The first portable sawmills were the “1 Man Farmer’s Sawmills.” The mills featured giant circular blades plus were marketed during the first part of the twentieth century by firms like Sears, Montgomery Ward plus JC Penney. These machines were all “private label” machines manufactured by the Belsaw Company. Lots of early sawmills were designed to be belt-driven from a steam traction engine (that could also be used to transport the saw) Belsaw also sold sawmills under their own name till the early 1990s. After this the Belsaw line of equipment was sold below the name “TimberKing.” Learn more about portable saw mills here.

Prior to the advent of the portable ‘mill, little-scale sawmills were typically cobbled-along affairs made plus operated by (almost always) 2 men along with a penchant for tinkering. This was, plus remains, a standard occupation for Amish men; unlike a good amount of mechanical systems, little sawmills usually do not use electricity. 

More recently, portable bandsaw mills represented a dramatic shift in design. In contrast to traditional mills, they used a resaw blade of the kind used on a band saw instead of a circular blade, that reduced weight and price, and reduced the scale and weight of the bearings plus support blocks. The smaller kerf on the blades dramatically increased the yield from a given log. Use of band blades additionally allowed for a other design where the head, consisting of the blade and a power source, moves back and forth while the log remains stationary. This can be in contrast to traditional saw mills where the log moves on a trolley whereas the blade remains fixed. 

Larger mills have recently return available which are portable only in sections. They cut faster and are able to handle larger logs but do require additional set up. 

The portable mills may cut lumber with speed and accuracy, though the following steps of planing and drying need to still be performed to create finished lumber. Commodity lumber in standard sizes can be made this way. Often, this is done. 

The more common usehowever, is in the production of specialty timber products not readily available through lumber yards. Portable mills are particularly effective for truing up logs to be used in log construction, replacing the traditional use of a drawknife, that is inordinately time-consuming. They are already also used for low-volume production of specialty hardwoods used in furniture, and can be used to produce the big timbers employed in post-plus-beam framing techniques. 

Portable mills have also been employed in conjunction with salvage logging operations. In salvage logging, logs that were lost underwater during nineteenth-century river-borne log drives are recovered by divers. The logs are often value lots of thousands of dollars. The thin kerf blade of the portable sawmill allows for far higher board foot yields from here valuable logs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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