“I grew up in rural Oklahoma and I have great memories of helping my grandad with his old circle sawmill. He was born in 1904. That was an earlier time; a pioneer time. He had a farm and an old circle mill. He sawed lumber for the farm and farmhouse. And he sold some lumber, too.
Tornado created a problem…
Not long ago, a tornado came across the farm and uprooted lots and lots of nice trees. Some landed on my dad’s house and car. I didn’t want all that wood to go to waste but our old circle mill needed to be rebuilt. And anyway, a circle mill is obsolete these days. Modern bandsaw mills are a lot safer.
…and TimberKing provided the solution
That’s when I decided to get a sawmill. I researched them extensively. I knew you can get a cheap, bolt-together Chinese-made mill for $2,000 or $3,000 but I didn’t even consider those. My search came down to TimberKing or a cantilever-style mill.
I’ve been all around heavy equipment and I liked TimberKing’s simplicity, rugged design, and construction. It’s very robust and will hold up well. I like the four-post head and welded steel deck.
I wanted a mill I could tow on the road. I wanted one-man operation, with hydraulics like log loaders and turners. a mill big enough to handle big-diameter logs.
TimberKing’s Customer Service was Daniel’s deciding factor
My decision was based on what I learned about the TimberKing company itself. I called them and saw they’re a large company with a small company touch — like customer service from an earlier time. It was a great experience. Real, regular people, not an automated maze. I talked with Matt in Sales and worked with him the whole time.
I ended up choosing the TimberKing 1620.
I used TimberKing’s financing program and it was an easy process. I’m very satisfied.
Delivery – another good experience
TimberKing delivered the mill, another good experience. I ordered and got a delivery timeframe of four to five weeks. It’s a road-towable mill so the driver towed it here since we’re only about five hours drive from the TimberKing factory. He called and I took delivery the next day.
Easy setup
Setup was easy because the mill comes essentially complete. We had to mount the water reservoir, that sort of thing. It was ready to go within 30 minutes. I had logs ready to saw!
Excellent training right at my site
The TimberKing delivery driver also trained us on how to operate the mill right at our place — the same training customers get at the TimberKing factory. The training was excellent, everything I needed to know to get sawing.
Since then, I’ve had a couple emails back and forth with Matt and Will, TimberKing’s president. I wrote a Google review: ‘TimberKing is a great company, sawmill has performed flawlessly.’
“5 Stars – I couldn’t be happier”
I’ve had no issues, no problems, no complaints, everything’s exactly as advertised. It’s all positive — I give TimberKing five stars and I couldn’t be happier.
Right now, my full-time job is in the corporate world but, going forward, I would love to saw and sell lumber for a living. I have intense interest in tools and industry from an earlier time. And I find true satisfaction doing tangible work with my hands.
I’m starting my sawmill business and I’m open to what comes. I don’t have a concrete business plan — I’ll let the market determine where I go. Maybe custom sawing, maybe towing the mill to the customer’s site. I’ve put up a website, 1904lumber.com. That honors my grandfather who was born that year.
Here’s Daniel’s UNIQUE marketing plan
I live in a small community so word will certainly get around. I doubt I’ll have to do any real advertising. My marketing plan is to hook up my TimberKing and tow it to a local diner, park it, have a cup of coffee. Folks will certainly be curious. And we’ll see what happens from there!”
— Daniel Dobson, 1904lumber.com, TimberKing 1620, Gowen OK
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