Does anyone have or use a saw mill at home? Portable or a permanent one? I’m tossing around the idea of buying one to cut and sell some lumber on the side, it would be mostly cedar but some oak and other hardwoods as well. I’m not looking to make a ton of money but just something to utilize the timber that we destroy on a daily basis and have something to do on rainy days that we can’t work. The other aspect is being able to then operate under ag exemption for legally being considered a commercial logger I’m also tossing the idea around about buying a larger firewood processor for the same reason being that I can get all the timber needed for free throughout the year. I’ve never messed with any of this stuff so somebody tell me the pro’s or con’s or your opinions on this idea.
I don’t need another tax deduction for losses lol so it would at least need to be self supportive.

The sawmill is something like this,

LDS.........that's his forum name. He lives outside of Wills Point. He can point you in the right direction. His real world name is Dean.

I have been running a circular mill for 35 years. Never ran one of those little bandsaw mills. Just watching them, the bandsaw mills look very slow cutting to me. When the new wears off, the slow speed will become a negative factor. That is just my opinion. Quite a few of the band mills operating here in east Texas. Some come and go pretty fast. Owners realize that it is a lot of work for a little extra cash. Competition is pretty high for work. Seems to be feast or famine. The bandsaw mills also require a saw sharpener and tooth setter. Otherwise bands will get expensive. All mills need a machine to handle logs and lumber. I use a tractor with front end loader. If you don't already have a tractor, good tractors are expensive. A sawmill operation is "iffy" at best. May work for you, may not. Don't look for the cheapest mill around. Buy the best you can find. If you cant buy a quality mill, wait until you can. When the extra cost is spread out over several years or several decades, it becomes a minimal concern. Research a lot before you decide. There is more involved than just converting a log in to lumber. Good luck

I appreciate the insight, I’m not looking to do any work for the public simply sell some cedar boards and beams in our down time for something to do and use some of the free wood verses destroying it all and far as the equipment is concerned I already have lots of that so that’s free to use as needed. I’m not looking to sink a fortune into it either, maybe 20-30k, the firewood processor I’m looking at is stupid expensive though and I don’t have a clue on either market.
I’ve also got a couple shops along with the acreage to use if needed so I have all the infrastructure, equipment, trucks, trailers, manpower etc etc. but I’m just not sure if between the two they could at least support themselves.

Edit,, for a little insight this would simply be an add on for our businesses we already have in place to use on rainy days and in the winter when we can’t work. We clear thousands of acres of trees every year and the timber is either mulched or burned so all the timber we could ever need is free for the taking. I just feel like I’m tossing money out the window not using any of the wood.

With the way firewood sells in the metroplex if you can get enough big trees a processor would be awesome. And wouldn’t take long to pay for itself.

Sounds fun

My old buddy Pete had a small bandsaw mill, and he was mostly into cutting cedar into planks, though he did some custom cuts. The wood was mostly free to him, since I gave him free run of our place to take down big cedars.

He wasn’t much into maintenance, but the mill lasted for years. It was a WoodMizer, I think. We never discussed his actual income off the saw, but I’m very sure he didn’t make much.

He didn’t have a blade sharpener or anything to set the teeth, so he sent the blades off to have it done. It appeared that blades were his major expense, so he used each one as long as he could. The result was that his cuts weren’t straight, due to the wandering of the dull bandsaw blade.

The https://forestryforum.com/ is the place to get answers.

You can run it then

Kind of like chainsaws, don't buy the smallest.
Lots of TimberKing sawmills up this way. https://timberking.com/timberking-portable-saw-mills/
More money but I'm betting once you get it you'll wish you had gone bigger.
Know a guy that runs a commercial operation with a TimberKing and slow it is not by any means. He cut some sycamore and pecan for me, like butter. I hauled some cedar up here and he took it in trade for cutting my hardwood.

You should see the firewood processors folks build up here, lots of them with good sized circular saws . The band saws blades don't take metal as well as a circular.

There's a market for sawn lumber. Buddy of mine has one of those saws. I have ran it some on cedar and bois d'arc. Cedar, just a steel blade, hardwoods get a carbide tipped blade. Think he pays $100 for four steel blades. The one carbide tipped blade I bought him was $100. It gets taken off when not sawing hardwoods.

I recommend at least a 24' track on a good foundation.

Get a couple of log jacks, in the event you've got someone there to help roll them. First pass, you need to jack up the tip of the log (cedar trunks taper). Make a pass to get a cut from end to end. Depending on if you want live edge on both edges, or only one determines your next roll, 90° or 180°. If you want sawn edge on both, you'll roll the long three times after setting the log on the bed.

A roof over the whole thing is helpful.

Hopefully you have acreage to burn the refuse fairly frequently.

And hopefully you have a grapple bucket on skid steer or tractor, you'll need it.

The trees you're trying to save for good use fetch some good money. Red oak, Black Walnut, Bois d'Arc and even mesquite are worth quite a bit when milled. Sawing all of those green, they are no big deal, including the scary bois d' arc. When it's green it is no big deal, even for a chainsaw. But seasoned, oh man we all know how mean that stuff is.

Cedar planks 1/2" to 5/8" are quite useful.

Air drying, every inch of board thickness is one year to get stable. Buy wood stakes or make them from.scraps for stickers to separate your boards for air drying while waiting on them to sell.

Isn’t there a sawmill like this somewhere close to
Linden ? I feel like I drove by it once . It’s a great idea - I’d definitely buy some nice planks

I assume that you already have a skid steer check out this company's attachments for firewood processing. http://www.skidsplitter.com/products

One guy I know in Missouri makes a pretty good money buying timber and cutting it in to blanks for wood turners. A block of wood for a woodturner sells for more than the normal lumber prices. Pen blanks, 3/4x3/4x6 or spindle blanks, 1.5x1.5x12 sell for a lot more than the board foot prices. At one time I was selling mesquite pen blanks for $1 each, I was cutting up firewood to make them

I appreciate all the help guys, I’m going to try to figure out which one will best suit my needs in the 15k range, I’m already having some logs being cut

This is the firewood processor I’m looking at, the Cord King CS-18-30 model, anyone have any info or feedback in this company?

My brother has a Wood Miser, it looks like the one in your picture, maybe bigger. That thing is awesome. I use it for everything I make. We cut up enough mesquite to build 23 doors for his house.
If you are a woodworker, cutting your own lumber is really cool.

I'd very much like to see some pics of those doors.

I’ve got skid steers with different types of grapples and a small CAT 309 that might be handy for it. As far as the refuse goes I’d probably mulch it or run it through a chipper and haul it down to the swamp for it to decompose. I’m not a big fan of fires but if we needed to we have plenty of room to do it.

If their is a market for Bois D’ Arc I’ll be rich I hate it but we deal with so much of that stuff it’s mind boggling, I’m not sure on the demand for pecan but we run into a good bit of that throughout the year as well. I just need to figure out the best course of action on a machine and start putting together a game plan.

have you thought about just selling the timber to someone who is already in the business?

We’ve tried that route and their isn’t enough margin in it to justify the time involved, I know attempting this isn’t going to make a bunch of money either but it would serve several purposes making it justifiable I think.

At Hiram Rd. and IH 20 there is an outfit called Sun-Gro. If you get a chipper and have a mountain of mulch they may be an outlet for you.

I have thought about it as well, but processors are pretty expensive. There is always a good supply of firewood leftover on logging sites that usually just gets burned, but having enough buyers lined up to buy in bulk would be difficult, i think. One thing you have to watch out for is Cass, Marion and Harrison Counties are under firewood quarantine because of the Emerald Ash Borer. There are alot of firewood bootleggers around here that either dont know or dont care, but my luck would have me being the one getting in trouble some how.

Emerald Ash Borer were recently found in Tarrant and Denton Counties, most likely brought in by firewood.

https://www.dontmovefirewood.org/map/texas/