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Is it just me, or...

Started by fencerowphil (Phil L.), February 05, 2008, 09:30:00 PM

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fencerowphil (Phil L.)

Is it just me ,  or...

is there a boat load of all kinds of sawmills of every size and type
for sale these days?

Sawmillexchange.com seems to be loading up with stuff for sale!

Phil L.
Bi-VacAtional:  Piano tuner and sawyer.  (Use one to take a vacation from the other.) Have two Stihl 090s, one Stihl 075, Echo CS8000, Echo 346,  two Homely-ite 27AVs, Peterson 10" Swingblade Winch Production Frame, 36" and 54"Alaskan mills, and a sore back.

Brad_S.

Times are tough in the sawmill business these days. I know of several in the area lately who have thrown in the towel and walked away.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." J. Lennon

Firebass

No it not just you

I recently went to my favorite classified section and typed in  "Sawmill"   :o  It never even dawned on me the number of sawmill owners out there.  My opinion is most of them are part time or hobby mills like myself.  It makes me think twice about sawing for others when the guy just starting his new buisness that paid $30,000.00 for his brand new sawmill is trying to make ends meet.   




Dave Shepard

I have noticed it too. I keep an eye on electric Wood Mizers, and there used to be only a couple around, of which we bought one of them. Now you could take your pick.


Dave
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

getoverit

Winter time is a tough season to try to saw enough to make payments on a mill, especially after Christmas and all of those bills. I'm sure the housing crunch with all of those people struggling to make house payments on those adjustable rate mortgages dont help either.

A big time helicopter school with a local office went bankrupt this week. They said that since the credit crunch, getting student loans has become an issue and it made new school attendees drop to the point that they had to close their doors.

I suspect that we will see more of this before it is over. If you are fortunate enough to have some cash laying around, you should be able to get some bargains in the coming days.
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

beav39

here in maine sawmilling is really slow this time of year it picks up when the weather warms up .there are portable mills popping up allover mostly hobby guys i have been sawing full time for 8 years now things go up and down just have to try and get by
sawdust in the blood

Ron Wenrich

There's probably a couple of things going on.  One thing is the housing crunch.  With fewer houses getting built, the number of free logs is starting to dry up.  Additionally, those people that have a few logs to saw are fewer, since they can't afford to have them sawed up, so they make firewood instead.

Add to the pile of all the guys that bought sawmills and thought they would make a paying hobby out of it.  Eventually you get market saturation and people have to move mills just to make payments.

In my area, all the guys that had Mizers and went portable were never able to make it through custom sawing.  They had their mills for a couple of years, then they were gone.  The ones that bought logs and sawed did a little better. 
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

solidwoods

The weak and weary will fall by the wayside.
Only the strong will survive.

Gotta do your homework baby.

Just because you bought a sawmill doesn't mean you are running a sawmill.

jim
Ret. US Army
Kasco II B Band mill
Woodworking since 83
I mill & kiln dry lumber, build custom furniture, artworks, flooring, etc.
If you mill, you'll be interested in some of my work in one way or another.
We ship from our showroom.
N. Central TN.

Bibbyman

Quote from: Dave Shepard on February 06, 2008, 12:49:58 AM
I have noticed it too. I keep an eye on electric Wood Mizers, and there used to be only a couple around, of which we bought one of them. Now you could take your pick.


Dave

I think there are a number of LT40 and LT70 electric mills on the market because there are a number of places that "tested the waters" with them and now have moved up to the LT300 or, in some cases several LT300s.

Also,  there are folks like us, that's had their mill for five years and it's depreciated out.  So... get a new mill with full warrantee.  Why not?

We'd probably trade up but we can't make use of the higher production rate.  Besides,  I've got this mill all "tricked out" and if I got a new one,  I'd have to start all over again.

I've given advice to more than one person asking "should I get a mill?" that maybe it'd be better just to hire someone to do their sawing.  But I think few people have taken this advice.  They still want to own a mill and do it themselves.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

SwampDonkey

There are a lot of mills here that have sit idle almost from day one, just sawing for hobby. They had the money burning a hole in their pocket and decided to see what sawing is like. And there are a lot of mills bought by folks not knowing the business and turned around and sold them within 3 years. I've seen a lot of both. A lot of the troubles is getting good logs and then having the cash to buy them. If your fresh at the business and faultering and floundering a bit with how to scale or determine quality your suppliers will sense this from their cheque. And not many suppliers are all that loyal, they follow the money.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Dave Shepard

Bibbyman, I have run into the same thing. The closer I get to setting up a mill of my own, the more people I run into that are buying mills because they cannot get their logs reliably custom sawn. These people have relatively little in the way of logs to be sawn, usually 10-20mbf, and it hardly seems worth buying a mill. I talked to one new owner today, and he is interested in hiring me to run the mill for him.


Dave
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

fencerowphil (Phil L.)

I even saw a Norwood mill for sale in my small town's "Bargain Hunter"
paper yesterday.  It didn't list the model.

Spent all day today cutting big beams and making pallet boards out of all the
side wood.  When you are making 5/8" by 3.5" boards out of all the side wood
on 24" logs, the job sure goes slow!  On the other hand,  I am thankful that the
side wood is sold.   Just loading it right on the customer's trailer.

Phil L.
Bi-VacAtional:  Piano tuner and sawyer.  (Use one to take a vacation from the other.) Have two Stihl 090s, one Stihl 075, Echo CS8000, Echo 346,  two Homely-ite 27AVs, Peterson 10" Swingblade Winch Production Frame, 36" and 54"Alaskan mills, and a sore back.

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