if i buy( Saw Mill ez board walk 40 is this the best mill at $8000 range?

[f350rd]

Forgot to mention I sharpen and set my own blades. They seem to cut better after once used and then sharpened.

[plantman]

F350, so if you were sawing 3' oak logs how long could you cut before changing a blade ? Every hour ? Every day ?

[f350rd]

It depends if the wood is green or dried. Green I can cut 8 hrs if nothing is hit in wood. Dried change 3 - 4 hrs. I try to keep logs clean from dirt, this will kill a blade quicker than cutting dry wood or green. With new blades I run them for a couple hours then change them regardless of cut quality. new blades need to be broking in and stretched.

[plantman]

I've looked at a lot of mills and dollar for dollar the EZ Boardwalk looks great. The only thing is that I could typically get logs which are at least 3' or bigger and then I'd have to spend time cutting them down with a chainsaw with sounds like a pain in the "you know what" . Otherwise I could buy a Lucas mill but that cost $16k plus $1200 for the slabbing attachment, plus freight . That's a lot of beans if this turns out to be nothing more than a hobby.
Good thing about the swingblade mill is that it's a lot easier to sharpen and you're not moving and turning the log which would save considerable time. So even though it costs a lot, it probably would make more money in the long run.

[f350rd]

plantman, I just bought Granberg chainsaw mill 72" cut for big slabbing job on oak 48" - 50". With the right equipment and setup its not that bad mounting a winch for pulling chainsaw mill through log. usually big logs I get are slabbed for customer. My own is cut in dimensional wood and some slabs. I have one customer bring in 5 - 6 ' oak 8' long for all slabs but he said to hot to get it cut down. the swingers are great for dimensional lumber but sometimes I have to cut max width boards for custom jobs. I have one that has 25 to 30 inch flat sawn cuts 12 to 16 feet long

[plantman]

Just curious, who are the majority of your customers who want slab material ? I think the key to this as a business is to find a market for quantities of wood such as people building sheds or to use the wood for your own projects making items with high dollar value .

[paul case]

I think you are right.

I started off with a plan to build a house from the lumber I sawed from my own logs. In 2008 the economy did a nose dive and the logs I was selling went from $.60 bdft to $.18. I wouldnt sell them for that so I bought a mill and built a 2000 sqft house from them. I had a lot of people bringing me logs to saw for them along, and I enjoyed sawing so when I finished  the house I decided to try to find a way to sell my lumber for a profit. I made some ties and a lot of pallet deck boards that were 5/8x4x40''. Then I started getting some orders 3x4-10 from another small sawmill like mine that couldnt keep up with making enough lumber for pallet orders. The 3x4 are a finished size for a heavy shipping skid. They kept ordering more and more until I upgraded mills to and LT40hd and than another and now we have a 4yo mill and a older one.

I had to talk to a lot of people to get that put together but it sure has been a good way to go with my cants. I have a couple other different buyers of lumber now as well and still make lots of ties and cants.

PC