wow man, it seemed you were talkin' to me, i checked out all the manual band mills quite a few years back. all of them have those high output footage per day figures. had saw a wm mill at richmond when they started making them. influenced me a lot. a guy did some sawing nearby, confirmed what i'd saw, bought an lt-40 manual. great mill, wish i'd had it when building my house. bought mine for the same reason you said, some lumber for myself, some custom sawing to help with the payments, and for retirement income. the mill was everything i dreamed of. once i got the hang of it [had worked around circle mills before] i was turning out the best lumber around. don't be fooled by the figures the mill manufacurers claim, these are done by trained individuals busting their asses. after you get your garage and barn done all your friends and family are probably gonna be tired of helping you and you'll be the true owner of a one-man-mill.........wait a minute, got carried away, the wm lt-40 is a great mill, like i said, it's now a one man mill, and i'm doing well after the back surgery [ha ha, didn't cause all of it]. now down to the buying advice, find someone who has one of the choice mills you are thinking about and offer to help them saw a day, most of the mill companies will refer you to someone. sorry to get carried away.