How to Make Money With Your Sawmill
Sawyer Showcase:
How Clay Makes Money Using His HM130MAX Portable Sawmill
This designer, creator and woodworker shares how to make money with your sawmill, talks tips for making money with milling lumber and custom furniture business
What do you have to do to make money milling your own lumber?
For Clay, it’s meant providing live-edge slabs and other materials for his custom furniture, but also milling up timber for others as he gets a return on investment from his portable sawmill.
"I didn't really have to do anything to turn it into a business on that end, it just turned itself into a business," says Clay, owner of Oakmond Design, a custom furniture company, as well as a Woodland Mills HM130MAX Portable Sawmill owner.
How to make money with just the mill and some ingenuity
Oakmond Design started as a custom furniture company, operating in a niche market designing unique pieces where no two finished products are ever alike.
While Clay originally bought the sawmill to save money by milling his own lumber for projects, he soon found himself in a position where he could mill for others in his spare time.
"Lumber prices went up, as everyone knows, that's in the industry," he says, noting how the cost of materials went up during the COVID-19 pandemic and never really went back to their previous levels.
Because of that many people got portable sawmills to mill lumber for themselves, and maybe sell some of their materials for a fair price too.
Clay says having a portable sawmill has given him a chance really expand as a sawmill business, making extra money when people drive by and see his mill and ask him to do odd jobs.
Making a profitable business out of your sawmill
While it may seem like a limited market, there are plenty of people looking for materials and would love to know someone with a portable sawmill.
If you own your own trees and are looking to sell lumber, you too can make some cash by cutting logs into boards, beams and live-edge slabs for your customers.
That's where Clay specializes, turning live-edge slabs into custom pieces for his customers. Having the ability to cut logs into whatever sizes he needs and turn them into whatever he needs was worth the initial price. Meanwhile all the hard work he's done with his other services, milling and drying lumber for his customers, is just more money on top of what he makes with his core business.
Clay's advice for entering this niche market
"Do it because you love it," is Clay's biggest piece of advice for new sawyers looking to make money from their portable sawmills. "I wouldn't do it just because I'm here and I'm hungry to make money."
While some sawyers might be able to make enough money to make a living off their sawmill, it's important to have a passion and drive for it first.
Entering into a new business can be exciting, but you have to be committed to find customers, put in the hard work and do this job potentially full time.
If you’re looking to start your own milling service, sell live-edge slabs, cut and sell your own lumber or make money from your portable sawmill in any other way you can think of, Clay has a story worth learning from.
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