Mike, A Yr Ago Or So I Was On A Chainsaw Lumber Mill Forum. Like This Forum But Saw Mill Guys. A Lot Of Members In Mi. Ron
You know why? Because everyone up here is a weekend lumberjack!
I know of a bunch of different people who have those portable saw mills. Some are the band saw type, some have the big bar and chain, like a chainsaw, and some use the huge saw wheels, but it seems those band saw ones are found a lot more often. Actually they are quite cool. You can put them anywhere, even in the woods if you want, roll your log on it and just cut them up. If you burn wood heat, you will have plenty of slab wood as well, however I think that stuff is way better for sauna wood!
Also the slab wood makes for a nice outer shell for a cabin too, but yeah a portable saw mill can come in real handy.
I've often thought about getting one but for me, I'd have to get a tractor or a small skidder first, so that I could skid those huge logs in. All the people I know of, that have them have the equipment necessary for getting the logs where they need to be. You figure, the bigger the log, the more lumber and the less waste.
Now of course if a person has the money to spend, they do make a log loader that you can pull behind a 4 wheeler. Of course it's a smaller version of what regular loggers use, but for the weekend lumberjack with a sawmill, it could prove quite handy. Then, you could cut down your tree, de-limb it, skid it to the loader with the 4 wheeler, cut it up into 8-10's, load it, and take it to your sawmill. That's something I would have if I could afford it...............I'm getting too old to wrestle with 8' chunks of wood! I don't even care if it's basswood, I ain't fiddlin' with it!