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 )

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