3 friends own 1 TimberKing 1220 Sawmill
We recently heard from Matt Hinton, TimberKing owner from Minnesota. He and two friends are on the go all the time. Between them, they have lots of interests and lots of equipment to support those interests.
The BIGGEST machine they share is a TimberKing 1220 sawmill. Each one is a one-third owner. It’s a formula that works out just great for these guys — good friends to spend time with, lots of equipment to tinker with, good work to do on projects together, having fun, and sawing quality lumber with their Timberking!
Read Matt’s story…
“I have two great, longtime friends, James and Doug. These guys are the bet. We spend a lot of time together and have all kinds of fun. All three of us are hunters. We shoot trap, shoot black powder, go fishing together, tap maple trees, make maple syrup, keep bees, ride 4-wheelers like a bunch of kids, and a whole lot more.
And we own equal shares in a TimberKing 1220 sawmill. All three of us own the mill — each of us is a one-third owner.
We figure out how to do stuff – we’re cowboys!
We’re a bunch of cowboys! We joke we don’t know anything but we figure out how to do stuff and do it. We’re all handy and learning as we go.And we’ve learned so much about sawing as we’ve owned and used this mill.
Doug owns 40 acres in South Dakota that’s full of maple, basswood, elm, ash, and more. That’s where we keep our mill and do our sawing. Right now, we’re sawing ash logs into beams for a sugar shack we’ll build.
40 years ago, all the white oak on Doug’s property was logged. The logs were taken but the tops are still there. Some tops are not in good shape but most are big and solid. We saw the tops into 3/4” or 5/8” boards and they’re just beautiful!
Funny story how we got our 1220
It’s a funny story how we ended up with this 1220. Maybe 10 years ago, I was helping James with a project for a third party. In that guy’s garage was a TimberKing 1220. He’d bought it but used it only a couple times so it was like new. He asked us if we’d like to buy it, and we said yes. And that’s how my two friends and I got started sawing.
Our 1220 punches way above its weight class
Our 1220 TimberKing punches way above its weight class. It’s tough as nails, really strong and solid. We keep it covered and out of the weather. We keep blades sharp. We get our blades right from TimberKing and send them back for sharpening when they get dull. And we keep the bearings and blade adjusted. We do routine maintenance and we end up with excellent lumber.
Beautiful basswood beams
We started out sawing cherry logs and I built a couple tables with the wood. We sawed some basswood beams 8” x 8” x 10’. It’s beautiful wood, perfect tor carving, and we gave a big piece to a friend of mine who’s a decoy carver.
Perfectly clear, knot free pine boards 18” – 23” wide
Another friend had a big white pine, 36” diameter at the base. It had died and he was afraid it’d fall on his apple tree. He cut it down (it did fall on his apple tree!) and my friends and I cut it into seven logs, 100” long each. Then we sawed the logs into lumber with our TimberKing 1220. We ended up with boards between 18” and 23” wide. 30 of them were clear, knot free, no splits. Perfect.
Knotty pine paneling
I think pine boards with knots are OK for paneling. I cut random width boards 4” – 12” wide for my camp in South Dakota. For cabinetry, I’ve quarter-sawn pine boards. I’ve cut big beams, too.
I grew up with country wisdom
My father was a farmer. He had a team of horses when I was a kid. He taught me ‘country wisdom’ like if you cut a white oak post and put it in the ground green, it’ll rot in two years. If you dry it, then put it in the ground, it’ll last 60 years. I started working in carpentry in the early 70’s and just retired three years ago. I heat my home with wood, and I have a cabin in South Dakota. I know woods and the best use of each type of wood.
Three friends share all their equipment
Besides our sawmill, we share all our equipment. One owns a tractor, another owns all the equipment we use for making maple syrup. We go 4-wheeling and ride around like kids. It’s great to have these good times with close friends. We go up to the house on Doug’s 40 acres and do all kinds of things together. There’s an orchard there, bee hives, tractor, plow, all kinds of cooking equipment. We hunt there – pheasants, ducks, geese, not deer so much. We shoot trap and we go fishing – there’s a Class A trout stream nearby.
We do a lot of sawing but we don’t sell anything. We give it away if someone needs it. We sawed out some cherry for a guy who makes canoes. Then we watched how he built them. Otherwise, we use the lumber ourselves.
Cantilever-style mills can’t cut straight
I’d been interested in sawmills for awhile. I looked at the cantilever-style mills — where the cutting head is supported on only one post. I can’t see how they’d cut right. So I like TimberKing’s design. It’s very stable with its 4-post head. It’s heavy welded steel and runs on double tracks down the bed. And the bed has welded 2” x 6” box beams. The motor’s great, too, and the blade goes through oak just like it goes through pine.
Everything on the TimberKing’s easy to adjust for good, clean cuts. The oil filter’s simple to change. So are the blades and even the bearings if they need changing.
1220 saws quality lumber – same as a big hydraulic mill
It’s a solid little mill, and really not so little. We’ve sawn 30” diameter cherry logs that were so heavy our tractor bucket wouldn’t lift them – we had to use forks. We can saw up anything that comes along.
You turn a crank to move the 1220’s head through the log but it’s easy to do. Sure, I’d love to have a big, all-hydraulic TimberKing but I guarantee you the quality of wood we saw is equal to much bigger mills’ output. The blade tensioner’s great and the rollers are, too. I can’t think of anything bad about our 1220!
We wear eye and ear protection and we’re very careful about safety. You get used to running the mill and you can tell when the blade needs changing. You can hear it and feel it.
If you’ve got access to logs…
If you’ve got access to trees or logs, owning a sawmill is a great asset. You can saw just what you want, do it all yourself, and you don’t have to buy lumber. And you can’t go wrong with TimberKing!”
— Matt Hinton, 1220 Owner (with his two friends, James and Doug), Rosedale MN
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