Before weighing up the technical pro’s and con’s of one portable sawmill model over another, there are some more important questions to answer – especially if one is considering the mill as a commercial operation.

Are there logs to mill and are there buyers for the cut lumber? In other words, cutting the timber is the easy part, says Chris Meads, managing director of Levin Sawmakers and manufacturer of the Timbersaws line of portable sawmills.

Meads says he has seen too many people take on a portable mill with an assumption that all they had to do to pay it off was to cut wood. “But first you have to source your logs and have a market for your product,” he says. “The business has to be managed as a complete process.”

While few Timbersaws portable mills are now sold on the domestic market, the twin saw rigs sell steadily through agents in Papua New Guinea, Chile, South Africa, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. Mead says it is also an advantage to have customers who prefer your wood because of the accuracy of cut and reliability of supply.

“So to ensure boards are cut accurately and orders delivered on time, maintenance has to be scrupulous and technical backup available at short notice within the variety of geographical locations the portable mill finds itself operating in.

“The reality of portable mills is that they do not often get convenient fat barrels of logs beside a convenient road. They are more likely to be gnarly wind throws in a steep back paddock,” Mead says. “Once cut, the wood has to be taken and sold to a buyer and those are two separate missions.”

Marketing a similar twin saw rig, Mahoe Sawmills has received a New Zealand Enterprise award for exports of its Mini-Max model along with a Mystery Creek Fieldays New Equipment award.

Field demonstrations aren’t always to prestigious though, as the Mahoe team recently experienced in the below zero temperatures of an Alaskan autumn while wondering what type of animal made those strange forestry noises and whether it had had lunch.

As an entry-level mill however, the twin saw combination of the Mini-Max found favour among farmers harvesting those woodlots that are too small for large-scale harvesters. “It is also welcomed by the older operator milling to feed a woodwork hobby, since it is less physically demanding than many other machines,” says Mahoe Sawmill director Stephanie Bergman.

A friction drive moves the blades along the log. At the end of the cut, the power head returns, bringing the sawn timer with it for the operator to stack. Attention has been paid to the 26-inch vertical and 18-inch horizontal blade to ensure a good finish and accurate cut, Bergman says.

While buyer interest has been focused firmly on the Mini-Max, there has also been demand for second-hand mills. “Some of the established operators are gearing up their production capacity with these machines,” Bergman says, “so the work appears to be out there.”

Another trend reported by Rimu Engineering is a demand for mills powered by more powerful motors.

“We have also just filled a Samoan order for two mills with electric motors, so this, coupled with the enquiries for 48 horse-power diesel motors would imply that the mills would be in semi-permanent locations,” says Rimu Engineering’s Christine Burrows.

“But whether this is a true trend of just an exception to the portability rule is too early to tell.”

The bulk of the Rimu mill sales are within the New Zealand market. “Our mills satisfy the need for being portable yet powerful while we can configure each mill to a number of customer options very easily during manufacture,” Burrows says.

Meanwhile Peterson Portable Sawmills is cutting a solid niche in the North American market where farmers, lifestylers and small woodlot owners find the 10-inch swing blade Peterson Mill very economic.

While there are three other Peterson models more suitable for the milling contractor, the applications people find for the Peterson are diverse, says marketing manager Rosie Coward.

These range from furniture manufacturers needing cost control on out-of-spec boards cut from species other than standard pine, cabinet makers cutting rare woods for long case clocks, to home builders milling woodlot timber or providing a village industry for Pacific Island communities.

Coward believes that payback on the purchase price of their entry-level mill can be achieved within five weeks. “We’ve cut 3.3m 3 an hour in competitions, so given a steady log supply a cut of approximately 4m 3 a day would seem reasonably attainable,” she says.

“Like all mill manufacturers we are continually developing the mills from customer feedback and have incorporated brushes to keep tracks clear of sawdust, new push bars and guards,” Coward says. “We’ve developed log dogs for the smaller logs and are working on electric winches to raise and lower the cutting frame.”

Competing closely in the same markets, Australian-manufactured Lucas Sawmills has also found its mills cutting for diverse products, including one rig modified with a diamond saw to cut West Coast greenstone.

“While our basic rig remains pretty much the same, our big research and development project centres around blade technology,” New Zealand agent for Lucas Mills, Arnold Koppens says. “It’s very important to keep the mills simple, without overly sophisticated technology.

Since the mills operate in very remote areas they need to be very reliable and easily maintained,” he said. “The hardest working part is the blade, so if the efficiently of that is maintained, it improves not only maintenance downtime, but production volume and quality aswell.”

New Zealand agent for Wood-Mizer sawmills Paul Marshall sees an increased demand for the larger mills, mainly from small commercial remanufactures and static sawmills rather than the mobile milling contractor.

“Businesses that have a value-added component to their products are acquiring a portable mill to get the kind of cut they want rather than putting in a special order with a larger sawmill,” Marshall said. “This way they not only get what they want when they need it, they control their costs better.”

Because of labour shortages overseas – particularly Malaysia, Marshall believes log prices will increase and portable milling become more viable as a business. “It will be similar to the log price boom between ’93 and ’95,” he predicts.

Wood-Mizer has added two new models to its stable – both with larger motors, a 30hp and a 40hp driving the thin kerf band saw. “We are already seeing shortages of logs in New Zealand, particularly in Southland,” Marshall says. “This is where thin kerf sawing pays off by minimizing sawn waste and maximizing returns from expensive logs.”

Marshall sees a bigger role for portable mills though – particularly in regions where expensive road works are needed. “Instead of carting the logs out of the North Island’s East Coast, the logs could be milled near the forest and the timber barged out from a convenient beach.

Roading costs could be reduced about $20 to $30 million and a burner boiler arrangement could also use the waste wood to generate electricity for the catchment. “The environmental impact to the region would be less severe and the economic benefits kept more within the region with the added value, rather than being trucked out with the logs,” Marshall says.


December 2002 : NZ FOREST INDUSTRIES : 31