“My oldest son, Selik, wants to go to the Naval Academy and become a Navy Seal. He needs money, of course, and wanted to get a job. A conventional job conflicts with school and sports and I didn’t want him to give that up. He and I have ended up sawing together so he can earn money.
Closely supervised sawing’s a good job for my son and we have three younger boys behind him — Logan, Preston, and Kyler who’ll get into it when they’re old enough. Selik’s under my strict supervision as we saw and TimberKing gives me a sense of safety because you operate everything from the Command Post.
All the work they can handle
We saw for others and we have more sawing than we want to do, and we do it on our schedule. We’re the right sawyers for you if you need it done but you don’t need it tomorrow.
We do custom sawing so it doesn’t interfere with Selik’s school or sports. We don’t advertise; we’ve just gotten the word out to a few people we know. A friend is building a barn and we sawed beams for him. Another friend is building a cabin. We charge a fair price and we get that and more. We handle production that bigger mill operations don’t want to mess with.
He’s on his third TimberKing sawmill
I’ve owned three TimberKing sawmills. My first one was a TimberKing 1220; an extension of my woodworking hobby. Friends owned a family farm and I sawed oak logs for them. I played around with sawing, making decking for trailers and so on.
We moved and I had no place to set up the 1220 so I sold it. We moved again and came across an opportunity to buy 100 acres. We suddenly had 100 acres of trees, 40 of them in hardwoods. So I bought a TimberKing 1600.
The 1600 was a good saw but it didn’t have log turners at that time. This was a good excuse to get a bigger mill. I thought of getting the TimberKing 2000 but ended up getting a 2200.
When I thought about getting a bigger saw, I visited a friend who has a Wood-Mizer. It’s pretty nice but not as robust or well-built as TimberKing. I run six Bobcat dealerships in the Carolinas and Georgia so I know electronics like Wood-Mizer uses. They can cause mechanical problems. Conversely, TimberKing’s built to minimize problems. Control circuits are well routed with good connections. They’re very well made and really bulletproof.
Sold his mills for more than he paid
I owned a 1220, then a 1600, and sold both for more than I paid for them. Now I have the 2200 with the Kubota diesel engine. I have lots of experience with diesel. It gives you tons of power, it’s easy to maintain, bulletproof, and lasts forever.
All this started as a hobby then it turns out my older son and I can make some money sawing. I love my day job but it’s nice to spend time making sawdust, blowing off steam, and helping my son make money on the side. I’m not trying to make a living with a TimberKing but at the same time my spare time is very valuable to me. The last thing I want is a mill that won’t start or has electrical problems.
If you’re thinking of getting a sawmill, you can’t go wrong with TimberKing. If you can, go up one size bigger than you think you need because the extra features you get are nice.”
— John Hopper, TimberKing Owner, Moore SC
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