He risked everything to Run a Sawmill

we are going to the sawmill but before we go to the sawmill we've got to find out what the heck was dropped off at our door that's not me what's up cat we got to find Frankie we're gonna go to Menards cuz Frankie found something that is really cool hey Frankie you want to head over to my nards alright I'm ready when you are mud and snow everywhere welcome to Minnesota I couldn't get my car out even if I wanted to it's just buried so Frankie you found something that I gotta see to believe yeah when you were telling me about it I'm like that but then when we're done at Menards we're going to holy buckets who turned that up we're going to the sawmill and so this guy's story the guy we're gonna meet because we went to the sawmill last year remember that guy yeah we're not going to that guy sawmill we're going to a different guy sawmill and this guy story is really cool but he's probably not going to tell it worth a darn because most guys don't tell their own story very well right matt has goats he's got goat welcoming committee I see what kind of dogs are they Matt Frankie - Frankie nice to meet you you guys smell the Fox so I'm gonna tell you the story and then we're gonna go out there and check out his place so he's just like an average guy right yep and he found a sawmill was like you know Tom mills are expensive they're like 25 30 grand on average did you know that no yeah like a normal sawmill well he found one down I mean like we're in Minnesota he found one down and like New Mexico or something and he'd never saw a mill before in his life he's he just had this desire so he went down he took a big gamble and I mean we're talking about a big gamble this is a guy that doesn't have a lot of extra money lying around so he drove all the way down there just to save a few thousand bucks he brought his little kids with him because he didn't have a babysitter so he goes down there with like a three four and a five-year-old in Tull I was telling these guys and the video on tone thank you a little bit about your story where did you go to pick up your sawmill in the first place yeah I drove out to Colorado to get it the nationwide search just on Craigslist and a company out there was upgrading so they were selling it after just two years of brand new okay Randy because these things are super expensive they're not easy to get into they're about thirty one two thousand new aren't they yep yep exactly so would you pick this one up for I gotta 420 with some bit listen black top yeah three years old big deal right I can't believe that how many hours were on it I was about a thousand when I bought it and I put about two hundred on it and about eight months okay so you were never in the sawmill business before this where you know brand new it no clue yeah you had no clue it was cool I love it I love it picks up this sawmill brings it back and starts Cottonwood now his wife and my wife worked together that's the only reason I know anything about this story right and she was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs because he pretty much had gambled a good chunk of their savings a way to do this thing and now this guy is selling wood all over a year later he's selling wood all over and when I went out to his place he's actually got good prices on wood and he's got good wood I mean he's still part of the doing the learning curve but at least he's now starting to make money off from this thing and so now look at your stock look at all the stuff you got yeah I'm pretty good stock and then its own like crazy so there was a lot more here and a lot more logs that have cut and sold already so so so guys that are maybe looking at getting into this thing how do you sum up where do you sell them at so I'm pretty excited to get to go out there and check it out and to bring the guys with on this journey so that they can carry what do you want you yeah exactly this is a cool thing but we're gonna turn this off and turn it back on when you're planning to get to Menards nards Frankie you know we got Home Depot and Lowe's right here but we always seem to go to Menards yeah so reason why you like Menards better is it just me you like when I really didn't care for the store that month I mean I'm telling I think they've gained a lot of stuff since they've been doing all this remodeling yep hmm I think I think I like the selection though better from Home Depot and Lowe's I think Menards has a better price though but to each their own let's go check out this thing the thing don'tdon't on it's not a good sign when you need a shopping cart at Menards that means you're gonna spend a lot of money outdoor power okay huh I didn't know Bernards head craftsman that makes sense they got Black and Decker I mean Black & Decker craftsman and de Waal are all the same wonder why they don't have carried a wall see oh these must come out and you can put that it all goes together as a pole saw or a chain saw yeah from pole saw to chain saw and back no tools required what a minute what does this please tell me this doesn't run off these no that's a log just sitting like kind of treat oh god that looks like alright I was looking at that corner those double-a batteries I'm like if this is a chainsaw that runs off double-a batteries I'm out what is that one so that's the same thing but in a gas version pool on pro-gas hedge trimmer what how much hedge do you got a trimming to own a gas hedge trimmer alright let's take the second one back the first one's probably been dropped a couple five times on the floor alright guys we are pullin in and it was floods everywhere he's got wood all over the place out here not as much as he had last time I was here though see if he's around this is a pretty cool place that's simple let me take them off and clear off the sawdust and see what she's got inside best tool I got right here the scraper we got some black walnut here just some small pieces but some really awesome figure in there that's gorgeous most people would think this this kind of stuff is firewood but there's value in it lots of value amazing pieces so guys that are maybe looking at getting into this thing how do you sum up where do you sell them at Facebook is the best really Facebook marketplace has been the greatest place to market and advertise business products Facebook market play up okay where do you get all your wood from most the urban removals so kind of just random events I get a notification on Facebook or Craigslist or from a couple of tree guys that work with yeah I was gonna say didn't you kind of go out there talking to a bunch of tree guys and do you have to buy the raw one or do you get it for free years in a combination almost everything has been free so far I bought a few walnut logs yeah we're for a good deal and then I've also gone into people's yards and who have offered me their trees I pay a tree climber we work together knock it down and haul it out huh so the little thinking of how much research went into this thing man as far as the sawmill I was what I was looking for everyone for a while it was just a matter of what to get the stationary or portable and I thought well I'm gonna be in business it might as well have a portable mill okay why a lot of thought went into that just so I can go to customers so you actually what do you mean you actually could haul this to a customer site yeah and you would mill for them right on site right on site so yeah they just prep the logs for me have a helper and then this takes about half an hour to tear it down get it rated for towing and another half an hour to set it back up so is there a big demand for that there's there can be if you find the right people with the you know storm damage lots like farmers have trees come down like I want some lumber so there's there's people out there but most of my most of my work is at home home base Miller has you actually brought this out to a site so far and down that yeah twice oh really is so far how do you charge for that yeah so if I have to go to you it's $200 minimum that covers the setup and teardown fee that's the transport on board right okay that makes sense two hours and then it's 75 an hour after that 75 an hour yeah dude you're not charging enough you're not charging enough yeah I mean I'm gonna tell you right now just labor hours alone should be anywhere from fifty to sixty five dollars an hour plus your machine on top of that should be equal to that so like for a skid loader I get ninety five dollars now or minimum and I can get over ninety five dollars an hour then a skid loader is about the same price you know good to use skid loaders about the same price as a sawmill except the sawmill is a lot harder to find somebody qualified and owns one and has one available and has a portable once you're in higher demand realistically I would say Matt you should probably start thinking to charge around a buck and a quarter to a buck seventy-five an hour and maybe I'm totally wrong all right you guys actually need your help on this one because I'm not in the sawmill business and I know some of you guys are nomads charging 75 dollars an hour and my opinion without experience is that's under charging you guys tell me what do you guys think the going rate for taking a sawmill out to a place cutting wood and then driving it back should be put it in the comments down below I would love to hear what you guys think Frankie what do you see so far yeah it's really nice looking what isn't it well it's a lot of walnut in here do you keep your walnut inside mostly yeah I try to keep everything inside it's not good for the Sun to beat on it at all for any species for that matter but it'll start checking and just call anything so how about so drying you have a moisture meter I have a moisture meter I'm building a so let's go check out your kiln yeah so the one thing that we need to educate these guys on is you got to dry the wood what is the proper what moisture content Matt do you know well for most people you want to be a around 10% you a little bit less even better a lot of people are just doing like epoxy fills so it's not as critical to be super dry with the woods they can get away with a little bit higher moisture content but it is very important to educate see fill doesn't require the low moisture content not in the lower did single-digits know you get away with 10-12 yeah this is a solar kiln 15 feet long seven feet deep and you got to finish the back doors and install some fans that you'll be operational yeah Matt moves this room by hand all by hand and winch and winch and a little bit of dragon here and there you still got that monster piece yeah Frank you got to come check oh there it is what is that it's that pine that's a red time what do you think that's gonna look like inside you got any idea well it's got it's got confused right now it's got a lot of blue staining in it so it was beetle-killed and it's gonna be crazy with all the figure in the shape from the outside so be don't peel yeah all these beetle beetle holes got into the wood and then that's what caused the blue staining so it's like a fungus it doesn't hurt the wood just gives it a color so it's gonna be pretty awesome when I when I cut that in the cookies I spent hours looking at law just to figure out the best way to cut them up literally hours hey what's your name your company Rueben custom sawmilling Reuben are you ven just like Reuben out of whatever hey these guys hey what do you have any advice these guys are looking to buy their own sawmill what to look for well you kind of have to figure out your budget and then I would say the biggest thing is figure out how you're gonna dry your wood if you want to if you want to cut a lot of wood I'd say figure out how you're gonna dry it first and actually perhaps get your kiln set up before your sawmill so you got other things but that's what that's what I learned yes yeah I don't know how you can move all this stuff around cut so far is just like I'll take that little hand cart and just roll them here to the mill and then the middle loads what handcart kidding so these are the ones I'm going home west we've got plenty of project a lot like that I'll just hand card that to the middle and then the mill will load it with the arm it's like see you tonight that's a piece of the club yeah I actually move some yeah around that I can stage everything and just knock out production yeah kill myself too so the sawmill was the first stage you need the land so a couple of things you really need is land forgiving neighbors your agricultural you're lucky and then you need something to load the sawmill up and then spaced stack and dry stack and truck yeah to seal the seal in grains to the moisture released it prevents checking cracking moisture escapes about 10 times faster out the end then it does the rest of the log so until then the log goes bad on the end right yeah so you want to seal the end so it prevents cracks from starting early on so your boards don't get cracks when they dry off camera Matt and I was talking what why are you done it's starting to get cold it is yeah all right Matt do you have any advice for a guy starting out in business they're looking at doing something like you're doing what have you learned in the last year I've learned a lot just number one thing is make sure you get some but better equipment you know or get more than you think you need especially with the sawmill mm-hmm you know get get support equipment or buy something that can support your business or your operation and then the biggest thing if you're going to sell stuff get on Facebook and Instagram because that's huge it's the gram - yeah Instagram - especially for sawmilling because I'm taking pictures of everything I cut and it's going right online and it goes out the door pretty fast yeah hmm and so if you guys are watching this video Rueben custom saw milling on Instagram in fact I just posted us some stories on his place so you can find out more from him Rueben custom saw me on Facebook - yep Facebook there you go you guys but don't buy out the pieces that I want anymore to come I was actually telling Matt I want to hide this piece because I know I'll figure out something I want to do with it so yeah a lot of great stuff all right god bless you guys go get them and I hope this videos helped you out and check out these other two videos here you can't tell right now I'm Matt but I'm gonna put a video right about there I'm gonna put one right about there all right let's go get'em