Must Watch! So You Want to Open a Retail Sawmill and Lumber Business?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 พ.ย. 2021
- We are a full time, professional sawmill and lumber retailer, we also own a 150 acre farm. We work hard and play hard, and we're ranked twice as the Number 1 high grade quality hardwood lumber producer in Alabama! My wife is a retired Mechanical Engineer from NASA and I am an Army Rocket Propulsion Scientist. Come along, let's get some wood sawn or fire up one of the earthmoving machines!
- แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
I genuinely love watching the heart and soul that you three pour into this business. Yes, Chip included. 😄 Thank y'all for sharing these.
Chip is pretty integral to out business, and although he is still learning how to drive the forklift (he doesn't have any opposable thumbs, so its difficult) , and we couldn't do it without him. We have customers who come in and say their kids keep asking when they can come so they can see and pet Chip.
Thank you for taking the time to share your life with us.
My pleasure! Thanks for watching.
Owning your own business is the satisfaction in itself. 31 yrs since I started working for myself. You control quality, profit (most of the time), hours, customer satisfaction, and you get to sleep good at night knowing you did your best. Is it perfect and wonderful? No. But you still control it. I support local small business above ALL, if they provide the quality. If they don't, I just move on. Some people don't understand "strive for perfection". Thank you for being the upper tier in your field and doing your thing. I appreciate that and hope to meet you guys in the near future as a hobbyist in the wood field.
Thanks, we try to do our best. It's not easy, but we keep pushing.
Cool to see the operations from beginning to end - thanks for taking the time to help us when I am sure you had other "things" you needed to get done
Glad you enjoyed it
I love watching wood related videos on TH-cam. I have watched many. Watching yours made me so much more educated as to why wood cups and warps. Understanding the grain lines explains a lot. After watching you teach, I can now distinguish a good sawyer from an idiot. Thank you for caring enough to teach us. Your videos are awesome and I definitely am a fan.💓💓
Thank you! You have hit the nail on the head, I do these videos, in part, to educate the consumer and have them know the difference between well sawn lumber and garbage, and maybe also the sawmiller who cut it.
I really enjoy your channel. I'm a woodturner in Maryland. One of these days I will come visit your store.
Thank you!
Every time I watch one of your videos all I can think of is the grainy footage of the log falling off your LT15.
Makes me smile every time.
It's amazing to know where you started, great job YellowHammer, and Mrs. YellowHammer.
I know what you are talking about. We had a family dinner last Friday, and the subject came up and we watched the very clip you are talking about. We laughed and laughed. That video was taken with a camera so old, it was back before Iphones and GoPros were invented. Thanks for watching!
I enjoyed watching the video and I greatly appreciate the hard work that you and Martha put in to produce such beautiful lumber for us to enjoy in our projects. I was there several months ago buying quartersawn red oak and soft maple for a new kitchen table. It is finished now and I need to send a photo or two for you to put on your bragging board. I want to thank you for all that you do because I sure don't know where else I would go to buy lumber with the same or almost similar quality for the price that you charge.
Sincerely, Colin Giersberg
Thank you for the compliments. We do our best to produce the highest quality wood that we can.
I’m just a hobby Sawyer, but I’m enjoying your content
Thanks!
Yal have a really first class set-up, biz, , and personalities! Much respect. AC
We appreciate that. We just like working with wood and selling the best product that we can.
What a nice operation ! Fist class! Very impressive..
Many thanks!
What a great video! You have a beautiful place. What a team!
Thanks.
With the utmost respect, things look a lot easier weather-wise down there in Alabama...I'm in Northern Ontario, Canada
You are correct, that's why I live here! Thanks for watching and stay warm!
I love your display! I’m working on improving mine.
Thanks, you can do it!
Yor setup looks amazing! Your boards look perfect. I hope you're making money.
Thanks for the video.
Thanks for the compliments, we try to do the best we can. Thanks for watching!
Nice looking operation and a good saw set up. I've been using a Cooks Saw since 2014 to cut lumber from trees on our place, mostly pine, for personal use down here in Pintlala AL. My wood stacks are nearly as yours.
Thanks 👍
👍👍👍👍👍Thanks for taking time to make this video. 💗💙💚❤️💜
Making these videos sure eats up a lot of time. I feel guilty when Martha is working and I'm filming, so I have to take breaks and get some work done. However, I'm glad you enjoy watching, it makes it worthwhile.
@@HobbyHardwoodAlabama you be sure and tell Martha how much we appreciate her also. God Bless ❤️
You have an awesome operation there
Thanks, its a lot of work but we enjoy it.
Congrats on your hard work paying off with a successful business. Makes me and a lot of folks very jealous.
Thank you!
Love the behind the scenes. I need to come out soon. I don't think I have even been out there this year.
Thanks, we hope people see the videos and understand we are a little different than the big box stores and truly hand touch our wood to make it as good as we can.
Very nice
Thanks for watching!
Good job 👍
Thanks for the visit
Nice 👍👍👍
Thanks, it means a lot.
That LT 70 is an impressive machine
Thanks, it does a good job.
"Sawing is fun for the first few hundred boards and after that i just becomes work"
Well dang thats depressing lol. I like your setup!
Words of truth. I run the sawmill pretty much every day, for many, many years, and I look forward to firing it up in the morning and turning it off in the afternoon.
You look like you have a GREAT operation. I wish you were in IN.
Thanks for the compliments.
Martha, Rob thanks for making these videos. Much interruptions for your work day. Wondering who you are delivering that Nice Hardwood too? Wondering what will be made from it?
Yeah, making videos eats up a lot of time. A surprisingly large chunk. But it fun and hopefully better shows what we do. Thanks for watching.
Robert, Great video. I still don't see how ya'll get so much done in a day! Do you still write the BF and price on the end of your boards? I noticed a lot of the new boards didn't have that on them.
It depends if we get a chance. Although we didn't show it in the video, sometimes we are out early in the morning planing and sizing boards and simply run out of time before we open the doors for customers.
Good video! Let’s people know how much work it is to produce a board.
Yes, we figure we handle a board maybe 6 times, from initial sawilling stage to final sales rack. So if we are going to handle and carry it that many times, it had better be good.
Love it but you got afraid the inside and you got to make it into a house so you got to put a frame on the inside and put insulation do a little work here and there but it's doable
We may get around to it, but who has the time? Thanks for watching!
Great Video brother! Where do you buy your logs from?
I have good relations with professional loggers, and they keep me supplied with veneer grade logs.
I want to start a Lumber business in my city. Could you point me in the right direction? Your setup looks perfect.
All it takes is sweat and money.
Army Rocket Propulsion Scientist? I read John D. Clark's book, Ignition! 'Couldn't put it down, read in one day.
Yep, 32 years with an engineering degree with honors, ending up as the Chief of Test and Evaluation Function, Advanced Propulsion Technology, Weapons Development and Integrations Directorate, at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville Alabama. A lot of what I worked on isn't discussable, but do a quick search on my name, Robert Milton, for patents and research papers, and you'll find a few. Also, I had two of my research programs on Discovery Channel, the Science of War. I briefed Washington on Army Propulsion programs and also was level 3 certified in explosives and pyrotechnics. Martha, my wife, had hardware on the Hubble Space Telescope. Just another sawmill company.
Oh, if I could move south and live right next door. I love milling and preparing wood like this. Would it be possible to feature some of the craftsmen who are your customers to show what they do to turn slabs of wood you sell them into fine furniture or other prized items?
Sure, that’s a great idea.
Here's something to consider: approach the craftsmen who are clients in your area with this idea: each of them could document what they do to turn your raw lumber into their crafted products - custom tables, picture frames, cutting boards, furniture, etc. Hopefully, you wouldn't have all of them just making cabinets. HA! If they don't want to go through the rigors of producing their own videos, then perhaps they could submit to you images of their projects in process, and then final masterpiece shots that you could feature on your videos, or because you already know your way around a Go-Pro and probably have an editing machine, you could visit their shops and document say, "a day in the life of "Craftsman Carl". The trick would be to figure out how all of you could generate additional $$$. Perhaps stage a local auction, with a portion of the proceeds to go to a local charity. Your milling operation could gain new clients, and the craftsmen's reputations could also get a boost. It would take cooperation and organization, but I think you yourself are already half-way there. Social media would help as well. I wish you well.
Do you sharpen & set your own bands?
And in that order?
Thanks for your time making these videos!
Yes, sharpen to get a perfect tooth profile and razor sharp corners, then set is the only way to do it accurately enough for our purposes. Thanks for watching. I will do a sharpening and setting video if people want me to.
Ok, thanks for your time and knowledge, & heaven's yes on a sharpen & set video would be great 👍👍🧡🧡🧡🧡
Great video. Why the battery Dewalt though ?
A couple Christmas ago, Martha told me no jewelry or stuff for a present, she just wanted a portable battery operated chop saw for quick work in the showroom. We have several capable plug in chop saws in the shop, and I thought this battery thing was going to be toy. I am surprised, as we are on our 3rd blade and it still cuts fine, and we do not baby it. It's nice because we can roll it around, and if the batteries ever die during a session of use, it come with a wall plug adapter. We also use it on sales days when a customer wants some of their boards quickly crosscut to fit in their car. So we use it every day. It's been a surprisingly effective tool, and it will cut 3" solid rock maple, full slide travel. I am very surprised with how long it's lasted. It's not unusual for us to go through a corded chop saw a year, and we've used Deltas, Makitas, Ryobi, and Dewalt corded. They are considered basically disposable tools, unfortunately, which says a lot about the build quality of most consumer tools. This one has lasted almost 13 months and still going strong. I doubt most people would use it as hard as we do. I think I may do a video on it, now that you mention it.
@@HobbyHardwoodAlabama Just saw a video from Fine Carpentry. Says he burned out two of these saws and Dewalt told him not to use the cord adapter, this has been a known issue.
Thanks for sharing! What are the dimensions of your main building?
40' x 100'. It was designed specifically for kiln dried lumber storage, and among other things, has 11 truck loads of concrete in the floor alone, for forklift operations and to serve as a thermal mass to keep the temperature inside relatively stable.
@@HobbyHardwoodAlabama How much acreage would you need to run your operation as you have it today?
I like how every board has to pass the Martha eyeball test. She's tough....
She keeps me from slacking off, and grades lumber harder than I do.
I guess you know from experience what people want. Mostly 1” thick , some 2” thick? How do you know what to cut when you put a log on the sawmill? What ever you need to fill the empty spaces on the shelves?
I wish it was that simple. I have to evaluate everything from the grade of the logs, the species, the expected drying time, and the moon phase. Considering some of our stuff will air dry for a year before I ever put it in a kiln, there is a little crystal ball in our decision on what to saw and how thick to saw. Thanks for watching!
What brand/type of blade do you use
I have tried all decent ones out there, but have settled on WM 7 degree Turbo, .055 thick, x 1.5" deep.
Do you guys grow your trees or buy them ?
We buy them from loggers and such. Thanks for watching!
Do you have an idea of how many board feet your LT70 can cut per hour? Thanks
Yes, from 500 to 1,000 bdft per hour, day in and day out, no problem, sawing alone. Of course with help I can go much faster. I can keep two guys sweating if I have that much help.
@@HobbyHardwoodAlabama oh, that's a lot. Thank you
Someone told me about a company called cedar sawmills that can cut from 5,000 to 10,000 BF per day. Have you ever heard of them and does this sound realistic to you?
So you just mill right thru the heart of the wood. Thought you were supposed to center it on a board?
I do it for two reasons. The center cut pith boards are useless and tossed out as firewood, pith centered or not, but with my mill, it's faster to just cut them all using the same pattern when I get down to that small a cant, and then just toss the pith boards, rather than stop sawing and hand eject them.
How do you find companies to sell them to?
They find us. We sell to customers in many states, all across the country. We build an exceptional product, and people drive a long way to come get it.
where can i get a Martha?
There's only one of her and she's a keeper!
Why is it important to remove debris from the trailer? Safety?
Yes, I hate it when stuff flies off other people's trailers, so I make sure nothing comes off mine.
Hi there, liked watching your videos. Just curious if you built this business by running the Sawmill or did you start from something else? You mentioned you only buy veneer logs in one of your videos. By me hard maple veneer can be six dollars a board foot and Walnut can be eight to $10 a board foot. I imagine cherry can also be expensive. I wouldn’t see how I could make the numbers work trying to buy veneer logs and selling lumber. Thanks.
Yes I did. You hit on one of the keys to be successful, and thats selecting the best logs without having to pay the highest prices to make the best lumber possible. It's not easy, but it can be done. It just has a pretty steep and expensive learning curve and thats why sawing techniques are so important.
I am doing this business in India can I do it in USA
Sure, it just takes effort.
Give the Lord one day a week and you will be Blessed.
I hope so, I need it.
That dog. Labs are the best, laid back, a little lazy, natural born supervisors.
Yes they are, we couldn't do it without him.
What's the average number of customers you get on a weekend
It varies on the day and the season, but enough to have two cashiers working at all times, and sometimes having to call in a third. I once tracked it out of curiosity, and we clocked a paid receipt every 3.5 minutes for two straight 9 hours days. On the other hand, if it's a big SEC football game day, the crowd thins out substantially.
Need a young man as part of the business. Family member preferably to learn the trade.
I'm completely out of them. I have had zero success with independent employees because sawmilling is just too hard a job and they want owners pay, and my family members have long since grown up and gotten married and moved away.
Ma’am, your footwear is inadequate for that job. You drop one of those 8/4’s on your foot and you are going to be very unhappy.
She did this in flip flops for years, she's at least moved up to shoes!
Nice 👍👍👍
Thanks, that means a lot.
Great video! My friend and I were just discussing what we imagined the process would be to make it so we can just pull the boards from the bins all dry, straight, planed and marked. I don’t guess Martha pays much attention to free gym membership ads. 🥵
@@davidkizer4432 I remember in 2014, we calculated that we had hand moved right at 1.14 millions pounds of wood that year alone. We have since grown substantially since then and have done what we can to more fully automate things, but sometimes you just have to lift a board. I would hate to think what we handle now.