Milling costs?

[Dipan Patel]

I have maybe 8 usable hard live oak logs that I was going to get milled into 8/4 lumber, but for the $2000 quote from the mill, I'm tempted to just get a large bandsaw and try do it myself...

[Dipan Patel]

Pic shows tape out to 5ft. Most of the logs are 6ft or less.

[Dennis Ford]

look for another mill, the guy that I take logs to charges me ~30 cents per bd ft (I take bigger & straighter logs so would expect those to be cut by the hour)

[Tai Fu]

What about milling with a chainsaw or renting a bandsaw mill?

[Jeff Duncan]

How long have those logs been down? Hard to tell from a pic, but they look like they've been sitting there for a while. If that's the case may not be much for usable lumber left anyway?

If they have been felled recently then I would look into finding someone local with a bandmill. If your thinking about doing it on an actual bandsaw I think that's going to be pretty tough to accomplish.

good luck,
JeffD

[Kevin Bourque]

Put an ad on your local craigslist describing what you are looking for. I'll bet you can get a much lower price.

[Peter Quinn]

Look for a porta mill to come to your site. I'm betting there is a guy locally that will do it much more reasonably and be happy to do so. Sounds like you got the no thank you price from the first mill.

[John Schweikert]

I had a sawyer with a portable mill come to my driveway last September for walnut logs. I worked with him and he charged me $425. Took about 5 hours to cut everything to 4/4 with a little 8/4 mixed in. He knew what he was doing. It all worked out well. I have about 500 bdft of walnut stickered in a shelter I built to air dry for several years.

[Dipan Patel]

Thanks all. I will look into a chainsaw solution that I could do myself, or possibly a local sawyer.

To be honest the wood has more sentimental value than actual value, but still only a small amount of sentimental value. Logs have been sitting for a year or so, but the local sawmill says that the live oak takes forever to dry and his opinion was that the wood will still be usable. I find spending so much on it very difficult in the end. Hopefully I will be able to do something with it...

[Val Kosmider]

Did the guy at the mill look at the logs or the pictures? To be quite frank, that is quite a jumble of logs due to the short length, crotches and limbs. He might have been telling you he wasn't interested, and hence the hefty price. Some guys don't like to touch this stuff either if they don't know the origin...because if the logs came from a yard or a hedgerow there is the likelihood of running into 'metal' objects buried in the trees. I would certainly explore other options if you really wish to try and work with those logs--which will, if you can get them and dried, probably have some pretty spectacular 'lumber' hidden inside them.

My local mill guy ran off about 1,000 feet of cherry, red and white oak, poplar and hickory for me last winter. It was in 5/4, 6/4 and 8/4, took him less than an hour to saw it, and charged me a couple hundred bucks--they were his logs.

Shop around. You can beat that price by a LOT if you are willing to do some work. Even a simple chain saw mill might work with those logs because you are going to have a difficult time setting them up to cut, regardless of the 'sophistication' of the mill. Simple might actually be easier.

[Izzy Camire]

I have a band sawmill but I am too far from you. I will say I think that price is way too high.

Try going to the Forestry Forum I think they have a link that lists sawmillers in different states. If that doesn't work put up a post asking for a sawmiller in your area. They are a nice bunch of guys and someone will help you out.
http://www.forestryforum.com/