Whats driving the DIY sawmiller

 

In spring 2004 I moved to a ranch after spending a few years in the city. My plan was simple. Raise my Son outside of the negative influences the city had to offer. This plan has lead me to bigger rewards than one can imagine. Planning a life in the country required a lot of knowhow and determination. In planning the house that we were to live in, I decided to go all the way with this do it yourself stuff, and start from the very bottom and built a sawmill. My Dad was a key in this venture because he had the previous experience as a hard core do it yourselfer, and lots of time to design and fabricate.

 

So who wants a sawmill anyhow?

 

Running threw the isles of the local lumber store here is pretty barren these days. Most of the mills are now shut down, and the price of lumber is threw the roof due to the high production costs during the boom. This doesn’t count the current price of shipping. A simple $400 or $500 shed to store the lawnmower and yard tools in now costs roughly $1000 after you buy all of the lumber and hardware required to erect four walls and a simple roof. Owning your own sawmill makes simple projects such as the shed I mentioned affordable. A whole new world of projects then becomes available that you would otherwise put off due to expense. I guess the question shouldn’t be who wants a sawmill, but who doesn’t want one.

 

What about the risk? Time is everything.

 

I see here in Oregon alone a 10% fall in employment this spring. Of that 10%, I believe that 70% is timber related layoffs.. The locals here are mostly timber supported families. There is a lot of woodworking skill out there, and a few people that have purchased the mills to use those skills are still working. There still exists a demand for timber products for small farm projects that a lot of these smaller ranchers cannot afford. Another drive is that the demand for on-site milling has picked up. Many people are now felling their own trees for portable sawmills to buzz up for them. This is their way of coping with the price of timber. And again there is the do it yourselfer like a lot of us are. We just build them to satisfy our craving for turning useless scraps of wood into beautiful works of art. Our take on the scraps of humanity are a lot different to many peoples view. We see potential in scrap that would otherwise be thrown out both metal and wood.

 

So what’s the first step in building a mill?

 

Finding components is the first and funfest step. You know you will need a drive system, band wheels, power source, and iron to make it all happen. You will design the mill around the components you find. There are never two mills that follow the same design due to the variety of parts available. You will find that if you purchase a plan and follow it to the letter; you will have a basic mill with basic features. You might want a bit more out of the mill, and a forum of experience is available here for just the occasion.

 

Take a look around, and join us in conversation. We are not an exclusive group that scoffs at less talented ideas. We help your basic ideas grow to working functional machines that have a purpose. We just want to help you to succeed.