I bought my Woodlands mill about 5 years ago for hobby and am very pleased. You might consider going to pawn shop and pick up a transit to level saw bed, as did I. A neighbor gave me an old dilapidated 24' travel trailer to which I tore off camper portion and used the trailer to put my mill upon. Works great and is portable!
I have the same mill, it's simple and easy to run, well built, no complaints from me! I set mine on blocks as low to the ground as possible but eventually raised it aprox one foot. This was to be able to clear sawdust out from underneath the bunk .. it accumulates pretty fast! This is NOT a high production mill but does a super job. When cutting TAKE YOUR TIME... One other important issue... clean the logs as best you can before cutting..., garden hose/stiff brush works well... a lot of the Fir logs I've cut have heavy bark on them... those I run the power saw along deep enough to cut through the bark and then peel it off.. takes a bit of time but saves the band saw blades. Great little mill, thoroughly recommend.
Just a little tip. If you use a string level to straighten the bed in the direction of travel you can get in straight much faster. Your not looking for level your looking for a straight line of cut. After you get the table in a straight line then you can level the cross members. If the string is in the center of the cross member, the cross members can be adjusted by raising the low side and lowering the high side an equal amount. I hope this helps you out.
HI Outsider I also have the HM126 which i bought in 2013. I use it on an occasional basis and process about 10 to 15 logs a year. I use the wood for tool sheds, wood sheds an new porch etc. you did not mention so i will that with each log you cut you will get 20 or 30 gallons of sawdust. I add the sawdust to my compost heap as the wood material in the mix. Also all the “scabs” which are the pieces of wood with bark on one side get cut up into firewood. There is very little material wasted if you do a little thinking about where you can use the various products of boards, firewood and sawdust. Finally i found the local high school has an enthusiastic wood-shop teacher but no budget for wood. I keep him supplied with pine, oak, chestnut and cedar so the kids have plenty of material to work on. All at no charge of course. I have not found there to be a market for selling wood locally except for the occasional neighbor who needs a few boards. This occasionally pays for gas to run the mill. Nice video and valid insights. Pete
A great video on the choice, I believe the decision between a bandsawmill or a chainsaw mill is relative to the species of timber you are cutting , I have owned and used both, my choice for cutting hardwood like ironbark or river redgum etc is the chainsaw mill, I have 2 Westford Mills, the slabbing mill and the rail mill using the skip tooth chain , no problem, the downside using a chainsaw is the waste as in blade thickness. The bandsaw mill has a thin blade , minimal waste, but bandsaw blades do have there issues, in hardwood the teeth follow the grain therefore porpises up and down thru the log, a wavy surface, no issues with cedar or silky oak . In the end I used a starrett brand blade with a left and right cutting tooth and a raker in the middle, ground every second or so tooth off and it cut like a hot knife thru butter, left on the setup and used until the blade was past the use by date, quick and easy to sharpen with an angle grinder, just ground a sharp point on the tooth no fancy depth gauging or profiling, cost of a blade was $12 , cheap timber , I sold the bandsamill because the blade tension is critical and all I was cutting was hardwood. The Westford mills are made in Australia and are truly portable, used to cut old dead river red gums on the banks of the river , in location , my max lenght was 3 metres long, couldn't lift anything heavier, 75 mm thick, up to 3 foot wide, used a Husquvarna 3120 with modified exhaust and jetting to overcome over come running lean with the throttle power on for 3 minutes , with 6 FOOT BLADE , skip tooth 3/8 chain . the winch makes it easy just listen to the exhaust so you don't bog the motor down Walk out of a forest with my mill and the timber cut setup is a reasonable task, not difficult and you can mill logs in position , just set the rail in position with wood screws, no machinery required to lift or drag the logs to a set up mill whatever brand, how much timber are you going to cut and is it hard wood or soft wood, hope this helps, not sponsored just experience
I have the one a step down from this, an HM122. I did purchase the 9hp motor and I am glad I did. I can't stress enough how well built this thing is. Quality materials and solid motor. It took about 4 hours to put together, without the foundation. We mounted ours about 12" off the ground on 4x4 post cemented in the ground. I don't recommend this for industrial use, but it really is a good unit.
I've had the HM126 for about a year now. Only complaint is that I didn't buy one years ago. Absolutely love it. Don't think you could make a living with this mill as there's a lot of manual work involved. For someone with their own trees and a frequent need for lumber it will pay for itself pretty quickly.
I bought one of these Mills you're right the customer support is 2nd to none I had an issue with the clutch because my RP m's were not set right 2 days later a brand new club showed up for free Excellent quality excellent people.......
We purchased a bandsaw mill from a company on Vancouver island that custom makes bandsaw mills comparable to a woodmizer. What an amazing investment to the farm! Definatly worth the money! Thanks for another great video!
I bought a small mill 15 yrs ago, and love it. I work full time, and run the mill a couple days per month, and sell enough blocking to a local business, to pay for the mill every 16 to 18 months. if you have trees, and need lumber, i highly recommend buying one.
After watching this, I checked the price on this mill. I was very surprised at how much less it cost than what I expected to see. I am looking at timber framing a house and workshop (among other things) in a few years, and I think this would more than pay for itself many times over. Thanks for the video!
I have my own mill also. I have run it for several years. I built mine to reside and repair a large bank barn. I agree with all of your comments. Spot on. I have sold some high end lumber. I have built other buildings with the lumber. The big advance is having you own lumber when you want it in the size you want it. The first thing I built was a building to house the mill. You should do the same. Nice video.
I have got some messages about this video and what my personal opinion is when it comes to Woodland Mills. Are portable sawmills worth buying? The general answer will be yes if you are a forest owner or have access to logs. If you can use the milled wood yourself, such a sawmill will have a short repayment time depending on how much wood you mills. It is a common misconception that twin-rail sawmils are portable, - they are the first portable when they get on wheels. Woodland Mills has already introduced trailer solutions. Which do I think is better: a bandsaw mill or a chainsaw mill? The short answer is both are best, understood the way they complement each other. At this end of the sawmill scale (prize level), one must often use the chain saw to ensure that a log can match bandaw's limitations. The chain saw is very slow, noisy and uses very expensive gasoline, and has a 7-8 mm. kerf. A bandsaw is much faster, less noicy, use less gasoline per cut and have a 2 mm. kerf. Is it possible to make a living with your own portable sawmill? Both yes and no, when we speak Woodland Mills. If you have your own forest or tree access or you can use the tree yourself, it will always be possible to save yourself a lot of money and gets better quality. If you have to make a living out of it, you should be able to compete on hourly rates, board feet, linear feet, cubic feet or cubic meters. There will be competition from the super hydraulic sawmills (on wheels) such as Timberking and Woodmizer (and they are in a completely different investment level). In many countries one can live by having a Woodland Mill in the long term, while it is more difficult in countries with a high wage level like in Northern Europe. It is also largely dependent on the local market situation, ie supply versus demand. But I am quite sure that there new trailer models from Woodland Mills will fill a need in the market also here alone because of the lower price. What do I think of the Woodland Mills product? First of all, I'm not right to ask, we are using Stihl, Logosol and Wood Mizer products for long. However, Woodland Mills has a good product range for the small sawmill business segment. You get value for money, well thought out design, quality standard components you can buy anywhere in most countries. It is easy (and cheap) to customize or update the sawmill, to the wishes you may have. The design makes it possible to service and maintain yourself, and that it is easy to make constructive improvements. For the beginner it is not only necessary with advice and guidance in connection with the purchase of the sawmill, but especially when you have first started, it is necessary to have a good supplier backing up the product and providing a good after-sales service and that's my impression that Woodland Mills is fully in line with the best in the industry. Should we need a smaller mobile sawmill more, Woodland Mills in Göteburg, Sweden, would be among the first we visited.
I purchased a woodland mill after seeing yours. 2years ago. After pricing out the lumber to build my barn. I hope to build next summer. Got to finish digging out and the foundation first.
This video answered every question I still had about Woodland Mills and band-sawmills in general. I have done a lot of research and I am very happy with the summary you have provided. Thank you very much and best of luck!!!!
Saving my loose change for the day I can buy a Woodland Mill. I have a oak, hickory, beech, and hard maple woods with some logs down and stacked from installing a septic leach field and opening up the landscape around our home and garden for more sunshine. Thank you.
Thanks for the information and your opinion ,my brother has a portable mill ,the amount of money that would have been spent on the mahogany lumber is staggering upwards of a hundred thousand dollars. If your a wood worker you can't go wrong
I also own one of Woodland Mills' bandsaw mills, although mine is an entry level model. I would highly recommend even the small "hobbyist" version I have. Great value for the money when building my own furniture.
How is your maintenance going with your mill. I looked at different brand, and you can only buy parts from them. Mill was cheap, but the maintenance and parts were very expensive. Thanks, WG.
I just found your channel recently and am currently going through the videos for wild edibles & whatnot. I just needed to come to a more current video to post and tell you exactly how much I appreciate the knowledge you are sharing with others. I've got books to read by the dozens... *But* that doesn't replace the hands on experience of seeing someone showing you what these beauties look like. So, Thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me confidence in identifying what I have around me in the natural world. It's so difficult without a woodsman/woman or growing up with a parent to instruct you. ~Be Blessed from SW South Dakota
Thanks for helping convince woodland mills to offer a trailer! I ordered a hm126 do woodlander today. I figured the cost of the trailer was worth it for faster levelling and portability.
Love the review, unbiased and objective. Im in Papua New Guinea and id love to have one if these. We have mostly chainsaw mills but this would be great. If only shipping was cheaper
I think your ''take'' on this is pretty straight up, I agree with what you said, specially with chainsaw mills, I cut some big cants with a chain saw mill, the gas and oil consumed, could have cut much more with a band mill, , the waste wood of the chain mill could have made some pretty decent boards with a band mill, and still cut my big cants as well,
I've been using the same mill for a couple weeks now cutting up to 16ft Cedar logs into 1" and 2" boards plus larger timbers.. It's a great little mill, easy maintenance, easy to set up, easy to use... best if it's on a concrete pad but at the moment mine's on wood blocks and I've got zero problems with accurate cutting. I think the key to successful cutting is to TAKE YOUR TIME and always use sharp blades.. soon as a blade starts wandering..change it. Great little mill for the guy who wants to take the time to do it right, not a mill for high production to make money...
They now have a trailer version, which I will hopefully buy this summer. Need to buy the woodlot first. Then, its time to build a sugar shack and a cabin. Ohh the dream.
Excellent commentary, great production work. I have a simple suggestion, not sure you remember, I was the one suggesting a portable saw mill 18 months ago.I hate mud on my wood, dulls the tools, need to sharpen them much more often. You know this from your chainsaw experience, not telling you anything new. My suggestion would be to get a small wood chipper, not an expensive one, then cover the ground around the sawmill with the chips, spread that sawdust around too, it keeps the mud down.I helped a guy on another website, he did not understand foundations. Just like you have trouble with your sawmill, a house has the same problem going through seasons and staying level. The solution is soil dynamics, foundation engineering, which is very complicated. Basically, you need to get something stable, and that depends upon the conditions where you build. In that soil, I would suggest piers. You have rocks, so to reduce the amount of cement, you might pressure wash rocks or find clean ones in a stream bed. Add a little extra OPC and fill a sonotube, buried below the frost line. That might be difficult with so many rocks there. Believe me, it will be worth the effort, even if you can only put one pier every 16 feet. You have free wood, you can span that distance easily with a 2"x10". Most log cabin guys dig a trench, fill it with rocks and sit something on top. It always fails and the rocks need to be restacked every spring. With piers, you might still trench and stack the rocks, but get the wood up 30" off the dirt and away from the rain splash. If the rocks fall over, so what, just restack them. Piers can look ugly, so to make it look really good, use slip form. Slip form would be like getting a sonotube just 12" to 18 inches high, anything above ground, stack clean stones around the outside, fill the inside with rocks and crete. That is the easy way to make it look like masonry. I am not a mason either, but taking time to get the rocks close to each other, then pointing afterwards will work. That same idea can be done the traditional way with slip forms to create a flat face. There are a few examples on U-tube, most of them awful.Great job, good luck with all your endeavors!
Very helpful video, thank you. In case if you’re still having difficulty levelling it, use a laser level. You might want to do it in the evening when the sun is going down and it’s easier to see, but it makes the job super easy and way more precise than trying to do it with a 4” bubble level like you are showing here. Good luck.
And if anyone else is reading this on a budget, you can use strings pulled tight over long distances to bring things to flat, if you account for the sag in the middle. There are various ways of accounting for it, but a lightweight string under heavy tension will already just solve most of it.
Looks like they make this saw with a trailer now and is probably the easiest way to level up the saw and be able to move it where you want it. Looks like that is the way to go and just build a shelter for the saw when it is parked and not being used. Thanks for the video.
They, IMHO, are worth 10x's their weight in gold ! The more that you learn about just exactly what your mill can do it"s even more valuable! ATB from sunny Wintergarden,Florida😎!
I'm over in Pinellas Co & got 5.3 acres up in Suwannee Co. I milled a few trees with a chainsaw mill attached to 18" electric chainsaw but it's slow go....I would love to have one of these bad boys , I used the electric because didn't want to burn up my gas saw
Excellent video!! There is no chance in a million years that I will ever buy or need a portable mill........HOWEVER, I have been thinking about the same questions you answered for a long time. For some odd reason, I love watching videos on saw mills.........Thanks for posting!
I've been watching your work for over 4 years. My sympathies for the lost of your Dad, when my Dad left us it was extremely difficult to continuing on out projects. He's always watching you. Now down to business, of course a mill is worth it. I've been watching your progress, could you spend that much for lumber? Beautiful work.
Great information on the merits of a portable sawmill. I agree with your assessment that if you plan on starting up a saw milling business then a manual mill is not the way to go.
I have been using my friends Norwood and I agree very much with what you have said. I would add that more horsepower means easier cutting as does sharp blades. The trailer is fantastic! And bigger logs make for less slabs and more boards. I have a chainsaw mill but I will hire him to come over since it is not really worth the energy when he can roll in with his bandsaw mill.
I bought a used hud-son 28"mill over 10 years ago. I only intended to use it for my hobby wood work and such, I have cut many logs with it, cedar, oak, walnut, cherry, pine. I have tried to sell some of the boards, pricing 2x6-8' at half the lumber yard price, and could sell none. I have used many of the boards myself for my hobby, and sold a number of bird houses made from them. this fellow talks of cutting boards for furniture, but you have to have the finest straight grain clear boards for furniture, and they have to be totally dried and planed, just cutting boards on a mill like this doesn't even get you close to furniture making. there is a guy advertising localy 2"x16"-8' slabs of walnut, oak and elm, and it appears he hasn't sold any (price $50-80 each) in conclusion I would say do not buy a mill to make money, it is only a hobby unit. treat it as such
Woodland Mills should give you a trailer and a pack of blades, etc. for all the great PR you give them. I was on the fence about which one to buy for our land and you convinced me to get the W.M.
Just beginning my quest for knowledge in deciding between chainsaw or bandsaw mill. When I read "W.M." my initial thought was Woodmizer, haha! Oh boy, do I love some of their hydraulic models! However, I've decided I need to really seriously reel in my grandiose plans for a larger(expensive!!) model as a first mill. Looking at the Logosol F2, M8, as well as the offerings from the other mfr's. This one here looks very promising, but the insight in the video regarding the need for a trailer have me looking for an option that comes with it.
I just love your videos man. The scenery there is beautiful and you do a lot of things that I like doing. Thanks for the honesty and posting your experiences with all of us.
Making the base out of a channel or rectangular tube would stiffen up the track alot! Angle iron that was used is to flimsy. Also I would have built a shed of someone sort to cover up the saw during the winter and bad weather! At the same time put in a gantry crane to lift your logs on . ( Always easy to give suggestions and spend someone else 💰 I know)
By far one of the best UA-cam "review' DIY videos I have ever seen. You are a talented man. Very straight to the point and very humble opinions. Did not waste anytime yammering about all kinds of nonsense. Only tip I can think of because you pretty much dotted all your i's and crossed all your t's is try to talk more natural, less robotic, You have a good voice for this you should exploit that to the fullest. Best of luck and thank you sooo much for your video I really enjoyed it.
I think the manner of speech is fine. Its clear and well enunciated. The voice is well modulated. No issues at all. In fact, its a much welcome change to the frenetic "rap" or rather yapping of easily excitable youtubers.
You’re opinion is accurate. If you have the time, money, need and inclination then go for it. I would think stepping up from a chainsaw mill would be a smart decision. It does the same thing , but faster and cleaner with less work?
Please keep doing what you do. I love your videos and always learn something new. Thank you for taking the time to do these videos and sharing with us.
i dont worry too much about perfect levelling. i just use a string line once a year after the frost. get the track straight and the lumber will be straight.
When I was a teenager my grandpa let my cousin and I "rent" his band sawmill, tractor, and truck/trailer. The sawmill is a small lumbermate from Norwood with a Honda engine. Its close to the size of your machine. There is a flooring mill in a town close to us that buys red oak of differing widths and lengths cut 5/4" thick. If I remember right we were able to net, after paying Grandpa his equipment fees and our gas and diesel, $140 for a 10 hour days work. This would vary some as prices changed. $14 dollars an hour isn't going to get you rich, but some folks live on less I suppose.
Hello , If you have the right people , the right people again the right people , then you put a team together, you make tongue and groove , base board quarter round and use you’re team to help manufacture , sell and ship the finished wood product to other people who will become regular buyers of you’re teams best effort , I didn’t say you’re wood but included the key word team , now if you’re team sucks and you are stuck in a pit that’s a thing that you can change and if you’re team kicks ass pay them good show them love , keep them working in a fun happy safe manner and of coarse you will do great , trucker Kelly :)
I've got the hm 130 max with the same clamp set up and I have to say I don't care for the clamps at all. They don't always hold the logs very well and they seem very cumbersome to move around with larger logs on the mill.
Having had a portable mill, rigidity is the most important thing. Your mill can sag if you dont have it securely leveled underneath the base. This type of base is not that rigid. It is similar to what I had. It can bend and then you have a permanent problem. Better mills have square tubing under the rails your cutter head slides on. At the time I bought my mill the heavier support was an extra $700. option. I was on a budget, but lacking that made for some extra work. I did build several buildings with my mill but found sawing was a lot of work .Especially with only one person. If U dry your lumber it needs stickering. You maybe better having someone saw your lumber.I think big logs put too much strain on cheap mills. They cant take the weight,
i have a chainsaw mill. Let me tell you, that is back breaking work!! you are always bent over running the chainsaw. It is hot and dirt and exhaust seems to be always in your face. If you try to get logs up to a nice height you need big muscles or equipment of some sort. But as you mentioned, you can't get much more portable then that. I have a video up of me using mine. I am hoping for a bandsaw mill eventually. Great video!!
Thanks Adam! I was hoping someone with a chainsaw mill would weigh-in on the conversation. I'm just sorry that it's such a hard piece of equipment to use. Anyway, I appreciate you sharing with us.
it isn't hard, just tough work. But like you said, if you need to fly or boat in lumber, this is a great tool. Many many cabins, house, cottage, etc have been built with this tool. For me, it is very rewarding.
Adam Craig Outdoors Take the rakers all the way off your saw chain when milling. You don't need to push nearly as much without them. I did it and it seems to work good. You can also put a winch on the mill to help with pushing. That's what I do.
for a new operator that was well done if you want a cheap bead for your mill cut it if you weld it will not coast you much for the metal then you just center the mill when you travel i had a little back hoe and full hydrolic ban mill a small sev s ten 4x4 work on my own think it coast me two days a month for payments for it all most of my helpers i paid 20 buck an hour ones they got it in hand most of them became millers and were off loved it
I work at a place called bohlke veneer, I get to see quite a few different species of veneer like walnut, white oak, red oak, maple, cherry, and a few others, and they cut some of the best logs of any specie you can think of, before I got this job i never gave a crap about trees and what expensive wood looks like, I am now fascinated with wood, I'd like to eventually buy a saw mill and try making a little extra money cutting and selling slabs
Fast forward to April 2021 and we all realize that a portable sawmill is liken to a money-printing machine. Last I checked a 2x4x8 was selling for $8.50 CAD
@The Outsider Idea- make a log rack with to hooks at each end and then set it at the bottom. Make a bracket on the opposite side of mill to attach a winch to hook to the rack and pull the logs up. Once the log is cut you can move the rack back down and load with another log
Very helpful..i was/am considering getting one or building one for a business. I can build one of these for 350 to 500 bucks--doesnt evem look that far off the commercial models either and i can build for larger diameters very easily at the same time exvept auto feed hydraulic loaders turners dogs ect cost a bit more and would take longer to build. Im trying to find a way to make furniture grade plys but that looking near impossible witjout HUGE equip investments..too bad..im a furniture and custom cabinet builder and milling my own exotics is very much in my planning. Your vodeo helped confirm many things in my mind though so thank you.
@@ivanmarmeladof3813 millions of board feet of lumber were cut year after year in the 1800s by horse drawn log skidding and steam powered sawmills. And giant redwoods the size of an Amtrak train!
My great grandfather had a full sized sawmill at a location only accessible by rowboat. But he built it from scratch himself from small parts. The old truck engine was the biggest component. But when you build something in place it never moves again. As far as I know the sawmill is still there, although nobody has maintained it and it would need rebuilding to come back into service. So, if you want a sawmill in a remote location, it only needs to move into place once, and you can build one from scratch instead of having large parts delivered, you could still consider a circular saw or band saw mill.
Great video dude. I like watching your channel. I have a small off grid cabin. I bought a pre made storage shed and mounted it on an old trailer frame. I've bought several old travel trailers in rough shape. Stripped it down to the frame. Mounted some propane tanks and large water tank to move to my site. Works great. Find an old travel trailer. At least 30 feet. Strip it down and mount your saw on it. They have tandem 3500 lbs Axles. Or more. U can pull it with your tractor anywhere. Just an idea.
Great video. On levelling up and-or trailer beds. Anything long and narrow doesn't necessarily have good/high torsional stiffness, so still requires levelling - it just might have fewer feet, because it is stiffer over significant chunks of its length. Concrete pads has to be best way for non trailer beds.
Depends what you want it for. If you have a plot of land with a lot of standing timber, you intend to build a house and have enough timber to do it, you can save a bunch. Log cabins are a waste of a lot of wood. The only reason they were popular in the colonial period is that settlers were clearing farm land and had a whole lot of logs. And there weren't any commercial mills nearby to break up the lumber. Solid wood has a low R rating compared to even air in a stud wall. And you can make a log go a lot farther as sawn lumber than a log. That said, unless you intend to make a living cutting lumber, it is unlikely you will find a lot of profit in owning a mill. I'd look into leasing a mill for a year or so to cut up your timber, or buy a really good quality mill you can resell when you are done with it.
Good video and review. Am I the only one who noticed the ground area around the mill? Looks like it would be slick when wet, it's not flat and very cluttered.Still thumbs up on this video.
If you have woodlands and work with lumber on a regular basis a sawmill will pay for itself in a very short amount of time. However to drag logs to the mill you need a tractor of some sort. Just in building my bridge and all of my bee hives my mill has more than paid for itself. No way a chainsaw mill can be compared to band mill, I could mill 3 logs before a chainsaw mill could do 3 boards.
Southeastern Ohio honey bees & bbq Thank you for mentioning the most important item when figuring out whether or not to buy a bandsaw type mill vs. the Alaskan type. THE TRACTOR. Minimum $5,000 for a used decent tractor w/ forks. If you need to move the tractor off your property you will also need a trailer and probably a 1-ton truck to pull it. $$$$$. I am buying a 5-acre lot that is in a subdivision in the mtns. of N.M.that has an H.O.A. I don't think the hoa gives a hoot on whether I mill some of the Ponderosa pine on my lot for lumber to build my cabin, but they would probably have a fit if someone started dropping off logs for me to mill. They would say I am not zoned for that type of business and they would be right. The details can be downright devilish.
The best way to level these things is to make a water level from a bucket and some clear plastic tubing. Hard to get more precise, even with a laser level. Or you can buy one at the big hardware. Some even beep.
If i needed 2x4s, I would just go buy them. If I had a woodlot and was building a homestead, this would be incredible. You're right though, no one is going to get rich selling spruce lumber, unless it is beams for timberframing. It all comes down to what log you're cutting. Cedar lumber is good and so is hardwood slabs.
Using a clear plastic tube mostly filled with water and a few drops of food coloring makes a very good level, of any length. I spoke to a laser level sales guy and he wasn't happy about them, said they worked as well as the lasers at a tiny fraction of the price. If you got the two ends sorted out first it might have been much easier to level the rest
In my personal opinion : The cost verses the end product really depends on how much lumber you intend use or will eventually saw before the saw is of no further need. If a sawmill will be used after the original project has been completed, then, the cost will be less, depending on the amount of use occurs. In using the sawmill to just build a home, cabin, utility shed or barn etc, and nothing further, then I would consider a sawmill that cost $10,000.00 to be a good buy, if your project would require $30,000.00 or more to purchase material from a DIY store. Why did I use a 3 to 1 ratio ........ because the following greatly increases the final cost of producing your own lumber. 1) time required to fell the trees, transport the cut logs to the sawmill and then processing of the logs into usable lumber 2) the cost of gas, oil, blades for the sawmill 3) the cost of a crosscut tree saw, a limbing chainsaw and a felling chainsaw, plus chain blades, gas and oil 4) the cost of transporting felled tree logs to the sawmill site (i.e.) truck, tractor, 4 wheeler etc. plus gas, oil, diesel etc. 5) the cost of miscellaneous items, log tow chains, axes, hatchets, files, tarps, ropes, pull blocks, cant hooks and pry bars 6) the cost of material needed to set up the sawmill, concrete platform, concrete blocks, equipment levels etc. 7) there will be other hidden cost and annual cost that will occur while processing lumber with a sawmill which must also be expected, such as equipment and sawmill repairs, scheduled maintenance etc. Hope this helps readers to decide whether or not, buying a sawmill would be to their advantage.
With the current popularity of live edge and river epoxy tables I imagine you could make agoid amount of money if you have a supply of desirable wood. Like walnut, maple, cedar, ash etc. I've bought a few slabs from a guy locally that has a small mill. He started off working with a guy that removes dead or fallen trees from people's property. He started off cutting the woodfor firewood and then progressed into cutting lumber with the better wood.
Great video! Short informative and to the point. No blabbering. This is what all youtube videos should look like
I have had one of these in my workshop for a little while now and it's held up well. Only the consumables needed replacing.
I bought my Woodlands mill about 5 years ago for hobby and am very pleased. You might consider going to pawn shop and pick up a transit to level saw bed, as did I. A neighbor gave me an old dilapidated 24' travel trailer to which I tore off camper portion and used the trailer to put my mill upon. Works great and is portable!
I have the same mill, it's simple and easy to run, well built, no complaints from me! I set mine on blocks as low to the ground as possible but eventually raised it aprox one foot. This was to be able to clear sawdust out from underneath the bunk .. it accumulates pretty fast! This is NOT a high production mill but does a super job. When cutting TAKE YOUR TIME... One other important issue... clean the logs as best you can before cutting..., garden hose/stiff brush works well... a lot of the Fir logs I've cut have heavy bark on them... those I run the power saw along deep enough to cut through the bark and then peel it off.. takes a bit of time but saves the band saw blades. Great little mill, thoroughly recommend.
Roger Coles how much you pay for
@@ismaelramirez2786
I think, $1.00
Just a little tip. If you use a string level to straighten the bed in the direction of travel you can get in straight much faster. Your not looking for level your looking for a straight line of cut. After you get the table in a straight line then you can level the cross members. If the string is in the center of the cross member, the cross members can be adjusted by raising the low side and lowering the high side an equal amount. I hope this helps you out.
HI Outsider
I also have the HM126 which i bought in 2013. I use it on an occasional basis and process about 10 to 15 logs a year. I use the wood for tool sheds, wood sheds an new porch etc. you did not mention so i will that with each log you cut you will get 20 or 30 gallons of sawdust. I add the sawdust to my compost heap as the wood material in the mix. Also all the “scabs” which are the pieces of wood with bark on one side get cut up into firewood. There is very little material wasted if you do a little thinking about where you can use the various products of boards, firewood and sawdust.
Finally i found the local high school has an enthusiastic wood-shop teacher but no budget for wood. I keep him supplied with pine, oak, chestnut and cedar so the kids have plenty of material to work on. All at no charge of course.
I have not found there to be a market for selling wood locally except for the occasional neighbor who needs a few boards. This occasionally pays for gas to run the mill.
Nice video and valid insights.
Pete
A great video on the choice, I believe the decision between a bandsawmill or a chainsaw mill is relative to the species of timber you are cutting , I have owned and used both, my choice for cutting hardwood like ironbark or river redgum etc is the chainsaw mill, I have 2 Westford Mills, the slabbing mill and the rail mill using the skip tooth chain , no problem, the downside using a chainsaw is the waste as in blade thickness. The bandsaw mill has a thin blade , minimal waste, but bandsaw blades do have there issues, in hardwood the teeth follow the grain therefore porpises up and down thru the log, a wavy surface, no issues with cedar or silky oak . In the end I used a starrett brand blade with a left and right cutting tooth and a raker in the middle, ground every second or so tooth off and it cut like a hot knife thru butter, left on the setup and used until the blade was past the use by date, quick and easy to sharpen with an angle grinder, just ground a sharp point on the tooth no fancy depth gauging or profiling, cost of a blade was $12 , cheap timber , I sold the bandsamill because the blade tension is critical and all I was cutting was hardwood. The Westford mills are made in Australia and are truly portable, used to cut old dead river red gums on the banks of the river , in location , my max lenght was 3 metres long, couldn't lift anything heavier, 75 mm thick, up to 3 foot wide, used a Husquvarna 3120 with modified exhaust and jetting to overcome over come running lean with the throttle power on for 3 minutes , with 6 FOOT BLADE , skip tooth 3/8 chain . the winch makes it easy just listen to the exhaust so you don't bog the motor down
Walk out of a forest with my mill and the timber cut setup is a reasonable task, not difficult and you can mill logs in position , just set the rail in position with wood screws, no machinery required to lift or drag the logs to a set up mill whatever brand, how much timber are you going to cut and is it hard wood or soft wood, hope this helps, not sponsored just experience
I have the one a step down from this, an HM122. I did purchase the 9hp motor and I am glad I did. I can't stress enough how well built this thing is. Quality materials and solid motor. It took about 4 hours to put together, without the foundation. We mounted ours about 12" off the ground on 4x4 post cemented in the ground. I don't recommend this for industrial use, but it really is a good unit.
I've had the HM126 for about a year now. Only complaint is that I didn't buy one years ago. Absolutely love it. Don't think you could make a living with this mill as there's a lot of manual work involved. For someone with their own trees and a frequent need for lumber it will pay for itself pretty quickly.
I bought one of these Mills you're right the customer support is 2nd to none I had an issue with the clutch because my RP m's were not set right 2 days later a brand new club showed up for free Excellent quality excellent people.......
We purchased a bandsaw mill from a company on Vancouver island that custom makes bandsaw mills comparable to a woodmizer. What an amazing investment to the farm! Definatly worth the money! Thanks for another great video!
Hi Phil and Hannah. Greetings from Duncan.
I have the same mill with the track extension. It has paid for itself several times, it is a lot of fun and extremely satisfying work.
I have had my woodland mills 126 for 5 years now and it's the greatest thing ever. I have my own lumber yard at my fingertips.
Which engine?
@@ChrisGilliamOffGrid 9.5 Kohler
@@chriswoods3188 Thanks! No need for the 14hp one then?
@@ChrisGilliamOffGrid I dont think so. I cut all kinds of wood from red oak to pine and cedar. It had no problem.
I bought a small mill 15 yrs ago, and love it.
I work full time, and run the mill a couple days per month, and sell enough blocking to a local business, to pay for the mill every 16 to 18 months.
if you have trees, and need lumber, i highly recommend buying one.
After watching this, I checked the price on this mill. I was very surprised at how much less it cost than what I expected to see. I am looking at timber framing a house and workshop (among other things) in a few years, and I think this would more than pay for itself many times over. Thanks for the video!
I have my own mill also. I have run it for several years. I built mine to reside and repair a large bank barn. I agree with all of your comments. Spot on. I have sold some high end lumber. I have built other buildings with the lumber. The big advance is having you own lumber when you want it in the size you want it. The first thing I built was a building to house the mill. You should do the same. Nice video.
I have got some messages about this video and what my personal opinion is when it comes to Woodland Mills.
Are portable sawmills worth buying?
The general answer will be yes if you are a forest owner or have access to logs. If you can use the milled wood yourself, such a sawmill will have a short repayment time depending on how much wood you mills.
It is a common misconception that twin-rail sawmils are portable, - they are the first portable when they get on wheels. Woodland Mills has already introduced trailer solutions.
Which do I think is better: a bandsaw mill or a chainsaw mill?
The short answer is both are best, understood the way they complement each other. At this end of the sawmill scale (prize level), one must often use the chain saw to ensure that a log can match bandaw's limitations.
The chain saw is very slow, noisy and uses very expensive gasoline, and has a 7-8 mm. kerf. A bandsaw is much faster, less noicy, use less gasoline per cut and have a 2 mm. kerf.
Is it possible to make a living with your own portable sawmill?
Both yes and no, when we speak Woodland Mills. If you have your own forest or tree access or you can use the tree yourself, it will always be possible to save yourself a lot of money and gets better quality.
If you have to make a living out of it, you should be able to compete on hourly rates, board feet, linear feet, cubic feet or cubic meters. There will be competition from the super hydraulic sawmills (on wheels) such as Timberking and Woodmizer (and they are in a completely different investment level).
In many countries one can live by having a Woodland Mill in the long term, while it is more difficult in countries with a high wage level like in Northern Europe. It is also largely dependent on the local market situation, ie supply versus demand. But I am quite sure that there new trailer models from Woodland Mills will fill a need in the market also here alone because of the lower price.
What do I think of the Woodland Mills product?
First of all, I'm not right to ask, we are using Stihl, Logosol and Wood Mizer products for long.
However, Woodland Mills has a good product range for the small sawmill business segment. You get value for money, well thought out design, quality standard components you can buy anywhere in most countries.
It is easy (and cheap) to customize or update the sawmill, to the wishes you may have.
The design makes it possible to service and maintain yourself, and that it is easy to make constructive improvements.
For the beginner it is not only necessary with advice and guidance in connection with the purchase of the sawmill, but especially when you have first started, it is necessary to have a good supplier backing up the product and providing a good after-sales service and that's my impression that Woodland Mills is fully in line with the best in the industry. Should we need a smaller mobile sawmill more, Woodland Mills in Göteburg, Sweden, would be among the first we visited.
Ok
I purchased a woodland mill after seeing yours. 2years ago. After pricing out the lumber to build my barn. I hope to build next summer. Got to finish digging out and the foundation first.
This video answered every question I still had about Woodland Mills and band-sawmills in general. I have done a lot of research and I am very happy with the summary you have provided. Thank you very much and best of luck!!!!
Saving my loose change for the day I can buy a Woodland Mill. I have a oak, hickory, beech, and hard maple woods with some logs down and stacked from installing a septic leach field and opening up the landscape around our home and garden for more sunshine. Thank you.
Really good info on the differences between chainsaw and portable sawmills. Quick, to the point, and shows most of the operation of the mill.
Thanks for the information and your opinion ,my brother has a portable mill ,the amount of money that would have been spent on the mahogany lumber is staggering upwards of a hundred thousand dollars. If your a wood worker you can't go wrong
I also own one of Woodland Mills' bandsaw mills, although mine is an entry level model. I would highly recommend even the small "hobbyist" version I have. Great value for the money when building my own furniture.
What's the largest diameter of log that it will mill? And, what is the info on it?
30" if you get this one woodlandmills.ca/product/hm130-portable-sawmill/ It's the one I am looking at buying from them.
I watched that video. The 130 looks like a great machine.
Thank you, Rick and Richard.
How is your maintenance going with your mill. I looked at different brand, and you can only buy parts from them. Mill was cheap, but the maintenance and parts were very expensive. Thanks, WG.
I just found your channel recently and am currently going through the videos for wild edibles & whatnot. I just needed to come to a more current video to post and tell you exactly how much I appreciate the knowledge you are sharing with others. I've got books to read by the dozens... *But* that doesn't replace the hands on experience of seeing someone showing you what these beauties look like. So, Thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me confidence in identifying what I have around me in the natural world. It's so difficult without a woodsman/woman or growing up with a parent to instruct you.
~Be Blessed from SW South Dakota
+Sansa Stark That you Sansa for your very kind comment. ☺
You're very welcome! It's the truth, I am enjoying these videos. They perfectly complement my 5-6 different herbal books. Great job!
Thanks for helping convince woodland mills to offer a trailer! I ordered a hm126 do woodlander today. I figured the cost of the trailer was worth it for faster levelling and portability.
Love the review, unbiased and objective. Im in Papua New Guinea and id love to have one if these. We have mostly chainsaw mills but this would be great. If only shipping was cheaper
I think your ''take'' on this is pretty straight up, I agree with what you said, specially with chainsaw mills, I cut some big cants with a chain saw mill, the gas and oil consumed, could have cut much more with a band mill, , the waste wood of the chain mill could have made some pretty decent boards with a band mill, and still cut my big cants as well,
I've been using the same mill for a couple weeks now cutting up to 16ft Cedar logs into 1" and 2" boards plus larger timbers.. It's a great little mill, easy maintenance, easy to set up, easy to use... best if it's on a concrete pad but at the moment mine's on wood blocks and I've got zero problems with accurate cutting. I think the key to successful cutting is to TAKE YOUR TIME and always use sharp blades.. soon as a blade starts wandering..change it. Great little mill for the guy who wants to take the time to do it right, not a mill for high production to make money...
+Roger Coles Spot on assessment my friend.
They now have a trailer version, which I will hopefully buy this summer. Need to buy the woodlot first. Then, its time to build a sugar shack and a cabin. Ohh the dream.
Excellent commentary, great production work. I have a simple suggestion, not sure you remember, I was the one suggesting a portable saw mill 18 months ago.I hate mud on my wood, dulls the tools, need to sharpen them much more often. You know this from your chainsaw experience, not telling you anything new. My suggestion would be to get a small wood chipper, not an expensive one, then cover the ground around the sawmill with the chips, spread that sawdust around too, it keeps the mud down.I helped a guy on another website, he did not understand foundations. Just like you have trouble with your sawmill, a house has the same problem going through seasons and staying level. The solution is soil dynamics, foundation engineering, which is very complicated. Basically, you need to get something stable, and that depends upon the conditions where you build. In that soil, I would suggest piers. You have rocks, so to reduce the amount of cement, you might pressure wash rocks or find clean ones in a stream bed. Add a little extra OPC and fill a sonotube, buried below the frost line. That might be difficult with so many rocks there. Believe me, it will be worth the effort, even if you can only put one pier every 16 feet. You have free wood, you can span that distance easily with a 2"x10". Most log cabin guys dig a trench, fill it with rocks and sit something on top. It always fails and the rocks need to be restacked every spring. With piers, you might still trench and stack the rocks, but get the wood up 30" off the dirt and away from the rain splash. If the rocks fall over, so what, just restack them. Piers can look ugly, so to make it look really good, use slip form. Slip form would be like getting a sonotube just 12" to 18 inches high, anything above ground, stack clean stones around the outside, fill the inside with rocks and crete. That is the easy way to make it look like masonry. I am not a mason either, but taking time to get the rocks close to each other, then pointing afterwards will work. That same idea can be done the traditional way with slip forms to create a flat face. There are a few examples on U-tube, most of them awful.Great job, good luck with all your endeavors!
I use all my sawdust for my free range hens.
Robert Carver i
Robert Carver I
Very helpful video, thank you. In case if you’re still having difficulty levelling it, use a laser level. You might want to do it in the evening when the sun is going down and it’s easier to see, but it makes the job super easy and way more precise than trying to do it with a 4” bubble level like you are showing here. Good luck.
And if anyone else is reading this on a budget, you can use strings pulled tight over long distances to bring things to flat, if you account for the sag in the middle. There are various ways of accounting for it, but a lightweight string under heavy tension will already just solve most of it.
Saw mills are like exercise machines. Spend your money ! You only get good out of them if you use them. I use my woodland mills saw. I love it.
Looks like they make this saw with a trailer now and is probably the easiest way to level up the saw and be able to move it where you want it. Looks like that is the way to go and just build a shelter for the saw when it is parked and not being used. Thanks for the video.
I have more then 5 years ,good machine ,works great
They, IMHO, are worth 10x's their weight in gold ! The more that you learn about just exactly what your mill can do it"s even more valuable! ATB from sunny Wintergarden,Florida😎!
I'm over in Pinellas Co & got 5.3 acres up in Suwannee Co. I milled a few trees with a chainsaw mill attached to 18" electric chainsaw but it's slow go....I would love to have one of these bad boys , I used the electric because didn't want to burn up my gas saw
Excellent video!! There is no chance in a million years that I will ever buy or need a portable mill........HOWEVER, I have been thinking about the same questions you answered for a long time. For some odd reason, I love watching videos on saw mills.........Thanks for posting!
I've been watching your work for over 4 years.
My sympathies for the lost of your Dad, when my Dad left us it was extremely difficult to continuing on out projects.
He's always watching you.
Now down to business, of course a mill is worth it.
I've been watching your progress, could you spend that much for lumber?
Beautiful work.
I appreciate the time and thought put into your videos.
Yes, the narration is the BEST, the log cabin videos are AWESOME !!!
Martin G lo
Great information on the merits of a portable sawmill. I agree with your assessment that if you plan on starting up a saw milling business then a manual mill is not the way to go.
I have been using my friends Norwood and I agree very much with what you have said. I would add that more horsepower means easier cutting as does sharp blades. The trailer is fantastic! And bigger logs make for less slabs and more boards.
I have a chainsaw mill but I will hire him to come over since it is not really worth the energy when he can roll in with his bandsaw mill.
I bought a used hud-son 28"mill over 10 years ago. I only intended to use it for my hobby wood work and such, I have cut many logs with it, cedar, oak, walnut, cherry, pine. I have tried to sell some of the boards, pricing 2x6-8' at half the lumber yard price, and could sell none. I have used many of the boards myself for my hobby, and sold a number of bird houses made from them. this fellow talks of cutting boards for furniture, but you have to have the finest straight grain clear boards for furniture, and they have to be totally dried and planed, just cutting boards on a mill like this doesn't even get you close to furniture making. there is a guy advertising localy 2"x16"-8' slabs of walnut, oak and elm, and it appears he hasn't sold any (price $50-80 each) in conclusion I would say do not buy a mill to make money, it is only a hobby unit. treat it as such
I bet you could sell some now!!
Woodland Mills should give you a trailer and a pack of blades, etc. for all the great PR you give them. I was on the fence about which one to buy for our land and you convinced me to get the W.M.
Absolutely
Just beginning my quest for knowledge in deciding between chainsaw or bandsaw mill. When I read "W.M." my initial thought was Woodmizer, haha!
Oh boy, do I love some of their hydraulic models! However, I've decided I need to really seriously reel in my grandiose plans for a larger(expensive!!) model as a first mill. Looking at the Logosol F2, M8, as well as the offerings from the other mfr's. This one here looks very promising, but the insight in the video regarding the need for a trailer have me looking for an option that comes with it.
I just love your videos man. The scenery there is beautiful and you do a lot of things that I like doing. Thanks for the honesty and posting your experiences with all of us.
Making the base out of a channel or rectangular tube would stiffen up the track alot! Angle iron that was used is to flimsy. Also I would have built a shed of someone sort to cover up the saw during the winter and bad weather! At the same time put in a gantry crane to lift your logs on . ( Always easy to give suggestions and spend someone else 💰 I know)
I enjoy your videos and the Oregon Old Timer sawmill videos.
Very good! I enjoyed your nariaton and your comments and I respect your opinion's. The video was also very nicely done.
I might have to thank you for this video, for the fact that when I went to purchase the m126 it came with the trailer when I bought it.
That value piece at the end was excellent! Thank you for that rundown of the comparisons.
I always learn to cut wood in the summer never in the winter when the ground is froze and uneven and the working conditions are less than favorable
It s your problem if you use timber for you house but if for fire only yes
Thank you for sharring.
You were very clear and descriptive. Appreciate your help.
By far one of the best UA-cam "review' DIY videos I have ever seen. You are a talented man. Very straight to the point and very humble opinions. Did not waste anytime yammering about all kinds of nonsense. Only tip I can think of because you pretty much dotted all your i's and crossed all your t's is try to talk more natural, less robotic, You have a good voice for this you should exploit that to the fullest. Best of luck and thank you sooo much for your video I really enjoyed it.
I think the manner of speech is fine. Its clear and well enunciated. The voice is well modulated. No issues at all. In fact, its a much welcome change to the frenetic "rap" or rather yapping of easily excitable youtubers.
Thanks! I'm in the process of deciding whether or not to buy a mill of some kind, and that pretty much covers all my questions.
I enjoyed watching you and your dad's log cabin videos. I picked up s ok me tips.
You’re opinion is accurate. If you have the time, money, need and inclination then go for it. I would think stepping up from a chainsaw mill would be a smart decision. It does the same thing , but faster and cleaner with less work?
Please keep doing what you do. I love your videos and always learn something new. Thank you for taking the time to do these videos and sharing with us.
i dont worry too much about perfect levelling. i just use a string line once a year after the frost. get the track straight and the lumber will be straight.
When I was a teenager my grandpa let my cousin and I "rent" his band sawmill, tractor, and truck/trailer. The sawmill is a small lumbermate from Norwood with a Honda engine. Its close to the size of your machine. There is a flooring mill in a town close to us that buys red oak of differing widths and lengths cut 5/4" thick. If I remember right we were able to net, after paying Grandpa his equipment fees and our gas and diesel, $140 for a 10 hour days work. This would vary some as prices changed. $14 dollars an hour isn't going to get you rich, but some folks live on less I suppose.
Hello , If you have the right people , the right people again the right people , then you put a team together, you make tongue and groove , base board quarter round and use you’re team to help manufacture , sell and ship the finished wood product to other people who will become regular buyers of you’re teams best effort , I didn’t say you’re wood but included the key word team , now if you’re team sucks and you are stuck in a pit that’s a thing that you can change and if you’re team kicks ass pay them good show them love , keep them working in a fun happy safe manner and of coarse you will do great , trucker Kelly :)
I've got the hm 130 max with the same clamp set up and I have to say I don't care for the clamps at all. They don't always hold the logs very well and they seem very cumbersome to move around with larger logs on the mill.
Having had a portable mill, rigidity is the most important thing. Your mill can sag if you dont have it securely leveled underneath the base. This type of base is not that rigid. It is similar to what I had. It can bend and then you have a permanent problem. Better mills have square tubing under the rails your cutter head slides on. At the time I bought my mill the heavier support was an extra $700. option. I was on a budget, but lacking that made for some extra work. I did build several buildings with my mill but found sawing was a lot of work .Especially with only one person. If U dry your lumber it needs stickering. You maybe better having someone saw your lumber.I think big logs put too much strain on cheap mills. They cant take the weight,
Virginia Stanley did
Thank you for sharing, and making it known, just your opinion. Very good information about this as a whole. Thank you again, from North Carolina.
I absolutely agree on your comment s.
You were able to work with your dad, so well done.
i have a chainsaw mill. Let me tell you, that is back breaking work!! you are always bent over running the chainsaw. It is hot and dirt and exhaust seems to be always in your face. If you try to get logs up to a nice height you need big muscles or equipment of some sort. But as you mentioned, you can't get much more portable then that. I have a video up of me using mine.
I am hoping for a bandsaw mill eventually.
Great video!!
Thanks Adam! I was hoping someone with a chainsaw mill would weigh-in on the conversation. I'm just sorry that it's such a hard piece of equipment to use. Anyway, I appreciate you sharing with us.
it isn't hard, just tough work. But like you said, if you need to fly or boat in lumber, this is a great tool. Many many cabins, house, cottage, etc have been built with this tool. For me, it is very rewarding.
Adam Craig Outdoors Take the rakers all the way off your saw chain when milling. You don't need to push nearly as much without them. I did it and it seems to work good. You can also put a winch on the mill to help with pushing. That's what I do.
I have big muscles..
e POPE e GENE tics lol
for a new operator that was well done if you want a cheap bead for your mill cut it if you weld it will not coast you much for the metal then you just center the mill when you travel i had a little back hoe and full hydrolic ban mill a small sev s ten 4x4 work on my own think it coast me two days a month for payments for it all most of my helpers i paid 20 buck an hour ones they got it in hand most of them became millers and were off loved it
I work at a place called bohlke veneer, I get to see quite a few different species of veneer like walnut, white oak, red oak, maple, cherry, and a few others, and they cut some of the best logs of any specie you can think of, before I got this job i never gave a crap about trees and what expensive wood looks like, I am now fascinated with wood, I'd like to eventually buy a saw mill and try making a little extra money cutting and selling slabs
Going to check out Woodland right now. Thanks for the older video, might be what I'm looking for. Cheers and Peace Out
Fast forward to April 2021 and we all realize that a portable sawmill is liken to a money-printing machine. Last I checked a 2x4x8 was selling for $8.50 CAD
Buddy is eating his words now. “Cant make money selling 2x4’s” lol could get rich now selling them
Just got to know people to sell to. You can't have a great product, but no personal skills and you're shit out of luck.
@The Outsider Idea- make a log rack with to hooks at each end and then set it at the bottom. Make a bracket on the opposite side of mill to attach a winch to hook to the rack and pull the logs up. Once the log is cut you can move the rack back down and load with another log
Very helpful..i was/am considering getting one or building one for a business. I can build one of these for 350 to 500 bucks--doesnt evem look that far off the commercial models either and i can build for larger diameters very easily at the same time exvept auto feed hydraulic loaders turners dogs ect cost a bit more and would take longer to build. Im trying to find a way to make furniture grade plys but that looking near impossible witjout HUGE equip investments..too bad..im a furniture and custom cabinet builder and milling my own exotics is very much in my planning.
Your vodeo helped confirm many things in my mind though so thank you.
3 years later, wood has went up by a lot.
The lap siding attachment is pretty handy now at $56/sheet of osb
4 years later, wood has went up even more
Sawmill would probably pay for itself cutting the first twenty logs!
Sawmills are useless without tractor, and tractors costs a lot.....
@@ivanmarmeladof3813 millions of board feet of lumber were cut year after year in the 1800s by horse drawn log skidding and steam powered sawmills. And giant redwoods the size of an Amtrak train!
I also have one and I share ur problem with the level but I put a concrete pad under it and now it is perfectly level and works great
Always a pleasure to watch your videos man. You do good work.
I'm looking at getting both. Chainsaw mill for stuff I have to walk to, bandsaw mill for what I can drive to.
My great grandfather had a full sized sawmill at a location only accessible by rowboat. But he built it from scratch himself from small parts. The old truck engine was the biggest component. But when you build something in place it never moves again. As far as I know the sawmill is still there, although nobody has maintained it and it would need rebuilding to come back into service. So, if you want a sawmill in a remote location, it only needs to move into place once, and you can build one from scratch instead of having large parts delivered, you could still consider a circular saw or band saw mill.
And now in 2021 woodland mills offers trailers.
That's nice . It would always come in handy . THANKS
Great video dude. I like watching your channel. I have a small off grid cabin. I bought a pre made storage shed and mounted it on an old trailer frame. I've bought several old travel trailers in rough shape. Stripped it down to the frame. Mounted some propane tanks and large water tank to move to my site. Works great. Find an old travel trailer. At least 30 feet. Strip it down and mount your saw on it. They have tandem 3500 lbs Axles. Or more. U can pull it with your tractor anywhere. Just an idea.
Great video. On levelling up and-or trailer beds. Anything long and narrow doesn't necessarily have good/high torsional stiffness, so still requires levelling - it just might have fewer feet, because it is stiffer over significant chunks of its length. Concrete pads has to be best way for non trailer beds.
Depends what you want it for. If you have a plot of land with a lot of standing timber, you intend to build a house and have enough timber to do it, you can save a bunch. Log cabins are a waste of a lot of wood. The only reason they were popular in the colonial period is that settlers were clearing farm land and had a whole lot of logs. And there weren't any commercial mills nearby to break up the lumber. Solid wood has a low R rating compared to even air in a stud wall. And you can make a log go a lot farther as sawn lumber than a log. That said, unless you intend to make a living cutting lumber, it is unlikely you will find a lot of profit in owning a mill. I'd look into leasing a mill for a year or so to cut up your timber, or buy a really good quality mill you can resell when you are done with it.
Good video and review. Am I the only one who noticed the ground area around the mill? Looks like it would be slick when wet, it's not flat and very cluttered.Still thumbs up on this video.
Another great video. I'm really enjoying your build series. I'm really looking forward to more cabin updates.
Thanks!
If you have woodlands and work with lumber on a regular basis a sawmill will pay for itself in a very short amount of time. However to drag logs to the mill you need a tractor of some sort. Just in building my bridge and all of my bee hives my mill has more than paid for itself. No way a chainsaw mill can be compared to band mill, I could mill 3 logs before a chainsaw mill could do 3 boards.
Same here. Would have costed me $35,000 or more, to have my woodwork completed by a contractor, in my living quarters!
I'm for the portable sawmill.
Southeastern Ohio honey bees & bbq Thank you for mentioning the most important item when figuring out whether or not to buy a bandsaw type mill vs. the Alaskan type. THE TRACTOR. Minimum $5,000 for a used decent tractor w/ forks. If you need to move the tractor off your property you will also need a trailer and probably a 1-ton truck to pull it. $$$$$. I am buying a 5-acre lot that is in a subdivision in the mtns. of N.M.that has an H.O.A. I don't think the hoa gives a hoot on whether I mill some of the Ponderosa pine on my lot for lumber to build my cabin, but they would probably have a fit if someone started dropping off logs for me to mill. They would say I am not zoned for that type of business and they would be right. The details can be downright devilish.
How much
The best way to level these things is to make a water level from a bucket and some clear plastic tubing. Hard to get more precise, even with a laser level. Or you can buy one at the big hardware. Some even beep.
with the chain saw mill , I use a 18 inch electric chainsaw . I like it because it as no fumes, it cuts very well pine & cedar
I've been tempted to go to woodland mills in port perry for a couple year, I like the idea of the dealer only being an hour and a half away from me.
If i needed 2x4s, I would just go buy them. If I had a woodlot and was building a homestead, this would be incredible.
You're right though, no one is going to get rich selling spruce lumber, unless it is beams for timberframing.
It all comes down to what log you're cutting. Cedar lumber is good and so is hardwood slabs.
Great video i am thinking of getting one of the HM126 woodland mills i think you have convinced me thanks
So does it have an adjustable saw blade support bar like Norwood?
Thanks for the review. Great information.
This a small size log, what about the big and strong log like kwila,rose wood and many other in tropical forest.Will it be fit enough?
Using a clear plastic tube mostly filled with water and a few drops of food coloring makes a very good level, of any length. I spoke to a laser level sales guy and he wasn't happy about them, said they worked as well as the lasers at a tiny fraction of the price. If you got the two ends sorted out first it might have been much easier to level the rest
If you put a T at each adjustment point you can level it entirely without moving the hose. I leveled an entire house this way.
Great job I am convinced on the bandsaw option.
In my personal opinion : The cost verses the end product really depends on how much lumber you intend use or will eventually saw before the saw is of no further need. If a sawmill will be used after the original project has been completed, then, the cost will be less, depending on the amount of use occurs.
In using the sawmill to just build a home, cabin, utility shed or barn etc, and nothing further, then I would consider a sawmill that cost $10,000.00 to be a good buy, if your project would require $30,000.00 or more to purchase material from a DIY store. Why did I use a 3 to 1 ratio ........ because the following greatly increases the final cost of producing your own lumber.
1) time required to fell the trees, transport the cut logs to the sawmill and then processing of the logs into usable lumber
2) the cost of gas, oil, blades for the sawmill
3) the cost of a crosscut tree saw, a limbing chainsaw and a felling chainsaw, plus chain blades, gas and oil
4) the cost of transporting felled tree logs to the sawmill site (i.e.) truck, tractor, 4 wheeler etc. plus gas, oil, diesel etc.
5) the cost of miscellaneous items, log tow chains, axes, hatchets, files, tarps, ropes, pull blocks, cant hooks and pry bars
6) the cost of material needed to set up the sawmill, concrete platform, concrete blocks, equipment levels etc.
7) there will be other hidden cost and annual cost that will occur while processing lumber with a sawmill which must also be expected, such as equipment and sawmill repairs, scheduled maintenance etc.
Hope this helps readers to decide whether or not, buying a sawmill would be to their advantage.
With the current popularity of live edge and river epoxy tables I imagine you could make agoid amount of money if you have a supply of desirable wood. Like walnut, maple, cedar, ash etc. I've bought a few slabs from a guy locally that has a small mill. He started off working with a guy that removes dead or fallen trees from people's property. He started off cutting the woodfor firewood and then progressed into cutting lumber with the better wood.
Great video, well made. I wish more UA-cam channels would be this professional.
That answered all my questions, thanks.
I used to be a welder for Timberking and I thought they were tough as nails! I wish I could have afforded one.
At least Timberking is made is the USA. Woodland Mills is Chinese.
I owe the same sawmill and love every thing about it