Milling your own lumber- is it worth it?
kentmich
| Posted in Wood and Materials on
I’ve got enough property that we periodically cut down one or two hardwood trees. I recently cut down a sugar maple with about an 18″ trunk with a nice 8′ length that’s straight and free of knots.
Is it worth the effort to have this milled and dry it myself? About how much does it cost to have someone mill it for me (on-site, I couldn’t transport it), and at what point (how much lumber) is it financially worth the while to do it?
I have a nice shady glade where I could stick and dry planks, and a good sized attic that’s pretty hot in the summer, for storage. I cut mostly maple, with some hickory and walnut trees due to go at some time.
Replies
Depending on your location and the amount of competition among mill owners, you can probably expect to pay between $0.30 to 0.40 a board foot or a flat fee if you have only one tree. A couple of years ago I paid $250 to have one large cherry, several hemlock and a couple of white birch resawn by a local mill owner. With fuel prices up, I am sure their costs are up also. Is it worth it financially? It depends on what your trees yield and what your local retail prices are like. It certainly was worth it to me as I got a good 800 board feet of cherry for $250. It took about 6 months to air dry it to <10% moisture. It was all cut to 4/4 thickness. Frankly if you haven't yet sealed the ends of the log, you may have a problem unless the log is stored in a dry location or you could have a nice spalted lot depending on what has happened to it. I bought a used manual "RipSaw" which is a chainsaw head powered bandsaw to slab trees on my woodlot. I paid $1500 for the unit and managed to resaw about 500 board feet of maple and aspen last fall. It is drying now and should be ready at the end of the summer. I also note that you said you would store the lumber outside to start drying. It needs to be under cover to protect it from moisture but open on the sides to allow it to dry. You can't store it uncovered and expect anything useful unless you live in the desert.
Only you can decide what the probability of the log yielding usable lumber might be. Good luck.
That is only about 100 BF of lumber, so the cost of having a sawmill come to you to cut it would be prohibitive. If you could gather up enough logs for a days work (1500 - 2000 BF), then it would be very economical.
Frenchy has dried a ton of lumber and has posted his methods how he does this. The lumber costs he has mentioned are a lot less than Kiln Dried and he does not supply the raw product. Cost wise, I bet you can find a sawyer to rough this out for you for very little in comparison to KD lumber or you can look into your own small portable mill such as Logosol or others make. Time is the bigger factor. How much time do you want to invest into this? If I recall correctly Frenchy bags his and has a dehumidifier. Done incorrectly and you get to build a wonderful fire. Personally I think it is a great story to be able to take trees from your own property and turn it into something useful.
Brad
I recently brought a cherry tree to a local bandsaw miller. He cut it for $0.22/ bdft w/ my help. He said it would be 0.28/bdft if he did it alone.
In order to handle the logs and haul them in my Tacoma I bucked them to 5 and 6 foot lengths. He said he needed a minumum of 4-5' lengths to manage on the mill and even then it's a little more trouble leveling the log to get the initial cut started.
He would not come to my land with the mill unless I had around 2K bdft.
As it were I felt like he did me a big favor just to mess with it. It turned out to being 212 bdft of lumber
It is very rewarding to harvest your own trees for lumber.
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