![]() ![]() Either way, you’ve come to the right place. Maybe you’re buying your first portable sawmill or need a replacement for an old model. ![]() When was the last time you bought new tools? How is your machinery looking? Being a DIY homesteader means creating tons of fun projects, but it also requires proper upkeep of your equipment. Home Organization News, Blog, & Articles.Energy Efficiency News, Blog, & Articles.To learn more about the author of this post, click on the byline link at the top of the page. Read all of Fala’s MOTHER EARTH NEWS posts here.Īll MOTHER EARTH NEWS community bloggers have agreed to follow our Blogging Best Practices, and they are responsible for the accuracy of their posts. In Spring 2016, they will start growing a large crop of heirloom Indian corn that they will save to sell and make cornmeal with. They are currently building a small cabin using lumber they have milled themselves, along with raising chickens, rabbits, & ducks. This doesn’t even count the boards that we used to frame out the floor and support it.įala Burnette is a homesteader with her husband at Wolf Branch Homestead in Alabama. I checked prices at hardware store and this is how much we saved by milling up our floor boards. $350 in savings – we just cut up 70 boards for our cabin’s flooring and started nailing them down.$50 + from artwork made with scrap lumber and sold at local arts and crafts festivals.$200 from selling SCRAP pieces in our local bulletin board.We have not even owned our mill one year, but I want to leave you with some numbers that may influence your decision: Though it has been hard work, my husband and I have been very satisfied personally with the results thus far! I will say that we’ve estimated by the time we finish building our cabin, the sawmill will have more than paid for itself. If you are considering purchasing a sawmill for yourself, I thank you for reading this, and please consider some of the points listed here. This is a good reason to have more than one person- someone needs to watch and make sure there are no obstructions. The first time we milled, we accidentally hit one of the metal log supports. It is a necessity to constantly monitor that you don’t hit anything else while cutting - we learned this quickly, after losing a brand new blade by breaking the teeth and bending it. For a person by themselves, consider looking into a chainsaw mill. It is NOT a one-person job - you need at least two or more people to run one of these portable sawmills, because there is a lot of work involved. It takes time to get in the swing of cutting for as little waste as possible. We had a lot of wasted wood before we finally started measuring outside of what we originally needed from the log, and getting a few extra 1-2-inch pieces. When we first got started, we had NO idea how to go about cutting boards out. Leveling the track can be a challenge - you need to make sure this is done right and quadruple-checked before you start milling, or you will end up with problems such as bad dips in your boards and the carriage shaking while you cut. It took a little over a week to put together and it was frustrating - the instruction manual was over 200 pages long! We chose to assemble it all ourselves, and the sawmill came in 19 different boxes in the back of an 18-wheeler. Unfortunately this was just the carriage (where the saw is at) that was assembled, not the track that it rolls down. The company we got our mill from gave the option to have part of it pre-assembled and shipped for around $1,000. If you are looking to build for yourselves, the sawmill will quickly pay for itself once you start looking at the cost of wood at lumber/hardware stores and comparing it to what you are cutting. If you do ever get in a rough spot, though, you can sell them for only slightly less than what you paid for it. Taking the time to maintain and protect your sawmill is worth it. (Refer to end of this article to see how much we’ve made from selling/crafting with scraps.)Ī well cared for bandsaw mill can last you over 10 years. In a day’s work, we make more than enough to cover the cost of a box of blades and a full tank of gas.Įven scrap lumber can be sold or used for many projects. You can also add on many other features such as a track/bed extension, log loading/ramp package, lap siding and shingle kit, log rollers, and even a package that allows you to haul the sawmill as a trailer.īy the time you start milling up wood, you can sell boards to help cover the costs of more blades (and gas if you choose that type of engine). You have the option of choosing an electric engine (which requires a battery), or gas engine. ![]()
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