Building a Sawmill 

With the road complete, and the trees stacked - how to make use of all this wood was an obvious question. Mike decided to make a sawmill from scratch. It's a unique design, and took many months to complete (at least 6). Read the exciting story about taking the sawmill to the land.

Having used this sawmill for several years, Mike decided that he was spending more time "tinkering" than milling as a result of the numerous little adjustments he needed to make in order to get the quality he was hoping for. In the end, he bit the bullet and decided that rather than pour more money into this existing sawmill (by getting a more powerful engine for example), he would go ahead and buy a brand new sawmill. So although this may seem like an ultimate short-coming, I think the experience he has gained and the quality of the home-made version is pretty outstanding if not "perfect" - and I did marry a perfectionist. When you're done looking at these pics, take a peak at the new sawmill!

Click on any photo to see a larger view
Initial Assembly - July 2000
	The main frame is made out of steel. All welding and construction took place in our garage. Mike tried his first cut with the sawmill just tack-welded together - to make sure everything was in the right place and that it worked. It did. This photo is of Mike proudly showing off the first plank!
	Close-up of the blade - just after it's first use!
As an anniversary present, I promised to paint the sawmill
	First coat of primer on the track!
	A Decorative lizard and the name.
	Another decorative lizard by the handle.
	A lizard on one of the guards.
Finished sawmill- December 2000
	Mike tries out the sawmill, fully assembled and "finished" for the first time in our garage.
	Proud sawmill builder-owner!
Sawmill at the Land - January 2001
	First slice of wood - milled and It was quite comfortable (too cold to be too sappy, which was fine too!)
	Mike in the process of sawing a log. Note the discarded bark planks!
	Mike's made a 10 foot long 4" X 4" beam! Cool!

In August 2001 - we started to build a shelter for the sawmill

In October 2004 Mike decided to buy a brand new sawmill

Delivery of the Sawmill to the Strawhenge site

Just before the Xmas break, Mike made the final touches to the sawmill, and 
tried out the completed machine in our garage. Paint job done, whole thing 
assembled - totally cool !!! We took the sawmill up to the land - loaded it 
onto the trailer - and drove nice and slowly to take it to the land on the 
snowy road. Took a while...

It took us two hours to get the chains on the tires, after we got stuck in 
the driveway in the snow (even in 4-wheel drive) in our big truck - it then 
took us another hour or so to plow the road with our tractor's bucket 
(hardly the most efficient method). Then we finally got the trailer where 
we wanted it - to unload the sawmill - but it was already getting dark. 
Tootie was with us, helping us untie the sawmill tracks etc. Mike was a 
little overly excited though and untied one strap too many...and the 
sawmill started rolling off the track - off the trailer - and took off!!!
It landed - partly on our puppy Rufus (who yelped like you wouldn't 
believe). This thing weighs about 600 pounds!

We thought we'd killed him!

Turns out though - although he was temporarily pinned - he was so only by 
his fluffy coat - and not by any limbs or skin. He was way less traumatized 
than the rest of us - who were still freaked out several days later. Of 
course once we knew the puppy was okay - attention was turned to this super 
shiny sawmill that's bent up. The engine casing had broken, and the lift 
mechanism was broken. We didn't stick around to look in more detail though 
- so went away - tail between legs (so to speak)....


Since then, we've fixed what was broken on the sawmill (surprisingly 
little) and leveled an area to assemble it properly - and on New Year's 
day - with a big huge grin...Mike actually sawed him first real log - one 
of the very trees we felled in the summer! TOTALLY AWESOME. You've got to 
see it. And Rufus is getting big - and is totally fine. Phew....