Profit with a Portable Sawmill

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Kilbourne had more in mind than making small stands of hardwoods profitable. He wanted harvesting done in a manner that would improve, rather than degrade, the woodlots, turning them into self-sustaining crops. This philosophy ties right in with SMAC's mission.

Initially, Best hauled the portable sawmill to job sites, cutting lumber on either a per-board-foot or a by-the-hour basis. But he soon went to a stationary- setup at the SMAC farm. There are several reasons, he says, why this makes sense.

To price a job you have to see it, says Best, because of on-site concerns, such as safety issues, availability of bathroom facilities and the general condition of the work area. "Don't underplay that," he says. "In terms of money, log handling can make or break a job."

Often there isn't enough work to justify the trip. "Most cutting around here is either for people who have one, two or three logs, or for people who are buying logs. Neither of these provides an economic incentive to do most on-site work." For a full day's cutting, he says, it pays to haul the mill to the job site. Otherwise he has customers bring the logs to him.

"Most people start out using the portability function, but then go to a stationary setup for better control, safety and cleanliness of the logs," Johnson says.

Best designed SMAC's setup to combine the physical benefits of a raised-bed saw with the log-handling benefits of a ground-level bed. The saw is nested in a pit-like depression. The saw bed is even with the ground. Logs are then easily rolled over the ground onto the bed.

Before moving them, the logs are cleaned with a high-pressure hose. "There's nothing like crusted mud and imbedded forest duff to dull a blade," says Best. "And the time and cost of changing blades can cut into your profits."

Kilns are the next step in value added logging. Nothing adds profits to wood as dramatically as kiln-drying. "Typically," Best says, "simple cutting of lumber brings in about 16 cents per board foot. Kiln-drying that wood can add 20 cents to $1 per board foot, depending on the species and how thick you cut it." And because you can produce the same volume with less work, he says, the thicker the boards, the higher the profits.

SMAC used Wood-Mizer kits to build its own solar kilns, using its saw to cut all the structural members from its own woodlot. "Ironically," Best says, "when we checked with the folks at WoodMizer, we were the first people to actually cut our own dimensional lumber for the kiln."

SMAC built two 3,000-board-foot-ca pacify kilns. "They cost $4,300 each in materials to erect, plus labor, and take about three weeks to build with two semi-skilled builders," Best says. "After that, they run themselves." The only other equipment necessary, a moisture gauge, tells when to increase the fresh air ventilation and when the wood is dry enough to remove.

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