# Portable Sawmills are Too Much Fun: Way too Much Lumber. Help!!!



## nicholasrhall (Aug 19, 2012)

My father and I have been jawing about cutting down some trees on his land in Weld, Maine, and having a portable sawmill operator come to mill it for us. Well, we finally did it at the end of September. We milled up a whole pile of hard maple, ash, and white birch. The sawmill owner/operator that we worked with was a character named Dan Charles. If there is anyone in Southern or Central Maine considering hiring a sawyer to cut lumber I highly recommend Dan. He's been a sawyer working exclusively on furniture grade lumber for about 30 years. Dan is the real deal.

Here is a picture of the stack of logs my dad and I dragged out of the woods










Here is a picture of Dan Charles getting ready to cut the first log:










The next three pics are the same ash log. This pic is the log just after it went on the mill










Here is a picture of it after a couple of passes










Here is the finished product. It's hard to see the scale on these things, but the big boards are 2.125" thick and 13" inches wide of gorgeous ash.










Here is a picture of me and Dan. Dan is obviously doing most of the work 










We had so much lumber, we couldn't fit it all on one trailer. Here is a shot of a pretty heavily loaded trailer. The second trailer is not pictured.










Here is a picture of all of our lumber after we dropped it off at the kiln.










Here is a picture of the actual bill that Dan gave us for the 2 days of sawing. The left column written in pen is the lumber thickness, the second column is the boardfeet for that size. The total bdft at the bottom is 1883.










The actual total is actually 250 bdft larger, because we had Dan quartersaw a ton of sugar maple for us, and he charges by the hour for that, not by the bdft. So the actual total lumber was about 2100 bdft! Usually, when I spend $500 at a hardwood lumberyard I come home with 100 bdft not 2100! The kiln charged us another $500 to dry it all. And then we had to rent a Uhaul truck for $250 to bring it all home. But that still leaves us at $1300 for $2100 bdft of lumber!

Now granted, not every board is perfect, but it's a pretty amazing bunch of lumber. I took most of the bad stuff for my new workbench. For some reason, some of the 8/4 ash had bad end checking. I took 180 bdft of the worst ash and I'll be making a benchcrafted split top Roubo. I just started milling the boards today. The boards are actually perfect for a bench, because they're mostly 11' long and I only need 8' long for the bench, so the checking at the end isn't a problem. Now how many guys get to say that they cut down the tree, milled the lumber, and built the bench? I'm one lucky, happy son of gun. In short, if you've been thinking about cutting your own lumber, just do it. Its a ton of fun, and you'll be truly blown away by the lumber yield.

My biggest problem right now is that I still have 1900 bdft of lumber to use up and it's taking up the whole upstairs of my father's garage. If there are any lumberjocks in either Southern Maine or near Albany, NY who are planning on a bench build let me know. I'd like to sell enough lumber to break even on what we spent. I'm pretty flexible on price, because I just did this for fun, I'm not in the lumber business. The lumber is Southern Maine, and I live Albany NY, but I go back to Maine about once a month, and its a piece of cake to bring back a few hundred boardft. My priority is getting rid of as much as possible. If you're planning a bench build and you live near Southern Maine or Albany NY let me know. I've got way too much white birch, ash and hard maple. It's all kiln dried 8/4 in 8"-14" widths and 10'-11' long. Make me a reasonable offer and I'll be thrilled to sell you enough for your dream bench. A windfall like this should go to a good home. If you know a lumberjock in the area pining for a proper bench, you should drop them a line to let them know.

(edit: The last guy that emailed me offered me $3.50/bdft for 8/4 maple. I was barely able to negotiate him down to $2.75/bdft. Seriously folks, I need the room more than I need the money. I'd take $2.50 for the 8/4 maple and ash or white birch. Drop me an email and get yourself a bench for Christmas! I'd be thrilled to think our 3day weekend worth of work resulted in a dozen workbenches.)


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## exelectrician (Oct 3, 2011)

Yes - You are one lucky, happy, son-of-a-gun! I would jump at the offer but I am way over in the great North West.


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## mojapitt (Dec 31, 2011)

Great score. I love sawing my own logs. However, I don't believe you can ever have too much lumber.


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## WDHLT15 (Aug 15, 2011)

The only thing better than that is having your own sawmill.


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## HalDougherty (Jul 15, 2009)

Don't stand too close to the sawdust, it's going to infect you with the sawmill bug. The 2nd symptom of infection is making money with your lumber. If you turn very much of your new lumber into cash, you'll know you are hooked when you start looking up sawmill manufacturers websites. Here's one to get you started. If you'd bought this mill, and processed your own lumber, then used some of it to build your kiln, you'd be well started toward paying off the sawmill.

http://www.timberking.com/1220

I can't wait to see what you build with your ash lumber. Take a sample and sand it to 220 grit, then polish it with tung oil and extra fine steel wool or wet sand it with tung oil and wet or dry sandpaper to 800 grit and you'll see a luster and depth of finish that makes ash have the pretty grain pattern of oak, with the surface luster of maple. The combination is beautiful.


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## nicholasrhall (Aug 19, 2012)

"Don't stand too close to the sawdust, it's going to infect you with the sawmill bug."

@ Haldougherty: Now you tell me! I'm afraid I must have stood way too closes to the sawdust. We've already been out walking the woodlot to pick the trees for next summer. We have 80 acres of land just teeming with 24" in diameter ash, yellow birch, and hard maple. I'm not sure that I'm up for buying a sawmill since I've got a guy like Dan Charles who'll cut for such a reasonable price. It'd take me 30 years to learn what he knows and 30,000 bdft to breakeven on the lumber. For now I'll keep working with Dan and learning as much as I can from him. The guy is a walking encylopedia of wood and sawyering!


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## TreeBones (May 21, 2007)

There's nothing as satisfying as making projects from your own trees/lumber. Great storytelling.

For thoese wanting to find a sawmill near you check here.


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## Post_Oakie (Jul 3, 2012)

Good post. I love it when a customer sees a stack of lumber made from his own logs. You can just see the wheels turning, thinking about the projects that will come from it. TreeBones, thanks for mentioning Portable Sawmill Finder. I just posted my mill on it so people in southwest MO & northeast OK will know I'm open for business with my Norwood band mill!


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## HorizontalMike (Jun 3, 2010)

Wow, if only I were younger and more motivated! Great score!


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## nicholasrhall (Aug 19, 2012)

@Treebones: Thanks for posting that portable sawmill finder. I bet there are plenty of folks that who might be surprised that there is a portable sawmill operator right in their town or within 20 minutes of it.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Great story and photos. It looks like a beautiful area and you sure have a lot of super material that should last for years to come.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Hey Nicholas, I live just outside of Albany, almost to the vermont border. I've got about the same problem though,

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/43445
http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com/my-saw-mill/

I got the white oak stacked


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## Post_Oakie (Jul 3, 2012)

Don, any way you can get a cover over that pile? The sun and rain will degrade it pretty badly. Maybe a lean-to off the side of that building?


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

oh yea, it'll be covered, I just finished the stack today. it'll be covered tomorrow. Thanks.


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## nicholasrhall (Aug 19, 2012)

@ Don W:

That's a nice looking stack of oak! It makes me feel better to know there are other crazy guys like me cutting up their own lumber. My wife looked at me like I had 2 heads when I told her what I was planning on doing. I don't know about you, but I've spent most of my woodworking career starving for nice hardwood. It feels pretty darn good to have a multi-year lumber stash!

-Nick


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## BentheViking (May 19, 2011)

wow what a story…wish you lived a bit closer to me


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## JoeinGa (Nov 26, 2012)

So Nick… ole buddy … ole pal! Do you deliver??? WHen you comin' down towards 10aSEE? 
LOL


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## nicholasrhall (Aug 19, 2012)

@Joe

I don't deliver but I do ship. The wood will be $500 for 200bdft. The shipping from UPS will be $2k though! 

-Nick


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

This time the right coast is the wrong coast ;-( Too bad you aren't on the left coast with it ;-)


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## nicholasrhall (Aug 19, 2012)

I only managed to get rid of 200bdft for $2.75. I was guessing I was going to be able to get rid of all of this by Christmas. At this rate I'll be lucky to unload it all by next Christmass


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

Free shipping would probably move a lot of it ;-))


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## nicholasrhall (Aug 19, 2012)

@ Topomax: Free shipping probably would help sales a lot. I lose $2.00 per bdft, but I make it up on volume…


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## DanKrager (Apr 13, 2012)

Nice work, Nick. 
The power company here finally insisted that about 14 mature pine trees had to be cut, not just pruned, so we worked out a deal where they would "log" it to my spec and I would help with the brush. I took the logs to a local sawyer and came back with over 1000 BF of 3/4" white pine. After about 8 months stickered in my shop, I milled T&G and am now paneling a 16×24 "hobby" room for Friend Wife (SWMBO to some…). I'm leaving the band sawn face untouched, but skip planed the back to help with uniformity before milling the T&G. 
Yah, I got sawdust in my eyes too!
DanK


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## nicholasrhall (Aug 19, 2012)

Nice wood score. 1000 bdft is nothing to sneeze at! I've found that it behooves me to ensure that my woodworking hobby is indispensible to my wife as well


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## Post_Oakie (Jul 3, 2012)

Nicolas, is that paint on the end to color code the boards by species? Not a bad idea, if it is. I can see just painting the end of the log before sawing it. I've got stacks that I cut with my portable sawmill, that I have no idea what they are until I plane them.

Some of the area woodworkers thought they had a lifetime supply of wood, but now they're hiring me to cut more. Some have a three-year supply drying in their barns, while others use it almost right off the mill.


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## Ripthorn (Mar 24, 2010)

I'm over in Syracuse and you've got me thinking. However, the wife probably wouldn't be all that keen on the trip or picking up more lumber any time soon, especially since I still have yet to get that bed finished!


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Post-oakie, I mark mine with a crayon when I saw it. Although the color code isn't a bad idea if you can keep track.


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## Post_Oakie (Jul 3, 2012)

Don, can you still read the crayon markings OK after two years air drying?
Ripthorn, finish the bed, then come on over. You can drop the wife off in Branson, MO (big tourist spot, I'm told). I'm just 1-1/2 hr. west of there. I'm sure we could find something interesting to throw on the sawmill.


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## BinghamtonEd (Nov 30, 2011)

Hmmm…I'm about 2.5 hours from Albany and have dreamed of building a new bench but $ is tight. I may have to save up for early spring, if there's any of your stash left!


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

You can't always read the crayon, but you can read it enough that you'll know what the stack is. Typically the outside that may have seen the weather more will be hard to read, but inside is ok. Also if it inside a bulding or enclosure away from the weather as soon as you mark it reading it is easier.


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## MT_Stringer (Jul 21, 2009)

Wow! The things I could build with some of that stuff. But it is a long drive for me.


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## nicholasrhall (Aug 19, 2012)

PostOakie: The logs are colorcoded. The red is ash, the blue is maple and the yellow is birch. I find that its a lot easier tho find what I'm looking for, and to keep it all organized. Next summer I'm going to use 6 colors, with the base color indicating the species and the stripe color indicating the log it was cut from. This way I can reassemble a tree after the lumber is cut. I think it will be really handy for color matching.


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## Dusty56 (Apr 20, 2008)

Nice haul !!
What was the reason for quarter sawing the Maple ? Any pictures of it ?


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## SCOTSMAN (Aug 1, 2008)

I figure I could sneek in some night make a boat out of your lumber fill it up and sail back to Bonnie Scotland before morning.But hey that's just the morphine working. Seriously I love your story Dan is a well deserved gift of a man I know no one like him.I had a tree surgeon tell me to cut down a small tree as it was dead.It had according to him a fancy israeli name I found it after trimming it back it was a plumb tree.Idiiot's and more of the same where I come from.I suppose there would be a Dan here somewhere but you got a great deal well done and happy Christmas when it comes too. Alistair


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## SteviePete (May 10, 2009)

Great post. Playing lumberman is great fun. You know people don't understand when they ask: What are you going to do with all that lumber? I'm going to be on TV. Hoarders - Lumberman Edition. Looking for sponsors. Here's to OCD! steve


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Hoarders - Lumberman Edition.

I love it!!!


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## eaglewrangler (Jun 15, 2011)

I would pay twice as much for my own trees to lumber, but the price is cheap. We built a mountain of lumber in three days, just starting in on that, the last pile was 1.5 days, and I did all the carry off. Second time I had two young guys and rested more. He charged $60 an hour and was so organized, the machine ran non stop. The key is stickering the log to keep rolling over so he doesn't move the mill too often. 
I guess in real, the lumber value is quite low, as logs, even as beams. A truck of white oak barely get $1000 now, and beams at $1.85bdf, but there is so much value on saying these doors never left the property, and custom doors cost 3000 and up, so I made a dozen doors and more tables and benches and a winter of firewood too, quickly $1000 becomes $50,000.
I love the woodmizer, but if I owned one, I would have no trees by now, 100 year supply of firewood and no time to do wood working, a day or two a year is enough for a year of projects. I already have more logs from blow downs this year.


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## Cantputjamontoast (Jan 1, 2009)

please check your messages


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## wes1961 (Jan 20, 2013)

All I do anymore is custom sawmilling for individuals and not companies. I really get a kick out of seeing the look on peoples faces when I hand them the bill and they say….is that all it cost????...I tell them I'm not in the sawmilling business to get rich, I do it because I love working with wood…..and I can tell he (Dan) likes doing what he does because….there is a coffee cup sitting on his hydraulic control box….


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## Jeff_M_81 (Jul 19, 2017)

I know this string is old but, I'm looking for some 8/4 to 6/4 for a table top and live in the Albany NY area. Anyone have any or a good yard they use?


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## nicholasrhall (Aug 19, 2012)

Ghent lumber is where I go for cherry, walnut, and exotics. They have their price list posted online. They have the best selection, and the best prices that I've found in this area. Its well worth the drive.


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