the farm ?
 
I have a Woodmizer. I seldom saw for the public anymore. They can buy it cheaper at the store since the housing boom went bust.
I do quarter saw for some furniture makers and cut large beams for specialty projects, mostly barns. I really like the freedom of being able to saw my own lumber. I can spend a morning milling for myself and have enough lumber to build what ever project I want. It provides a certain amount of freedom.
I would not invest in one if I had to rely on outside customers to make a payment. If there is a local small mill it would be much cheaper to have them saw for you. Most will cut a person a good deal if they will off bear the slabs.
 
We don't, but I'm surrounded by a bunch of saw mills to take logs too, if need be.

Depends what your using the lumber for. If it's for rough work, go portable all the way.

For interior/exposed wood/true dimensional, best thing, if its available, is take them to a reputable saw mill with actual circular blades. They are so computerized, the dimensions are perfect within 100ths of an inch. Not these band-saw portable types. Problem with band-mills is tolerance is too large. If you go cutting a 20' true 10x10 beam with a few knots in it, the blade will jump and you won't be perfect. I guess I have been schooled to cut precisely/perfectly.
 
Aaron, one of the old mills here (one of the few left round here) uses a big band saw, but from front (teeth side) to back, the band is probably 12"--maybe more. I guess the portable ones don't use that kind of band tho.

I saw a home built mill once out in San Angelo that used a big Husqvarna chainsaw. It worked ok, but man-- the operator stayed covered in chips constantly. They coulda done that better.
 
I do not intend on selling the lumber but just for personal use ... I own a tree service business and have access to tons of wood. My family said I won't have any pasture or crop land because I will keep building buildings all over it lol I have had some wood milled before and build some buildings with it and cost to mill was maybe 1200 each time i had them mill alot of lumber and figured that money im spending i could get my own and save that money just pay fuel costs. Then I think how long would it be before I actually knew what I was doing to make true lumber.
 
In your situation it might actually pay to have a mill. The rest of us probably not. Here where I'm at mills are fairly common. I have found that it is cheaper for me to have it sawed than saw it. If you have access to lots of different species of logs some may actually be fairly valuable to harvest the lumber out of. Something to think about. There is no where here to just pull up and buy rough sawed lumber. Many mills, but you pplace order then pick it up in few weeks. You might be able to saw some up to sell.
 
we used to have a portable mill come every winter and saw logs for us for barns cow lots and just about everything in between. My uncle has been dead now for 5 years and I restacked and treated a small stack of true 1" x 12" and 1" x 18" this past weekend. that is the last of what was sawn when he was alive. My aunt had all of the pines clear cut just a few weeks ago. most of the trees were over 50 yrs and some were Virgin pines closer to 100 years old. I hadn't noticed the seedlings that were growing everywhere until the big trees were cut. in 50 years it will be thicker than it was before.
 
Excellent point bigfoot I think that I would like to get a portable unit but id prefer a used one incase i rarely use it wont have so much money tied up into one. thats amazing m5 what do you treat the wood with to make it keep just thompsons or like a diesel oil boric acid mix sprayed on boards ?
 
hillbilly beef man":2zbws6j8 said:
If you buy one make sure you get a hydraulic turner for the log on the saw table. Turning logs with a peavey gets old quick.
Click to expand...

LOL thanks I was looking at that on some online videos on youtube and yea I definately don't want to be turning the logs by hand id rather pay and not have a sawmill.
 
skyhightree1":3i9mmtdb said:
Excellent point bigfoot I think that I would like to get a portable unit but id prefer a used one incase i rarely use it wont have so much money tied up into one. thats amazing m5 what do you treat the wood with to make it keep just thompsons or like a diesel oil boric acid mix sprayed on boards ?
Click to expand...


we would haul some (6x6 and 8x8 suare post) to a treatment plant to be treated for below ground use. we cut a old fuel tank that was 20ft long in half. layed the boards in it and covered it with diesel and we added coppertox (not sure of the ratio and back then fuel was alot cheaper) we would soak it for about 2 weeks. we had a hoist above the vat under the barn and would slowly lift it out so the would drain. once dry we would stack on wagons and band them. alot of work and nasty to work with but they are still holding up to this day. we would also dump used oil in the vat.
 
M5farm":1l1qrn8f said:
skyhightree1":1l1qrn8f said:
Excellent point bigfoot I think that I would like to get a portable unit but id prefer a used one incase i rarely use it wont have so much money tied up into one. thats amazing m5 what do you treat the wood with to make it keep just thompsons or like a diesel oil boric acid mix sprayed on boards ?
Click to expand...


we would haul some (6x6 and 8x8 suare post) to a treatment plant to be treated for below ground use. we cut a old fuel tank that was 20ft long in half. layed the boards in it and covered it with diesel and we added coppertox (not sure of the ratio and back then fuel was alot cheaper) we would soak it for about 2 weeks. we had a hoist above the vat under the barn and would slowly lift it out so the would drain. once dry we would stack on wagons and band them. alot of work and nasty to work with but they are still holding up to this day. we would also dump used oil in the vat.
Click to expand...

That was smart... I would love to have something like that I would never need to buy any lumber again period if i had that set up.
 
Necessity is the mother of invention.

I haven't bought any lumber in a long time. I will use the rest of some true 2x6's this weekend to do an addition on my cow lot. Lucky for me there are alot of portable sawmills in my area that will come to me. I will probally try and get some trees done in Jan Feb
 
Mostly pine, I will do some oak and and I have a huge cedar that I would like to have done for some projects.
 
I have access to several mills in the area. With the drought we have had acquiring timber is no problem. I have 7 large walnuts and a multitude of pecan. The are way to many oaks and cedars to count.
I good friend built his own mill using car tires and wheels as drive pulleys. The rails are built with school buss frames and angel iron on top for guides. The engine came from an old 24 horse garden tractor. I have used a lot of the lumber he has milled for furniture and found no problem with dimensions
 

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