Just wondering if anyone with an on farm mill. I've had a mill for over 18 years and can say that it has really save me some money. Nowdays with lumber so high priced, its nice to go to the woods and harvest it yourself. My mill is the old circle saw type, which is cheaper to buy than the new lightweight bandsaws. Have cut as much as 500bf an hour with good help. Todays prices thats over $200 worth of lumber in 60 minutes!

-- Don (dairyagri@yahoo.com), July 05, 2000

Answers

Don, it sounds like you have one of the old Belsaw, maybe Belsaw/Foley. I have a circular sawmill #8 Timber Champ made in Portland. There is no way I could compete with you in volume, but mine is a true one man sawmill. Even brings the finished board back to me for stacking. The advantage I would have on you is I can cut a log 60" circumference, on-site, on the ground. Most major sawmills cannot do that and no portable band saw mill. The stumpage here is up to $600/k so if I had to buy the logs, I would be out of luck. Sometimes I can buy prime logs at $250/k from tree trim types, they don't know the value. That is pine, oak is a little more expensive and the out board, dried and dressed is 1350/k, or dried #1's $750/k, they haul stacks away. If I were younger, I could make a great living doing nothing but cutting lumber.

-- JerryR(La.) (jwr98@hotmail.com), July 05, 2000.

I'm working on it Don. I've got a homemade mill built on a Greyhound bus frame set up with a fifth wheel hitch for portability. It's set up as stationary with a 67 chevy 3/4 ton truck with a big 6cyl as a powerplant. The guy I bought it from claims it'll cut 5000bf/day with two guys. It sports two 30' circle saw blades (ones a top saw) and can handle a log 24" x 16'. Its got a gravity feed log deck that I can load up with 2000-3000bf of logs before reloading. I'm just getting it going and having some hydraulic problems at the moment.

The plan is to cut enuf lumber to provide enuf slabs for heating the house. I'll be buying the logs. Hope to make pallets from the lumber. If I keep it small I'm hoping I won't run afoul of the zoning people.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), July 05, 2000.

My Dad and his friend bought a used Norwood portable bandsaw mill. They are actually out sawing right now :o) They can cut a lot,( I don't know the exact amount), in a day, (when they're not interrupted by enormous rain storms). You can cut fairly large logs on it as well, (again don't ask me how large). It certainly pays off in the long run. Happy sawing!

-- Abigail F. (treeoflife@sws.nb.ca), July 06, 2000.

This is something that I've always been interested in. I'd love to own a small mill. Back in NJ, there was a guy who had a small setup, and he had a deal worked out with several surrounding townships - the road crews would bring him all the wood (whole trees, limbs, and chips) from storms or cuttings for free. He would then saw the larger wood into lumber and give 1/2 back to the towns, who would then use the wood for park benches, police barriers, etc. The other 1/2 of the lumber he would sell. The rest was shredded if needed, then composted, and sold off to locals as organic compost and mulch. There was also another guy who had a small mill, and he had a pallet repair business going - he had a 20' box van, equipped with an gas air compressor, nail gun, etc. and after milling the wood to size, he would go around to different companies every so often and fix all of the broken pallets they had.

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), July 06, 2000.

Hey, I thought there might be a few sawyers out there! My mill is one I put together from the best of two, then sold the leftovers. Got a 54" saw with a 6 cyl. Caterpiller pulling it. Also have a 3 saw edger with a 4cyl. Cat on it but haven't had it started in a long while. Timber prices are up here in MO for sure. 12 years ago would buy standing timber for $60 per thousand BF. Buyers started to see the value of the grade logs and they started to pay more. Top logs that are destine to be pallet stock still won't bring much though. Most pallet logs are still very good for "farm lumber". If I can't make a living doing what I'm doing now I keep the mill as backup. Besides, one major building project would recoup a mills cost anyway. Anyone giving consideration to owning one will learn fast there a lot harder to get to cut true lumber than they look like. As one old sawmiller told me years ago " If you got an enemy, buy a sawmill and just give it to him" . Later I found out what he was getting at! But there sure is pleasure in a true running saw just sizzing through a log like it was butter. A never stopping carriage in constant motion until ready to turn or load up again. If it wasn't so hot today I might even put a set of batteries on mine and get going!!! Don

-- Don (dairyagri@yahoo.com), July 06, 2000.

as the proud new owner of a foley belsaw 46 inch circular saw im left wondering what the heck happened to this company am i missing something or did it just drop right out of existence sheesh im the owner of a small tree service just trying to save on waste not trying to get rich but it would be nice to utilize something just from my salvage here any info would truly help here thanks

-- stephen babb (tuffunuff@aol.com), April 22, 2002.