What's new

Rough Sawn Lumber - Board Foot Prices

i have the WM126 woodlander.

hindsight, wouldn't have done the trailer...
 
I have a mill, like already mentioned you need machinery to handle the log

I have done a large project and that is about it. I need a 2x4, I just go get one from the hardware store for a couple of bucks

You will go though more blades than you think
You will find every staple in the tree, and every .22 bullet that was ever shot in the county:laughing:

There is a learning curve to get the most out of your log

and like everything else, the neighborhood will expect you to move your whole set up to their house to get 12 boards out of the one blow down that they have, and you should do it for fun if you don't you are a jerk

I've got machinery and such for handling the log, no issues there for sure.

I've looked at the blade sharpeners already and yea, this won't be for the random 2x4 or whatever; theres an old house site on my property that still has a nice Chimney stack that would make for a great "shack" in the woods and my dad is about to retire and needs a place to work on things. My mother thinks they can't afford to put up a building but I'd like to prove otherwise. I'm a licensed P.E. in my state too, so aside from Zoning, aint no thang.

The county line splits my property so that means I'll have twice as many .22lr to find! Lol.
 
I've got machinery and such for handling the log, no issues there for sure.

I've looked at the blade sharpeners already and yea, this won't be for the random 2x4 or whatever; theres an old house site on my property that still has a nice Chimney stack that would make for a great "shack" in the woods and my dad is about to retire and needs a place to work on things. My mother thinks they can't afford to put up a building but I'd like to prove otherwise. I'm a licensed P.E. in my state too, so aside from Zoning, aint no thang.

The county line splits my property so that means I'll have twice as many .22lr to find! Lol.
if you have the equipment you are most of the way there:beer:
 
Not sure how you are estimating board feet in the standing tree, but I would use an estimator that accounts for waste and taper in the tree. Likely has less board feet than what you are thinking.


Pine also has little value and will generally be hard to sell. Pine boards just aren't used for much.
 
Most guys with mills around here will come mill your logs for 50/50. Might be a good option where you get to watch it first hand, see the work involved, and still get a stack of wood for free.
 
Not sure how you are estimating board feet in the standing tree, but I would use an estimator that accounts for waste and taper in the tree. Likely has less board feet than what you are thinking.


Pine also has little value and will generally be hard to sell. Pine boards just aren't used for much.
This. Either trim or T&G for ceilings but not much other demand for pine in my area.
 
I have a Norwood LM29. Very happy with it. I like the smooth feed, even being a manual “push thru” feed. If you have one youll use it. If you buy a mill, buy a blade sharpener, dull blades are useless. Pine is great for framing. 2nd on trimming (or splitting then trimming) a big log to get it on the mill. This one’s Curly Maple so it was worth the trouble. I got info packets from 3 manufacturers & compared them before I decided on Norwood.

BB4BECC3-F612-4602-B02A-946D4A666C54.jpeg
B3E88233-4AAD-4480-9E93-D1BFF6CDC414.jpeg
 
I've been casually looking for a mill all summer. Any that pop up sell fast and for almost more than retail. Most of the new ones I've looked at are 6-8+ months back ordered.

There was a fully loaded, fully hydraulic woodmizer on FB earlier this week for $35k that I briefly considered but it was way too much machine for what I need right now....just checked and it apparently already sold. Crazyness.
 
As far as the board ft calculator from logs, ive compared all 3 scales & Doyle was closest. It was under actual bd ft yield by almost 15%
 
I have a HUGE maple I need to drag out. Probably have to get the local guy in town to mill it for me. Doubt anyone has a 40+” bandsaw mill around here. With about 55-60” at a crotch. Lots pf burls and figure in this tree.
 
Do you have a helper to work with? If not expect to be half as productive. All that getting on and off the tractor, moving the log an inch, etc, etc, wastes a bunch of time.
 
Last edited:
If you’re not going to use any of the pine logs yourself then have a logger come in and harvest them and pay you for the logs they take.

Around here we have a lot of hardwood trees and pine trees. I don’t see people messing with the pine but I’m not sure if it’s yellow or white. I assume white which isn’t worth anything.

My buddy had a logger just finish harvesting his ten acres and I guess he did ok on that. It was all hardwood oak and hickory. He has a couple big walnut trees he’s going to deal with himself. Walnut brings the best money around here.

I may have him take a look at my trees on my property for logging them off too if they’re worth while.

I have live edge projects to do (too many no where near ready to start on) and most of the walnut I bought was from guys who mess around with their sawmills cutting and selling slabs. I recently bought two large swamp oak slabs from a small company that only sells large slabs of hardwood for a friend of mines wet bar counter top I’m going to build for him. They’re starting out at 3” thickness. I figure after getting it on my buddies router table and flattening them they’ll be around 2” thick. I’ll do a clear epoxy finish filling the cracks with black first.

I did purchase some 5x5 9’ timber’s from the same guys I got the swamp oak from to build a wood working bench out of… when I have time. These guys cut the square timber’s out to build super thick heavy dinning room tables out of. They do that themselves too.

I’d love to have a saw mill but that’s probably never going to happen.
00190457-B28D-416E-8A74-50D8BDD50C34.jpeg
 
These guys have a huge saw setup for big logs as that’s what they specialize in. They also have a commercial dryer. My slabs in the photo above have been dried.

Here’s some huge walnut slabs that are around 5’ wide at its widest area and around 16’ long. This tree was hit by lightning and the tree grew back over the area it got hit. You can see the gap area on the left of the slab where it was hit. I didn’t even want to ask how much those slabs cost. Conference room table slabs.

DBCFEF20-6550-44EB-9D34-9C69065566C9.jpeg
 
I have live edge projects to do (too many no where near ready to start on) and most of the walnut I bought was from guys who mess around with their sawmills cutting and selling slabs. I recently bought two large swamp oak slabs from a small company that only sells large slabs of hardwood for a friend of mines wet bar counter top I’m going to build for him. They’re starting out at 3” thickness. I figure after getting it on my buddies router table and flattening them they’ll be around 2” thick. I’ll do a clear epoxy finish filling the cracks with black first.
There's no way in hell you should lose an entire inch of thickness going from rough milled to finished unless it's a spiraled piece of shit or you're CNCiing it down and leaving a raised edge.

I did purchase some 5x5 9’ timber’s from the same guys I got the swamp oak from to build a wood working bench out of…


I’d love to have a saw mill but that’s probably never going to happen.
Unless you are trying to be fancy I would highly encourage you to build your workbench out of cheapo dimensional lumber from the usual sources.

These guys have a huge saw setup for big logs as that’s what they specialize in. They also have a commercial dryer. My slabs in the photo above have been dried.

Here’s some huge walnut slabs that are around 5’ wide at its widest area and around 16’ long. This tree was hit by lightning and the tree grew back over the area it got hit. You can see the gap area on the left of the slab where it was hit. I didn’t even want to ask how much those slabs cost. Conference room table slabs.

Yeah that's the kind of operation my buddy and I are going for eventually but it will take a few years since we both have full time jobs and no shortage of personal projects.
 
Top Back Refresh