Money Making with your Mill?

[clawmute]

I am curious as to how many men with mills (of any type) actually turn a for real profit from their investment. I know its great fun and satisfaction making your own lumber for use in various projects, but how many actually make real dollars from it? One of my old customers once told me that if he inherited a million dollars he would just keep sawmilling until it was gone. It can be a bottomless pit.

I used to have a 48" circle mill and am considering another mill of some kind to use some pine & hardwood on our place, and maybe make a few bucks on the side. I really liked the old mill I had, but might build from scratch a nice CSM. I am a designer for an engineering company that does nothing but sawmills/woodyards/OSB mills MDF mills and the like, so I'm familiar with the business.

Do you make money with your small mill, or is it just a fun pastime?

 

[MJR]

Money is a evil thing. My tech is the only person I know who made consistent money with a mill (L15). He bought all his logs, EWP and made picnic tables. He lives on a main road on a big lake. Wood so wet it wouldn't go through the planner. He gets $10 a foot. My mill I got $2900 into it. My other toys cost a lot more and I assure you they never made me any money.

 

[woodshop]

I am curious as to how many men with mills (of any type) actually turn a for real profit from their investment. I know its great fun and satisfaction making your own lumber for use in various projects, but how many actually make real dollars from it?

Kindof an open ended question since there are so many variables. I do know several people with bandmills that have paid for themselves in only a few years. I don't mill with anything close to a commercial mill, not even a full blown bandmill. I have a small handheld bandmill (Ripsaw) and a csm, and while I have sold some lumber I've milled, 99% of the (currently about 11K bd ft) wood I've milled is in storage for eventual use in my woodshop. Soup to nuts, including transportation costs to and from the log, cost of saws and mills depreciated over 10 years and gas/oil/chain/bandsaw blades... it costs me less than 50 cents a bd ft when it's all said and done. That does not include the cost of my time, which is between 2 and 2 1/2 minutes a bd ft total, including transportation time, time to sticker, unsticker and dead stack/store. So you ask do I make any REAL PROFIT?... well not directly. However, when I sell a Shaker side table with 10 bd ft of premium FAS cherry in it, that cherry only costs me $5 total, not $25-35 it would cost another woodworker buying it from a sawmill or $40-50 buying it retail. Thus more profit when I sell the piece.

 

[BlueRider]

I use the wood I mill for my furniture making business. I try to keep an eye on prices from different sawyers and lumber suppliers so I can charge my clients what it would cost me to buy the same wood. So in this sense I suppose I am making money with my mill. But the cost of wood for most projects is small compared to the labor so without the added value of making the wood into furniture I would be hard pressed to make any money by selling just the wood.

A local sawyer who I ocasionaly buy a bit of wood from when I run short makes small cabins with wood he mills. I suspect if he didn't have a product to sell in addition to just wood he would probably not be able to stay in busuness.

The trick is in finding the right value added product to make and a way of marketing it.

 

[Jwoods]

I have a simple manual mill, a TA Schmid. I use it primarily for personal needs, (hardwood sawing) but typically custom saw enough logs for friends and neighbors that I pay for my expenses....bands, gas, misc.

As of today, my cost of operating the mill only is approx. .06 to .10 cents a board foot. (this is for mill operation only) If I'm working alone on a good day I can saw 600-700 bd. ft., but the conditions have to in my favor.

At .10 cents per bd. ft. cost, that's $70.00 dollars per day. The going rate in my area is around .20 cents per board foot for custom sawing, which would be $140.00 for 700 bd. feet sawn. -$70.00 cost and you have $70.00 profit.......far from getting rich, but can be a possibility.

Joe

 

[046]

so far ... it looks like the answer is if you can use the wood produced for yourself. seems like that would be a killer way to build up a large inventory (wood) with a relative small investment.

 

[FJH]

If i was buying the wood I'd be paying you to take it!
usually I make wages or the cost of the wood depending on WHAT I am cuting the more cuts the less money you make.

 

[clawmute]

Thanks boys for your comments. You have to like what you're doin', and nobody is getting rich! A lot of the big mills are shtting down or throttling way back. Smaller outfits always do better in hard times like these. I have a friend that has always done fairly well. He makes Red Cedar logs for log homes/cabins and has a crew to put them together. He's made a fair amount of money doing that.


Some of the pictures on this site are of Gene's house.

http://millcreekredcedarloghomes.com/

 

[Sawyer Rob]

My mill had paid for itself long ago, so the way i see it, every time i run it i'm making a profit.

Rob

 

[EPA]

One way to make money with a band mill is to make somthing out of the product and sell it //
I saw out all the wood mtl for small (8'x12') tool sheds which I sell delivered for $1600.00 (about 2100 at Home despot). cost break down about so:
lumber 800 BF worth $.50/ft $400 $.25 /bf wood + .25 bf labor. 3 days construction (4 sometimes//) Paint,gun nails, roofing,little window, hardware $185-220 use 200 and shipping on my trailor $50 + 1/2 day--so flat cost out of pocket 3 1/2 days,and $450 -500 sold for $1600 not bad for an old retired guy // JP

 

[redprospector]

I made an existance soley with my mill for several years. Sometimes you make good money, sometimes not. The trick is to find a "nitch" market for what you're producing. My big handicap was everything I cut was Pine, & Fir, not much hardwood here. My biggest money maker was 12"x12"x16' Ponderosa Pine beams sold to a building contractor in Arizona, I usually made as much profit hauling them to him as I did milling them. In the last several years I have been able to make more money chipping small logs, and selling the rest as firewood. I feel a change coming on though.

Andy