Portable Saw Milling

[MarkV]

Need some advice about having a portable saw mill come and mill some pine trees for me. I have about 25-30 lumber grade pines that have to go for a new barn site. In this area that isn’t enough trees for a logger to bother with and I hate to just cut and burn good trees. I do think I can find what is called here a “short hauler” to cut and remove the trees at no cost or profit to me. Or, I have a portable saw mill operator who will come and saw lumber with me providing the labor to load the mill and stack the lumber.

Was wondering if anyone here does their own milling or has had milling done that could share their experiences. I’m at a loss as to the going price per board foot for milling and don’t know if the .40 cents per foot quoted is high or low. Also can’t really get a handle on how much lumber I am looking at. It sounds like a labor intensive project and I can’t decide if the economics, lumber quality and drying time will make it worth while.

Thanks in advance for any info you can share.

MarkV

 

[Bob_Skurka]

The current issue of HOBBY FARM magazine has a nice article about portable saw mills. I was just reading it last night. It gives manufacturers contact information, plus is also talks briefly about several different brands and models. It goes into the basic differences between manual, semi-hydraulic and fully hydraulic assisted machines.

It might be worth the effort for you to find a copy of the magazine.

 

[AlanB]

I have never understood how they price that by Board foot not by cut, feet of cut or whatever.

Me being the person that I am would have to look at the guy after he is all set up and say, yep, I would like it all cut into veneer please

Of course I think I would run afterwards!

 

[jeffghs]

Down in my area here, Hurricane Katrina caused a lot of would be wasted pines and lumber, so many people invested in portable mills to deal with it. We just recently had about 3000 board feet milled at a cost of $220/1000bf. This was done at his site. We loaded on a flatbed gooseneck trailer and carried to him, hence the lower price. A week after we dropped off, all was ready for pick-up. My neighbor did the same for his 30x60 pole building and lumber cost for it was right around $700.

 

[dubba]

Back in 2000 I had 6500 ft of pine sawn for .18/foot. Purely a stand & watch operation. 2 guys, one mill & a lot of attitude. One thing for sure- if you are gonna be the "log & lumber boy" you will work your butt off.

As a side note, what does lumber cost in your area? We are at about .50/foot for rough green lumber. I think unless you have a lot of time on your hands, you might give the trees away vs your labor to saw them for .10/foot. It took the guys that I had 4 days to do 6500 ft. (middle of winter, cold & snowing). that's only ~$160/day for some real back breaking work.

 

[meledward23]

I had around 12,000 board feet done for me about two years ago. Oak, Sweetgum, Poplar and Sycamore. I paid an hourly rate, as someone previous mentioned have lumber cut to 3/4 that only 6" wide is yeilding a low board foot count compared to the 8/4 14" wide slabs that were cut. I beleive I paid somewhere around $100.00 per hour for two men (both =100, not each). Any way in the end I came out around .32-.34 cents a board foot.

It makes a mess. lots of scrap wood, lots of shavings/dust. A lot of wood to stack and dry. I am not sure I would go through this for Pine, unless I was getting big slab cuts, or beams. For the varied woods that I had done it was great. Of course then I have to work it all. I am remodeling the interior of my house with it. I was building a new house and having a carpenter build me and arts and crafts style home, but then I sold that land and jsut bought this cheap house. I have plenty of wood for future projects.

 

[guyrj33]

I had about 500 bft of oak and maple milled on site. The man running the mill charged me something in the neighborhood of $250 for a 9 hour day. I paid him a bit more. He really worked hard for his money.
Look for someone who has a fully automated machine; I think that's the only reasonable way to do this sort of cutting.

 

[1bush2hog]

Mark -

You may want to try to find a horse logger - they are usually smaller scale operators. A friend of mine in WNC used a combination of horse logger, and on site mill operator when he was clearing land for his barn. He did some select cutting as well.

The horse logger would bring the logs out of the woods and they would either go to the mill and be sold to the mill or cut on site and used on site.

I am contemplating the same situation as you, except I have yellow poplar instead of pines that I want to clear to make room for a shed and cabin.

You can also find experts who will help you over at the Forestry Forum - www.forestryforum.com/

 

[randy41]

when i built my house in the late 90's i had some pines milled into siding and various other lumber. I cut down the trees and hauled them out and had them laying out in a field but used some other lumber to keep them off the ground. A guy came with a bandsaw mill and did a good job of turning my trees into lumber. i dont remember what i paid but it was almost 10 years ago so it is not really relivant. there were many unusable slabs which i burned in the woodstove. he milled the logs out of sight of my house.
if you are paying by the board foot then the guy doing the milling makes out better milling large lumber rather than 1 bys.
you need to compare the cost of buying green rough cut lumber to the cost of having it custom milled.
if you know the local forestry guy he can tell you of someone who can estimate the usable board feet of lumber before you start.
how old are the pines and what is their girth?

 

[escavader]

MARK V,HERES SOME ADVICE FROM A MILL RAT,
Try to find out before you hire a porta mill,if the person is worth beans as a sawyer.Although rough lumber isnt perfectly sized,its a pain in the butt to use ,if the sizing is way off.Be sure you have some idea what you want them to get out of your logs mostly boards,some beams,two bys ?You can pretty much tell from the size of your trees ,what you can square down to.Depending on the quality of the logs,you might get some pine timbers out of them for your barn,although not always the strongest species to use.Some companys use pine rafters in their log homes,ours uses eastern hemlock which is typically stronger.Before any one cuts the trees,they need to know how long to buck the logs too.so you got some decisions to make before hand.Do you have any blueprints or drawings to see what you need?
If you are to consider having any custom planing done,a good quality sawyer up front is important.AS a professional planer operator,i can tell you quality starts with the sawyer.Having all the lumber close to the right rough size is important,as well as minimal bandsaw wave.Once again if this is a plan,specify what you want ship lapped,v matched or square edged .The going rate is between 60 and 100 dollars per thousand bf on this right now. Probably with a barn youll go rough sawn though,just thought id mention this though.
During the drying process some good dry stickers are important to prevent staining ,or sticker stain.Dont cover with plastic,it keeps moisture in and makes blue stain,or coffee stain.Use some old metal roofing etc.Try to pile it as high off the ground as you can with all the sticks lined up,for minimal warpage.
alan