2LaneCruzer
Super Star Member
It'll keep you busy the rest of your life, if you enjoy it.I have a couple of big projects coming up, 2 shed builds and a sizable addition on our house plus a few other projects I would like to do down the line. My wife wants a lot of wood accent in our house addition and I want to add a "timber frame" covered deck off the back once we are done with the addition. I am VERY tempted to pull the trigger on a sawmill to mill a lot of this lumber myself. I am leaning towards a Woodland Mill HM126 at about $4200 shipped with a bed extension. Seems like it could pay for itself in short order.
Yes I understand a manual mill is not fast and it is LOTS of work. But I have the space, I have the trees, I have a tractor, I have the money, I am only 49 and in good shape. Honestly, the only thing I DON'T have is tons of free time. But the way I look at it is if I set this mill up well I can go over there and saw a log or 3 per week, blow off some steam and have some nice lumber for my projects.
I have wanted a mill for a long time. I have a friend with a nice Woodmizer hydraulic mill about a mile down the road from me but we can never seem to make time to mill my wood, so I have pretty much given up on that. Which is why I want my own mill so I can just do it for myself.
The way I look at it is if I do not use it enough or I run out of projects to use it on I sell it for a small loss, but still come out ahead in the long run. This is something I have always wanted to try seems like now might be the time.
There is a sawmill in Guthrie, that was owned by an older gentleman (now owned by his grandson), where I have bought a lot of wood. He was retired, but really enjoyed the sawmill. He said it cost him a new Lincoln...to appease his wife...but it was worth it.
He got a lot of his wood by going halves with customers who had the trees.