Comparing $3000 sawmills – Is the WoodMizer LX25 worth it? Hudson, Woodland Mills, Norwood, Grizzly by Southern Indiana Saw
In this blog, we will be checking out a few different brands of sawmills and we will see which sawmills are best for you!
Kinds of Person for Sawmills
- One Special Project Person – A person that is buying a sawmill for a specific project
- A Little Lumber for Myself Person – The kind of person who just wants to cut lumber for personal use or hobby but not into cutting thousands of board feet.
- Buy/Sell Kind of Person – A person that uses the sawmill for a while and then sells.
- Future Sawmill Owner Operator Person – A person that wants to get into the sawmill business
We have 5 companies that we will be compared with the Wood-mizer. We will just be sharing with you the details that are on their website and what can we see around the same price point.
Hudson Hunter Camo
Hudson has a lot of different models and also releases specialty models. The Hudson Hunter Camo is $2,449 putting it approximately $500 under what Wood-mizer is asking. Here’s some notable info for this model.
Horse Power: 7hp Gas Engine, Manual start
Log Capacity: 21in (Diameter) (Normal mill size)
Woodland Mills HM126
The price of a Woodland Mills is only $3,099 sitting at approximately $100 cheaper than Wood-mizer.
Horse Power: 9 ½ HP and 14HP
Log Capacity: 26in (Diameter)
Resaw Capacity: 24in (Diameter)
Norwood Lumberman MN26
Parts for this sawmill are very easy to find. You can also change your engine to a bigger one without too much hassle. This brand is one of the more expensive ones, it’s $4,397. It is about $1,400 more than a Wood-mizer. Norwood also makes a lot of good products aside from sawmills and one of those is a winching system for pulling the log around, that’s something to look at.
Horse Power: 13HP
Log Capacity: 26in (Diameter)
Maximum Saw width is: 17in
Grizzly Industrial
The sawmill costs $5,500 it’s a $2,500 out from a Wood-mizer, the reason why we mention this is because it is another option. When you look at Grizzly, their elevating mechanisms work in the way the saw engages is similar to the Wood-mizer. In my personal opinion, Grizzly is overpriced. We are not trying to be critical here. You can look them up yourselves these are just my honest thoughts.
Horse Power: 13 ½ HP
Log Capacity: 28in (Diameter)
Maximum Saw width is: 22in
Wood-Mizer LX25
Horsepower is important when considering buying a sawmill because at the end of the day you need to be able to cut through the log. And even for the cheap mill, you don’t want to be there all day cutting.
It is recommended to have at least 9 ½ HP of the engine as the 7HP ain’t going to make it.
Wood-mizer has 26in log capacity which is exactly the same as you can get with the Norwood or the Grizzly which are more expensive mills.
It is the same as the woodland mills which is a similar price point that has a 22-inch max with of cut.
Horse Power: 7HP or 9 ½ HP
Log Capacity: 26in (Diameter)
Maximum Saw width is: 22in
Things to consider when looking for a sawmill (In no particular order)
- Strength of Construction – How strong is the machine? If you are going to buy a cheaper one, get the one that looks like it was built the best.
- Power – You need to check what horsepower you can get for that machine. It is recommended to have at least 9HP. 7HP is not that good it will struggle when trying to saw a max width. Horsepower is a big thing!
- Accessories- Check if it is possible to go up to a bigger engine or upgrade in the future. Does it have a power feed or a debarker option that you can add?
- Customer Service – This is not only applicable to sawmills but to all the things you are going to buy. Remember there will be a time even if it’s a new thing, you will get a part to fix something in your machine. Customer service is a big one to thing about.