Santa Came Early... my portable sawmill arrived.

Very nice Christmas present! Congrats!

Is Wood Mizer that place that makes sawmills in Nacogdoches?

BTW, I think I saw the guy standing behind your sawmill on Lord of the Rings!

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

Nice sawmill, congratulations, sounds like it will pay itself back very quickly!

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Idleness is leisure gone to seed

Lookin "sharp"

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"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow the fields of those who don't."-Thomas Jefferson

Congratulations! My DH has a woodmizer-he loves it. I'm sure you will also. Have fun.

Logmaster is the folks that make bandsaw mills down near Nacogdoches... I'd'a had to jumped up to a large mill to get diesel, and a bit more pricey. I'm financing this one 'myself', instead of thru a bank. This way, if my crevasse crushed knee can't handle it, I don't have a fortune invested... if it can handle it, I can get a larger hydraulic mill, and go into a little 'debt' to get it. {I know, it's backwards thinking logic... if I have a trick knee, I should go hydraulic in the first place, to save 'wear and tear'... however, the largest labor input is the unloading and stacking of lumber, not the 'turning' of logs...}

Yes, playing Gandalf or Santa is great, but the residuals most of the year wouldn't keep a half grown hobbit fed.

I'm building a post and beam framed home, and have a lot of necessary beams stored in the barn already, from wood cut with the retired sawyer. I do know I'm going to need a couple thousand board feet of 1" to 1.5" thick flooring, a lot of wood for interior walls (cheaper than drywall... I hate drywall with a passion), and could even see using it as decking for the metal roof. A goat barn needs 'prettyfying', a kennel showroom needs interior paneling, exterior 'prettyfying', and endless projects.

I've got three huge pines that have to come down, or they're going to come down on the trucks parked underneath them. At least 20 large pines that I know of on my place are dead, a handful on some property I own a mile away, and just Sunday I "noticed" a dozen large dead cypress... on the edge of high ground. The pines next to the house are 'scaling' over 800 board feet in just the first two sawlogs, probably each go over a thousand bdft. I've got a stockpile over the last year of dead cedars, and log salvaged cedars, that I couldn't get milled.

The 35c/bdft is how much the other bandsaw guy is charging for just cutting the lumber. Most folks get wise in a hurry.... it's cheaper to buy dimensional lumber, 2x4, 2x6...8...10...12 at the lumber store, as the price of milling your own is just marginally cheaper and you have the labor of harvesting, hauling, hauling again, unloading, stickering, and drying for several months... so most folks just get 1x lumber, or lumber made out of non available species (at the HD/Lowes) like cedar, cypress, oak, or others.

I've been lurking at the Forestryforum for a few months now... amazingly I haven't posted yet.

nc_mtn I'm debating over several different sites for a shed. The best sites for a shed are in areas where 'turnaround' space is tight... the areas with 'turnaround" space are a long walk (.2 mile).....

nehimama... exactly why I got this puppy... My 'title research' on O&G is great, but there are spells of a few days to a week, when there's nothing... knew if I wanted to fill in those holes, I'd need to go out and hustle some other work... figured I'd rather have more work at home...

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

Congrats, that is nice. Dh has been thinking about one in the future, so I will be interested to see how you like it once you've turned out some lumber.

Tell ya a mistake I made in my shed.....I put it at ground level, meaning I have to lift all my logs UP to the mill bed height ( mine is on wheels, so the bed is about 24" off the ground. IF you can, ( allowing for drainage and all ) set your mill down slightly lower than the ground level so you can roll the logs straight in onto the bed of the saw. I plan to rebuild my shed one of the days with that design.

Also, hydraulic assistance is over rated, IMHO, unless you do take it on the road a lot ( where the loader arms would be handy ) OR saw large logs a lot. If you stay in the 18" and under size logs, turning with a peavy is fairly easy after the first couple cuts. Mine is a manual LT-40, and I don't think I've hardly ever missed the hydraulics.

Tn Andy You might try a handy dandy log deck

I even got a spare one

Good for you, Texican! Please do post some pics of your first boards.

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The three divine teachers of man: worldly calamity, bodily ailment, and unmerited enmity, and there is but through God alone a deliverance from them. Maine Farmer's Almanac

I am VERY jealous!

Congratulations.

Got a log deck (home made, wood....not live ), but that STILL means lifting logs UP to it. Be a whole lot easier on my small tractor front loader if I could keep the logs low to the ground, and have the mill sit below ground. I have a sloped area that will be perfect for what I have in mind, once time becomes available. But thanks for the offer !

This is a power feed two chain with a stop and load . Also got a big log turner . Have gone to a resaw dew to getting older

Am feeding the resaw with a Brewco low ride unscrambler have a 20hp 3ph on the saw . Saw is built to saw up threw 16' cants

With those small bands the learning curve for me was tough as i had been running a circle mill .

Texican hope you have loads of fun you may want to rig you a debarker

I have heard that many of times. I think it's because it's a different animal in a way. I think that with little or no experience sawing, they have a smaller learning curve...

Depending on where it is, you could try to make some kind of "deck" on the upper side of a hill and have the mill "below". You can then just roll the logs right on the mill.

I've been working on my "shed" plans for a while and just need help (free labor) to actually build it. My ideal plan is to have the shed 14 x 16. The mill would stick out of the side of the building, which would have a sliding door. I would have my track outside but have a section to roll the mill itself inside and then slide the door shut. This would give me all the room outside to work and move logs but also give me a place to lock my mill up out of the weather.

I deal with Hud-Son mills however, that runs on a bit of a different track. I can bolt as many sections as I want on mine. This would allow me to have a full 16' cut as well as a section inside (so 4 sections). Not really sure how the extensions are on yours.

This may give you something at least to think about...

I also have thought about using the same idea to just build a small shed just bigger than the mill to keep the head/carriage in, and let the track stay outside...

I just think keeping it out of the elements keeps the life longer....


Good luck and happy sawing...

oh and for some advice - watch out for nails even a $25 blade don't like them - If I ever break a tooth off a blade, (if they are sharp at all) I'll put them aside to use (square up) for those questionable logs, why waste a good blade on a chance of metal?

Wow - nice gift. Have fun with it but stay Safe! Post some more photos after you fire it up!

When I was in New Mex, I really though a lot about one of those, but never sprung for it.

Really nice!

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We will meet in the golden city, called the New Jerusalem,
All our pain and all our tears will be no more.....

I think this mill may lead to a more kinder gentler self.It's a zen thing.Oh I almost forgot understanding, Acceptance, and forgiveness.Enjoy.

Three out of my four possible locations have small slopes, so I could have a log deck at ground level on the 'in' side and just right at the mill side. It's so dang dry right now, two of the better areas I know have native gravel on the surface, but haven't driven on them.... if it were wet, the location would be obvious... whichever one is most functional.

My Stihl needed some TLC this morning, and I tuned it good, and out in the woods, the starter rope wussed out, so went to the local saw shop. (and picked up extra 'genuine' starter rope... my bushrigged rope didn't work too good) Told him I'd just got a mill, and he immediately wanted to put my name up on his bulletin board... he has folks 'asking' and his guys on the board are a far piece off from most folks. So, if I ever get caught up with my own stuff, it's nice knowing there's a demand out there (outside of neighbors and relatives, who've needed logs cut for over a year now).

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

Congrats, texican! Looks fun to me, and your pups seem to like it too!

Can those things be shrink wrapped into much smaller parcels? 'Cause the parcel to me under the tree does not look big enough to be one.

Oh yeah......with the SLIGHTEST bit of advertising, like that board, you'll be bugged to death....I have people call, and I tell them "nope...just saw for me, when I have the time" ( even though I do for friends from time to time ).

Another thing you can do is call Woodmizer and get on their list....they keep one for people with their mills that will do custom sawing, so if someone calls in looking for a sawyer, they have a name to give out.....also, get on their demo list....you demo your saw to someone who buys a mill later, and you get a credit on parts/blades.

Also, if you're temped ( by price or curiosity ) to try other brands of blades, my advice is "don't".

Been there too. Problem is, blade manufacturers, like Simmons or Lenox, sell rolls of blade to saw shops, who then custom cut to length and sell to you. I had one whole box I bought that didn't last to get the first re-sharp....every one broke at the weld. So unless they are dang GOOD at the welding/tempering process, the blades won't last long.

Also, you can't send most of them back to Woodmizer for the Re-Sharp service, since the pitch/etc of the blade doesn't match Woodmizer....they won't sharpen them.

Also, a lot of those blades are meant for pallet shops, where the widest thing they saw are 6 or 8" wide cants....the blades DO NOT perform well when you get out to 15-20" wide cuts on a log.

All in all, I've found Woodmizer blades to be the best value for the money....they really do have blade technology figured out for their saws......YMMV.