Before You Buy a Portable Sawmill | Things I Wish I Knew About Sawing Logs (Updated)
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- Опубліковано 13 кві 2021
- Before you buy a portable sawmill be sure to check out this video in which I talk about things I wish I knew about sawing logs before I made the sawmill purchase. While I was able to predict what using a portable sawmill was like before I bought my sawmill, I certainly didn't foresee many of the other things that go along with owning a portable sawmill at that time. Today I"ll talk about those extra things that you may want to consider before you press the "pay now" button and start down the road to portable sawmill ownership. Many of the things I talk about today may seem obvious but yet the true effort involved in their completion may be underestimated. In today's episode I"ll tell you exactly how it is and why owning a sawmill is a great way to make lumber, but a lot of work. If you're thinking to yourself that making lumber from a tree yourself is an easy and quick way to save some money, think again. Yes you'll likely save money but there is some additional considerations in play that will get you thinking more about the entire process or taking a tree into a finish piece of lumber. Regardless, the reward is worth the effort in my opinion and with that, I hope all of you get a chance to enjoy sawing just like I do. Thanks for watching folks, here we go!
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Hands down one of the most important videos to the public. The problem with many offgrid channels is similar to those home renovation shows. They edit things down to show off the end results and make it seem easy, when really your are seeing 10 minutes of hours of work. Thank you for this video.
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At 78 and retired, your reasons are spot on and exactly why I have a sawmill. They are why I bought the saw mill. I would rather wear out vs rust out.
I am 72. No truer words spoken no matter what your endeavor: I would rather wear out vs rust out.
If you don't have a reason to get out of bed every morning, pretty soon you won't.
I love that comment “I would rather wear out vs rust out.”
thanks for this comment! I'm 42 and just starting an off grid homestead endeavor that sometimes has me worried that I'm biting off more than I can chew, won't be able to keep up with this lifestyle as I age, that it is too much manual labor for someone past their 20's/30's. I am going to keep this comment in mind. What else would i be doing, sitting on my butt? It's the way I want to live, and I'll live it until I fall onto the ground.
an old timer i worked with till he retired at age 68 (we are construction workers) always put it this way..."that which rests...rusts" i miss that old coot sometimes
I have handled a lot of timber in my time, everything from felling to sawing, stickering, and proper stacking and storing. I found absolutely nothing wrong with your instructions . Newbies would do well to heed your advice. Experience is such a good but sometimes painfull thing.
Yeah sometimes I’ve learned the hard way that’s for sure
good decisions come from experience... experience comes from poor decisions
Thanks for the insight man
I agree. I am getting ready to choose a mill. Haven’t decided 100%
@@amerritt261 the woodland mills that this gentleman has is amazing I would not choose another if given the opportunity 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
It is human nature to fall in love with the finishing process and overlooking all the work that surrounds that process, whether we are talking sawmills, gardens, livestock or whatever. In my case it is bee keeping. No folks, it isn’t just keeping bees in a box and getting honey. I’d love to have a sawmill, but being practical I have a commercial rough cut mill about 3 miles away that I buy my lumber from which is frankly cheaper and doesn’t involve going down yet another rabbit hole of time, money and energy commitment. I strongly recommend that before anyone takes on a major thing like a sawmill to go work with someone that already is doing it and take in what is involved.
This is one of the most useful videos out there
Agreed. It was perfect. I subscribed because of it.
This is why I love your Channel because of all the new mans info, it saves me a lot of time as I’m buying an sawmill
Glad you liked the video Jerry! Happy Sawing
1:18 I could just walk and look at those perfectly planted trees for hours. So satisfying.
Yes but is essentially a industrial forest and in no way mimics nature. There than the trees it's basically a dead zone. Stickly good for saw log production
Z
Excellent video. Had a friend run into the exact same problems you did. He bought a Woodmiser. Had to build a shed, get his old tractor running, buy a de-barker, buy a trailer to haul logs, and occasionally rent a bobcat to move the stuff. There was no shortage of walnut, pecan, red & white oak after a hurricane in Virginia. After a while, he had so many board ft of lumber, he had to build a pole barn just to store it. And the saw dust, huge piles of it.
It benefited me as a wood worker, he'd let me come over and pick out anything I wanted. Also had a seemingly endless supply of firewood.
I have seen a couple of the woodmizer mill views and how they demonstrated their product. I don't recall their covering, the for lack of wording, handicaps. They did cover sharpening blades, that I remember and most of all just how to put in a blade or roll a log on the carriage. I think the first thing to do is determine just where the mill is going to set and weather it will affect a neighbor with the noise. I like your remote set up but I do see room for improvements and I am sure for a fact can say your aware or this subject would of never been approached. One nice thing about your whole set up is that its not bolted down to the earth and expensive to move should you have to. Another thing is and this is only my thinking, yours may very a lot from mine. I wouldn't worry about saving every scrap that comes off a mill and saving stuff for wood. Wood is worth a lot and will only increase if things keep going the way they are. In my thinking.... remember its my thinking, I would try to keep the mill on the move to the distance of wood or instead of going to the back and working forward with it coming out to the mill. I would keep the mill exactly like you have it as it seems quite adaptable to any situation but it would be skid able to get it close to what I work on and the wood cut would go into bunks like you have it but when full sled it to the location your going to sell/haul from. Now if you are going to use it all yourself that might not come into play but it needs to be sorted for grade and even though there is little grading in that kind of small timber opposed to no. one clear no. two clear etc. It does need tho to be separated into one inch and two inch... various widths, lengths etc. Even that takes up a lot of space and if done right can be stacked on top of each other if the tractor and its tines can handle the loads on each bunk, never overload as it will come back to bite you hard. Keeping covered, stickered, and air moving through is absolute imperative to success. Another thing that you may have hit on that I never picked up on is whether its part time work or full time work as it is possible to make some money as a hobby but really it needs to go full bore to reach its potential as recovering costs are important too. I wish when I had endless pockets of money I had had a mill like this to fall back on. I have owned the bandsaw mills, the portable circle saw mills and then the big saw mills as well. That Petterson mill I had sawed up wood like a alaskan saw mill, (those are a hard way to make boards) where it mounted in a frame and raised and lowered on logs and would saw logs as big as the truck you saw or a little six inch top of tree. The blade had the motor mounted to it and it flipped on its side or cut downward into the log making each board individual as going down further limited the width of each board. I own and worked for circular saw mills and their best point was making "cants for lumber to be cut from. To me the saw mill to have is a band saw as it has the least curf or waste. The others wasted a board for every two they cut and that is waste. Lucky me had a well drill for deep wells and I could set pilling in the ground so I mounted my mill over a embankment and it let the sawdust fall through the bottom. I had live chains to send the wood down to be "offbeared" into its own piles/bunks. It took more men than one so it would not work for a single man operation. I had the timber, I had the land, and all the equipment needed to do it and the mill handled up to five foot logs in diameter. I could also cut thirty plus foot long logs and so we did production... why don't I still have it..... market changed and I had my neck out too far to hang on till it recovered. I also wasn't incorporated so lost my home, and everything else I owned.... that one really took it out of me for a while. At my peak of operations I had one hundred and thirty men working for me. That time the banks stepped up and offered me a way out to save it all but I was real tired of working seven days a week. I had lost a enormous amount of weight as well. It was changing me into someone I didn't like. I also was in a very small town and when I went down it affected all of the business's in town. Less than a thousand people lived in that whole area and as town goes, about three or four hundred people lived in the town area. I had a store keeper come to me and ask, where do I sign and we will make your mill soluble and offered a large sum of money for capital to work with, hell even the employees begged me not to quit and were willing to put their home on the cuff for me... it was one of the hardest decisions I had ever made or would make. Sorry if I wrote too much as its very personal to me what your doing is what I loved doing. Later Sandy an hope your not too mad for this long comment
Wow, so glad I found you. That's alot to think about and plan for. Thank you so much 💓
Very well done! One of the better video's I've seen in a while, informative and to the point.
Everyone should spend a few days with someone working a sawmill before buying one , it sure will opens you eyes to how much work it actually is. I started off looking at a manual mill and eventually , gathered the extra cash and bought a woodmizer LT35HD fully Hydraulic . I made the right decision , good video
Great summary. Thanks for posting. A few observations: stickers between planks should ideally be the same species, sweep off sawdust before stacking planks, mechanics love sawdust cause it’s cheap, a pail under the sawdust discharge makes it easy to empty into a big plastic tote bag your tractor can haul away. You need to build a simple logging arch to pull behind the ATV or tractor. I put an electric winch on mine and can easily haul 20” x 18 ft logs out of the bush up off the ground using a 400cc ATV. The logs stay clean so it’s easy to move them in the summer. A minimal investment to build.
Thanks for all the information man. Its always helpful to hear what didn't go right, instead of showing all the high points. I appreciate it!
Very good points you make and gives one a lot to think about. You mentioned some things I hadn't thought of as well.
I volunteer for a couple of woodland groups, both solely hardwood stands. One mills very occasionally and manages a number of small hilly woods; the other never mills and only operates in one very steep wood.
But what is consistent between the two, is gathering in felled trees, the sheer manpower needed to move bucked sections, (ranging from 2” for charcoal making & bespoke furniture to 4’+) the time needed and the time needed just to arrange who’ll do what on each volunteer day. Some people are capable of many skills, others with just one skill. But if the ground is too steep for that person’s skill level, the workload must be passed on to someone else, who may have been pinned down to do something else that day.
Many of your viewers, may be working alone or as a couple, so managing small groups may not come into it. But if you have to rely on different people, all with different skill levels, to do varying tasks and you can’t always control who turns up on the day/s. It’s worth bearing in mind, that the more skills a person has and the more weather hardy they are, the more useful they’ll potentially be on a particular task day. If you’ve not got a handy tractor or something to skid with, gathering in will take that much more time & effort.
Milling has its perks but paying someone else to make lumber you occasionally need, may be more cost effective, than going down the making it yourself route. If time, money, manpower & sheer grunt is no object; make your own lumber, it can be very rewarding. And may even save you some money, if you have the longterm projects; and if lucky enough, may even make you some money. Just some things to think about before buying that shiny new equipment.
Great considerations!
Thanks for being honest, a lot of people get into this not knowing .
I think you made a great job making this video, some things I had considered but not all you mentioned, you gave me plenty to think about. Thank you.
I appreciate your honesty and humility about lessons learned. Thanks for sharing them.
Absolutely awesome video. So informative and easy to understand. Thank you so much for giving us that detailed overview.
Great, great tips!!! I fell into the exact same thought and situations! Love having my mill, just things I wish I had thought about.
I remember when I bought my Chainsaw Mill 25 years. $700 mill setup and $1200 Stihl Powerhead and I figured I would just crank out lumber.My first slab took me 2 hours to saw. I learned so much in the first year. It wasn’t simply just saw away. Sharpening was the most important lesson, but also learned many of your lessons regarding drying, checking and log prep.
jumped into milling in 1980. Looking back I could not have been dissuaded from becoming a sawyer, it was just a passion, a dream. Turned out to be a huge investment for a limited return in my case. And at that time the Alaskan Mill was the predominated way to mill that was affordable. But that Alaskan Mill set up is going to work the hell out of you. And like you found, a sawyer has to become a millwright because you are going to have a lot of saw maintenance and repairs. Given a chance to relive it I would opt for the bandsaw or other mills....not the Alaskan Mill.
Great Video, Thank You for your time and effort. You covered a lot and put the process in to perspective.
Very informative! Thanks for sharing your experience‼️
Thank you. Timely, solid, realistic information.
What an absolutely wonderful and highly informative video. Thanks for sharing!
Great information and has given me food for thought. Thanks for putting this video out there.
So informative and I was considering buying a saw mill in 6ms to a year. This is definitely a video I needed to see first so I'm prepared. Thank you
Great video! And thanks for the advice. In the end, you have to do it because you enjoy the whole process and the outdoor work it involves. Sitting behind my computer, I understand it ain't easy but I imagine it's rewarding.
Thanks for sharing. All of your points are worth considering. We processed a 16 footer last night and it takes a lot of time and effort. The reward is what makes it worth it!
Wow! Super informative! I had an idea about some of this but not all of it! Great video! Very easy and entertaining to watch!!! Thank you tons! 👏🏾💜👏🏾💜
Brilliant! A well-thought out presentation to guide my thinking. Thank you.
Really helps to spend time on paper doing a layout for the entire mill area before you set one up, unless you’ve had prior experience. Even better is to watch some videos of other mills, or visit a couple, to get a sense of space needed and traffic patterns. Milling is 20% sawing and 80% everything else. That everything else category is where you need to be efficient and not handle materials more than once or have anything in your way. Drawing it out on paper can help you mentally walk through all the steps and realize how much space you need and where it’s best to have the various piles (logs, lumber, slabs, sawdust).
A tip for keeping a clean blade...don't use diesel or soap, messy, I used both in the past, but now use 100% Pure D-Limonene Citrus Orange Oil Extract Best Natural Solvent Extracted from Orange Peels (Citrus Cleaner Degreaser & Deodorizer)
Great job. Very insightful.
Great video man... very helpful.
Really enjoyable, also on the learning curve of sawmilling. Learning is also the fun part, at times!
Great video perfect example of how people don't think things out. Somebody used to call that work.
Great video, I had a sawmill for years
And I got rid of the sawdust by selling it to folks with horses. Or just give it away if they come load and haul it. I also washed my logs if they got dirty from skidding. A pressure washer works great and save lots of money. I also used high pressure air if water wasn't available. Clean logs are a must for good milling.
Thanks. I live in an area where it doesn't snow, so that helps me out.
Appreciate the advice, you have made a great point about the importance of planning prior to clicking the buy button. Will definitely consider your experiences to this decision. While I thought about this several times over, you hinted on things I didn’t think about.
Wonderfully informative, honest, clear and concise. Thank you.
Well done, still working on my "wood yard" but yeah it's a lot of work! Keep it up, blades sharp!
Great video Sandy. I couldn't agree with you more. There are so many little but major things I didn't take into consideration as well. And still find new issues I didn't think of still 4 years later
As the adage goes, "Experience is the thing you get... right after you need it!"
Another great video Sandy. You produce, act, edit and present a great story.
thanks for the video friend. I needed this video more then I knew.
This was very informative. Hands down the best manual sawmill channel I know of. We are waiting for our WM HM 122 to arrive and can't wait to not do the same mistakes as you did, but find our very own mistakes!
Thanks appreciate that!
Great video Sandy. Made many of the same mistakes before and after I bought my HM 130 but like you I don't regret one minute of it. Life is for learning. There is nothing like the satisfaction of seeing something you made, no matter what it is. In this part of our life it is lumber. Hard work for sure, but keeping me active and fit in my sixties, outdoors and a little more self reliant than our city cousins. Lol. Keep up the good work
You’re right about the being active benefit as well. Thanks for watching
Hearing a voice of "been there, done that" is a commendable public service!
It's a great kindness. I wish EVERYBODY did that for others. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!!!
:)
Appreciate the kind words
@@sawingwithsandy :)
Thank you so much for sharing all of this valuable information. I am in the preliminary stages of getting a sawmill. This video helped me out a LOT. I appreciate your honesty and being humble. I wish you the best. Thanks again.
So I'm sitting outside having a smoke and for some reason when you started filling the mill up with fuel i felt the sudden need to put out my smoke just incase of fire ahahaha
I know that feeling all too well. Did the same- guess they've trained us well LOL!
proves good awareness, safety is good
Safety first!
A cigarette will NOT ignite gasoline. I learned this in fire school (Firefighter training).
@@integr8er66 yeah good luck with that plan its not the only reason why they call it movie makic
wow, you've opened my eyes - thank you for this video
I feel all smart & proud when I take apart a nice shipping pallet
and rip & plane the pieces - ha ha
Glad you liked the video Gary
Great video. You clearly speak from experience. This was very educational and helpful!
Straight and to the point and not a lot of BS I didn’t need. Great channel I look forward to more.
Glad you found the channel Steve.
That was a video I definitely needed to see.
Glad you liked the video.
Great information, might I add, once you notice the saw beginning to push harder through the log. It is beneficial to replace the blade sooner than later. Two reasons. It will push easiest with a sharp blade. Once you start pushing hard the blade will want to wonder, cutting wavey lumber. When this is happening there is increased stresses on the blade. If you heat up the blade and it takes a dive, set will be lost. I find if kept sharp there is a lot of service in a blade. If stressed the metal will loose set and develop stress cracks in the gullet shortening the life of the blade.
Thx for the video!! Well worth the watch.
Ive worked with a portable sawmill ...Great advise...You nailed it.
Excellent video! I have only milled hardwood and as you mentioned it does split on the ends when drying and some a lot more than others. Sealing the ends of the boards helps to reduce the amount of splitting/checking by slowing down the rate at which the ends dry out at. Also, placing stickers closer to the ends when stacking helps to reduce splitting/checking. I was surprised when you said that the softwood didn't split, learned something new. I am planning to cut a bunch of softwood and not having to treat the ends will save a lot of time.
Absolutely! Thanks for watching
Did someone actually put a thumbs down? Wow, I don’t get that. Great info Sandy-appreciate your honesty. 👍👍
agreed
Thanks Craig. I'm a normal sawyer just like everyone out there so happy I'm able to pass on some things I've learned along the way. Happy sawing!
Yea Craig I agree with you - I can't understand why any person would do a thumbs down , Unless it's persons that can be seen as city slickers (can't do squat for themselves)
The way UA-cam's algorithms work, it counts total votes, regardless if it's a thumbs up or thumbs down. So a thumbs down vote can be a way someone expresses disagreement or disappointment while still supporting the channel.
@@craigslitzer4857 good point. It also uses that to measure and predict future video recommendations for users.
Great video, never knew about all the extra work. Good info!
Thank you! I hope to have a sawmill one day and it’s great to know these things in advance
Good stuff. One thing experienced project managers do is to start at the desired end and work backwards, tracking all of the pieces along the way. Works well for any size project or endeavor. While you never catch everything, that way you definitely catch a lot more of it. Sounds like you did look back, after the fact. Lessons learned are still lessons learned. Good on ya for learning and keeping going. Cool to get some tips from you here! Thanks.
To finish your thought, a competent project manager would have easily seen that in this case, the "buy vs build" decision is easy: buy, don't build... unless you are looking for a new hobby. Many men get a lot of satisfaction from doing stuff with their hands. Therefore, for them, this can be a nice hobby. Personally, I detest working with my hands. It's always a chore that I'm glad to avoid. To each his own.
Sawmill is on order, so this is great info Sandy, and will help me prep for its arrival. Thanks!
Thanks a million for sharing your experience.
Hey Sandy,
What another enjoyable video. I love your honesty when talking about your experiences. Very humbling. Keep up the amazing videos. I look forward to watching them.
Stay safe.
Thanks appreciate that
I don't think you mentioned this, but here's a couple more tips on drying: be sure your stickers are not green as they can cause staining on the boards. Secondly, placing your stickers as close as possible to the end of each layer (flush to the ends) should prevent checking. From what I've experienced, checking usually ends at the first sticker.
Another tip I saw in an Essential Craftsman video is to relieve the center of your stickers to minimize the contact area which also helps prevent banding
Great video and an excellent reality check for anyone who may be considering the purchase of a portable sawmill. If I was 20 years younger I would probably go with the sawmill option rather than buy pre-cut lumber. But at 70 years old, I think it's probably a little too much for me. Thanks for the clear, honest, and valuable advice.
Anytime! Thanks for watching
Home depot has 70% off lumber that is checked and waroed. You can still build with it and make alot if projects to keep you busy and save tons of money now that lumber hone up 70%.
Keep your chin up im proud of you. You paid your dues, just get some strong backs help lift! Have fun.
Great video, thank you for the knowledge
I am THAT guy on his phone right now wanting to buy a saw mill. This was incredibly helpful. Thank you!!
I don’t know how much time you have, and this is just a suggestion. Saw dust is used in growing mushrooms, and the area you have is idea for growing mushrooms. If that doesn’t appeal to you, then you could bag it and sell it too growers in your area, and help with some of your costs.
I found out sawdust is great for cleaning your shop floor.
Sawdust for mushroom cultivation preferably is from hardwood (deciduous) trees. Fir, spruce and pine sawdust isn't as desirable.
@@farmerdoc2924 Out of curiosity, how come?
@@eliannafreely5725those trees have sap in them that is toxic! Pine sap is used make paint thinner and other thinners very bad for plants.
Being at the point of getting my own mill, this piece was hugely helpful, thanks!
Glad it helped ya Mat. Happy sawing
That is so absolutely true Sandy , It does take a bit of work before and after the lumber making
For me though I so love doing and taking care of things like this , It's so much fun and enjoyable from start to finish - I am a total outdoorsy (Love working with my hands)
Great video that is for the advice….exactly what i was looking for!
I've run a mill for 23 years now and I went through all the same problems as you in the beginning. I'm still learning how to be efficient, how to move , stack, unstack, plane and sell 10's of thousands of pounds of lumber and waste without crippling my body. Milling is not for sissies. I still love milling and building with the glorious lumber and timbers I saw. Really informational video. thank you. P.s. get yourself a forklift that can pick at least 6,000 pounds.
Thanks Mark. Sounds like you've got some great experience out there
One thing I learned was if your going to harvest a tree that has some bugs it’s best to use as thin boards, I put one 6x6 post with wood boring grubs in my stack and they transferred into the surrounding posts. Very frustrating but if caught early a little compressed air and insect spray seams to do the trick.
This is so informative and useful!
Excellent video and great info!! Thanks for your thoroughness!
Glad you enjoyed the video
Great video. Look before you leap, as the old saying goes.
Awesome update Sandy! Your right all the work is processing the timber’s to get to the mill.... and the clean up...oh wow the cleanup lol. Nice work Sandy!
Yeah that cleanup is high up on my priority list. It's looking a bit junky as the snow melts haha
Excellent vid and honest check on the reality of owning and operating a sawmill. Having the exact same thing.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Excellent Video! Very informative.
great advice.
i learned sawing at my grandfather's mill.
His #1 rule was keep the work space safe! so keep it clean, and keep it organized.
the very first lesson i learned about sawmills, was why, when and how to sharpen blades.
i was teen, that was over 50 yrs ago when my dad and grandfather brought me in to the mill operation.
those lessons i learned back then still apply today.
the most expensive lesson i learned when I had my own portable mill was the necessity to invest in a reliable metal detector!
the machinery has changed, but the sweat equity hasn't.
Great video! Thanks for sharing your personal experience. Definitely some good points to consider.
Right on Kris!
This video was awesome. THANK you for the info. It will help me with my decision and how to plan for my mill.
Thank you so very much for educating us with your very honest experience.
Really great video. Very very helpful.
Very good video! I like how you put it in perspective of how much work is involved! THank you
Glad you liked the video Brent
The perfect line of those trees is incredible...
This is hands down the best 20 minutes I have spent my time on in a long while. Immediate Sub!
Great to hear that and welcome to the channel!
Excellent video. You've helped to confirm all that I've been thinking.
Thanks Eric
Superb video! Completely agree with the other comments as well...most channels skip over all of the extremely hard work that goes into getting the log to the mill. New subscriber here and also new to milling, currently waiting for a chainsaw mill to arrive and get started. Thank you for taking the time to take us along on your journey, very much appreciated. Blessings.
Thanks very much!
About to pull the trigger on an hm126. This video shed some light on a couple things that I hadn't given enough consideration. Thanks for taking the time to make me aware.
Good points! Nothing is ever as easy as it looks 👍🏻👍🏻
Thank you for the honest conversation on the realities of this hobby/activity. I appreciate the advice and things to consider before leaping into what is in reality a big commitment
Happy to help ya Todd. Thanks for watching
Very very very informative. Thanks for this.
Wow! This is one of he best instructional videos I have ever watched. Thank you so much.
Great info, very well done. Thank you
Great video. It makes so much sense. I almost hit the "Pay Now" button. Thanks for talking me down.
IV been thinking and Decided to build my own home. Your Info is spot on. You live your learn lol. Good luck
Great little video mate, recently purchased a bandsaw mill myself. I definitely haven’t spent enough time cutting timber on it yet, but the little I have done have found it to be very rewarding as well.