Three Kinds of Sawmills - One of Them Be Right For Ya'

Usually I don't go for none of that hippie nonsense but this week Mother Earth News come up with a piece on sawmills that I couldn't see rightly ignoring. This detailed article on sawmills breaks down the good, the bad and the ugly of the 3 major differences between portable sawmills, those being: chainsaw mills, circular sawmills and band sawmills. Below I'll give you a quick run-through on the three of them, given that a four page article is a lot to read-

Chainsaw Mills

Pros: these suckers are cheap and relatively easy to move

Cons: slow, wasteful and the cuts are rough which means the wood still needs to be finished

Examples: Total J100 and the Alaskan Mark III

Circular Sawmills

Pros: these suckers are fast

Cons: pricey, wasteful, hard to operate and relatively rough cuts

Examples: Mighty Mite "D" and Lucas Mill

Band Sawmills

Pros: these suckers are portable, safe, less wasteful, affordable and smoother cuts

Cons: not much

Examples: Turner Mills and T.A. Schmid

So, according to the good people at Mother Earth News, it seems that the band sawmills are the way to go. Me, I just like my good ole' Stihl 280 and a nice piece of tree.