# Sawmill: Cutting your own lumber



## th_Wolverine (Apr 15, 2013)

So I have been scouring the interwebs of yourtube and beyond to learn all that I can about homesteading while I have the luxury of being in school with lots of spare time on my hands. 
One thing I keep coming across is portable sawmills and the supposed savings you can make in home construction if you mill your own lumber. 
The first house I plan on building once I get my land squared away is a simple colonial style. And I dont mean colonial as in a modern colonial, I mean I was planning on building it pretty much exactly like they did in the colonial era, using wood floors and wood siding and paneled interior etc. 
Small house, 18x24 thereabouts, two stories no attic or basement. Basically a simple single man (or a young couple if I get lucky) house to live in till I can save enough to build a bigger strawbale 10 years or so down the line. 

So would shelling out the $5000+ for a small portable sawmill save me some money in the long run by milling my own logs and/or buying logs locally and running it myself? Does anyone have any experience building with your own sawn lumber? I know it would be a lot of work in the end but I'd rather work and save some money and gain a little muscle than shell out more money to have it done for me.


----------



## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

IF you don't have to have graded and stamped lumber and you have a source for cheap trees, yes you can save money. I don't know exactly how you will build your colonial but houses built then had wide boards and big beams. Is that what you want, wide board floors and full width board panels? You would need a source for the big logs. Modern building methods use a lot less lumber so the benefits are less, having a sawmill, these days but if your property has trees, making lumber is pretty cheap....James


----------



## th_Wolverine (Apr 15, 2013)

James, I was planning on basically building a timber frame style house with wood lap siding but use the more modern stud wall concepts and save on lumber there as well.


----------



## Sawmill Jim (Dec 5, 2008)

That $5,000 would go a long way building that size house .Also some those smaller mills won't except a large log plus you need lots of spare bands for it . You also have a learning curve with it . Then you either learn to sharpen your own bands or send them off . 

I just put a circle mill I was running in the scrap . Next those studs need to be all one size too . I always sold my lumber from my mill and bought standard building materials .Fellow not far from you might be ready to sell his band mill I haven't seen him in a while . Now if you got muscle to spare you might be able to trade some that hard work for your wood . I know a guy near Hollowrock with a small circle mill too. :runforhills:


----------



## lurnin2farm (Jun 10, 2012)

If you have other mills around you you might want to look into what it would cost to hire one of them to do your cutting. You will of course need a materials list for what you want done but they can then give you an estimate. 
If your going to start a business cutting wood then that might be a good reason to own a mill, otherwise you may find its cheaper just to hire someone in the long run.


----------



## RazrRebel (Apr 16, 2013)

I'm also looking at a bandsaw mill. I think one of the determining factors is if you have the lumber on your land, also how to move the logs. Cutting hardwood logs only 8' long is a lot of weight to haul. Just dragging a 8' log hickory or oak is a bear for most atv's. My Polaris Ranger is a 900 and pulling firewood logs up over the hill is all winch work. If your a DIY'er you could build one. I built a log splitter last year for about 250. If you take your time gathering materials you could build one way cheaper. I know I've almost got enough money saved up to buy a welder. Once bought I'm going to start gathering up material to build one. Youtube is full of homemade bandsaw mills. Moving the logs will probably be the hardest thing to do.


----------



## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

th_Wolverine said:


> So would shelling out the $5000+ for a small portable sawmill save me some money in the long run by milling my own logs and/or buying logs locally and running it myself? Does anyone have any experience building with your own sawn lumber? I know it would be a lot of work in the end but I'd rather work and save some money and gain a little muscle than shell out more money to have it done for me.



Yes, I have a LOT of experience with a small mill. 

I've owned a Woodmizer LT40 since 1991. I HIGHLY recommend buying a Woodmizer over any other brand of mill (and I've looked at a lot of them....don't even consider a circle mill, for example). A brand new LT40 is going to run in the 15k range, depending on the options, but you can often find good used ones in the 7-8k range. A 'standard' manual mill without hydraulics is the way to go for most people, IMHO. 

The perfect size log is something in the 12-16' range, and not over 18" in diameter. Yes, mine will saw 20' and 36" in diameter, but I rarely run into anything that size, and it takes help to turn and handle such a log. I usually won't fool with them unless it is going to turn out some high quality hardwood.

Also, a small bandmill will make a lot of use out of small logs most sawmills simply won't fool with....8-9" diameter stuff, for example. Most commercial mills don't want to take anything under 10-12" because they don't get enough return (board feet) on their time to make it worthwhile.

I've built my own home (including cabinets, doors, trim) using timber off my place, all my sheds/barns/shop/etc, 3 rental houses, several post frame buildings for other folks, and more projects using small amounts of wood than I can shake a stick at. IF you have timber ( my place was 75ac of nothing BUT timber when I bought it ), a small mill is one of the most valuable tools you can own. I can guarantee you mine has paid for itself 20 times over.

Some things I'll point out:

1. Owning a mill is THE way to go *IF you have a lot of timber OF YOUR OWN. * You just about can't buy logs, especially from a professional logger, I've found. They don't want to fool with you, even if you'll pay more and cash. They are like trained mules....they take their logs to the same place every time. Plus, you won't have a way to unload a BIG tall log truck unless you plan to buy a knuckleboom loader as well.
I occasionally am able to pick up some logs other places. I keep an eye out. For example, passed by the yard in town where some tree trimmers had cut down a big, NICE ash log. Been sitting there for a month, so I stopped to inquire. "Yes, they were supposed to saw it all up and take it off, but haven't come back".....so I took my tractor on my lowboy trailer and got a NICE ash log (actually two by the time I cut it in half) for the cost of me going after it. It will saw out more than enough lumber to build a couple of these.....a thousand buck dining room table with side benches when I have nothing to do one winter. (see below for my tirade on adding value to your lumber)(Go real nice in that colonial style home  )






















2. As Jwal10 said, most places in Tennessee have adopted building codes, and they require stamped, graded lumber for residential building....while you can use rough lumber for any type of barn or ag building, you're kinda out on housing. Check with whoever your local code bunch is BEFORE you get too far down this road. If you go log home, or timber frame, you might be able to get around that. Putting the first floor on concrete slab would also help, since you don't want a basement.

3. Buying the mill is only a part of the equipment list. At a minimum, you'll need a tractor (preferably with a front loader) or some other type of machine simply to handle logs, and the scrap that comes off the mill (slabs, sawdust). I started with a 22hp and no loader. Used a set of hay forks on the back for 7 years. Graduated for 12 years to a 33hp with a front loader (thought I'd died and gone to heaven !). Upped that to a 41hp with BIGGER front loader, and now think I'm about the right place.

You'll also want to buy other woodworking equipment, which of course, requires housing. Table saw, planer, jointer, molding machine, dry kiln if you want to make cabinets/trim, and so on. You don't have to run out and buy it immediately, of course ( other than the tractor ), I accumulated mine over the course of many years....but to get the most value out of your lumber, you need to turn it into a PRODUCT, not simply sell the lumber.

Example: Take a nice red oak tree. You can sell it on the stump to a logger for maybe 25 cents/bdft. You can saw it yourself, and get 50-60 cents/bdft for green lumber (some of it will bring a dollar, some of it 25 cents.....just like a cow, not all the log is T-bone steak)....you doubled the value. Kiln dry it to 6-8%, (which costs about 5 cents/bdft), and you'll average over a dollar/bdft......you doubled the value again.

Turn it into a PRODUCT, like a cabinet, or flooring, or molding, or a whole rental house, and you'll get 2-3 bucks/bdft. Again, you doubled your return....and it was the same log you COULD HAVE SOLD for 25cents/ft on the stump. It takes 80 years to grow that red oak. You're only going to see it ONCE in your lifetime. So do you want to get 25 cents or 10 times that for the same log ? YES, it IS more work along the way to get that higher figure, but more of it stays at home too. 

It's HOW you build wealth, by not giving away your resources.

SO, if you ask me, I'm all for owning a small mill....if you don't mind a little work. 

LONG beam sawing. Mill specs say 20' limit, but you can 'sneak' up on 25-30' if you learn how....ahahahaaa...


----------



## th_Wolverine (Apr 15, 2013)

Wow Andy, such a wealth of information! That is a beautiful table!!!!!! 
I am still looking for a good spot of land and lucky for me, most the land in the surrounding three counties is nothing BUT timber. And since I need to clear some of that timber to plant my dream (a you-pick orchard) seemed like a prudent idea to look into using the lumber for building and the non-building worthy stuff for firewood. I think its dumb to have to use stamped lumber but I'l have to look into that!


----------



## kycrawler (Sep 18, 2011)

I bought a woodmizer lt28 brand new in 2010 I added power feed and a log deck package. Cost me right at 12 k built 4 barns a woodshed and countless other projects at my house in Indiana . Ran out of good timber on my farm bought 10 acres of nice virgin timber at 20k cut the timber off of it. Sold 15000 worth of walnut and white oak veneer logs to a logger and cut the rest myself I sold about 100k board ft of red oak sassafras to a cabinet shop .I sawed enoughlunmber to build a 30 x48 house in Missouri and 2 barns there .still have quite a few trees to cut and have an offer on the cleared property for as soon as I move . Your situation may vary but my mill paid for itself a long time ago and it would still bring 9k or so if I went to sell it . 

You will need a good work ethic a strong back and a decent loader to move logs to do what you want to do but it can be done


----------



## kycrawler (Sep 18, 2011)

Couple pics of what we are doing


----------



## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

th_Wolverine said:


> I think its dumb to have to use stamped lumber but I'l have to look into that!



Yes, I agree. I'm currently badgering my State rep to introduce a "Native Species" act in the TN legislature. Several States have this. 

What it would do is state the sawyer can furnish a letter with the lumber he has sawn, that says it meets #2 or better softwood lumber standards and any code official in the State must accept that in lieu of a mill grade stamp on the lumber. It would also completely exempt lumber cut off the owner's place to build structures on the owners property from any regulation.

Rather stupid to be in a State with whole forests, a thriving forest industry, and tell us we can't use it to build a home.....JUST LIKE THEY DID FOR CENTURIES before building codes came along. All it really does is force us to buy lumber from other States, and Canada, and support business there.

You can take a good, straight grained, clear yellow poplar 2x4 and beat a hunk of knotty, twisted, crappy, grade stamped, Home Depot 2x4 into splinters, and still have the poplar 2x4 when you're done ! Go look at a pile of 2x4 studs in Home Depot or Lowes. You'll see the tree center in 75% of them. They must be cutting them out of 6" saplings up in Canada/hey. Better use for them would be Christmas trees.

The ONLY thing you can say for commercial, stamped lumber is it is uniform in size. But there are ways to work around that as well.

For example, studs: I cut my framing lumber on the inch scale rather than the quarter scale (4/4, 5/4, etc). So I cut 2x4's using the inch scale, and they come out about 1 15/16" x 3 15/16" (roughly)....the other 1/16" being the kerf the band takes out. I air dry them for 6 months to a year, and they loose another 1/16 or so, ending up about 1 7/8 x 3 7/8.

Then I take them to the shop on a rainy day. I run them on the jointer on one edge to get a good straight side, then rip them on the table saw down to 3 1/2" wide. Now I have a GOOD straight 3 1/2" wide stud that matches all standard doors and windows. The "2" inch thickness, I simply leave as 'whatever'.....1 7/8", or whatever it ended up. Who cares if it's a little thicker than the 'standard' 1 1/2" commercial stud...all you lose is some insulation cavity between studs.....and being 3/8" thicker, it HAS to be stronger than a Home Depot stick. When you frame, you simply allow for that extra thickness in your marking off the wall.


----------



## th_Wolverine (Apr 15, 2013)

kycrawler said:


> I bought a woodmizer lt28 brand new in 2010 I added power feed and a log deck package. Cost me right at 12 k built 4 barns a woodshed and countless other projects at my house in Indiana . Ran out of good timber on my farm bought 10 acres of nice virgin timber at 20k cut the timber off of it. Sold 15000 worth of walnut and white oak veneer logs to a logger and cut the rest myself I sold about 100k board ft of red oak sassafras to a cabinet shop .I sawed enough lunmber to build a 30 x48 house in Missouri and 2 barns there .still have quite a few trees to cut and have an offer on the cleared property for as soon as I move . Your situation may vary but my mill paid for itself a long time ago and it would still bring 9k or so if I went to sell it .


Thats incredible! How easy was it for you to find loggers that would buy them off you and a cabinet shop to take that milled lumber off your hands? 



kycrawler said:


> You will need a good work ethic a strong back and a decent loader to move logs to do what you want to do but it can be done


No fear of work on this end! Finding a decent front end loader on the other hand.....around here they are hardly ever on the market, so most people here have to buy new and that can get expensive :/


----------



## th_Wolverine (Apr 15, 2013)

TnAndy said:


> Rather stupid to be in a State with whole forests, a thriving forest industry, and tell us we can't use it to build a home.....JUST LIKE THEY DID FOR CENTURIES before building codes came along.


Are there any loopholes around that yet? Like, how hard would it be to get your own lumber stamped or perhaps calling it a "timber frame" and using just enough Timber framing techniques would allow you to get around that?


----------



## Sawmill Jim (Dec 5, 2008)

Yep support equipment can be a bear . I had a TJ 225 Barco 160 trailer mounted and a 8000# lift and a log truck . I also had a resaw with power feed running a 20 hp 3 ph motor I agree about building things like TN Andy does to sell Also any dirt on logs will whip that band fast . Thing I liked about that circle saw was I could keep the blade in the wood and saw more before dinner than a small band saw could all day . I ran a woods crew plus the sawmill . One working a factory job and side cutting it would take a while .

I guess that is where youth has it's advantages . I cut mostly cross ties and needed production as I had more people than me too feed off that mill. I don't think Henry Co. Tn has many lumber building restrictions .If one an't careful you can wind up working for the equipment Co. or the bank making payments .


----------



## MushCreek (Jan 7, 2008)

th_Wolverine said:


> Are there any loopholes around that yet? Like, how hard would it be to get your own lumber stamped or perhaps calling it a "timber frame" and using just enough Timber framing techniques would allow you to get around that?


I was going to build timber frame, only to find out that the timbers themselves had to be graded, and the structure had to be engineered. That put the whole idea out of reach financially.


----------



## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

I knew there was a reason I liked our area of WV so much.. not much for rules, other than to let them know you built something so they can tax you on it next year.... 

I'm still kicking around, pay for a metal building and get it up fast, or pay for a mill and take a long time to get my own stick building put up... but I need a building fast.. but the mill money would go much further in the long run over the money for a metal building..


----------



## kycrawler (Sep 18, 2011)

th_Wolverine said:


> Thats incredible! How easy was it for you to find loggers that would buy them off you and a cabinet shop to take that milled lumber off your hands?
> 
> 
> No fear of work on this end! Finding a decent front end loader on the other hand.....around here they are hardly ever on the market, so most people here have to buy new and that can get expensive :/


I sold the clear nice red oak on ebay and craigslist. Cabinet shops wanted to payvery little compared to what you can get from hobby woodworkers the rest I used for sheds and built hay wagon Beds to sell . Verneer timber buyers are easy to find here. Get multiple quotes first as individual trees are often worth thousands of dollars for good verneer logs


----------



## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

Even with a portable mill, you have to move the logs. Drag a log one inch and you have dirt in the bark. Dirt in the bark and you'll spend all your time sharpening blades. 
I have found Amish run sawmills that will sell oak or pine boards for under 40 cents a board foot and you don't have to supply the logs. I wouldn't saw lumber for that price on a band mill.
When felling trees, will you know how many 1 by 8 by 14 feet your house will need and can you scale each log to insure you have enough? You will want the lumber to air dry a year or two, stickered up in a covered area. Run out during construction and your lumber won't match the lumberyard's dimensional boards. What then? Saw more and wait a year?
I love running a band mill. Have sawn many thousands of boards with one. But unless you have people willing to pay big prices for the service or you need a hobby, just buy your lumber. From a local mill if building code allows, from a lumberyard if it needs to be inspected/stamped.
Even well cut lumber will vary in size, due to drying, a lot more than "store bought". So more time and labor when building to get everything to fit.


----------



## LoonyK (Dec 12, 2009)

haypoint said:


> Even with a portable mill, you have to move the logs. Drag a log one inch and you have dirt in the bark. Dirt in the bark and you'll spend all your time sharpening blades.


How do you move them then? I can't do this:


----------



## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

Pffftt... What a wimp.. having to use a shirt to pad his shoulder... I'm disappointed in Arnold... Chuck could haul two with no shirt..


----------



## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

LoonyK said:


> How do you move them then? I can't do this:


I do my skidding in the winter, on a thick bed of packed snow. There are also a number of logging arches that elevate the log so it doesn't drag. You can also plan on using a draw shave to get any dirt encrusted bark off each log. 
Big equipment loggers depend on hydraulic arms to lift and collect logs. In olden days, logging was mostly a winter job followed by a 50 mile river soaking on the way to the mill.


----------



## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

I use a Log Wizzard on an extra chainsaw to debark really dirty logs. All you need do is run a strip down where the blade is going to go, not the whole log.


----------



## kycrawler (Sep 18, 2011)

I use a skid loader pick the logs up and carry them to the mill or to a log deck only have to drag the really big ones then I use the 3 point on my tractor and only about 2 ft at the end gets dirty


----------



## th_Wolverine (Apr 15, 2013)

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2lmY8GITuQ"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2lmY8GITuQ[/ame]

This popped up on my youtube feed; I've never seen any mills that use a chainsaw before, anyone know if this is one of those "concept too good to be true" things?


----------



## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

That's an Alaskan style mill with a real nice carriage and working bed.. .. Search Google for Granburg Alaskan Sawmill... I'm getting ready to order one... I figure it's better than nothing until I can put together something else..


----------



## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

th_Wolverine said:


> This popped up on my youtube feed; I've never seen any mills that use a chainsaw before, anyone know if this is one of those "concept too good to be true" things?


My first sawmill was an Alaskan. 

They are great for:

--Cutting large beams, or really LONG beams you couldn't cut on any other type of mill. You're only limited by the size of the log. My first barn (built entirely with the Alaskan) has a main beam 8"x10"x36' in it ! Not a sawmill in this part of the country that could saw that, much less get it delivered.

--Cutting stuff right where it was felled, then haul out the lumber rather than haul out the tree.

The 'not great' part:

--Noisy

--Very slow...do not plan to cut a lot of 1x, it will drive you nuts.

--Takes a 3/8" kerf compared to a 1/16" or less on a bandsaw

--Need a BIG chainsaw to really get the most out of these. 

Hunt around for a book, now out of print, called Chainsaw Lumbermaking by Will Malof.....if you really plan to go this route, pay whatever you have to for the book....this guy developed every trick going to use these mills.....and he used an 090 Stihl to work his...that's the biggest saw Stihl ever made.


----------



## stonemovies (Apr 7, 2014)

RazrRebel said:


> "I built a log splitter last year for about 250. If you take your time gathering materials ... "



Sorry to hijack the post. Anyone in here able to post a "how to" on building your own splitter?


----------



## Jolly (Jan 8, 2004)

One of my wife's uncles bought a small mill for a single purpose...He had land with several good ash, bitter pecan and cypress trees scattered about.

His regular business is being a general contractor along with doing a lot of custom kitchen work. Most of the wood he saws winds up as custom wood paneling or as custom cabinets, after he dries it in one of his solar kilns.

Hard to beat a nice set of custom-made ash cabinets or cypress wall paneling with moulding.


----------



## BigWolf (Jul 24, 2014)

Channel I watch he cuts n mills his own wood. 

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu9l40IymKw-vvGMrd5U-fcimrVjv-9c6


----------

