Saw Mill - Does anyone cut their own lumber?

[OneLegJohn]

Dad and I have been kicking around buying a sawmill. It would be cool to build some buildings from our own lumber. I was curious if anyone does some custom milling. I'm generally curious about people's experience with sawmills.

[JoeJ]

I bought my Norwood Lumbermate 2000 sawmill in the fall of 2003. I have cuts tens of thousands of board feet of lumber with it, mostly pine, cedar and some hardwood. I have used the lumber I cut to build my tractor shed, put three additions on my sugar house and build four sap sheds out in the woods. i always have dried lumber for other misc projects.

I rarely do any custom milling. I usually have too many irons in the fire to custom cut. Plus I like to mill when I want to and not under pressure from someone wanting wood by X date. Besides, the Lumbermate 2000 is a manual mill and I can't produce enough board foot volume per hour to the justify what I would have to charge either by the hour or by the board foot. People with hydraulic mills can cut a larger volume per hour. I will occasionally cut something for a friend at $50.00 per hour plus the cost of any ruined blades (hidden metal, sheet rock screws are the worst)

I spent about $7,500. on the mill with shipping, a trailer package and extensions for the cutting rail to be able cut 20' logs. After 18 years, the mill owes me nothing. I can let it sit idle for months and not worry about it.

Joe

[eagle lake sugar]

I also have a Lumbermate 2000, it's bulletproof. I've sawn out a couple garages, my house, several outbuildings etc. I've sawn a lot of cedar, pine, maple, birch, aspen, fir and spruce for various projects. I also have a log moulder to shape logs and plane large beams. It's so nice to be able to just go out back and custom saw whatever you need. Eventually when I have a little more free time, I'd like to make live edge furniture, signs, etc. You won't regret buying one, guaranteed.

[bmbmkr]

Yes, it's GREAT havin a mill on the farm. We just saw for our own use, but I have people askin every week what we'd charge to saw. Between the catle, sheep, honeybees & garden, I don't have time to saw for anyone else/ We have a little "American" band mill, made in Cambridge OH. The little mill we have now was cheap, ($4500 15 years ago) but it's manual you have to push through the log, not bad with green lumber and a new blade, get a seasoned oak and a little wear and it'll wear you out. I called about upgrading to a powered carriage back in the spring, and American Mills are about 100 mills behind schedule, running three shifts. Wood mizers were a 6 month lead 6 months ago, not sure what they are now. Good luck finding one right now, used ones cost more than new ones, and there's several months lead time for a new one. I grew up sawin on a Frick circle mill, we sold RR ties by the truck load. Built two houses, six barns a few chicken houses & tool sheds, and a sawn a little custom lumber in my lifetime. We rarely cut down a live tree, just saw windfalls & dead trees here & there. This is how I got to making syrup, My Dad had a sugar maple uproot on his farm, he told me about it and I went up to bring it down to the mill. I got on the internet looking for the price of maple lumber and found an article about making $X one time with a saw log, or $x every year if you tapped & made syrup. I knew we had at least a couple hundred maples, so tap tap tap & boil boil boil. Shootin for 800 taps this coming year- got to save up & buy a new evaporator before I grow any more!! One a these days I may get all 1500 of em tapped. We have a blight that's been killing off white oaks, so I cut them down once they are dead. Most of what I saw are 14' white oak 3x's to floor my 90' bridge. One a these days I'm goin to start sellin the white oak to the stave mill and buy some steel grating to floor the bridge with. Saturday night I fired up my table saw and cut up about 25 cuttin boards worth of white oak, walnut and wild cherry strips to make for Christmas gifts & sell for a little extra $$ right before maple season. Sellin at $25-50 each, it's amazing what you can pull out of the slab pile that doesn't get burned in the evaporator and can put some extra $$ in your pocket. I make jewelry boxes, shadow boxes, and little knick knack shelves and an occasional picture frame for a neighbor who is a painter. If you can find one, jump on it, you won't regret it.

[Woodsrover]

I've had a Norwood 26 for almost 10 years. I've built most of my barn, most of my sugar shack and two chicken coops with it along with countless other little things around the place. Mostly I cut white pine. I even made a jig to cut shingles with it. I wouldn't use white pine shingles on my house but they're great for the chicken coop. I've also cut walnut for a kitchen table, a bunch of red and white oak for friends and some nice cherry from time to time. Couldn't imagine being without it!

[minehart gap]

I agree, I love my mill. Bought a Norwood 2000 in 2000, cut 8k board feet of cherry in the first 4 months of owning it. That was when cherry was really high priced so the mill paid for itself quick. I built a couple dozen spiral staircases, 3 hunting cabins, 2 sugar shacks, a couple timber frame barns and countless other projects. No custom cutting here, too much of my own stuff to do.

[OneLegJohn]

This is really good stuff. Thank you to everyone!

[Shaun]

I have an oscar 30" mill. I poured a concrete pad for the tracks to sit on and welded up some extra tracks to cut 20 foot logs. It is a manual mill and has served us well, built the sugar house and many other projects. It is all manual so a 24 inch 16 foot pine will make you grunt when trying to roll it. If you plan on farm use it is great, but if you want to do some serious sawing some of the options like log turners, de-barkers and stuff would be much appreciated. Had mine for about 15 years with no issues at all. I pressure wash the logs if dirty but try to skid in the snow. Blades do not last long if the wood is at all dirty.

[jrgagne99]

We have a Turner Mills, manual rig. It's pretty good to have on hand. I've cut lumber for garage overhangs, a treehouse, and a sun-room addition to be built next summer. Nice to have lumber on hand as well for whatever projects crop up. Mr. Turner makes a very reliable mill.

[VT_K9]

We have a Woodmizer on order...since...the end of January '21. It was initially scheduled to be built the second week of September '21. It all there except the starter for the motor. We are told it's wrapped and ready to ship upon receipt of backordered starters. I think I heard the current lead time hit about 72 weeks.

We had tossed around the idea a few times in the past. Last year we had our property logged (part of current use management). We bought about 10,000 bdft of the hemlock they hauled out to the landing. We have several buildings to side and a few things to build such as a sawmill shed.

If you have a use for one start looking for that right deal (very rare today) or get on the list. We initially looked at some of the smaller mills which we could add accessories to as needed. Then we realized with 10k bdft ready to go we gain the highest benefit and return now on ordering a hydraulic mill. It will last a very long time. There are no plans to saw for others, however if timing is in our favor then it would be nice to help put some of the money back in the bank.

Join some groups on facebook to get ideas of what to look for and what to avoid. Also check out www.forestryforum.com they have a subsection dedicated to saw mills.

Mike

[Sugar Bear]

I bought a Woodmizer LT10 nine years ago. Its bare boned manual but I love it. Much like you become intimate with your trees when you only tap 30 or so trees ( you have a name for each one after a while ) you also become intimate with a manual sawmill. You learn what cuts well and what cuts poorly and why it does that. Many factors involved in this from type of wood, to how dry it is, to how dirty/muddy it is, to how frozen it is.

Over the past 9 years I have cut Spruce, Hemlock, Eastern Juniper/Cedar, Ash, Cherry, Walnut, Black Locust, Hard Maple, Soft Maple, White Oak, Red Oak, Hickory and Ginkgo( non native )

Most of the time after a day of milling, I am OK with the fact that I have a manual sawmill. Besides, I now have two older brothers who no longer dare wish to tussle with me.


Most of my milling is done on hardwoods, but have done some dimensional structural lumber from spruce and hemlock. Over the past several years I have made many home furnishings. Attached are photos of two things made entirely off my sawmill lumber using Ash, Cherry and Walnut. O yea, the drawer decking was made from recycled Pac Basin Cedar from an old swingset. ( ripped it on the tablesaw only )

22553

22554

[Pdiamond]

Very nice work.

[OneLegJohn]

We picked up our sawmill trailer!

https://youtu.be/MyMJHfm3lJY

[TonyL]

We have a Woodland Mills HM126 that we got last Fall. Didn't get much time to use it last year, but we did manage to cut the lumber needed to build a shed for it... got it stacked, stickered, and covered waiting for spring construction. It's a manual mill, but so far it's milled great and been a lot of fun. Looking forward to putting it through its paces this year.

[OneLegJohn]

That's awesome! Did you go with the 9hp or 14hp? Also, are you having issues with the blade tracking? Jumped a blade yet?

[TonyL]

We opted for the 14 Hp with one bed extension. Thus far we haven't thrown any blades, but we also don't run any lube. We're cutting tulip poplar and sugar maple, ( I know, but when they blow over what can you do!) if we decide to cut anything with pitch or resin in the sap, I would imagine we will need to revisit the lube thing. I can tell you this, in our limited experience with the Woodland Mill, I've found milling to be just as addictive as sugaring!
We placed our mill on a permanent foundation, setup was straightforward, and dare I say even enjoyable. Have you given any thought to how you are going to get the logs loaded on the mill? We have a set of quick attach forks for our loader tractor, it works pretty well. Be prepared for a lot of off cuts from the mill.... they build up quickly! We didn't get our off cuts cut into firewood for the evaporator this season, but that's the plan for next year.
I remember when we used to collect sap in buckets, and there was always that moment of anticipation when you lifted the lid and took a look at how
much you had.... I find milling to be much the same... take that first cut and see what's inside!
Good luck with your mill, I'm sure you will love it. If I can help with anything, feel free to ask!

Almost forgot... love your videos on YouTube.


https://www.facebook.com/groups/291062919452339/

[OneLegJohn]

You are the second person to tell me don't worry about lube for hardwoods. I really appreciate the feedback. I was going to make a rack like Sandy from Sawing with Sandy YouTube channel.

And yes, I can see the similarity and comparisons.

I'm having fun making videos. It is a lot of work! But I'm hoping we can grow the audience to better promote the maple industry.

[Sugar Bear]

You are the second person to tell me don't worry about lube for hardwoods. I really appreciate the feedback. I was going to make a rack like Sandy from Sawing with Sandy YouTube channel.

And yes, I can see the similarity and comparisons.

I'm having fun making videos. It is a lot of work! But I'm hoping we can grow the audience to better promote the maple industry.

It took me a while to recognize it, because it was not one of those things made clear by any of all the other sawyers out there or saw manufactures such as "Woodmizer".

Water being dropped on a sawmill blade pre cut does not serve the purpose of a "lube" or lubricant. It is a solvent or dilutant and only helps facilitate the clean cut by keeping pitch
( which generates tremendous blade friction ) from building up on the blade by diluting it or solving it. A negative side effect is that the additional water creates more friction for the blade. It is a trade off that benefits the cut however when wood still has moist sugars and pitch still infused in the cellulose of the stumpage.

The dryer and less pitch in stumpage ( the two are infused together in green stumpage ) the more you want to keep additional water off the blade when cutting it. Across all types of stumpage. Mark my word on this. The dryer and less pitch lumber has in it the more you want to keep additional "water" / "lube" off and out of the cut.

Dry logs with dried up pitch will cut like butter on a band mill. If you add water to the blade in this scenario you will make the blade want to grip the wood more, just like one needs to lick their dry hands when trying to swing a cold dry maul handle in the fall so that their hands grip the "wood" handle better.

Sometimes sawyers add Pine-Sol to the water to make it a more effective dilutant.

Hot water works better for the purpose of "dilution" too. That has been my approach and use it as needed.

Lubricating the blade in band saw milling is an inappropriate term. There is no need or purpose for it.