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

I've been milling local lumber since 1982, first on a neighbor's 40" radial Foley Bellsaw powered by a Chevy 350, then with an Alaskan sawmill, and now I own an LT40. I have never found small dimensional, construction lumber (one bys through 2X8s) to be profitable. 4X8s and up are profitable and take much less time to mill. I would reach out to a few general contractors and let them know you can cut large beams and posts to order. You can offer them at a price that is profitable to you and saves them a lot of money. My most profitable milling was always live edge slabs. I would mill standing dead cedar and Doug fir into wide live edge slabs (16"+ wide, 6'-8' long, 2" thick). I would build a few live edge slab benches, load them and about 25 slabs into my pickup truck, drive to Grass Valley/Nevada City CA, park in a large pullout on the side of highway 49 or 20, set out a couple of benches and lean about 6 slabs standing up against my pickup truck. The slabs I would consistently sell for $75-$100 each. The plain (no back) benches I sold for $150. Benches with backs $250 each. I also received orders for slab tables that fetched $1,500+. That was in 1994. I now live in North Central WA. I recently sold an Aspen live edge slab table for $3,300 and two benches for $350 each. There are a couple of tree trimming guys down in the valley below me who will call me and offer me the butt logs off "yard trees" they are hired to remove. They don't want to mess with the butt logs, so if I come with my trailer when they call, they will load butt logs of maple, elm, walnut, and oak onto my trailer for free. I know a few woodworkers around the area, and occasionally I will call them and let them know I will be milling hardwoods "upon request" in an upcoming Saturday. I usually get 3-4 woodworkers to show up. I throw say a maple log on the mill and take off a slab to reveal the inside. The wood workers take a peak. I then ask, "what do you want me to cut?" I then mill the boards they ask me to right then and there. They love it, and I have a blast watching them drool and bicker over the boards. I have sold quite a few boards that way. Large (18"+ wide, 6'-8' long, 2"-4" thick) maple slabs can sell for $400 each. I've never tried to make a full blown business from my milling. It's more of a hobby that pays for itself and gives me a ton of enjoyment and has a social element to it as well.

Never quit. Your in the best wood. I would cry in ontario to be cutting that, the mill is probably payed off just with the looks from your little pile of saw dust. Milling is my passion, cut in winter haul with skidoo stock pile for summer fun. Kept out of sun the wood is good for years and years. When lumber prices go up then your ready. Or build anything any size for yourself really cheap. Don't quit stay positive it's a great spot

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

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.

Good job thinking thru the cost - benefit angle. Some guys just stick with doing the same thing & get bitter. Moving on to other projects makes sense. It’ll come back around. It always does.

I bought my LT40 Super in 2000 without having done a lot of market research. I'm in Indiana and saw hardwoods which were hard to locate in small quantities for the amateur woodworker. I built 3 solar kilns and a large warehouse. Despite not having done my homework, word got around and I spent as much time marketing as sawing. I can't say I ever thought it could be a highly profitable business but I love wood and selling to woodworkers and making enough that I haven't had to touch my retirement money. I will say that if all I had was an LT15 I would have given up years ago. There are lots of those around under tattered blue tarps.

Trying to make a hobby into a business isnt easy. But if you make your own doors / tables windows the mill is awesome. Also use it to make up window / door trim, cabinet material , large custom rafters / beams. Mostly not to sell . Your right about having a huge supply of pine . I noticed the blue stained pine is now in demand where a few years ago Mills wouldnt accept it. Cedar definitely the wood in demand if you can get it. One thing that is a problem selling wood is bugs in the wood that make a showing a year or two later with little piles of sawdust they leave behind on the floor. All in all I love wood milling.

As good as your videos are...the comments from other loggers and millers is an awesome add on...and thx for responding to so many of them....

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

first mill I worked at was also an "exterior siding" mill. they would buy medium grade lumber in bulk from canada, plain it down a bit and put chemical and paint on it to sell as exterior siding instead of structural lumber. they turn quite the profit just from remanufacturing lumber into a different product.

Good info. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the video ---I've always wondered how having a small mill might work out. Wow! A good many tough comments. I appreciate your sharing the realities of that business. I live in urban Seattle and heat with wood. I have zero wood of my own, but nearby light industrial businesses throw of lots of scrap wood they are glad to have me haul home so they don't have to pay to dispose of it. Much of it is random lengths of dimensional lumber which I just cut to length on my table saw if needed. Also a lot of chunks that don't even need to be cut ---just tossed in the stove. Of course, wood heat is never "free"! There a lot of labor to that but as a retiree it's something I enjoy. I'm guessing that high interest rates cut the guts out of construction and the lumber needed for that. The big growth industry continues to be government and the taxes and debt that finance it. I shake my head in wonder with what goes on in California, which makes Washington State and Seattle look almost sane by comparison.

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

I bought my saw a few years back but never with the thought of selling lumber , I realized that that market was not worth the effort . But I could design and build structures , gazebos etc that were more beefy then those built by the commercial sellers , sheds with unique designs etc that caught peoples eyes as unique .

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.

Wood Mizer nice units made Indianapolis. Just spent time Kalispell, White Fish and Missoula Montana and Cour d’Alene Idaho. There are a lot more custom homes being built northwest part of country than Midwest. Interest rates definitely holding down lumber prices. Enjoyed your video.

Well I'm enjoyed your videos. brings back a lot of memories for me. I built a little sawmill in Clay County West Virginia in the 90s, before I came out to California. it had a 60 inch blade and a school bus motor set up a blower for the sawdust bought a four-wheel-drive tractor 6 foot high rear tires 4 foot high front tires bought and repaired a log truck wound up hauling logs for a local sawmill so I was out in the woods in the mud and snow on their jobsites driving logs back to the mill two or three times a day it was dangerous work and a lot of close calls a few saw cuts one particular time where where a log I just cut the top Free after falling it decided to walk me back 20 feet up against another tree stump 6 inches of squishing me like a bug it's starting to feel like like 10 years of riding dirt bikes with all the close calls anyway I quit the dirt bikes left the Mill I'm in beautiful weather in California and I've been here ever since now i ride mountain bikes gives me back a little piece of that takes me further out into nature! thanks for the videos!

@kurtdowny I use a good oil based paint, put them out of the weather and sun. It takes a couple of years. But it's most worth it. If you can keep it above 45 degrees, even better. No warpage, or rotting.

There’s a thousand things you could use the lumber to add value to it. You could build trusses. You could sell barn and shed kits. You could use the lumber to build modular homes. One thing for sure is it’s not going to cut itself down.

...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 ....