BlackWaterPark
New Member
Hello there, new to forum and hoping to prevail upon the collective wisdom of the community here. Brief backstory: living offgrid in western Maine foothills on 51 acres with lots of trees, many of which are tall straight pines, but lots of ash, maple, oak, and birch as well. We've been striving to become self sufficient here for the 10 years we've been here, and i feel like the time has come to take that a step further with something I prolly should have done a long time ago...buy a sawmill . As I'm watching the purchasing power of what cash I've managed to accumulate over the years erode, I'm increasingly of the mind to turn the majority of it into tool assets. As I've still got a lot of structures I'd like to build, including a house addition, a mill seems like the first place to start. As for related assets that I've already purchased over the last couple years that can assist with a sawmill, I've got a Kioti CK2610 tractor with 42"forks, a Yanmar vio30 mini ex, and last year I built a 16x40 open pole barn with a interior working height of 12' (this is to say the collar ties are at 12'). Within a month, there should be a 6" slab poured underneath the whole thing. This is where I figure I'll place the mill, or the lumber, or both. On to the mills I've been looking at...
I started off looking at whatever was used in my area but became leery of buying older used equipment. I've been burnt in the past. I looked at the harbor freight mills but as I try to be a pay once, cry once kinda guy who places a high priority on post sale knowledgeable customer service, I just couldn't see myself going that route. Then I looked at Hud-son and Woodland Mills. The Woodlands Mills hm-30 max really caught my eye, and I am to understand, by all accounts, that they have a quite excellent and robust support system for owners of their equipment. It was right around what I saw myself spending, at $6100 delivered, with an extra set of blades and one track extension (to 17'5). Then I got thinking about a trailer as well, which would be another $1500 or so. A little more than i was hoping to spend, but whatever right? It's probably worth it because I've got friends around here that also have land with lots of wood and none of them have sawmills and most don't even burn wood like i do. But then I went and did something stupid, and saw a local (45 minutes away is pretty local for my area) Vallee dealer via a FB marketplace ad, so I had to go take a look. He showed me one of their models, Big Red, and it was clearly a fair bit superior to the WM- HM30, with an integrated 24' trailer, 13hp Honda engine (whereas the WM comes with a 14hp Kholer re-branded chonda), much sturdier construction, made entirely in Canada (whereas the WM are designed in Canada but made in China), a really innovative cut guage system, built in rollers, etc etc. And it's already assembled and ready to go, with support right down the road, more or less. Naturally, this comes in at a much more exaggerated price point than what I was looking at. With the 13hp engine, $14600. The XP version with a 20hp Honda is $2k more. Such a purchase would constitute over a third of my liquid assets, but i do need to saw up a good amount of lumber, and quite honestly, this mill looks like I would have little trouble reselling it down the line of I ever wanted to recoup my investment. So, a couple questions then;
1: Am I overthinking this by looking beyond what the Woodland Mills is capable of doing for me, and spending more money (by a factor of 2) than i really need to?
2: If I went the Vallee route, should I seriously consider upping the ante with the 20hp variant?
3: Can anyone directly speak to their experiences with either of these two brands?
4: Are there other options out there that I'm overlooking and would be a fool not to consider?
I started off looking at whatever was used in my area but became leery of buying older used equipment. I've been burnt in the past. I looked at the harbor freight mills but as I try to be a pay once, cry once kinda guy who places a high priority on post sale knowledgeable customer service, I just couldn't see myself going that route. Then I looked at Hud-son and Woodland Mills. The Woodlands Mills hm-30 max really caught my eye, and I am to understand, by all accounts, that they have a quite excellent and robust support system for owners of their equipment. It was right around what I saw myself spending, at $6100 delivered, with an extra set of blades and one track extension (to 17'5). Then I got thinking about a trailer as well, which would be another $1500 or so. A little more than i was hoping to spend, but whatever right? It's probably worth it because I've got friends around here that also have land with lots of wood and none of them have sawmills and most don't even burn wood like i do. But then I went and did something stupid, and saw a local (45 minutes away is pretty local for my area) Vallee dealer via a FB marketplace ad, so I had to go take a look. He showed me one of their models, Big Red, and it was clearly a fair bit superior to the WM- HM30, with an integrated 24' trailer, 13hp Honda engine (whereas the WM comes with a 14hp Kholer re-branded chonda), much sturdier construction, made entirely in Canada (whereas the WM are designed in Canada but made in China), a really innovative cut guage system, built in rollers, etc etc. And it's already assembled and ready to go, with support right down the road, more or less. Naturally, this comes in at a much more exaggerated price point than what I was looking at. With the 13hp engine, $14600. The XP version with a 20hp Honda is $2k more. Such a purchase would constitute over a third of my liquid assets, but i do need to saw up a good amount of lumber, and quite honestly, this mill looks like I would have little trouble reselling it down the line of I ever wanted to recoup my investment. So, a couple questions then;
1: Am I overthinking this by looking beyond what the Woodland Mills is capable of doing for me, and spending more money (by a factor of 2) than i really need to?
2: If I went the Vallee route, should I seriously consider upping the ante with the 20hp variant?
3: Can anyone directly speak to their experiences with either of these two brands?
4: Are there other options out there that I'm overlooking and would be a fool not to consider?