AMERICANS are often described as “fiercely independent people.” And TimberKing owners tend to be strongly hands-on, D-I-Y folks. Here’s a story of a TimberKing owner way up in the Northwest who’s done working for others — now he’s DOING WHAT HE WANTS with a TimberKing sawmill.
“After decades of working and doing what others want me to do, I want to do stuff that I want to do. Like sawing. I’ve got the equipment and I can do what I want. And I like building things of wood. It’s really very rewarding.
I’ve been a commercial fisherman all my life. For many years, I spent summer months fishing for red salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska. That’s very rugged work.
For the first time, I’m spending the summer at home and enjoying the sunshine. I’m 60 years old and sawing part time gives me the income from sawing is supplementing my slow-down income.
“Building a timber frame house got me interested in sawing”
I’m a hands-on guy. I hunt, fish, cut firewood, fell my own trees, and I’ve always built things. For example, I’ve fabricated metal boats for over 30 years. Several years ago, I helped a friend build a timber frame house. He had a sawmill and that whole project got me interested in sawing lumber.
I do lots besides sawing. My brother and I built my fishing boat in 1995. It’s made for gillnetting red salmon, also called sockeye salmon. It’s 32’ overall, the maximum allowed where I fish commercially in Bristol Bay, Alaska. It’s aluminum, jet-powered, and very fast.
I live in Oregon where there are dense forests of Douglas fir, hemlock, and cedar. We have six acres and I cut my own trees to mill. Some of them are 38” diameter. My oldest son works for a dredging company and gets me ‘sinker trees’ when he dredges up sunken, old growth fir trees. Some of those are 400 to 500 years old.
(Editor’s note: “sinker trees” are trees have been submerged in water over long, long periods. They’re rare and have physical characteristics not found in any other wood. See TimberKing owner, Lacy Larry IV’s blog post on his experience acquiring and sawing “sinkers” — Lacy call ’em “pecky sinkers.”)
Right now, I’m cutting Douglas fir and cedar trees from my property. I’ll saw all the lumber I need to build myself a 50’ x 80’ workshop. I’ve cut slabs for bar tops for others folks. I cut beveled cedar clapboard siding for a friend. He owns a construction company and, in return for my sawing, he’ll do some excavation work for me.
About that beveled clapboard siding project: I got TimberKing’s bevel-cut attachment. It mounts on the deck of the mill and can be set to tip the cant at an angle and also sit it square on the saw deck. So you make a square cut, then a tipped cut, then another square cut and so on, and end up with a stack of beveled clapboard siding like in the photo.
Wonderful construction materials
I got interested in sawing and I looked at all the mills out there. I came across TimberKing and knew it was the one I wanted. As I said, I’ve been a boat fabricator for decades and I look critically at how machines are constructed. TimberKing’s a no-brainer.
TimberKing uses wonderful construction materials and design. I especially like the 4-post head for its strength and quality.
I like everything about it, especially the stationary command post — you stand in one place and control everything using the hydraulics.
Good deal on a demo model
I originally ordered the TimberKing 1600. The delivery date came and the mill wasn’t ready. Matt at TimberKing told me they had a 2000 mill ready to go. It had been a demo model with just a few hours on it. They gave me a good deal on it and I went for it.
I chose the diesel engine. I like diesel power and I think if you’re going to put in hours sawing, diesel’s the way to go. I think you’ll save money on fuel in the long run.
3,800 mile TimberKing road trip
I drove my 1-ton Chevy dually pickup 1,900 miles from Oregon to Kansas City and towed the 2000 1,900 miles back again. Three days each way. It towed with no problem though I got a lot of curious looks on the highway. While at the factory, I met all the guys at TimberKing, even the President, Will Johnson.
It’s all good and I’ve cut a lot of lumber in the time I’ve owned it. I’d tell others that TimberKing’s a superior sawmill over the ‘orange mill’ out there. That one can’t compare to the TimberKing.
Which model to choose? A lot depends on what you’re cutting. Some TimberKings are bigger than the one I bought, some are smaller. Smaller’s OK if you’ll be cutting smaller logs. Logs in my photos are 38” diameter – I had to trim some to get it through the mill’s 36” throat!”
— Scott Glegor, Astoria Oregon, TimberKing 2000 Owner
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