Making money with a portable sawmill

[STLfirewood]

You know you've worked that day. You need good size logs to make it easier. I love the Deere I have. Put 900 hours on it with only a bad sensor stopping me. I always have the tracks on it. The weather changes to much around here to take them on and off. It I had a more aggressive tread on the tires I would take them off more.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I had a set of tracks like that, every time i turned, they tore up the ground worse than my dozer does... I didn't like that around my mill, and as that's what i bought it for, the whole thing got replaced with a tractor. I'm sure they are great for some folks, but not for me.

SR

 

[4x4American]

Thanks for all the help and advice everyone! keep it coming!

 

[Dave Boyt]

How about a little info on your background? Much experience with chain saws, lumber, or mechanic skills? Any support equipment (tractor, truck, chain saws, etc.)? Are you in fair physical condition? How does family feel about it? Do you have financial reserves to get you through the start-up period? Do you have your act together in keeping good records to satisfy the bean counters? It takes a lot more than a sawmill and a few logs to run a sawmill business.

 

[hamish]

If you want a mill............well get a mill. Is it possible to make money with a mill, of course it is. Yet most fail to make money. A sound business plan, local market research, and quality of goods and services is essential. In my area a 10 minute drive in any direction, will have at least 10 portable mills in that area, its saturated with mills. Some are strictly for own use, others are for hire and some are commercial. Everybody makes money from milling jut some more than others.

 

[hunthawkdog]

If you want a mill............well get a mill. Is it possible to make money with a mill, of course it is. Yet most fail to make money. A sound business plan, local market research, and quality of goods and services is essential. In my area a 10 minute drive in any direction, will have at least 10 portable mills in that area, its saturated with mills. Some are strictly for own use, others are for hire and some are commercial. Everybody makes money from milling jut some more than others.

That's the way it is around here (se iowa) plus a lot of Amish mills, they cut the pallet wood y'all say stay away from I know when I've been at their mills they all say they aim for a semi load a week of pallet lumber. I always wondered what a semi load was worth I asked just haven't got a straightforward answer. Some guys around here that have woodmizers probably don't put many hour's on them I think the going rate is about $65 an hour.
Anyone know rates on a semi load of pallet lumber ? I know 2 guy s can cut a load in a week.

Sent from my LG-US780 using Tapatalk

 

[4x4American]

Thats right

 

[4x4American]

My father and I have always wanted to start a family business. We just never knew what. Since I've brought up this idea about 2 years ago he's been interested. My mother and grandmother also would like to be involved. My mother is good with business and math stuff. She was a buyer for a big company for a long time, and now she teaches math at a catholic school. She also tutors math. My father works a desk job and is sick of it. Wants a breath of fresh air.

 

[hamish]

What are you waiting for? Get a mill at get at it!

 

[STLfirewood]

Here is a little advice. If you can afford it skip the manual mill and get a LT40 or something like that. There are a lot of used ones out there. I missed one around here that went for 9k. Most are 12-20k. If things don't work out you can resell the pretty easy.

Ok now here are some thoughts on markets.

Pallets. You can make good money building pallets. Just not the pallets that are mass produced with machines. There are companies that buy custom pallets. These pallets pay well.

Wood workers. These guys can be a pain in the butt. They knit pick everything and take a lot of time to choose their material. If you choose to sell to this market choose one day a week or every two weeks wood workers can come by. Otherwise you'll sell $40 in boards and get a 3 hr conversation to go with it. Nothing wrong with the conversation but it's not good for production.

Find the markets where the wood has to be worked a little. Meaning short pieces and angled cuts. The markets that pay the best are the markets that can't be done in a high production mill.

Scott

 

[4x4American]

Here is a little advice. If you can afford it skip the manual mill and get a LT40 or something like that. There are a lot of used ones out there. I missed one around here that went for 9k. Most are 12-20k. If things don't work out you can resell the pretty easy.

Ok now here are some thoughts on markets.

Pallets. You can make good money building pallets. Just not the pallets that are mass produced with machines. There are companies that buy custom pallets. These pallets pay well.

Wood workers. These guys can be a pain in the butt. They knit pick everything and take a lot of time to choose their material. If you choose to sell to this market choose one day a week or every two weeks wood workers can come by. Otherwise you'll sell $40 in boards and get a 3 hr conversation to go with it. Nothing wrong with the conversation but it's not good for production.

Find the markets where the wood has to be worked a little. Meaning short pieces and angled cuts. The markets that pay the best are the markets that can't be done in a high production mill.

Scott

Good advice. I have a few custom pallets in my field, they are so dang heavy and well built. When I had them loaded in the 1500 that thing was squattin! I like those pallets alot and I could see myself doing that. Just not sure how to do that curved cut for the fork port.

 

[zogger]

Sounds like you would do well in anything you try on your own, just get the "business" part down over the "work" part.

 

[Jim Timber]

Some excellent advice in here!

I hadn't thought about how woodworkers are chatty. Limiting sales to specific days is about the best advice you can get with that bunch. I once had a guy talk about my shop for an hour and a half before he even got serious about the $60 engine I was selling. Now I don't let anyone back there.

Same thing happened with a wire feeder I have on CL now. Kid shows up, I demo the unit in my garage (power supply back in the shop out of sight via long cables) and he then started asking me all these noob welding questions. Didn't buy the feeder. UGH!

My goal for wood sales (I'm in the same boat - starting milling my own soon) was to find cabinet shops to sell to along with doing direct sales of slabs and more figured pieces. Auctions are another decent way to move product. You'll take a hit off the top for their fees, but you'll have a lot better exposure for your wares. I saw a 16' feed trough sell for $240 at an auction last fall. It was nothing more than 2x wood stuck together with some plywood end caps.

 

[4x4American]

So I went to a pretty good sized forestry expo in Essex Junction VT a few weeks ago, got a chance to check out woodmizer, norwood, and hud-son portable mills...I remain with my gut feeling that Woodmizer is the way to go. Anyways, everyone I have talked to around here, except for one person, thinks that there is not a dime in portable sawmilling around here. Logging is big in this area, and there are a few mass production mills around, two of them within minutes of me, and a handful of smaller outfits. I have not seen any ads or anything for portable mills. One guy at work said his friend down the road bought a woodmizer and hasn't made any money with it. Said he got burned once by doing a job and the guy never paid. (Who knows how well the guy got his name out and what kinda work he did.) Most of the people seem to think that with all the big mills around, I won't be able to match prices, get business or stay afloat. I might try to dabble in some gypo logging and sawmilling.

 

[zogger]

So I went to a pretty good sized forestry expo in Essex Junction VT a few weeks ago, got a chance to check out woodmizer, timberking, norwood, and hud-son portable mills...I remain with my gut feeling that Woodmizer is the way to go. Anyways, everyone I have talked to around here, except for one person, thinks that there is not a dime in portable sawmilling around here. Logging is big in this area, and there are a few mass production mills around, two of them within minutes of me, and a handful of smaller outfits. I have not seen any ads or anything for portable mills. One guy at work said his friend down the road bought a woodmizer and hasn't made any money with it. Said he got burned once by doing a job and the guy never paid. (Who knows how well the guy got his name out and what kinda work he did.) Most of the people seem to think that with all the big mills around, I won't be able to match prices, get business or stay afloat. I might try to dabble in some gypo logging and sawmilling.

I worked for a real old geezer once who had a woodmizer. That thing apparently cut great (I never saw it running but it looked impressive), he had stacks of his own milled lumber kicking around, but he claimed he never made much with it. He was always looking for "investors" to come in and use the thing to make lumber, then make money somehow, but it never happened.

Now, with that said, if you could use the lumber to make things for retail, anything, furniture, cabin kits, doghouse kits, playground stuff, benches, who knows, anything, then perhaps it might work.

With the internet, the world is your market. Might be about zero local market, that doesn't mean you couldn't sell off the web and ship stuff.

 

[4x4American]

Good thoughts...I'm not too awful skilled in woodworking. Reckon it's nothing i can't learn though. I am meticulous about certain things

 

[KiwiBro]

One guy at work said his friend down the road bought a woodmizer and hasn't made any money with it. Said he got burned once by doing a job and the guy never paid.

I'd be asking him if he wants to sell it.

 

[4x4American]

not a bad idea, believe I'll look into that

 

[Dave Boyt]

Converting logs to lumber is one thing... converting lumber to cash is another. You'll never be able to compete with the big mills, so finding specialized markets will be the key. Trailer decking, barn siding, and fencing may be good options to get started. Added service, such as installing the trailer decking, air drying the lumber, etc. will also help out the bottom line, if you price it high enough to make a profit.

I bucked the trend and sold my hydraulic mill (Timberharvester) for a Norwood manual sawmill (HD36), and it was a great move. Portable sawmilling accounts for about 60% of my business, and the manual mill is simpler to run, easier to get to the job site, and much more reliable than the hydraulic. Since there are no other portable sawmills in the area, I keep busy. And there are no issues about selling logs.

If you do go the used route, avoid any mill that has been left out in the weather. Otherwise you will be replacing hydraulic lines, fighting bad electrical connections, and dealing with a host of other problems.

 

[hseII]

Converting logs to lumber is one thing... converting lumber to cash is another. You'll never be able to compete with the big mills, so finding specialized markets will be the key. Trailer decking, barn siding, and fencing may be good options to get started. Added service, such as installing the trailer decking, air drying the lumber, etc. will also help out the bottom line, if you price it high enough to make a profit.

If you do go the used route, avoid any mill that has been left out in the weather. Otherwise you will be replacing hydraulic lines, fighting bad electrical connections, and dealing with a host of other problems.

We've got a guy in our area that does this very well with his Woodmizer.

He Stays busy.