Milling: is it worth the effort ????

[DN22 Gardening]

Playing devils advocate here so please...don't jump down my throat toooo hard. :lol:

 

 

We've got approx 50 ton of various harwood stems in our yard. cut over the last year. mostly 15/20' long varying from 10" to 48" dia. usual stuff, seem to have a lot of horse chestnut (never seen any for sale) a bit of 3' dia accacia, rest is birch, oak, etc

 

Purely on a financial basis, is worth investing in a mill, storage, etc as opposed to just logging the lot up for next years firewood.

 

Looking at the pics on here, apart from carving, can't think of anything more satisfying than milling your own timber to use on other jobs.

 

However, we've all got bills to pay.

[tommer9]

The return is far higher than firewood. If you mill to an inch you ont have to wait much longer to get the return either, and you will still get firewood from the milling waste!

[Big J]

If you can shift the slabs, the return is much much better than firewooding.

 

My milling and firewooding is fairly labour intensive (Alaskan mill and splitting axe) but in a day I can reasonably do:

 

- 50 cubic foot of boards at 1.5 inch thickness

 

- 5 cubic meters of firewood split fairly small

 

50 cubic foot, provided I can get a customer for it, will sell at £600-1800 depending on species and whether it is green or kilned.

 

5 cubic meters of firewood will net me a maximum of £300.

 

Timber costs obviously need to be deducted from those figures.

 

So yes, milling is definitely worth the effort!

[davidb]

For me it is worth it as l use the wood. Milling means l have access to woods that l can get in the wood yard. The draw back is not having enough space for drying.

[si36]

watch out when doing the chestnut tried milling some last year, it planked fine but as we were doing more boards the first load just started splitting we just watched as they split in front of us !!! gave up in the end.

[Mike Dempsey]

Forget the horse chesnut for wood working. It is crap and not worth the effort. Cut it for firewood. I have been using the alaskan mill now for 10 years and I am a cabinet maker so I only mill timber for myself. HC is not a timber I would use for cabinet making and as yet I have not seen it in any sawmill for cabinet making.

 

Mike

[Rob D]

It's a very good point you make in this thread. Something I've asked myself a few times over the last few years...

 

Why is it such a tricky question?

 

Because to make a success of milling financially IMO you need to committ to it in terms of time and money. Who are you going to sell the wood to? It takes time to mill and store planks properly - very difficult to do if you are a working tree surgeon with dead lines.

 

If you are doing it to make a few things for yourself, friends and family or you have some building projects or some such in mind then you are onto a winner - you would not be able to buy what you can make. You will save a fortune milling your own wood.

 

My advice would be to buy a mill, mill just the good stuff i.e. that acacia sounds good, any straight oak always a winner, any wood you just fancy seeing what it looks like milled. Firewood the rest.

 

If you then get people sniffing around or someone buys a load of planks from you then it may be worth looking more into it as a business.

 

 

 

[Rob D]

However all that said....

 

 

I'm getting a forum in the next few weeks that will function purely as a method for small wood producers to sell their timber. You'll fill in a form as to what you have, which area it is, how much you want for it etc. And of course be able to post lots of pics.

 

Woodworkers can then come onto the forum and look for what wood they are after and see who is milling near them.

 

People will also be able to advertise their timber in the round that they a) want to sell, b) want to have milled for them, c) a tree surgeon can advertise a tree due to come down and see if anyone wants to come in and mill it d) you're taking down a tree and can mill it on site - is anyone interested in the milled timber and picking it up direct off site e) people who have timber in the round and want to sell it as firewood.

 

 

 

In short I want it to be a medium where people can trade wood.

 

Whether it'll work or not who knows! ....

 

 

 

[John Hughes]

Milling, definetly worth the effort as long as you don't expect to make too much money out of it.

I agree with Rob , if you are milling to sell the timber you need alot of support equipment and space. The board the customer wants is always the one at the back of the shed on the bottom of the pile.

 

The timber I mill is mainly used in my small joinery business. It is great to be able to use one's own timber and the customers like it when you tell them where the tree had grown. Presently I am making a bathroom vanity unit out of Cedar of Lebanum that grew on the site of a demolished Priory only a couple of miles from the clients house.

 

Rob

Your new site sounds great, I hope it takes off.

 

John

[likeitorlumpit]

sounds like something i would be interested in