"Home made" Sawmill

[Filbo]

Has anyone any experience in building or designing their own small woodland saw mill. I am currently looking into the design of a bandsaw mill to cut timber about 10 feet long and 3 feet wide. I have been given a price of £450 per day to hire a mobile saw mill, but think that is a bit steep. I have also researched the Alaskan Chainsaw mill, but that wastes too much wood and isn't as professional as a horizntal bandsaw. Anyone that hasn't seen the designs, go on you tube and search for bandsaw mills. There is everthing from the down-right dangerous to the reasonably professional.

I have recently bought 10.5 acres of poorly/nil managed woodland and therefore need to thin out a lot of Ash, Birch and Chestnut. Even some of the Hazel is reasonably thick. If anyone has information, warnings or experience I would welcome their input. If I do go ahead I intend to put the plans on the site and write an article or two on the design, build and function.

[treebloke]

I have both a chainsaw mill and portable bandsaw, you are right about the amount of waste from the chainsaw mill which is also noisy and time consuming. However, the portable mill @ £450 is value for money if you consider the amount of timber it can process in a day, you will have far in excess of £450 value of timber. All you need to do is supply the clean timber.

Not sure how you could possibly build one any where near £450, a decent 2nd hand engine would cost that?, you must have access to a very good workshop and fabrication tools.

[Filbo]

Hi

I'm Phil by the way. The £450 is a daily rate for hiring a woodmizer NOT buying. That is why I am looking at the cost of fabrication or buying a secondhand or reasonably priced mill.

I am looking at paying about £300 for a 16HP engine and then the fabrication cost on top plus staff costs. I think the key thing is that if it costs 1.5 - 2 K to build, it might pay for itself over 5 years, especially if it is transportable.

That is why I am after peoples thoughts on the subject. Do people think that is a reasonable idea or am I better hiring a mobile mill each year?

[Toby Allen]

Sounds like fun Phil, have you experience of making simular stuff before?

It could be a good project, but I'd have a look at some of the mills on the market before making your own.

Another thing to consider is if you have have enough of a market for sawn ash, birch and chestnut to make it worthwhile. I've done a fair bit of milling for people and I'm often surprised to see the boards still there going fusty several years later. Might be a bit more lucrative to turn most of it into fire wood (ash is cash !), sell the decent sawlogs on and let some one else do the marketing and sawing.

It may be worth getting some one with a bit of knowledge about sawing/ marketing to have a look at your trees before laying out capital and time.

If you are planning on using them yourself and have lots to play with, then a chainsaw mill will be fine, a lot cheaper, less hassle and easier to store.

Another consideration with hiring in a mill is how are you going to load the logs, turn them and move them. Your hired in bloke will have experience of whats the best way to cut your wood. A mill at that price has probably got hydraulic log handling, will be correctly set to cut straight and have sharp blades.

I will be interested in seeing how you get on with making your own, I've seen the designs and pondered it before.

If you are up my way my day rate is a bit cheaper than the price you've been given.

[treebloke]

Toby 'fusty' is not a description I have come across before but I know what you mean, I have some timber myself which I have put to one side and some days I wonder if I will ever do anything with it.

Phil dont mean to knock your abilities or ideas but the amount of work involved with building something as complex as a sawmill seems a little daunting when you can buy them 2nd hand for not that much more (sold my old one for 4k), my way of looking at things is horses for courses, jack of all trades and that kind of thing.

[RichardKing]

With the price of firewood going ballistic, could you not consider spending a season doing that to fund a second hand mill ?

According to the firewood blog on http://www.arbtalk.co.uk/ dry hardwood logs are now £100- a cubic metre delivered.

[benjamin]

Filbo, Where are you based? I would love to help you build a saw mill just for the experience it would be a great project to work on if you are local to lancashire that is. I am a joiner by trade, if you need any help i would be glad to help just make sure the kettle is on and ill be there.

[Filbo]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the great input and apologies for not getting back sooner. I am based in Somerset so I think your kind offer is out Ben.

I have just got back from the SW Woodland show at Longleat and had a go on a Wood-Mizer, brilliant but costs around 6 K for a non-portable version. My fabricator friend thinks he can sort a portable version for about half the price, although it may not be quite as slick as the computerised Wood-Mizer. I am off to Bentley Weald at the weekend to have a look at the Logosol offering and pick like-minded peoples ideas. It was interesting to hear from a SWO at Longleat that by processing some of the wood yourself and making product (chairs, bowls, tables, etc.) you can make 10x the profit from selling standing or felled timber.

If I get the project off the ground I will write a small piece. Happy days woodies.