I’m now in the Sawmilling Business!

A number of years ago we bought a property near Schreiber, Ontario (http://schreiberproperty.blogspot.ca/). Because of the numerous large white spruce on the property, and because of my long time desire to build a log cabin. But not just any cabin; I wanted to build with squared timbers. Since I didn’t know of anyone nearby with a sawmill I decided to build one.

After much research I settled on buying plans from Procut (http://www.procutportablesawmills.com/). Here is a picture of the mill just after I completed building it.

As I was still working and living in Thompson, Manitoba at the time I hauled it to Nipigon in preparation for taking it out to the Schreiber property, once I had some timbers available, but that never did happen.

When we bought our camp at Firehill Lake two years ago the Schreiber property became redundant as did the usefulness of having one’s own sawmill as there is no suitable timber of the new property.

So I mulled over the idea of selling the mill even though I had enjoyed using it the few times that I had. I know a friend locally with a bush lot and who had a small pile of logs that he wished he could cut into lumber. So I offered to cut them for him on condition that I got a portion of the product. So I hauled the mill out to his place early December of last year and started cutting away.

Using my Procut Sawmill

It sure didn’t take me long to realise that a chainsaw powered mill, while very economical, is not one to rely on for relatively fast output. But while cutting away before long 2 others surfaced who had the same problem: a small amount of wood that didn’t justify hiring a truck to haul to a sawmill but would be suitable customers for someone with a portable mill like mine but with a faster production rate than the chain saw mill.

After more research, and the fact my consulting business has done reasonably well financially in its first 2 years, I decided to diversify my consulting business by expanding into custom sawmilling. So I went to the local Wood-Mizer dealer (http://www.woodmizer.ca/?gclid=COjUlvmO4rACFcHPKgodZTdcVw) and bought an LT35 with the manual log loading package as I didn’t feel comfortable spending the extra $5000 for the fully hydraulic version, the LT35HD.

I set the mill up at another friends place as he had a pile of wood he wanted cut and he was willing to learn to operate the mill when other activities wouldn’t allow me. Here is a video of him operating the mill.

Well, it certainly didn’t take long for me to realise that I had been penny wise yet pound foolish in not getting the hydraulic model as manually handling large logs, especially by one’s self was just an accident waiting to happen. Fortunately Wood-Mizer offers a one-month money back guarantee if not satisfied. And since I was still within that month I took the LT35 back and exchanged it for the LT35 HD. The best decision I could have made as this new machine is absolutely fabulous to work with!

Since I no longer had a need for the chainsaw mill I sold it, although I did keep the chainsaw; a Husqvarna 3120xp. While big for day to day cutting it may prove useful, or I may end up selling it too.

Here is a recent video of the LT35HD in operation.

Since buying the mill I have put on about 60 operating hours and it works great! Having the hydraulic log loading arms is fantastic as are the log rolling, dogging and toe boards, all hydraulically operated. While initial business has been on the slow side it will just take more word of mouth and advertising so that people know that I offer the service. This should provide a fun way of keeping myself busy if the geology consulting side falls onto slow times!