Why I Quit Milling Lumber - It’s Not Worth it on My Woodmizer LT15 Sawmill

Boy are you a bummer!

Ya but cedar

Nice to see a honest review of the realities of a small bandsaw mill. In my area there are many people doing milling as a side hustle. The problem is, even the local smaller production mills beat them on price and quality. They always compare their price for hardwoods to Home Depot or Lowe’s, which they do beat however, they don’t come close to the small production mills.

Having said that, I would still like to have a small hobby mill.

I can see making builder-grade lumber would be very low margin because you compete with big box stores and commercial mills that operate with big economies of scale. Much higher margins in hardwood, especially special species used for furniture like walnut, cherry, and maybe oak. I don't know of anyone making much furniture out of any kind of softwood.

If you had a limo would you use it as a taxi. Of course you would not, you would look for the right customers. You have the right machine except for the wrong product. What about rare woods like oak mahogany cherry and a bunch of other trees which is in demand.

In the Midwest we'd buy all the fir and ponderosa you could mill

Add value. Make something from the wood. When not cutting hardwood I used to make custom log home packages.

Good info. Thanks for sharing.

Start timber framing! You could pre cut 'kits' for the dumb stuff people put together in their backyard, pole barns, carports etc. Here in the southeast I would love some nice big straight doug fir.

👌🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻

I’m very fortunate to be surrounded by both softwoods and hardwoods. Hardwood is worth so much more for the same amount of effort.

Any chance you could supplement your income by compressing your saw dust into burnable firewood similar to Presto logs?
Not sure what the setup cost would be, but I assume your have a large quantity of saw dust.
Just a thought.

You make a lot of good points. I don't blame you a bit for cancelling any sawmilling.

...i'm still logged in ...the post beam construction was depressing a little the explaination for one big place staying with pressure treated wood post into dirt as better than the two options described there as a concrete pad with a steel insert to bolt the bottom of the beam sitting on it was flimbsy in wind laterally , while the beam into concrete rotted worse supposedly somehow the thing is they always rot just above ground or concrete connection because the water condenses and evaporates more there so a steel post into the ground with some non permeable heavy acrylic maybe inside the steel sleeve which extends maybe atleast a a foot and half 2 feet above ground still sleeved , i saw a parking lot post the same day and realized that would last longer than other posts , i went with cinderblock post supports on concrete footer with 10 foot rebars and high strength fill filled to top of beam seems more traditional except the grout substitution due to cost....../ranting still maybe theres a beam post to below frostline tinker in there with a goal of no ground or at ground rot could use hdpe filled galvanized steel maybe ..../ too much to explain ....

random thought but i saw a vid on here yt , it looked like in florida maybe anyway the man drills a shallow non-potable iirc well using a pressure-washer and pvc in 10' and i think one larger sleeve maybe , the thing about a well is if it's deep or tests good it's drinkable but a solar powered electric motor can be used , i fooled myself because i watched a vid here from somewhere in south east asia where a phd american man from north carolina designed their 4 or 5 barrel water filter using sand, gravel , window sceen , plastic barrel drums , pvc and charcoal could work for a rain filter but it need hieght to use a pump free ball valve or else it's same set up as a well but big hassle ...soundboarding i realized maybe the non potable water from well goes to that filter too maybe but anyway you could hose down your property for free with solar and one of those , i've been designing gutter system to go below a porch and carport roof , between the two roofs and most to rain storage as described for maybe washer machine and toilet for example ....i have other ideas but they get vultured and it's another self only forest gump d%d% ...oh the thing about my gutter makes sense is the independant roff have higher pitch than the house to act as wind fairings and better adjust from no roof or shade or full roof and maybe a greenhouse too for wintertime...../ranting take care hope you're safe ,

.8 minute vid why your mill is more practical for me than you then, how much do you want for it ?

...people do that when they're tired, the brain tricks the body into resting by complaining and feeling negative then next the body will be sitting down ranting about why the labor side is no good (instead of labor towards an alternative) while the body is resting , if still in denial about needing a rest break the worker will sit there ranting while resting but if the mind/ body were in tune there would be harmony between resting and labor and meals with no complaining only prosperity , good rest an proper meals due to scheduling.....

i can't go buy milled cedar or oak beams for example.... and they grow all over for free + labor and my cedar is falling down goodluck buying that much cedar to do say a walk in closet entirely for examp,e ( i found gloss porcelain and the fly style is nice too as an alternative plan by the way, masonry last longer than stupid wood but sometimes you need wood or it's covenient or goes with the previous wise work...

Low T " man ...get up , stay on the scene man , keep your head up you can do it , hang in there, don't get weaker get stronger....whatever it takes , bud....

Also, it many counties you cannot build with ungraded wood. You cannot compete with box stores, and their product is kd and planed. So its very hard to sale. The only thing i have had good luck on is wr cedar. 1” boards at different widths 6-8-10-12 other than that with a manual mill it is just too much physical work and wear and tear. Blades only last for about 2 hours even if they are still sharp. They need to be reground to keep them from breaking and that cost is usually around 20-25 per blade when a new one is around 30.

Its worth it to do for yourself. For anyone else no, especially if you have to pay for logs.

Doug Fir lol, I guess your video would be too long if you said Douglas.

LT 15 is a hobby mill, it was never meant for a business

i didnt buy a hobby mill for profit.

after all us small farmers went out of business local family owned mill 3 miles from my place tried to keep it going with contract to make pallets local budweiser botting company but even with that they could'nt afford employee's anymore everything ended up big auction sale the next nearest sawmill is 2 counties away from me and home depot is 24 miles shit ton of traffic road construction detours to get there all my project on hold right now 😖

Isn't pine preferable for interior trim work such as moldings, door jambs, cabinets, and shelving?

Vote Trump !

Dont do it for the money, its for hobby and accomplishment. You must have passion of doing that, because its sure its not worth $$ of milling at small scale like this

No vacation. Get milling 24/7/365

Tbh Hydraulic mill is a game changer

Your money isn’t in smaller dimensional lumber it’s in your big Timbers

So how much do the mills pay for the Douglas fir logs? Do they pay by the board foot or by the ton?

Sadly we are in a recession or a depression but if you ask joey biden and all that crowd things are going better than they were when mr Donald trump was our amazing American president

would you like to sell your mill while you are taking some time off. sell before you change your mind. 🙂

Enjoy your time off, you are spot on about the economy since 2020. If you don't mind me asking, what does Doug fir pay per thousand bf? Hemlock logs were through the roof last year. Worthless this year. White pine stays about the same give or take a few cents. We can sell all the 1x10's and 1x12's we can cut. It goes for cabin, barn, and shed siding. "Bat n board" 4- 1x12x8 boards with batting is a lot cheaper than plywood. Clear "no knots" 1x whatever, sell really fast as well and a higher price than siding. Like others have said, large timber's as well but handling them can be a pain. We enjoy your videos as I'm sure a lot others do as well. Hang in there.

Right on point

I dont know many guys who bought mills like yours to make money. Most bought them to make lumber for their own use, and maybe sell some on the side if asked. You bought the wrong tool if your intent was to start a commercial lumber mill.

Enjoy your vacation bud. You’ve earned it. See ya on the next one whenever that is. Cheers

BLM uses revenue from timber sales to fund fuel reduction projects, so low timber prices might mess that up. I was just up on East Applegate Ridge Trail this morning and there are tons of dead fir trees in those little drainages and hillsides. Part of Bear Grub timber sale is up along that trail. New BLM "vegetation management" project titled "Rogue Gold" is in the works. Low timber prices will probably have a negative impact on that project.

Hey like they always say
A man has got to do what a man has to do…I understand completely, this is my last year in milling in the summer season, too hot. Enjoy your time off.

Enjoy your vacation 🎉

I wish I had a Woodmizer. It probably wouldn't pay for itself. I have a lot of walnut that I could saw up. White pine too. I could find other nice hardwoods to slice up too.

Trees will keep growing til the market's right.

Now that is using your head thinking about the future of everything you love. Good luck on your vacation and always have fun and get some rest.

Did you take down your for sale post on market place? I don't remember what size lumber you had. I'm interested in building a "pole barn."

Don't blame you to take a break. At least you can still mill if you have to. Plus you could mill for other people.

Enjoy your time off. Look forward to new videos when you start back. Have a great vacation my friend.

yep, we got more doug fir than you can shake a stick at in southeast alaska.

Maybe take up painting Happy Trees 🤣