Anyone here ever own a Sawmill?

100Acre · Sep 28, 2023

jenk61 said:
I have owned 3 woodmizer sawmills over the past 30 years. The first one was an LT40 with no hydraulics that I bought used. The second was an LT40HD and the last one was an LT70 that I sold 2 years ago. I would not want another manual mill. Hydraulics is your friend. Woodmizer customer service is second to none and they hold their resell value very well.

The only issues being $$$$, plus, 1+ year wait times for new machines.

Neohio

100Acre · Sep 28, 2023

highpocket74 said:
My dad had 2 woodmizer mills years ago. First one was a non-hydraulic mill, second one was a super hydraulic. Night and day difference between the two. We spent one day cutting with both mills. I was on the super hyd. because it had a programmable board for preset cuts, my dad was on the non-hyd. I would cut a pine cant on the super hyd, move it to the non-hyd mill for him to finish cutting, cut up an entire other log and another cant before my dad finished cutting the previous cant only! The super hyd. was FAST and a LOT less work!!

We cut all the 2x6 and larger and long 2x4 for my house but bought precut fir studs. Saved a bunch. A sawmill will work your butt off, especially if you don't have the equipment to move lots of lumber several times, and move the unusable slabs to a burn pile. Minimum equipment would be a tractor with front forks. That's if you want a production mill to sell lumber.

My wife's grand-father ran a big circular saw mill all his life. They had like 7 boys in the family and NONE of them wanted that sawmill when the dad died!! That's work!

I love those big mills. A buddy not far from here has a working one and two more incomplete.

100Acre · Sep 28, 2023

highpocket74 said:
My dad had 2 woodmizer mills years ago. First one was a non-hydraulic mill, second one was a super hydraulic. Night and day difference between the two. We spent one day cutting with both mills. I was on the super hyd. because it had a programmable board for preset cuts, my dad was on the non-hyd. I would cut a pine cant on the super hyd, move it to the non-hyd mill for him to finish cutting, cut up an entire other log and another cant before my dad finished cutting the previous cant only! The super hyd. was FAST and a LOT less work!!

We cut all the 2x6 and larger and long 2x4 for my house but bought precut fir studs. Saved a bunch. A sawmill will work your butt off, especially if you don't have the equipment to move lots of lumber several times, and move the unusable slabs to a burn pile. Minimum equipment would be a tractor with front forks. That's if you want a production mill to sell lumber.

My wife's grand-father ran a big circular saw mill all his life. They had like 7 boys in the family and NONE of them wanted that sawmill when the dad died!! That's work!

I have forks on my tractor too. I use them more than the 🪣!

100Acre · Sep 28, 2023

So, due to budgetary constraints, a shortening time window before the dollar tanks, plus the multitude of building projects around here I want to get started before the snows come, I went ahead and picked up a Mobile Dimension model 127 sawmill. It was only 50 miles from here and the prior owners had done many upgrades. I have the original manual plus all the receipts from any work done on the mill. My neighbor and I gave it a test run on a not big enough log but, it functioned well. Currently I can only mill logs 16’4” but at any diameter. Because of the two side cutters, I can cut out two boards at once. It has a board return and once the log is set, there’s no need to turn the log. The largest beam I can cut is 12” x 7”.