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

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.

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....

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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 .

Thank you for such a smart, honest reveiw....not many like you...!

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.

Such a heartbreaking realisation. Even when just doing projects around the farm I’m plagued with the reality that things will take 3x as long if I log it, mill it, and then build it. I want to build a gabled carport using questionable lumber, imagine the risk I’m taking parking my truck underneath it for the next 20yrs, not to mention the heartache of rebuilding it if the lumber doesn’t hold up. Already spent a few $k just buying lumber to build the sawmill shed so I didn’t have to work under sun. I drew a line in the sand at that point and said if I can’t build at least half a project out of milled lumber then I won’t build it. Thanks for hearing my rant! 😅

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.

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