Timber!

I am jealous. I would love to be able to make some stuff with lumber from my own land.

@twobits

What kind of trees do you have?

This sawmill I have was just under $2000 from Harbor Freight.   Some people love it, some people hate it.  I'm among those who love it.  I've had it for a couple years now and it has cut perfect lumber without a problem.  I can't say enough good things about it, especially for the price.   I don't think you could find a cheaper sawmill, yet it does what it's supposed to do.

The key to success with it is to set it up properly to begin with.  You've got to have it on a very solid and level foundation including placing shims under the rails to be sure everything is nice and well-lined-up.  If you do that it will serve you well.

If you have decent lumber trees on your property this $2000 investment can pay for itself just after making lumber from only a few trees.   You'd pay more than $2000 for the amount of lumber you can obtain from just two or three nice sized trees.  And if you keep going after that, it just starts adding up.   So no complaints here.  In fact, I would say this was probably the best 2 grand I ever spent in my life. ? 

Oh, I should mention also, that I already had chainsaws and tractors to cut the trees down and move the logs to the mill.   If you don't have a way to move the logs to the mill that could be a problem.  But then again, you could always mount the mill on a flat-bed trailer to make it portable.  But then there's the cost of the flat bed trailer and whatever you're going to use to tow that around.

But yeah, $2000 for the sawmill was just fine with me.   I only wish I would have bought mine much earlier in my life.

Here's some more photos of it.

Sadly, my empire of dirt is 3/4 acres in a 20 year old residential subdivision. All we have around us 20 year old softwoods that everyone planted 20 years ago.

The land, the trees, and now the sawmill will have to go on my list for someday when it is not so important to live near town.

Nice test post!

My wife and I have been looking for property as we near retirement; move away from the suburbs and out to the country.  Getting a sawmill is only my wish list.  They've come down in price over the years.  I might be able to afford it (still working on the justifying part) but as I also do woodworking, it may happen.

Well, I don't like to influence other people's decisions, but all I can tell you is that I am so glad that I didn't spend a penny more for a more expensive sawmill.   When I bought it (sight unseen) I did fear that I might have just tossed 2 grand in the garbage and bought a pile of junk.  But I had it for over two years now and I couldn't be more pleased with it.  So I'm glad I didn't waste money buying a more expensive one.

I will add the following two caveats:

1. If you're planning on buying a sawmill to go into business cutting lumber for a living, you might be wise to pay more for a more industrial sawmill.   This sawmill is perfect for my backyard home use.  Not sure how well it would hold up being run 8 hours a day under hard use.   But for a homeowner it's the perfect backyard mill.

2. Having said the above, there are people who have purchased this saw mill and have called it names that I wouldn't dare repeat on this forum. ? 

The only thing I can say to that is that either I was extremely lucky to get a really good one, or those people who call it less than flattering names simply didn't know what they were doing and caused their own problems.

I will say this.  It comes in pieces and you need to assemble it.  It's not bad, it's mostly preassembled.  It's just the rails and bed you really need to set up.  But you need to take great care to set the bed and rails up really well.  If you set up a sloppy bed and rail system then of course you're going to have major problems.

But if you take the time to set it up like a precision machine it will then act like one.  At least mine does.

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for anyone who buys one of these and has problems with it. ? 

All I know is that I'm tickled pink with mine. ?