Owner Success Stories
Discover real success stories from Norwood sawmill owners worldwide. See how hobbyists and professionals turn logs into lumber, businesses, and lasting legacies.
AN INVESTMENT IN FAMILY... AND IN LEGACY.
"We’ve created numerous pieces of furniture, gifts, crafts and spare firewood for our family and friends. But what makes my wife and I the most pleased with our investment is the lessons and memories it has created with our 3 kids. They have developed an interest in working and creating with their hands. Being outside, building, learning and working together has brought us closer together."
- Steve and Nicole R.
LM29 Owners
Owner Success Stories
Owner Success Stories
One Dynamic Couple’s Sawmilling Journey That’s Good For the Environment and Profitable … Meet Rose Forestry
Rose Forestry of upstate New York is a forward-thinking family business that sees, and unlocks, the tremendous value in natural resources missed by most everyone else. Using their Norwood LumberPro HD36, their business has two “divisions”: Firstly, they custom-saw on contract for others. Secondly, they have a storefront for woodworkers and craftsmen that they stock with unique slabs and boards milled from salvaged wood and sustainably-grown timber. Greg & Ashley RoseHD36 Owner
Building furniture, crafts, and memories.
We’ve had our LM29 Norwood sawmill for approximately 2 years. We’ve created numerous pieces of furniture, gifts, crafts and spare firewood for our family and friends. But what makes my wife and I the most pleased with our investment is the lessons and memories it has created with our 3 kids. They have developed an interest in working and creating with their hands. Being outside, building, learning and working together has brought us closer together. The photos of our 13 year old son Hunter are just one example of how he has enjoyed our Norwood sawmill and learned a variety of lessons along the way. We cut down this maple together, milled it together. Now, after building it together Hunter loves sitting on the couch with our family looking at his beautiful creation with pride. The table and the memories will be with our family forever! Steve and Nicole R. LM29 Owners
Big-Dimension Sawing in Canada’s North
Phil Andree set up his homestead near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He is typical of the tough, independent residents of the area. “We’re about 8 hours south of the Arctic Circle, he explained, and there’s not a whole lot between here and the North Pole.” “This is where men are men and women are... well... scarce. Who in their right mind would decide to settle down here and build a farm? It is brutal here— minus 50 degrees (-58oF) in February.” A grader operator in the oil fields by day, Phil runs a Norwood LumberMan MN26 sawmill evenings and weekends—often by electric lights— to stretch out the short winter days. “I’m up at 5:00, come home around 5:00 in the evening, have supper, then go out in the bush and cut lumber for an hour or two,” he explained. The evening I called Phil, he had just come in after such an evening of sawmilling in -20oC (-4oF) degree weather. “Yeah, this is where men are men and women are... well... scarce,” he laughed, “Who in their right mind would decide to settle down here and build a farm? It is brutal here— minus 50 degrees (-58oF) in February.” “Everything is lumber and oil in these parts,” says Phil. A lot of sawmills cut rig mats for heavy equipment. They are 2x12s, 3 layers thick, ten feet wide, by forty feet long. “We make highways through the bush out of lumber so we can drive heavy equipment and tractor trailers back through there. Thousands of these pads get moved every day.” Cutting lumber for these “boardwalk” roads keep loggers and sawyers busy. But Phil had other plans for his Norwood sawmill. Sawing in Sub-Freezing Temperatures“When I moved to Alberta, I figured I needed a sawmill for the lumber to build a workshop and barn for a lambing operation,” Phil explained. “I started out with the idea of building a mill myself, but decided to save time and buy one. I looked at the Norwood mills,” he continued, “I was impressed with the mill, and it was reasonably priced.” Putting a sawmill together in sub-freezing temperatures proved a challenge, and Phil says that he and his wife, Cindy, had to take frequent breaks to warm up. “I had my wife reading the instructions as I put it together so I wouldn’t screw up,” he recalled. “It was probably -20 (-4oF) or so when we assembled it, but everything went together.” Looking back, Phil says he wishes he had bought Norwood’s larger HD36 hydraulic sawmill. “Some of my logs really push the limits of the MN26,” he said. Phil notes that the Briggs & Stratton engine stands up well to the rugged environment. “No matter how cold it is, I just pull the choke on, give it a pull or two, and it starts up every time,” he said. “With electric start, guys get spoiled,” he laughed. With the mill in place, Phil’s next task was to accumulate a supply of logs for his barn. Free Logs! Salvaging Spruce Too Big for the Mechanical Harvesters “We have excellent spruce in these parts,” Phil explained. “A lot of them are more than 100 feet tall, and over 30 inches in diameter at the base.” Loggers use mechanical harvesters that cut the trees, strip off the branches, and buck them to sixteen-foot lengths. “The logs that are too big for the local mills, they give to me. Free lumber!” With his job as a grader operator, Phil says he knows where the good timber is, and his ten-ton trailer equipped with a grapple loader make short work of salvaging the oversize logs. “It takes me about an hour to get out to the bush, half hour to load up, then an hour back home,” he says. Large-Dimension Milling “All my lumber is 16 feet long, between 25 and 30 inches diameter, the way it comes out of the bush,” Phil said, “My skid-steer will barely pick some of it up.” Phil says he has found milling to have a learning curve. “I’ve hit the log stops, but you just put on a new blade and away you go. Anything I broke, I did it by pushing it too hard,” he added. Phil says that a sharp blade and a good flow of water/antifreeze are the keys to cutting frozen logs. When asked how cold it has to be before he’ll stay inside, he replied simply, “There’s no such thing as too cold. There’s too much work to get done. You just man up and do it. I run the sawmill, and Cindy keeps bringing me out coffee.” Cindy also took lots of pictures and videos, and the pictures with this article are to her credit. “There’s no such thing as too cold. There’s too much work to get done. You just man up and do it. I run the sawmill, and Cindy keeps bringing me out coffee.” Cindy also took lots of pictures and videos, and the pictures with this article are to her credit. “There’s no such thing as too cold. There’s too much work to get done. You just man up and do it.” The irony of using the smaller MN26 sawmill with a 13-horsepower motor to cut logs too big for the much larger commercial mills isn’t lost on Phil, and he uses the capability of his mill to good advantage. “Lots of times I had to cut a bit off to where I could get it through the throat, cutting right to the edge of the blade guides”, he said, “I spend a lot of nights cutting, but I get a lot of enjoyment milling all my own lumber.” While he occasionally has help at the mill, Phil won’t let anyone else actually run it. Besides Cindy, Phil’s best helper is the equipment. “I’ll use my skid-steer and grapple to throw a log up on the mill and cut it down to 2 x 12s. Just keep going at it,” he said. The skid-steer also comes in handy when unloading sixteen-foot 10-inch beams off the mill. To handle oversized timber, “you have to have good support equipment, especially when you’re working by yourself,” he explained. Building a Barn to Last the Test of Time Under Heavy Loads“I found a picture of the barn I wanted to build, and away I went,” Phil recalled, “I knew that I wanted heavy timbers in the barn. The beams are full 10-inch by 10-inch. All my lumber is true 2” by 12”, so when you look at my barn, you think it’s been there a hundred years. It’s old- school. Really beefy.” The 32-foot by 50-foot barn is unusual in Phil’s part of Alberta. “There aren’t that many big barns around here,” he explained, “People would rather cover their equipment than their animals.” Milling the lumber was just one of the challenges of the project. For example, the foundation posts had to be set seven feet deep just to get below the frost line. Positioning the posts and beams required occasional help, but the skid-steer and knuckle beam loader did all the heavy lifting. “I can’t believe the amount of lumber that went into my barn,” Phil exclaimed, “The barn siding alone ran 4,500 linear feet of 1x10s.” “I bet I’ve cut over $50,000 in lumber. I couldn’t have been able to afford the lumber without the mill.” The barn is an important part of Phil’s next business venture of raising lambs for meat. Between the frigid weather and predators (“wolves the size of horses”), the sheep stay in the barn year ‘round, which means he needs room for feed, as well as the livestock. “I store hay in the loft. I’ve got 600 square bales coming in tomorrow. The grain bins are in the loft, as well, and both hay and grain are gravity fed down to the feed troughs. Phil estimates that he stores about thirty tons of hay and grain in the loft, so those “beefy” posts and beams are there for more than appearance! Even with his time and expense, Phil estimates that the Norwood MN26 sawmill has paid for itself twice, just building this barn. “I bet I’ve cut over $50,000 in lumber. I couldn’t have been able to afford the lumber without the mill,” Phil said, “If I were to do it again, I’d get a bigger mill, but I would get a Norwood. They’ve been really good.” Phil has more plans for his sawmill in the near future. “I’ve got another barn to build when this one’s done,” he said, “I’m probably going to sell this sawmill and get the larger HD36 with hydraulics.” “A year and a half ago, there was nothing here,” he reflected. “Now I’ve got a house, a 30 x 40 shop, and a 32 x 50 barn. I’ve got enough guys wanting me to mill lumber for them that I could be doing this full time.” It’s a good thing that the summer days that far north are 18 hours long. Phil is going to need every moment!
African big-game hunter, safari guide and outdoorsman, Ron Crous, salvages and transforms priceless African hardwoods with his Norwood sawmill.
By Ron Crous A single person, in a single moment, can change the course of your life. The course of my life’s journey was set when, on my ninth birthday, I listened to one man speak about African wildlife conservation – he was a senior conservation officer from the Cape Point Nature Reserve, on the southern tip of Africa. From that moment forward, I knew that outdoors was where I would spend my life. My working career started with wildlife management, anti-poaching and game capture and, over the past 30 some years, I have been fortunate to work and hunt in some of the most beautiful areas of Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa. For the past twelve of those years, I have focused primarily on guiding dangerous game hunt safaris. The course of my life’s journey was set when, on my ninth birthday, I listened to one man speak about African wildlife conservation … From that moment forward, I knew that outdoors was where I would spend my life. But throughout, the trees have been what defined true wilderness beauty in my mind. Always in awe of how old, large, tall or majestic they were, I planted trees wherever I could (and sometimes where I could not!). Inquisitive by nature, and about nature, I wanted to watch them grow – to see their development year after year has always given me great satisfaction. I started cutting fallen trees into planks to see what they looked like; I was amazed by the beauty locked within each log. Harvesting one particular log took me three years – I had found a massive 20-foot (6m) log washed up on the beach where we have our holiday home on the Indian Ocean. Over the course of three consecutive vacations, I managed to mill the whole thing into planks … using just my chainsaw! It was quite a saga … but I got them back home. With the recent closure of trophy hunting in Botswana, I was forced to look for alternative means of providing for my family and this “silly” idea of cutting planks for resale kept popping up. Although there used to be 2 or 3 sawmills around thirty years ago, there is currently no sawmill industry in Botswana. The lack of a sawmilling industry is mainly due to two reasons: the government prohibiting tree harvesting and elephant damage (Botswana is teeming with an over-population of elephants which, in large numbers, wreak havoc on the forest). This, essentially, only leaves fallen timber and crooked timber, both of which are unsuitable for large-scale sawing operations. But, what a large sawmilling corporation would overlook, I see as real potential. While they may be stunted and crooked, the timber is highly valuable African hardwood, prized for its rich colors and grains. My major concern was choosing a machine that would be up to the job – These African species are some of the hardest woods on the planet and, what is more, they are mostly long dead and very dry. After considerable research on how best to maximize the potential of the local fallen and dead timber, I decided on a Norwood LumberMate LM29 band sawmill. My major concern was choosing a machine that would be up to the job – These African species are some of the hardest woods on the planet and, what is more, they are mostly long dead and very dry. Leadwood (Combretum imberbe), knobthorn (Acacia nigrescens) and mopane (Colophospermum mopane), to name a just few, are all in the vicinity of 70 – 77 lbs/cubic foot (1120 – 1230 kg/m3). I took the plunge and placed the order for my Norwood at the same time that I accepted a commission to build a 10’ x 4’ (3m x 1.2m) live-edge leadwood table. Wow, I jumped in at the deep end! But, as long as Norwood could ""cut it"", I was willing to try. I knew of a massive old log that had been cut down some years’ ago by Botswana Telecommunications – I had always envied who might manage to do something with that log; it was huge! Out I went with a seriously heavy-duty trailer that we used to use to remove and transport elephant carcasses. By means of chain-blocks, and some serious sweating, we managed to get the beast loaded! Getting it onto the mill was also fraught with hassles as the log, being any and every shape except round, tended to do pretty much as it pleased. So, as when out on safari, I called on my trusty Land Cruiser to add a little gentle persuasion. And, voila! … On she rolled. My lovely new Norwood did the job smartly and soon I was into actually making the table. [The Norwood] is not simply a toy, but a tool capable of cutting even the hardest wood on earth! I have got to thank the Dale family and the entire Norwood team for getting a sawmill of this quality out there for the likes of people like myself who want to play – although, it is not simply a toy, but a tool capable of cutting even the hardest wood on earth!
I wish I bought it years ago!
This sawmill shelter is protecting my Norwood LM29. It completely covers the 16 feet of rail.The lumber was cut from 100% dead Missouri White Oak. My Norwood Sawmill has become one of my most useful tools on my 60-acre Missouri Ozark Farm. Without question I have recovered the initial cost of purchase of the sawmill. Along with the economic benefit, the pride of cutting and building from lumber harvest on my own land is unmeasurable. I get a kind of frontier/homestead feeling. I am constantly looking for a reason to fire up my sawmill!I wish I would had bought it years ago when I first started developing my homestead. Daniel Adams LM29 Owner
Shaping Logs to Shape a Business in Log-Cabin Construction
Larry Fleece of Orleans, Ontario is the proud owner of one of Norwood’s new LX26 Log Moulders. With a supply of red pine, white pine and tamarack in his woodlot, he settled on the LX26 as the perfect tool to accurately shape them for premium log home construction. “Right now, I’m just milling for myself”, Larry began. But he plans to soon be using his LX26 to mill log cabin kits to sell. “I really like the idea of putting a “D” face on logs,” Larry explained, “Putting a tongue and groove in the logs locks them together for a tight fit without cracks.” After looking at other log shaping machines, he decided on the Norwood Log Moulder LX26. Larry likes the idea of the log remaining stationary while moving the cutter-head over the log – it allows him to work with bigger and heavier material while minimizing his workload. Another big attraction is that he can use the same track for both the sawmill and his Log Moulder. Although he does not have his sawmill yet, Larry bought an extended Norwood HD36 log deck and trailer package as a base for his Log Moulder. “It will be great to have both a sawmill and my Log Moulder on the same track,” he said, “That way, I can set the Log Moulder at one end of the track while I mill the log into a 6” x 8” cant. Then, I can fire up the LX26 to round the outside edge for the cabin, put a tongue on the top of the cant and a groove on the bottom.” “You don’t even advertise very much, but people hear you have a sawmill, and they come over. I think you could come up with a million ways of using the LX26 Log Moulder.” The LX26 worked perfectly right from the first log. “I got a load of pine delivered, and I’m pretty amazed with what I was able to do with what Norwood created to shape those timbers,” he said, “We milled some cants to see how they would stack, and they fit perfectly. The finish is really smooth. It is amazing how clean they came out.” Larry finds the movement to raise and lower the LX26’s cutter-head to be very precise and, “the engine provides plenty of power.” Larry has tongue and groove knives in addition to “D”-profile knives. Because he equipped his LX26 with the optional second cutter, David can simultaneously mount the different profiled knives side-by-side. This allows him to groove one side, rotate the cant for the “D” face, then rotate the log again for the tongue – all without changing knives or taking the cant off the mill. “It’s amazing how easy it is,” he exclaimed. Although Larry has not looked into marketing pine shavings yet, he has a growing supply. “A couple of boards and you have two inches of shavings on the ground,” he noted. But that “waste” has value and can be sold for a premium to horse owners who are always on the look-out for a source of clean, high-quality pine and softwood shavings. Shavings will have to just keep piling up, for now. Larry’s first order of business is to build the 12’ x 16’ demo cabin to show to prospective customers – future log cabin purchasers. Larry’s goal is to mill the logs and build the cabin in a month. “If that 12’ x 16’ cabin works out, it will pay for itself right there. Cabin logs are going for about $15 per lineal foot, so it won’t take long to pay for it,” he concluded. “If that 12’ x 16’ cabin works out, [my LX26 Moulder] will pay for itself right there. Cabin logs are going for about $15 per lineal foot, so it won’t take long to pay for it.” Larry has big plans for his Norwood Log Moulder. “For cabin flooring, I got tongue and groove knives made for the edges of boards, and set up a jig so that I can run through four boards at a time,” he said. “Next, I want a set of knives for relief cutting on the back side,” he continued. Different knife patterns are readily available from commercial shops, and Larry is already coming up with a wish list. “I really want to get into Swedish cope with the dovetail locks in the end,” he said. And, of course straight planer knives are available. The unit can plane a maximum width of 27”. Larry is excited about the prospect of building a business around log cabin kits. With a single machine to mill the logs, cut the tongue & groove, make beams, trusses, floor joists and flooring, he has a good start. “In woodworking, this is a very specialized product and, in my area, no one is doing it [making log cabin logs], so it has generated a lot of interest,” he said. “Having the “D” face makes a huge difference. If things take off the way I hope they will, I’ll have two guys working with me this spring.” “It’s funny,” he continued, “You don’t even advertise very much, but people hear you have a sawmill, and they come over. I think you could come up with a million ways of using the LX26 Log Moulder.”
My father at 84 years old decided he had waited too long to get a sawmill…
"My father at 84 years old decided he had waited too long to get a sawmill. Since he’d worked all of his life with wood as a residential contractor building homes & cabinetry in our area since 1953 he had plenty of opportunities to use such a machine. He taught me well also; by working for his firm during the summers he instilled in me the value of hard work and skill which included plumb, level, and square (or you start over). I eventually became an automotive engineer and use those skills and ethic to this day in my own firm. {mainImage} We started with a Logosol Timberjig Chainsaw Mill to cut the logs that are regularly offered up to my retired father. The live edge projects he had tackled in past years involved a tremendous amount of effort with the chainsaw and then significant re-work and tweaking to get the slabs to his level of perfection. In 2018 when we happened upon a YouTube video about portable sawmills it started a discussion which led to some extensive research into brands, capability, and pricing. Based on our needs and budget we finally selected and purchased a NORWOOD LM-29 sawmill in January of 2019. He says “why did I wait so long?” When the boxes arrived in his home workshop it looked like a daunting task to assemble, but following the instruction book we were able to put the mill together on two Saturdays mostly. We couldn’t wait to get cutting so we experimented on three maple logs that had laid in the yard for a couple of years. In no time we had some really nice lumber and had worked through a significant part of the learning curve. He had made my daughter (his granddaughter) a large maple live edge dining table for her wedding a couple of years back and now my nephew was engaged to be married in the summer of 2019 and he wanted to do the same for his grandson. But this time, a friend had some large black walnut logs that they donated to us in the spring and he wanted to make his grandson’s live edge table from those beauties. The milling project took no time and was relatively effortless compared to the Logosol Timberjig. The table came together nicely and he embellished it with turquoise inlays (he is also a lapidary expert) as a final touch. He looks forward to more projects like that one in the future for other grandchildren and great grandchildren. Our next project involves moving the entire mill to our cabin in the north woods of Michigan near Lake Superior. From there we will have enormous opportunities for using the mill to create rustic furniture and/or structures on our properties. We look forward to building a shed into which we can install the mill to keep it out of the weather. We are taking down some trees to make room for the mill, and these trees will yield all of the lumber we need for that structure. We are both so happy with our purchase – every log we open up is another exciting endeavor!"Scott B. LM29 Owner
My Sawmill Experience Down Under
I’ve always had a passion for timber and wood and have worked with it for most of my life. I have lost count of all the things I have made over the years. I always bought timber, as it was my only source. As my job progressed, and when I had access to a farm in 2004, I started to dabble in milling with a small chainsaw mill. It was so satisfying to turn what was just a log doomed to be burned as firewood, into something I could use. I used the posts and beams I cut to build a few sheds. I started considering a full-size mill about 2009 because I could see the advantages of a quicker system. I bought a Lucas in 2011. It is a simple system and suited to the heavy Australian hardwood and the dimensional timber I was cutting. There is something very satisfying about turning a customer’s logs into something they can use. Later, I looked at band sawmills to process smaller logs and more unique-shaped logs that were simply not viable to cut up with swing-mill. I finally got my Norwood LumberMate LM29 and was over the moon. I was a complete novice with the bandsaw; it is a new set of skills to learn with cuts, blades and sharpening, but it is all common sense. I am thoroughly enjoying the experience and it has opened up so many more uses for my logs. I bought it specifically for pine, camphor, cedar and silky oak. I have also cut Australian hardwood on the LM29 which is a challenge for any saw. But the Norwood can do it – just take your time and keep the blade sharp. The Norwood complements my swing mill – very versatile, it does both smaller and unique logs much easier, in less time and with less waste which is important for me in smaller camphor. I make furniture and build fences. It is so very satisfying to be able to follow the whole process from felling the tree, to transporting the log, milling it, drying it, surfacing it and turning it into a finished project. The added bonus is, most of my logs are saved from firewood or chippers, thus maximizing our resources. Happy sawing everyone! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Norman G. LM29 Owner
