The Wood-Mizer Sawmill: Are You Ready to Be Your Own Boss?

Do you enjoy being outdoors, working with wood, being your own boss and meeting new people? If you answered yes to these questions, then a portable Wood-Mizer bandsaw mill could be in your future. Before you pull out the checkbook, consider these points:

The Sawmill

The Wood-Mizer Sawmill is certainly not the only portable bandsaw on the market but you can't go wrong with the Wood-Mizer. The most important choice to make between Wood-Mizer models, is whether you want the manual or hydraulic.

The manual sawmill is what it sounds like: you do the hard work. You are responsible for loading the log on the mill and for turning the log during sawing. If you plan to work mostly by yourself, this can be both challenging and exhausting.

With the hydraulic sawmill, you need to get the log to the sawmill, and then roll it onto the hydraulic loading arms. A simple push of a lever loads the log and rotates it during sawing. The hydraulic sawmill is well worth the extra money spent.

The Cost

Cost is always the first consideration. At the time of this article, the fully hydraulic LT70, costs $47,000 and saws up to 800 board feet per hour.

The LT40 manual, costs $16,000 and saws up to 300 board feet per hour.

The LT70 is both the most expensive and hydraulic. The LT40 is the most expensive manual sawmill.

Another cost consideration is the blades for the mill. Saw blades cost anywhere from $25.00 to $30.00 per blade. Workload and proper sharpening technique will determine how many you need to buy with each order.

Using a metal detector to check for metal in the tree can save a blade. If you find a tree has metal in it, such as nails, take time to chop or cut it out. Hitting metal in a tree not only wrecks the blade but it can also be dangerous if the blade breaks.

There's no lack of blade suppliers but we've most often used:
Cooks
Timberwolf
Lenox
Wood-Mizer

The Sharpener and Toothsetter

This is a good time to talk sharpeners and toothsetters. Get both; learn how to use them; real money savers. If you can't seem to get that blade just right, find someone who charges a fee to sharpen bandsaw blades: Wood-Mizer is one option. Another option is to ask a fellow sawmill operator to give you some tips on sharpening and setting the blades.

There's an art to properly sharpening and setting bandsaw blades. When you get it right; when that blade cuts through the log like it's butter, leaving a smooth surface in its wake....well, it's a great feeling because it does take a lot of trial and error to get it right.

The Sawmill Location

The portability of the sawmill is its greatest feature. There's the option of staying at home to work or pulling the sawmill to a site of your choosing. Let your customer know beforehand that you'll need a tractor or some way to move the logs to the arms of the mill. If the customer doesn't have a tractor, ask if he could borrow one from a friend or neighbor. If you have a tractor and way to haul it, that's a huge plus for your business because most of your customers will not own their own tractor.

When you choose a place to set up the sawmill, don't forget to include space to pile slabs. The 'slab pile' consists of unusable parts of the log that's sliced off during the squaring of the log. This pile can and will become a monster in a short amount of time.

Have in mind what you want to do with the slabs beforehand: make firewood out of them, burn them, build something useful out them or sell them. If you burn the slab pile when it's growth limit is reached, consider nearby structures such as houses, barns or vehicles.

The sawdust will accumulate rapidly as well. If you are on a customer's property, ask him if he has anything in mind for the sawdust and if not, help him figure out how to dispose of it properly. Taking care of the details beforehand will allow you to concentrate more completely on your job, which is sawing.

If you are lucky enough to live in a perfect climate, you won't have to worry about sun, rain or snow. If you don't trust the weather to be so perfect, consider building shed to work under. You will never appreciate this more until you are sawing in the blazing sun. A shed will also give you a shady, rain free place to make repairs on your mill because unfortunately those days will come.

The Bookkeeping

It's great to be your own boss; however, with that freedom comes the responsibility of keeping track of everything. Keep an accurate record of:

• Customers name, address, phone number
• How much the customer paid you and what you cut for him
• Record the date of the transaction
• If he paid you in check, write down the check number
• Fuel receipts
• Receipts for blades and other new equipment purchased
• Receipts for repairs
• If you frequently move your mill to jobs, keep a vehicle mileage record

You'll need all of this info at tax time. A Rolodex is a good idea. Make an entry for each customer because some of them will become repeat customers.

If you happen to see a portable bandsaw mill set up and working, ask the owner if you could hang around for a day or two to get an idea of what being an owner/operator is really like before you invest in one. Don't just stand around though, pitch in, ask what you can do to help. Seeing an operation first hand is the best way to decide if it's right for you. It's also advertisement that you are a hard worker, easy to deal with and want to learn; take advantage of that opportunity.

Accuracy is important. When the customer gives you an order, which could be an entire house, he'll be giving you many different board dimensions. Have him write them down or you write them down, in a notebook, just for that purpose. If you are unsure of what you need to cut next, talk to him, don't assume. His supply of logs is probably limited; don't waste them.

In addition to managing an extensive list of boards by dimensions, you may also need to manage lists of boards by wood type. The customer may need pine boards for one part of the house but also require oak and cedar for other areas. Sometimes the customer may need help determining how many boards he'll need by going over his house plans with him.

After twenty-two years of owning/operating portable Wood-Mizer sawmills, it's a rewarding way to make a living or as a weekend job to supplement your income or just for your own enjoyment.