Think I’m going to get a sawmill.

   / Think I’m going to get a sawmill. #1  

Hersheyfarm

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NE ky
I like the woodmisers, LT15 is what I’m leaning to but really want to stay around $7k tho. There are other brands that are cheaper. As far as use it will mainly be just for me but I’m sure neighbors will want some stuff. Wood…oaks, hickory, maple, poplar, walnut, cherry, locust, and a lot of cedar. alot.

So 26”ish logs, 16’ bed, manual push is fine.

what brands do some of you have and your experience?
 
   / Think I’m going to get a sawmill. #2  
Sawmills look interesting to run. Wish I had time to give them a try.

Youtube has endless hours of reviews. Mike with Outdoors with the Morgans is a good start.

Mike owns and rates the LT15 pretty high. I would trust his judgement from watching his videos.
 
   / Think I’m going to get a sawmill. #3  
I have a Timberking, the remains of the old Belsaw circle mills.
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I've wanted a mill for better than half of my life, the manual band mills was what I wanted to spend. After much thinking it over for a long time during my search, I figured that they were far too much work to be much fun and after the "shine" wore off and I'd go back to buying rough sawn lumber for next to nothing (.50c bd/ft) with his logs!
Then my mill showed up on c/l, fully hydraulic, blade sharpener with a tooth setter and a lap siding jig plus 50 some blades half of which are new! I hurried right over and handed him his asking price of $15k!
I read of a lot of guys with a woodland mills manual mill that are satisfied but during the past 2 years they seemed to be the only ones to give a delivery date that wasn't 12+ months out if you got any dates at all.
I don't think that you can go wrong with a woodmizer and your return if you wanted to sell or upgrade would be commensurate with the purchase price.
I've got every way imaginable to move logs (tractor, skid steer, excavator) but I'm sooo glad that I waited for a mill with hydraulic log handling.
Call WM for a list of their sawyers near you and see if you can watch him/her saw.
This might key you in to the work involved just leveling and turning the log on the mill, the cranking for raising and lowering the saw head and pushing it through the cut is not the hard work that I mentioned above. 👍
My mill in the building that I'm building for it.
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   / Think I’m going to get a sawmill.
  • Thread Starter
#4  
What model is that?
 
   / Think I’m going to get a sawmill.
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Sawmills look interesting to run. Wish I had time to give them a try.

Youtube has endless hours of reviews. Mike with Outdoors with the Morgans is a good start.

Mike owns and rates the LT15 pretty high. I would trust his judgement from watching his videos.
I do watch them sometimes but haven’t seen his sawmill videos. Will look them up. But, a channel i have been watching is lumber capitol log yard. Its ran by some young sisters….but they really do show and explain about the sawmills they run. They have a lt15 and a lt40. Never thought I’d watch teenage girls for info.
 
   / Think I’m going to get a sawmill. #6  
What model is that?
It's a B 20, delivered to the original owner early 2000. It was a "hobby" thing as it is for me. With the insane wood prices and building a home for it, it's not hard to argue that it's completely paid for it self and could be sold for $5k above my purchase price.
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   / Think I’m going to get a sawmill. #7  
With the insane wood prices and building a home for it,
A home for the mill. At first, my hasty read made me think you used the lumber to build a home for yourself.
I've read that using DIY milled lumber is darn near impossible because the code enforcement people won't approve uncertified lumber and getting the license to do certification is rather expensive.
 
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   / Think I’m going to get a sawmill. #8  
I like the woodmisers, LT15 is what I’m leaning to but really want to stay around $7k tho. There are other brands that are cheaper. As far as use it will mainly be just for me but I’m sure neighbors will want some stuff. Wood…oaks, hickory, maple, poplar, walnut, cherry, locust, and a lot of cedar. alot.

So 26”ish logs, 16’ bed, manual push is fine.

what brands do some of you have and your experience?
I purchased a Woodland Mills HM 126 with the larger engine earlier this year and she will do 26" and just over 16' with one optional trac extension. They are one of the few actually delivering these days and the experience was all very positive performing well out of the box. They have a larger unit on wheels that would be around your budget.




Been building my setup over the last few months.
sm5.jpg
 
   / Think I’m going to get a sawmill. #9  
EZ Boardwalk
 
   / Think I’m going to get a sawmill. #10  
I was going to buy an EZ Boardwalk until I came across a good deal on a Baker HD18. Problem is they are way labor inesive dealing with the lumber and the logs. Then that beautiful lumber you cut warps/splits a couple months after you cut it. The cutting is the easy part.
 
 
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