Norwood Sawmill Review

[Deb C.]

We made the big mistake of ordering a Norwood Sawmill Kit three years ago. Missing parts, wrong engine sent....the litany of complaints just start here. My husband spent more time contacting Norwood management than he did in the endless frustrations of attempting to put this mill together.
https://norwoodsawmills.com/
Well we finally got to the point of starting the 23 hp Vanguard engine and first, the starter doesn't work, just whines and doesn't engage. Once we got it started using the pull cord, the black plastic filled module on the side of the engine (ignition module?) burst into smoke and partially melted. It appears to have melted a red wire that we think was embedded with 2 yellow wires (or that's the best we can guess as we have no good "before" pictures of those connections in any of the manuals, and we can see no place it would have connected (no empty connecters at any of the nearby wire attachments).

Once we got it cooled down and stopped the smoke, the red wire was fried and dangling (photos). We disconnected the battery to stop any current and later tried to start it again with just the pull cord. While it fired once or twice, it will not run. After three years, we still don't have a functioning mill. Huge waste of money and time.
I just can't tell you how disappointed we are in Norwood as a Company. I wish I had never ordered this sawmill. It's been trouble right down the line and it's plain to see Norwood management does not stand behind the products it sells.

 

[Seachaser]

Thanks for the post. It was on my list as a possible buy. Not now.

 

[Deb C.]

Glad I could help someone avoid the BIG MISTAKE we made. Good luck with another mill!

 

[MudgeHollowBeaver]

I just finished milling a few 12" to 26" logs on a Norwood HD36 that I borrowed from my brother, and was impressed by the ease of use and the performance. The optional loading ramps with the hand operated winch allowed me to work on ground conditions that were too soft to use my forklift on. The only snags that I ran in to was that the lexan cover over the cutting scale had been snapped off previously so a piece of wire and a clamp had to be used as a temporary thickness scale needle, and the sawdust discharge chute could be slightly redesigned so it doesn't plug up when milling green wet wood

 

[lwmibc]

I built my own sawmill 4 years ago; took 3 weeks and $1,000 to build, plus the chainsaw, for 22' of sawing length. Not one complaint about the quality or workmanship...

 

[GenXer]

We have a Norwood 36" here, neighbor and I put it together in his garage last spring. The manual was extremely descriptive and easy to follow.
The only thing we had problems with was installing the safety switches. But it runs fine without all that garbage on it.
Ours came in pieces... so when hooking everything up if you don't know what wire does what it's easy to make a mistake.

So far by your post it sounds like maybe it was hooked up wrong.

The sales guy we dealt with was great. Sent us a bunch of extra blades and latches because of shipping damage. But that was just a dent in the axel cap.

We have probably 50 hours on ours and it's worked great since day one for us.

It took us 3 days to build it and then it took me a week to tweak everything so it ran smoothly.

 

[Deb C.]

We have a Norwood 36" here, neighbor and I put it together in his garage last spring. The manual was extremely descriptive and easy to follow.
The only thing we had problems with was installing the safety switches. But it runs fine without all that garbage on it.
Ours came in pieces... so when hooking everything up if you don't know what wire does what it's easy to make a mistake.

So far by your post it sounds like maybe it was hooked up wrong.

The sales guy we dealt with was great. Sent us a bunch of extra blades and latches because of shipping damage. But that was just a dent in the axel cap.

We have probably 50 hours on ours and it's worked great since day one for us.

It took us 3 days to build it and then it took me a week to tweak everything so it ran smoothly.

Ours worked fine for about five or six starts and was (using the pull cord) then the smoke started. It was wired according to the directions. Glad you had better luck than we did. We still have not milled one log after three years and really don't expect that to happen anytime soon.

 

[Ridgehiker]

Ours worked fine for about five or six starts and was (using the pull cord) then the smoke started. It was wired according to the directions. Glad you had better luck than we did. We still have not milled one log after three years and really don't expect that to happen anytime soon.

you interested in selling it?

 

[Deb C.]

In good conscience we can't sell something that doesn't work. What we would like is a full refund from Norwood. They can try and sell it.

 

[Ridgehiker]

i understand that, and customer service is pretty much non existent these days, I do mobile equipment repair and I have worked on many sawmills before, I have always wanted one but at current prices I dont see myself buying one anytime soon, a fixer upper would be right up my alley.

 

[Deb C.]

In our experience not all customer service in non existent these days. There are plenty of good companies that stand by the products they sell. Norwood is one of the worst we have dealt with.....ever. Tell you what, if they give us a full refund for the sawmill they were eager to sell us, you would be more than welcome to come and get it. We want nothing more to do with the sawmill or Norwood.