Got a lot of pine needs thinned on our 240. Instead of selling at pulp prices I’ve been pondering a portable bandsaw mill to utilize the wood for projects, sell it, while also achieving forest management goals.

Looking for insight and recommendations on a good “starter” mill (or best bang for your buck) if there’s anybody with the knowledge.

My friend James has a Woodmizer portable sawmill that works really well. You can move it with a truck or tractor. It will lift and turn the logs for you. The operator has a seat with controls. I think it cost in the low $20,000.00 range.

Before this machine we used a fixed bandsaw. There was a lot more hands on work with it.

Keith

I have this one.



I have a dozen blades on hand. I run it myself and I can tell you turning a 20” log with a cant hook is about all you’ll want. Pretty easy to set up. Comes with a detailed manual and the tech support on the phone is top shelf. I’ll try to answer anymore specifics if you can think of something.

How hard is that to push Hobbie?

If I just lean on it I would eventually fall over. The key is keeping a sharp blade on it.

How long a log can you cut?

Idea is that I want to saw up enough wood for a small cabin, sheds, etc.

Do you have a link to fixed bandsaw? $20K is too rich for my blood

It was ancient. He sold it for $3500.00 around 5 years ago.

Keith

You can add rails to cut as long as you want. My rig will cut just over 16’ in length.

I have a Timberking 1220 its there smallest mill . I bought it in 2010 paid about 8 grand back then . it is a very stout mill with a 4 post head. Built to last . even though its Timberkings smallest mill it will still take a 28 inch log . as far as length is concerned you can bolt on as much track as you need . Mine has the 25 hp Kohler engine and auto clutch which was an upgrade when I bought it .Check it out you mite like it .

The EZ Boardwalk Jr is pretty well thought of for an affordable sawmill. I believe Mennonite built !

https://ezboardwalk.com/product/model-jr/

I have this one:

https://ezboardwalk.com/product/model-jr/

I got mine about 12 years ago and am still happy with it. It was cheaper then too. The only downside is that it’s all manual, so you’ve got to use your own power to load and turn logs. That is, unless you have a tractor or skid steer to help you along.

I build mine. Its hard work. U will need a way to haul logs around and something to put them on the sawmill. I built a log hauler for behind my utv. It picks up the log so it doesn't get drug through the dirt. Blades don't seem to last long so I'm not gonna cut dirt. So buy some extra and find a place that sharpens them. If u r planning on selling just remember there may be bugs in the lumber. Customer won't be happy if powder post beetles hatch out in a house or garage. You can heat treat lumber to kill the bugs. But then u need to build something to do that in and a way to keep temp at 130 degrees.

If you start at the thinning end of things and thin the whole place as needed I suspect you'll have wood rotting before you can saw it.
Or you could cut the trees as you have time to saw them in which case I doubt you'll ever get the whole 240 thinned.

Of course this depends upon on how much thinning you need to do.

Are you going to take the poor quality stuff to leave the better stuff to grow to larger size and more value. If so thats usually alot of thinning.

Some of you guys that have bandsaws chime in on how many cords of wood you saw in a year and at what point does it become a job for one person.

I suspect that selling the excess will be a loosing proposition. Hard to for a one man out fit to compete with large outfits. Especially selling Pine in The Great Lake States.

Remember, 1 cord of logs equals approx 1500 board feet of lumber.

Give some thought on how your going to dry the lumber and where your going to store all these thousands of board feet your going to end up with.

Just throwing somethings out there for OP to consider before he pulls the trigger, can't hurt giving things a good look before leaping.

Ide buy a used Woodmizer if I had to do it again. I've had a couple different mills but never a woodmizer, I always regretted not buying one.

A manual mill is a lot of wood and a hydraulic mill will be $10,000+. I personally don't like sawing and the numbers suck, you'd have to value add to to the lumber, like sell wood siding or something because selling boards likely ain't gonna make sense

I currently have two sawmills. Started out with a timberking 1220 and never realized how busy I would be with people wanting stuff cut for them! That little sawmill payed itself off the first summer. I ended up running across an old fella selling a fully hydraulic timberking 2200 so I bought that from him. I really like the hydraulics after running a manual mill for a year. Really it depends on what your goals are and how many logs you will be milling each day and what size they are. It gets old rolling big logs by hand on the manual mills. I’m selling my smaller mill and just keeping the bigger one. If you can find a decent used timberking or wood mizer I believe you will be happy with it! A sawmill is a can of worms because it makes so many things possible for you that you take on projects you would have never dreamed of doing in the past! I will always have a mill at my house!

Dirty and Donner,

I see your points about quantity and value of GL pine thinnings. We have about 30 acres of pine that needs thinned (first thinning, at that) but there is also hardwood. My thought was hardwood slabs could be sold for furniture pieces. I have a tractor and could get after some of the pine thinning, but inevitably a logger will need to treat a majority. Good points made either way, thank you for the input.

Tyler,

I pondered the idea of using a mobile mill to saw up others’ logs on their own property. Don’t love the idea of having to travel with the mill, but if people are willing to pay then it could be worth it. Did you have a larger demand for sawing hard or softwoods? And do you use different blades for each respective category?

Purchased a used woodmizer 5 years ago. Don't use it very often but it has been an excellent mill for me. Sawed about 2500 ft of 2x6 and 2x4 on the weekend. All large white spruce. Got 18 16ft 2x6 from the largest one. Hydraulic is a must for bigger wood and makes it easier for a one person operating it. I prefer 2 helping if I am doing custom cutting.

There are a few good used woodmizer mills for sale on the internet look on lumberman. Com or kajiji. Woodmizer has a few but they are around 20 grand.