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

T, a few years ago I bought a used Foley-Belsaw which was not portable, but I got thousands of hours of service out it. I ran it off the PTO of a Ford 5000 tractor. First thing I sawed out was poles, beams, rafters, roof sheeting and siding for a building to put over it. The sawmill paid for itself quickly by sawing out corral and pen boards for myself and the neighbors. When it was set up and I had help I could saw about 400 bdf/hour. What I charged for custom sawing was all over the spectrum, but I tried to average about $160.00 per 1000 bdf.

I sawed out materials to build 3 different cabins and 1 horse barn.

Making money was not the object of the setup, I really enjoyed the work and was a great distraction from farm work. I got a lot of satisfaction transforming a log into something useful.

With that said, you have a dream...go for it. The only warning is be on the alert for trees from fence lines and around homes and farm buildings. When you hit metal, it is expensive.

Not to rain on anyone parade! But a sawmill is a great thing to rent and the owner can do all the maintenance and sharpening. I have been part of cutting about 30 -40,000 bft. One of the sawyers told me that the mill was the easy part. Add a truck,loader tractor,sharpening settup,chainsaws and working every weekend! Then have to educate every client how the whole thing works!

If you just want a cheap sawmill to mess around with, check out the one made by Harbor Freight. My brother bought one and it surprised me how well it worked and how cheap it was. He has sawed quite a bit of lumber with it and does fine for him. He has a Bobcat so loading the logs is easy. That's the hardest part.

I used a Mr. Sawmill brand sawmill when I lived in Arkansas. I felled and cut up a bunch of cedar for posts for a 30' X 60' building, a 20' X 30' woodshed and I had enough left over for a 10' X 30' garden shed that I built up here in ND. The sawmill is made in AR and was on a trailer. It was bare bones but worked well for what I needed to do. I sawed the cedar 12 foot. It's a lot of work but I enjoyed it.

Random thoughts: Woodmizer is the gold standard, similar to JD tractors. Can you "make money" ? Some do. Most don't. To dink around on your farm, using your own logs, sawing lumber for your own use, yes, they can be useful. AS noted above, for anything more than dinking around, the mill is only one portion of the set up. To do ANY serious amount of sawing, need to include at least a 3/4 ton truck to safely move the full size mills, truck/trailer to haul logs and lumber, a "real" forklift or skid steer to move logs and packages of lumber, a kiln if you intend to use any of the lumber "indoors" for furniture, trim, gun cases, etc, multiple chain saws, blade sharpening equipment, multiple tool boxes on the truck above to store all of the tools and spare parts to maintain the mill, a strong back and a weak mind.

Old farmer joke... "How do you make a small fortune farming ???? Start off with a large fortune..." Substitute sawmilling for farming...

Have had two different Woodmizer sawmills. Nearly went broke trying to do it full time for a year. LOVE the work. But squeezing a profit out it? That's another story. Can be done. But takes the right person in the right situation. That wasn't me... Forestryforum.com has much good info...

I got another walnut log needing sawed into gunstock blanks....

Woodmizer or bust for volume.

Then you'll want a skidder with forks or some other setup to handle material.

Then the first time you find wire, nails, screws, grown in tree steps, or a host of other goodies you're going to shidt.

If you don't know what your doing and don't go into the milling of each piece with a plan then prepare for a big pile o'[bleep] in the end.

You don't need a kiln to dry, air drying produces wood every bit as high quality if done properly. But air drying takes time (months on the low end, years for thicker stuff). If you mess up drying - prepare for a big pile o'[bleep] in the end.

Best way to dip your toe in is get an Alaskan Mill and a big ass saw - that way when you decide its not for you you can dump the mill and you still got a saw out of the deal.

Stock blanks are best cut individually with a chain saw. Once you are into a bandsaw mill the with a high quality log the notion comes in to just cut it and sort it once it is done... that always fails on the logs really worth cutting into blanks.

The old saying goes something like cut the very best blank you can visualize in the log... then cut the second best...

If you cannot visualize what is there it is probably just lumber...

The old Forest Gump line about "Life is like a box chocolates. You never know what you're going to get..." is also true for sawing. Occasionally the best looking logs have ants in the middle. Occasionally an old rough looking log turns out some pretty nice lumber. Have probably only sawn out maybe 200 walnut logs in the 13-14 years that I have been sawing. Had one old rough walnut log come in. Bark had already sloughed off of it. Only walnut log that I have sawn with quilted grain pattern. IIRC, 14 foot length, and the first 6 to 7 feet of the log was quilted just about all the way through. Some of the most pretty 5/4 x14"x14' walnut lumber I have ever sawn. Would have loved to have sawn blanks out of that. But, alas, the customer wanted 5/4 furniture lumber... Same customer also snagged a 25ft white oak log off a construction project that was 57" or 59" on the small end...

Tom, my buddy on an adjoining 1/4 section bought one 2 & 1/2 years ago, to build a pole barn.

He dropped & limbed a few trees, the fist fall, after he got it.

It seems, not much has happened since !!

Made me howl. So true with many things.

Quite a few people have small mills around here. Most set up in one location which is usually close to a source of trees and cut what customers need. One guy, retired, makes and sells lots of sharpened fence posts and he can't stay ahead of demand. Rough, full-sized lumber for corrals, barns, etc seems to be what many people request.

I had one guy cut up some blued pine for me on my property. I couldn't believe how much lumber I ended up with for such a cheap price. It wasn't planed or dried, but it works for what I need. I don't know whether or not the guys in this area make money or not, but they seem to be able to keep as busy with it as they want to be.

A guy could find many more ways to piss away as much or money on less return. if it interests you, I'd do it.

Rule of thumb for proper air-drying is 1 year per inch of thickness. So, 3" gunstock blank is a minimum 3 years. The need for a kiln depends on location. For furniture, cabinets, etc that will be used in a heated house, wood needs to be dried to 6% to 7% moisture content to avoid issues. Here in KY, ambient humidity (60-80%) is such that air dry only gets wood down to about 12% moisture content. Have to kiln dry to get down to the final 6% to 7%. Air drying saves kiln time. But does not eliminate the need in many areas.

We have built a lot of project with air dried lumber. Let it take the time it takes.