Choosing the Right Sawmill

Image Gallery

Do It Yourself

by Brook Elliot

Portable sawmills fall into three general categories: chainsaw mills, circular sawmills and band sawmills. They are available in a diversity of styles and operating systems, and are priced to fit any budget. "Which to pick," says Will Johnson, president of TimberKing, a portable sawmill manufacturing company, "depends on what you are going to do with it."

The variables, he says, are how much lumber you plan to saw and how quickly you need to cut it. A third variable is hour finely finished you need the boards to he. Here are the pros and cons of each type of mill:

CHAINSAW MILLS

From a cost standpoint, chainsaw mills are inexpensive, and thus very appealing for homestead and farm use. Prices start under $100. But these mills are relatively slow, which means you can use them for major projects only if you have lots of time. Even with the special chains used for lumbering, they still make rough cuts; further milling is required for finished surfaces.

And they waste a lot of wood. "Generally," say's Erin Domagalski of Hud-Son Forest Equipment, "a chainsaw mill has 20 percent more kerf (width of the blade cut) than a band sawmill."

Most chainsaw mills require heavy-duty power heads. Your current chainsaw may not he powerful enough to run it, and a new chainsaw—which can double the cost—may be needed. Special-purpose chains and bars are required as well.

Most chainsaw mills are used with a framework you construct around the log you are cutting, which can he a slow, awkward process. Lining up the first cut is particularly important with these mills, because that surface acts as a guide for the rest of your cuts. The Alaskan Mark III from Granberg International (shown at right) is a good example of this type of chainsaw mill. Exceptions, such as the Total J100 (available through Tilton Equipment Co.), consist of a rail-and-stand system in which the log is held by base stands and the saw rides upside down on the rails.

CIRCULAR SAWMILLS

At one time, all sawmills used circular blades. Most larger commercial operations still do. Their primary benefit is speed. Circular saws cut much faster than band saw's, but the downsides are that they are expensive and they usually have a larger kerf, so they waste more wood. The quality of the cut tends to be on the rough side.

Circular sawmills tend to be transportable, but not portable. They can take as much as a full day to erect once moved to the work site. And most times a crew of three to five people is needed to operate one efficiently and safely.