Building a Successful Business with a Portable Sawmill

While there are a lot of elements in every successful business, two Wood-Mizer sawmill owners agree that their sawmill is the cornerstone of their business and offers them versatility, creativity, and the ability to meet the diverse needs of their customers. Through both strong and tough economic times, their Wood-Mizer sawmill has provided them with a competitive advantage and the ability to make dreams come true for their customers.

David Yasenchack Timber Framing & Design, Kingsville, Ohio

One-of-a-kind timber frame pool structure designed and constructed by David Yasenchack.

Utilizing a unique natural bend in a log

For more than 15 years, the self-motivated entrepreneur, David Yasenchack, has been building one-of-a-kind timber frame homes, studios and garden structures for his small Kingsville, Ohio business. David Yasenchack Timber Framing and Design operates with a Wood-Mizer sawmill in order to create unique lumber from their own forestland, but it was David’s determination that enabled him to follow his dreams and establish his own timber framing business.

While working for the Forest Service and managing a commercial apple orchard in the early 1990s, David was inspired to pursue a new and challenging project, so he began building his first timber frame structure. It was during this project that reshaped David’s life and his career. “In the process of gathering materials for my first timber frame project, I purchased timber and lumber from numerous local sawmills,” said David. “I became intrigued by the sawing process, particularly with the accuracy of the band sawmills.” By the end of this project, and after seeing his neighbor mill a very large oak tree with his portable band sawmill, David envisioned the investment of a portable sawmill as the stepping stone to building custom timber frame structures for a living.

David's Wood-Mizer sawmill enables him to saw logs with
 unique bends and curves for building timber frame structures

Shortly after, David purchased his first Wood-Mizer, an LT40 Manual sawmill, to serve as an affordable entry into self-employment. “The mill helped me to find my calling in the timber framing trade,” he said. “I am proud of my Wood-Mizer. From the outset, it shaped my living, but it went on to shape the path of my career.” Today, David operates with his Wood-Mizer LT40 Hydraulic sawmill and constructs custom timber frame buildings using select trees from his own forestland and from client’s own trees.

The business saws a wide variety of hardwoods on their sawmill, but mainly oak, cherry and walnut to create the necessary building materials for his customers. David also uses his mill to saw conventional lumber and wide, live-edge flitches for use in furniture projects as well as for other woodworkers needing customized material. “I’ve told many people over the years that an investment smaller than the purchase of a new pickup truck put me on the path of not just personal fulfillment, but a fair measure of financial security and independence,” David said. “It’s an ever evolving tool that gives me the ability to shape one of the world’s most common and abundant resources.

A custom timber frame structure

”David says his Wood-Mizer is a main component of his entrepreneurial success. “It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the Wood-Mizer in my business,” he said. “It gives us creative control by allowing us to create just the right live-edge timbers from the particular logs we choose.” David also touts the design of his Wood-Mizer which gives him a distinct advantage for his specialty sawing projects. “The cantilevered head is an advantage in many ways, but mostly because it allows us to saw highly curved logs in a practical and accurate way,” he said.

David Yasenchack, owner of David
Yasenchack Timber Framing & Design

By utilizing the features of his Wood-Mizer sawmill, David says his timber work is crafted to the highest level. The mill enables David and his team to revise and develop a custom design in response to special and unique logs harvested from his or a client’s woodlot. By keeping a unique bend or curve in a tree for his lumber, David can maintain the wood’s natural shape and characteristics in his finished timber frame structures. “In short, the mill makes us more adaptable and creative,” David said. “Those are both huge competitive advantages in our field.”

Northern Log and Timber, Kelowna, British Columbia

Northern Log and Timber constructs custom log homes with lumber milled on their Wood-Mizer sawmills

Family operated for more than 60 years, Northern Log and Timber offers a variety of services and products available both locally and around the world. From lumber to log home packages and more, the company operates with two Wood-Mizer LT40 Hydraulic sawmills and an LT40 Super Hydraulic sawmill, which have positioned them for global success in the lumber industry.

Construction of a custom log home

Founded in 1952 by John Morgan Sr., the company supplied lumber to northern Yukon and Alaska until they relocated to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia in 1972. In the 1980s, Northern Log and Timber expanded into global markets by exporting lumber to Asia, Europe, and South America and has since built log homes, barns, schools for clients from Japan to Mexico. Today, the family business is operated by John’s son and daughter, John Jr. and Julie. John is a builder and runs the sawmills, while Julie designs homes for clients and handles sales.

Beams and flooring milled on a Wood-Mizer portable sawmill

Typically, Northern Log and Timber saws lumber for log home packages but they also produce beams, joists, decking, posts, flooring, trim, v-joints, timber trusses, and custom siding. Julie attributes the company’s diverse offering of products and services to be crucial to their success over the years. “Because we have a wide variety of products, and a large variation in our customer base, we have continued to grow,” she said. Head sawyer, John Jr., said their Wood-Mizer sawmills are another one of the reasons for their company’s success. “The support system at Wood-Mizer is the best. It’s the best mill on the market,” said John Jr. “Downtime is minimal and usually short, it produces the volume needed. This success translates into higher wages and profits.”

Interior bedroom of a Northern Log and Timber custom home

Locally, the Morgan family supplies building material stores, contractors, and landscapers with lumber as well as design and build log homes onsite with their own profiled timbers. Due to the volume of orders, the majority of their business comes from building supply stores. However, Julie adds, “The most satisfying customers are the ones you help to accomplish their dreams. My father always said that it was great to build the high-end, impressive projects, but the most satisfying was the look on a customer’s face when their home was completed – the simple home for the working man.”

Trusses sawed on a
Wood-Mizer sawmill

By utilizing the versatility of their Wood-Mizer sawmills, Northern Log and Timber has continued to grow and succeed in the global lumber market. “The Wood- Mizer mills have allowed us to expand our product line,” said Julie. “The mills are the backbone of our business. Without them, we wouldn’t have survived in this economy.”

Family Sawmill Business Boosts Production with Wood-Mizer WM4000

Mike and Shawn, Honey Grove Hardwoods LLC owners, with their Wood-Mizer WM4000 industrial headrig

Shawn loading a log onto the WM4000

In less than three months after taking ownership of the family sawmill business, 3rd generation owner Mike Junk and his brother-in-law Shawn Fowler made the changes necessary to compete and thrive in the lumber industry. By installing a Wood-Mizer WM4000 thin-kerf industrial headrig to replace their old circular sawmill, Mike and Shawn positioned Honey Grove Hardwoods LLC on the cutting edge of technology to increase efficiency, yield and profits for their business.

Producing grade lumber for moulding, stair treads and flooring, the Pennsylvania based Honey Grove Hardwoods used a circular sawmill as the center of their operation for more than 70 years. Last year, Mike and Shawn came to the conclusion that their circular saw with conventional wide kerf blades had reached the end of the line. “We realized we were running outdated equipment when we weren’t getting the footage and grade yields that we thought we could get with thin-kerf technology,” Mike said.

Shawn operating the WM4000

Mike also noted that their operation with the circular sawmill forced the sawyer to do multiple jobs at once. “A vertical edger was positioned in front of the sawyer booth on our circular headrig, which meant the sawyer was also the one doing the edging,” Mike said. He explained that this process helped with saving costs on labor, but since the sawyer was rushed to saw as well as edge the lumber, it sacrificed quality and production.

Transferring lumber to the
Three-Way Conveyor

Wanting to improve efficiency throughout their operation, Honey Grove Hardwoods added a Wood-Mizer Log Deck, Three-Way Conveyor, and Green Chain along with an EG400 edger to complement the WM4000 in their production line. “We put the whole Wood-Mizer system in starting with the Log Deck, which helps ease loading logs onto the WM4000. From there, logs are cut on the headrig and then moved from the built-in conveyor to the Three-Way Conveyor,” Mike said. “Material is transferred from the conveyor to the Green Chain and then to the EG400 edger for a very smooth transition from logs to accurate lumber.” With this system, the sawyer no longer has to be the edger, which improves efficiency and quality of materials.

Feeding boards into the EG400

Compared to their old circular sawmill operation, Mike said their yield has improved greatly with Wood-Mizer equipment. “The yield factor is amazing with thin-kerf producing only one-third the waste of our circle sawmill, plus you can slab smaller and lighter which increases usable lumber,” he said. Being able to produce more product from fewer logs also cuts down on transportation costs and increases the profit per log. “We are getting the same amount of lumber while using 25% less timber and raw materials, which in turn, reduces transportation costs across the board,” Mike said.

By taking advantage of Wood-Mizer thin-kerf technology, Mike and Shawn have positioned Honey Grove Hardwoods LLC to be competitive in the lumber industry for generations to come. “The WM4000 put us right back up to the competitive edge on utilizing and maximizing yields for our business,” Mike said.


To learn more about how you can step up your production with thin-kerf technology, visit woodmizer.com/industrial

Couple Creates Eternal Timber with Wood-Mizer LT70

“Building it right to last forever” is what the British Columbia based Eternal Timber and Design is all about. Eternal Timber offers a variety of wood furnishings and architectural elements that are all handcrafted and custom made. Eternal Timber makes everything from beds and dining tables to exterior structures by utilizing a Wood-Mizer LT70 to turn their douglas fir trees into usable lumber for whatever project they need.

Douglas fir fence post cut by Shawn Wiebe and his Wood-Mizer LT70 HD sawmill

Lake shore outdoor dwelling with sofa and loveseat

Shawn Wiebe, the “heart and

soul” of Eternal Timber and Design, began his love for woodworking at a young age and has been building and

framing homes since he graduated high school. Since the first makeup vanity table he made for his mother more than 20 years ago, Shawn continues to create one-of-a-kind pieces for any project that comes his

way.

Lake shore patio

Shawn and his wife and business partner Carlee, entered multiple projects into the 2013 Wood- Mizer Personal Best Contest which included a fireplace mantel, town entry gate and even a tree house for Shawn next to fence post Lake shore outdoor dwelling their daughters while they worked on remodeling their own home. Whether the project is for business or personal use, Eternal Timber and Design always begins with a douglas fir and a Wood-Mizer.

For more information about Eternal Timber and Design, visit: www.eternaltimberhomes.com or connect on Facebook. To see all of Eternal Timber and Design’s 2013 Personal Best projects, visit: www.woodmizer.com/pb

Wood-Mizer LT15 Helps Build 'True' South Carolina Business

Corey Airington, owner of True South Builders, built this coffee table out of a whiskey barrel

From old southern heirlooms to whiskey barrel furnishings, Corey Airington and his Wood-Mizer LT15 sawmill do it all. Inspired by the love of making anything unique and historical, Corey established the Jefferson, South Carolina based True South Builders in 2008 and has since provided personally handcrafted woodworking products to the public. True South Builders has a mission, “To create unique woodwork in the ways of the craftsmen of the past to make each piece seem like it came from the pages of a history book.”

Whiskey barrel sawn on a Wood-Mizer LT15 sawmill

True South Builders offers wood products from keepsake boxes to pine siding and has recently completed a farmhouse table, fireplace mantel, colonial garden shed and even a restoration of a sharecropper’s home. Corey submitted these projects and more in the 2013 Wood-Mizer Personal Best Contest staying true to historical farm and plantation architecture found from the “back roads of the South Carolina low country.”


Corey said the versatility of his Wood- Mizer LT15 is pivotal for the wide variety of products he makes. “The ability to make my own lumber, including studs, rafters, roof sheathing and clapboards for more structure based jobs is very important for my business,” Corey said. When talking about a project where he transformed a whiskey barrel into a beautiful coffee table, Corey said, “I just couldn’t believe I had created something so unique with the help of my Wood-Mizer.”

Whiskey barrel coffee table

For more information about Corey and True South Builders, visit: www.truesouthbuilders.com or connect on Facebook. To see all of Corey’s 2013 Personal Best projects, visit: www.woodmizer.com/pb

Getting Your Lumber Grade Stamped

 

FIVE STEPS TO USING YOUR OWN LUMBER IN PERMITTED STRUCTURES
Anyone contemplating producing lumber for construction should follow these steps before sawing.

1) Check with your local city, county, and/or state building code office to find out the exact requirements in your area. Requirements and the level of enforcement vary. Don’t be satisfied until you have seen the rules yourself. Keep a copy for future reference.

2) Purchase the softwood grading rules book that applies to the species of lumber you’ll be using. Thoroughly review the pertinent parts of the book to make sure you understand what the standards apply.

3) Once you have a written plan on how to proceed, contact the appropriate softwood lumber grading agency to discuss your plan with them and to make certain that your lumber will meet all of the requirements, such as thickness, widths, and lengths, moisture content, and required other items. Checking out all of the details before sawing can save time and wasted materials. (If going the self-certification route, make sure your certification is up-to-date)

4) Saw and dry your lumber according to your specific plan.

5) Schedule a visit with the lumber inspector, make sure you have enough time for his visit, and your area is
properly laid out for inspection. Make certain any documentation is prepared and available should the inspector ask for it.

THE GRADE STAMP
As part of a structure, each piece of lumber carries a certain amount of load. Softwood grades for dimension and timbers have been established according to engineering methods that determine how much load each piece is capable of supporting. When a building is inspected, the inspector will look for a grade stamp on the lumber. This grade stamp is the only way for the inspector to determine if the lumber used in the structure is acceptable. The grade stamp is extremely important to building inspectors, as it is required by all building codes. The code is usually enforced at the county level, where a building permit is required before any construction can begin. The building can be rejected if the lumber is not grade stamped. The level of code enforcement can vary by county, however a lack of enforcement does not mean you can disregard building codes. Be certain to check with your county building inspector and permits office to determine exactly what is required. Past experiences may not predict future expectations. There may be some state and local exceptions when the lumber is produced and used for one’s own building projects.

Example grade stamp showing Southern Pine Inspection Bureau (SPIB) as the agency, the grade as No. 1, kiln-dried (KD) to 19 percent moisture content, heat treated (HT), and producing mill lumber 406. The species is not given but implied as SPIB deals exclusively with Southern Pine lumber.

GETTING YOUR LUMBER GRADED
Producers of small quantities of softwood or hardwood lumber to be used in construction can call for a “certificate inspection.” When a certificate inspection is requested, the grading agency will arrange for their first available or nearest inspector to travel to the location of the lumber. The lumber is grade-stamped, and a certificate is issued in regards to the inspection. The lumber is then eligible to be used in building construction. The owner of the lumber should be prepared to turn and move the boards for the inspector. Also, presorting the lumber by widths and lengths is important. Additional sorting by estimated grade will further speed up the process. The lumber may be rough or surfaced. Lumber having moisture content in excess of 19 percent will be marked “S-GRN.” Air-dried lumber or that with a moisture content of less than 19 percent will be stamped “S-DRY.” Sawyers should be certain that they follow the size requirements set forth by the rule writing agencies for different species. In order to finish to the sizes required, lumber must be cut oversized to allow for shrinkage during drying, planing, and sawing variation.


THE BOTTOM LINE
In most of North America, using your own lumber for construction material is an option available to you, and in some places, it is actually encouraged and rewarded. We hope that this short introduction to the topic has given you some good direction to finding out how to go about it in your own area. Rules can change, so ten years from now, when you pull out this article again to reference, the bottom line will still apply: Find out what your local requirements are, and abide by them!


RESOURCES
For current rule writing and grading agency lists:
American Lumber Standard Committee
www.alsc.org
alsc@alsc.org
301.972.1700

Canadian Lumber Standards
Accreditation Board
www.clsab.ca
info@clsab.ca
613.482.2480

WOOD-MIZER AWARDS “SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR”

Wood-Mizer LLC, the world’s leading portable and industrial sawmill manufacturer, has recognized four suppliers for the level of support they provided the company in 2012. Each of these companies was recognized because they were considered peak performers for Wood-Mizer. Awardees were:

Hoosier Rubber and Transmission of Indianapolis, IN, a distributor of power and transmission parts was chosen for their outstanding customer service, local stocking levels, and technical support.  Wood-Mizer has enjoyed more than 20 years of committed partnership with this local company.


Standard Electric Company of Indianapolis, IN, a distributor of electrical components, was chosen for their outstanding customer service and support to our engineering department.  Their VMI (vendor managed inventory) program allows us to keep our inventory low and our costs down.  Their commitment and dedication to Wood-Mizer are very much appreciated.


Crosspoint Power and Refrigeration of Indianapolis, IN, the provider of Yanmar diesel engines, was chosen for their outstanding customer service and sales support, lean inventory initiatives, cost reductions and sponsored education seminars.
 Dayton Freight was chosen for their continued support for over 15 years in delivering Wood-Mizer’s product in a quality manner and on time as committed. As well, the sales and service support received exceeded industry standards.
 To establish the winners, the Wood-Mizer Purchasing team evaluated each of their suppliers on customer service, overall quality, delivery, cost management, and value-added support. The winners were hosted to a luncheon on February 14, 2013, and presented with a recognition plaque. The Wood-Mizer CREST Award stands for: Corporate Recognition Exemplifying Supplier Tenacity.

Mark Law, Procurement Director, said, “Our suppliers are an integral part of Wood-Mizer’s success and growth and it is important to us to formally recognize them. These awards are just a small gesture of our overall appreciation for providing the products that support Wood-Mizer’s desire to maintain leadership in the industry.”

Custom Sawing & Furniture Building: A Better Retirement Plan

By Danny Hamsley, Hamsley Forestry, LLC.


After purchasing the LT15 sawmill in 2002 for personal projects, I started selling a little lumber that I had in excess of what I needed, and was surprised at the interest that I got from local woodworkers.  I developed a plan to retire at age 57 and focus on sawing and selling hardwood lumber and working as a Forestry Consultant since I am a Registered Forester.    

I was able to retire in April 2011. I am also now able to spend more time turning that high quality lumber produced on the sawmill into high quality, custom furniture.  My business, though small, is all about timber, lumber, and furniture.  If I tried to go and buy the lumber, the profit would not be there at my scale to justify it.  The sawmill makes the whole strategy work, and it is the keystone of the whole process.

  

I saw to maintain an inventory of the various hardwood species that local woodworkers are after.  When I am not sawing, I may be working on the lumber, stacking, air drying, sorting, etc.  People call and come buy lumber just about anytime 7 days a week.  I also spend a lot of time on the furniture side of things.  I always have some type of furniture project on the drawing board or in progress. 

There is also time required to measure and mark timber, harvest timber, skid out the logs and prepare them for sawing.  I spend as much time harvesting, skidding, and preparing the logs as I do sawing them.  I may be small, but I am fully integrated!

I saw primarily hardwood, the majority off of my timberland.  My strategy is to saw, air dry, and sell rough cut hardwood lumber for local woodworkers.  I am supplying a exclusive service because you cannot find hardwood lumber like walnut, oak, cherry, yellow poplar, and maple in this area.  I cut all thicknesses from 4/4 up to 16/4.  Lengths are 8 feet and 10 feet.  To date, my primary focus has been building furniture for family and friends, but the sawmill will allow me to increase the amount of custom furniture that I can build and sell.  This will be a growth area for me.

The sawmill allows me to gain significantly more value from my timberland than if I just offered the timber for sale to a logger or commercial sawmill.  For example, I can sell a large white oak on the stump as timber to a logger or mill, and it will be worth about $60 on the stump.  I can harvest the tree myself, saw it on the LT15, air dry the lumber, and sell the lumber from that tree for $700 - $800.  That is a huge lift in value that allows me to make a return from the timberland that I own and manage as well as a return on my sawmill and equipment investment.  It also allows me to offer lumber to local woodworkers that would otherwise have to drive two hours to Atlanta and pay high retail prices.

The Re-Sharp program is perfect for me.  I focus on high quality and not quantity, so sharpening my own blades would not be cost effective.  I have found the Re-sharp service to be outstanding in turn-around time and in blade quality.

It is amazing to me the lift that I can achieve in my timber investment on my 200 acres of property by sawing a high quality product and selling the product rather than just selling the timber.  The sawmill allows me to gain a lift over ten-fold more than the market value of the timber stumpage. 

I am going to expand the furniture side of my business.  Although small, I am happy with the volume of lumber at this point… it fits my property, equipment, and business strategy well.  I can make a little money and really enjoy what I am doing.  I get to meet all kinds of interesting people.  This creates a lot of exposure for the mill and most are interested in the process, and it allows me to brag on how great a product the mill is and the great service provided by Wood-Mizer.  And, believe me, I do brag! 

Keys to Success from 57 Years of the Sawmill Business

The Baize Family team. Author Jordan Baize to the far right.

By Jordan Baize

Family photo from 1981

In today’s economy, a few years in business is something to be proud of, not to mention almost 6 decades.  Our family’s lumber manufacturing company, B& K Wood Products, is celebrating its 57^th anniversary this April.  Companies like ours and Wood-Mizer haven’t just been lucky over the years or stumbled into good fortunes.  Our company has instead formulated a Company Philosophy for longevity and growth made up of some of the simplest ideas known to man, and I’d like to share these principles with you.  Caution: this is much simpler than what they teach you in business school!  Let’s get started.

 

 

Integrity - Establish relationships with business partners with a handshake and a solid word.

Not many companies can say they are selling to some of the same customers as they were 40 years ago, but ours can.  There’s no easy, cheap, or quick way of getting customers to buy the same product from your for more than four decades.  There is only one way to accomplish this: treat your customer with integrity.  Look at the customer-vendor relationship as a marriage. In 40 years, the customer will have plenty of time to find the faults in you (and there always are a few faults in all of us).  But if you have treated your customer with integrity for the length of the relationship, they should care enough about your organization to overlook those faults, or at least give you time to correct those faults without dropping you first.

Milling in 1959

Organizations should make it a point to serve customers, not just push products their way.  In the end, the only thing that generates customer retention is positive relationships that are built on integrity.  If the waitress at your favorite pizza joint is rude and unhelpful, the pizza you once enjoyed will start tasting worse and worse.  No product is good enough to overcome poor relationships.  Integrity wins in the end every time.  Not to mention it just feels good at the end of the day to be able to hold your head high.  Try it! It’s worked for us.

Diversification - Offer a wide array of products and services.

 Our company was started over 50 years ago as a side lumber and crossties operation only.  Today, sawmilling is still a big part of what we do, but it is not the only thing we do.  Nor will it ever be again.  We have adopted a more diverse range of products than just the standard lumber and tie variety out of necessity.  This has always been a strategic position of ours, and it proved its worth in 2009.  Countless friends and competitors of ours shut their doors for the last time that year.  At the time, most of them were still cutting the same side lumber and crossties we were cutting 50 years prior.  There is nothing wrong with consistency, but when times change, we must change with them or risk looking failure in the face. 

One of B&K's Wood-Mizer Industrial Headrigs

Diversifying your products and services to cover varying areas of the market is a necessity.  For instance, during the heart of the economic crisis when the housing market had tanked, we were not able to sell much of our inventory that ends up as cabinet facings, hardwood flooring, or stair treads.  Instead, we had to lean heavily on other products that we produce and divert those revenue streams (which were quickly drying up) down other avenues.  A few years back our wood chip market was soft so we went looking for another way to capitalize on our wood waste.  Because of that diversification, we are now Kroger’s largest producer of manufactured firewood, a new use for the same material our wood chips once came. 

Whatever It Takes – Manufacture products of unquestionable quality using both trail-blazing technologies and beaten-path tools of the trade.

  Our company has been around for a while and learned many things over the years.  We pride ourselves in not forgetting the many lessons learned through the decades, all the while not neglecting newer technologies and good, old-fashion hard work.  We feel like that is simply the only way to be consistently profitable in business.

Another Wood-Mizer thin-kerf headrig at B&K Wood Products

When our organization sets up a production goal, we meet that goal. Period.  Budgets and forecasting are useless if the top number on the income statement (gross revenue) is lower than expected.  Companies must aim to produce quality products in the expected timeframe.  Anything short of that changes the financial landscape of the company.  Use all resources necessary to get the job done on time—whatever it takes.

Thrive, Don’t Survive!

The B&K Wood Products facility

The simple active application of these ideals to our business has resulted in longevity spanning 57 years.  It’s important to remember that most people who have been successful have taken a few easy-to-understand principles that their grandfather could have taught them, and followed them without wavering.  Instead of avoiding failure, business owners and managers should instead be trying to attain greatness and longevity.  Thrive, don’t just survive—let’s go the distance!

For more information on products that have helped B&K succeed, visit woodmizer.com. Also, to see how thin-kerf headrigs can help your business increase profitability, watch this video: Ohio Valley Veneer