Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Portable Saw Mills

Quit [bleep] on my dream!

I just want something to do.

I have owned a Cook MP-32 for about ten years now. It is a great milll, with many particulars that are well thought out. If you heat at all with wood, your waste is taken care of. Mine is heating the house right now. Once folks know that you have one, you can keep as busy as you want. You can literally work every weekend if you want to. You will also come across a lot of free logs along the way. If you dont have a way to load and unload, they will work you pretty hard. They will keep you in pretty good shape if you work them regularly. I would highly recommend the Cook, as well as the Cook Super Sharp blades. The folks at Cook are extremely helpful and knowledgeable. Only real down side is that folks like to try and barter you down too much. There isn’t a lot of work involved and folks like you to throw that in for free. Pot bellied sons of bitches don’t have a clue, or value, the work involved.

Portable sawmills are a good idea that just doesn’t work.

Oh, they work. You just have to have some motivation.

Two of my pards here in WV have mils. Both make a decent living.

I got buddy that owns a high end tree service company. He Bought a brand new wood miser thinking it would be beneficial to his business. He said he used it twice and called the company he bought it off of to come and pick it up. He took about a 2000 dollar lose just get rid of it.

His main complaint on the one had was the lack of a powered feed drive. Which I can understand that. He did learn enough that he changed his mind about needed one altogether.

A guy building a house down the road from had on set up while he was clearing is house seat. I didn't stop to look at it but from the road it looked to do a heck of a job for what he needed. He slatted and stacked his lumber next to it and covered it with tin when he was done to air dry it.

Now days it seems that live edge slabs are the going thing. But it takes a saw with a wide throat to fit the bill.

Kilns are not required for most operations. Kilns, despite the myths, do not improve lumber. They simply dry the wood "with an acceptable level of degrade."

Well in this case if they're like boats, I'm going to need a few of them for different applications. I like your style.

Saving money or making a living has nothing to do with it. I just want to go to the land and piss around.

And that is worth a lot! I am starving here for good wood as we have no decent hardwood here, at all. paper birch is only mediocre firewood and for anything else it is worse...

The Norwood, with the chainsaw and your ladder looks interesting. In the early 80's I had a Grandberg chainsaw mill. Cut some 8" x 8" x 10' columns and about 30' of beams. An absolute ton of work. Used them in the house I spent 2 1/2 years building. Wished I had the money for one of the portable bandsaw mills. If you want it to play around with, go for it!! You will need more than just the mill to make money. Some way to move the logs and lumber, other than by hand. Lifting equipment. Heavy truck.

And in my case, it adds variety as another piece of machinery that drowns out the wife. Bush-hogging gets old, but hey.

I have wanted one for a while now.
Keep hashing it around in my head.
Tools and Equipment are my addiction you can never have all of them and can never have enough of them.

Go for your dreams it is the only way to Live.

Now yer smellin what I'm steppin in!

I’m working a trade up north that he’ll cut anything I want for half the wood. That’s a bargain at half the price. 😁

He has a real nice Wood Miser and it’ll cut the heavy timber beams I want. There’s also a kiln not terribly far from my place up north so I will be doing it right the first time rather than deal with twisting and checking post installation.

Keep a eye out on craigs list. They show up quite often and sell fast if they are not to over priced.
I want to buy this one but there is no way I could get it to my land up north in the winter.
Timber Mill

T...this guy (although long winded) is full of pretty good info. He was a newbie with a Wood-Mizer and shares a lot of good information about it. Several videos are worth watching.

Portable Sawmill

You can make a little selling lumber but wood projects like benches and mantles bring a whole lot more. Me and buddy work our mill and the proceeds helps to fund our hunting trips.

About 25 years ago a neighbor bought one for a hobby. He and my dad were both retired farmers, both in their 70s and both into woodworking. Bernard and dad would cut down a few trees, load them on a truck or trailer with a front end loader on a tractor and haul them to wherever they had the saw setup. I was working nights at the time, so helped when they were working lumber. They'd use the tractor to load the log on the mill and then cant hooks to position it. We sawed ceder, walnut, coffee bean, hackberry and whatever they or other neighbors needed for some project. Lumber was stacked under cover with lathe between the layers for air circulation. Seems like they used the lumber after a year or so and moisture meters showed below 8-10
The coffee bean was my favorite, wild grain that looked similar to a real redish oak. It was bad about chipping out on corners in some of those grain patterns, but made good looking tables and such.

So THAT's where all the trees in South Dakota went to......

I can see why it's for sale: there's nothing left to cut, up there.