portable sawmills

With the price of lumber....and the fact that we have plenty of available timber....we are thinking about purchasing a portable sawmill. Would like more info. from people who have experience using them and buying them. Thanks in advance!

[Paul Wheaton]

Bought one in august from New Zealand. It arrived last week. Once it stops raining I'll try to put it together.

[tbout]

Originally Posted by Unregistered200

With the price of lumber....and the fact that we have plenty of available timber....we are thinking about purchasing a portable sawmill. Would like more info. from people who have experience using them and buying them. Thanks in advance!

I'd like to add a question to this, what about the wood curing/drying? My DH has talked about getting a sawmill and planner for old wood to reuse, and I've read different things on having to dry wood with a kiln. not sure what it is but I think it is a oven of some sort. I'd like to hear some imput on this! Thanks T

[gilberte]

Check out this link, should answer any questions you might have:
http://www.forestryforum.com/cgi-bin/board/YaBB.pl

[Paul Wheaton]

I spent the better part of last night trying to design a solar kiln.

[affenpinschermom]

A yr and a half ago we bought a Peterson Mill from New Zealand and we love it. It is easy to set up, makes great lumber and was not as costly as many other mills.

[fordy]

Originally Posted by dandrea

A yr and a half ago we bought a Peterson Mill from New Zealand and we love it. It is easy to set up, makes great lumber and was not as costly as many other mills.

................I'll be nosey and ask what does one of those entry mills Cost? I looked at their website and that is a very unique concept they have for cutting logs . Even the entry model looks rather Pricey , thanks , fordy..

[silosounds]

We bought a sawmill 6 years ago and have had tons of fun using it weve made beems for a house were building weve made boards from trees around the area to repair an old barn. we've cut telephone poles for landscape purposes but watch out for those old staples their not fun to hit. we've sold some blackwalnut and oak boards to a cabinet maker. The lumber weve cut has paid for the mill in three years. WE found our mill in sheepranch california by wood wizard they are made there by two of the most helpful guys they helped me figure out what I needed and built it for me. I got a bandsaw type that can be added on to so the length of a log isnt a problem and cut 3' wide with a 1/8" cut we got a portible one so we could take it to the log, it cost around 3800.00 6yrs ago. weve never had to kiln dry our wood we just girddle the trees we want a year ahead of time if we want to sell them for special thing like cabinets and stack the boardswith spacers so none of the wood is touching each other we did get a 16" planer from grizzly company to plane the saw marks off we only ever had one beem warp on us and it us the way we milled it it was still wet.
you can down the tree a year ahead to but roll it every 6 months this worked well for us but if you dont have the time to wait you might want to design a kiln

[Mudwoman]

We have a wood drying kiln. Dh found a Nyle L200 used from a guy that used it once before going through a divorce. Got the kiln and 3000 bf of red oak 2 x 4's that are making our wood floor for $2000.

We then built the building that becomes the kiln to hold the wood (a well insulated 10 x 16). The Nyle L200 is like a reverse heat pump that sits inside and removes the moisture in the wood. Huge fans in the kiln building keep the air moving through the stickered wood so that the drying process is even. The red oak for our floors sat in a covered carport for 2 years. You would think that the moisture content would be near 20% at that point, and in some parts it was, but alas it was nearly 80% still in parts of the wood towards the center. After 3 weeks in the kiln (running 24 hrs a day), Dh got the moisture content down to 10% throughout the boards---evenly. At the beginning of the drying process, we were getting 20 gallons of water out a day. Towards the end, that was reduced to 5 gallons or less in a day.

If you down your trees, paint the ends with a special sealer that you can purchase from NYLE. This keeps the ends from drying too fast and keeps the wood from splitting. If you have ever looked at the ends of oak firewood before splitting it, you know what I mean.

Gene Wengert is acknowledged as one of the most knowledgable guys in the US on drying wood. He gives seminars in Memphis several times a year. Dh went to one of his seminars and said it was worth every penny. Also, go to www.woodweb.com and www.sawmillingmag.com for some additional info.

[Ross]

There's a thread on Shop talk about mills check it out HERE