This is What Owning a Sawmill is Like
Vložit
- čas přidán 24. 08. 2023
- When I bought my Woodland Mills sawmill I had no idea what I was getting into. After a year and a half of operating my own mill, and 6 months working for another sawmill, I have a much better understanding of what it takes. I want to share my experience with you if you are thinking about buying a portable sawmill.
Wonderful video, thank you. I got a woodland mills HM126 in January 2022 and love it. I mostly cut wood for home projects but have also taken up cutting for others. I usually just take some of the wood I cut as payment. Since getting the mill I have built a shed that covers the mill power head, a solar kiln for drying my wood and a garden shed with wood I have cut with it. All my neighbors know I am always looking for wood so anytime they are bringing a tree down, they let me know. It is beautiful life for this Pacific Northwest retiree.
That's awesome! I have plans to build a shed for the sawmill and a solar kiln this winter. Sound like you are doing it right! Thanks for checking out the video.
Great content, Dan! Anyone who's considering buying a sawmill should definitely watch this first!
Thanks Johnny!
Just found your channel today and loving your stuff, very nicely done!
I'm also in the midwest and am seeing a ton of ash trees dying and getting taken down due to EAB. Could you show us milling an ash tree and how much usable wood can come out of it? If my understanding is correct the borer goes about 1-2" deep under the bark to pupate? Seems like on a tree that's 12"+ in diameter there would still be some really nice lumber to be had!
Thank you Andrew! I am planning on milling up a bunch of ash very soon to make some floor joists, so i'll make sure and shoot a video of it. I've been stock piling the dead ash logs for awhile and I've actually already cut about 400 board foot to make hardwood floors in our cabin. You are right, once you get into the wood a little bit it's really nice stuff. The only thing to be careful with dead standing ash trees are that they can be brittle and often like to break way up the trunk. If you are sawing and a branch falls from up high, or the entire tree decides to collapse above you, it can be very dangerous. I am very selective with which trees I fall. It's also the reason that I run out into the timber like a kid in a candy store after every storm to see if any of the dangerous ones decided to come down by themselves. Thanks for watching!
@@MacJackal that's great info, thanks for the reply! Really looking forward to that video!
That settles it! I'm buying a sawmill!
Haha, I'll help you put it in your backyard!
Good to see Mickey Mouse turned up at the end :) Hope you got everything you wanted to get done before it got too hot. That was a rough day after 10
Haha, yeah that voice crack threw me off a bit! It was way too hot yesterday even by noon. I looked at my phone at one point and it said "feels like 115"!!!! My productivity dropped significantly as I turned into a puddle of sweat.
Thanks for the video - awesome perspective! I'd really only considered the saw-action before, so it's cool to see more of what happens before and after that.
Would love to hear where do you think you lose the most time, and what are some difficult decisions to make throughout the process.
Thanks! Right now I lose time stacking the wood because I don't have a nice designated space to put the wood. Also when I issues with my equipment, that kills production time. I also cut a lot of irregularly shaped logs, which isn't the most efficient. On top of that my mill is a manual mill, so it takes me time to turn and adjust the logs by hand. A mill with hydraulics is much faster as you can use the controls and quickly manipulate the position of the log and keep cutting.
As for decisions, deciding what length and how I want to cut each log can sometimes be a challenge if I don't have an end goal for the wood being cut. Because I like to cut up whatever I can, I often run into logs with a bit of rot in them that I have to cut around. But for me that's the creative fun as well.
Thanks for the questions and for checking out the video!
a used heated shipping container works good to dry wood
That's a good idea. I would love to make a solar kiln at some point.
You seem to appreciate the wildlife around you, so do you have a way of logging while not destroying their habitat? Do you just log at sustainable levels?
Yeah I mostly just drop trees that are dying or cut up trees that are on the ground. I rarely drop healthy trees unless someone wants them removed for whatever reason. It makes me sad seeing so much land cleared to make way for more developments around here. I grew up in the timber surrounded by trees and that's what I want to see more of. Thanks for watching!
Procrastinating re-beading the tractor tire by making a video? Nice. 😂
You know my tricks! Haha.