: . . . With all those old mature trees, there is a abundant supply of "mill
: you own lumber" available.

: I am saving my pennies to add a Woodmizer to my arsenal...

Starting to do some small scale "milling" from the firewood stack. I bought a newer, and larger, chainsaw (Husqvarna 455) and find it does an adequate job, so I started looking at attachments like the Alaskan Sawmill, and then I found the Procut site: http://www.procutportablesawmills.com/index.html

There is a big debate between the schools of thought on using chainsaws vs circular blades vs bandsaws for ripping logs into lumber. As I see it, if you are not making boards 3 or 4 days a month you won't get your money out of a bandsaw rig, or the cheapest circular saw. On a "jsut get me started basis" a chainsaw rig pays for itself in the first two or three large trees.

To calculate the board feet in a tree here is a page that has a conversion formula: http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/uf/lab_exercises/calc_board_footage.htm

Using the example on this page, an oak tree 60 feet tall and 14 inches in diameter would give you 189 board feet of wood. Three such trees would provide 567 board feet, and a good day's work. With a $400 chainsaw and a $200 mill attachment, plus two extra chains (@ $30 each), chain sharpening gear($15 to $50), fuel ($10), and bar lube($12), your expenses would be about $700. That brings the price of the wood down to about $1.25 a board foot. If you were cutting cedar for wood strips, and needed 30 to 45 board feet per boat, you'd have enough wood for 12 to 18 boats. Of course you can spend more on the chain saw, but even doubling the price there still keeps the cost around $2 a board foot--which is pretty reasonable.

Actually, with a bandsaw rig or a circular saw mill you'll still have to add in the price of the chainsaw, and accessories, (roughly $500 overall) because somehow you have to cut down the trees and remove the limbs before you can put those logs on any kind of mill.

Check out the pix and videos at the Granberg website: http://www.granberg.com/alaskan_mill.html I think you'll find it interesting--either as an alternative to a Woodmizer, an accessory for a woodmizer, or as a first step into larger-scale lumber production.