I Drove Across the Country to Test this Unique Sawmill

Foreign Hey it's Brock here with Rock Hill Farms And I'm here visiting Adam today and if You guys follow the channel you know I've been going around and testing out Different brands and different styles of Sawmills so that I can make an informed Buying decision and hopefully it helps You guys in that way too So Adam has a YouTube channel called Hometown acres and he's on my list of About Five Guys that I go to to learn And watch on YouTube a lot of great Content but you want to tell them a Little bit about what you do here yeah So we started this Channel about four Years ago we moved out of the city and Bought 44 acres and pretty much our Channel is just about everything that we Do here on the property between cutting Firewood sawing Lumber moving dirt with The excavator in the tractor and just All kinds of homesteading stuff it's It's a lot of fun and he's an accountant By trade and I'm a numbers guy and and So he does a lot of detailed breakdowns On on what really makes sense and what's Profitable and I really I get a lot from Your content well it's funny when you Said you come to watch me for expertise And learn how to do things like I'm an Accountant by trade all of this stuff I've just learned over the last three or Four years so I'm by no means an expert

I never claim to be an expert but we've Learned a lot over the last few years we Have a lot of fun doing it so what we're Going to do now is we're going to load a Log up on the mill and get it cut up and Then we're going to talk about what I Notice that stands out that's different About this Mill from all the other Brands I've used and then we're going to Get your thoughts as a long time user Yeah we've had this Mill for probably About two years now so I can give you a Pretty good idea and if I didn't say it At the beginning the brand is easy Boardwalk and it is the 40 so it can cut 40 inch logs with like a 30 some inch Throat on it it's got a 32 inch throat And what that means is if your Milling Dimensional Lumber by the time you take The slabs off of all four sides you can Realistically Mill a 40 inch log but if You're doing Live Edge slabs you can Only do a 32 inch log all right so let's Get it loaded up and get to work yep All right he's got that warmed up he's Going to go grab a log I'm saying all these nice things about Adam And I do think you ought to go check his Channel out it's great content but this Guy invited me out here show up and it's Snowing it's 60 degrees where I live He could have at least got us some nicer Weather

This Mill really does have some unique Features that I haven't seen on any of The other Sawmills I tested so if you're In the market make sure to stick around For the full review at the end of the Video First thing I noticed is these log stops Are different than anything I've seen Before you you have a log stop on each Side connected I mean this is just to Retain the log or yep yeah and they I've Seen other ones you have multiple Different log stops you have a short one And a tall one for to adjust for the Different size logs on this one just Pivot it down so if you've got a short Log you just drop it down if you've got A tall one flip it up I really like that I think that's pretty handy feature and I know other ones they've got a Turnbuckle to tighten it down and pinch Against the log this one here when you Roll it into place Bring this over And it's got a clamp on it And it locks in just like that all right That's a nice setup really now does this Have it does right here so you've got a Jack under this that lets you level Along if your pith is off centered or Something correct that is I I don't Think that comes standard on it but yeah You uh lock the jack in and now you can Raise and lower the log the one thing

That's important to note with that is You always have to have the small end on This side because you can raise it up But you can't drop it down so small end On this side and if you need to adjust The center of the log use the jack to Raise it up but this one's pretty Straight and we probably won't have to Do anything like that yeah that's pretty Good setup right there are you gonna run Coolant in it today lubricant for the Blade yeah so we used to run diesel fuel And I know there's other YouTubers that Run diesel the problem with diesel fuel I found is If you don't if you've got it putting Out too much it's going to lube the Blade really well but your gloves and The lumber and everything is going to Smell like an oil refinery uh even if You don't use enough the blade gets hot And your the blade or the the lifespan Of the blades doesn't last as long so we Ended up switching to in the summertime Water and Dawn dish soap and in the Wintertime water and you know windshield Washer fluid so The water and windshield washer fluid That's a kind of a that's a cheap option Too guys who run a lot are spending Money on diesel is a lubricant yeah six Dollars a gallon so you wanna show me Real quick how you uh tension the blade Yeah that's over on this side over here

So one thing I really like about this Mill is you don't need any extra tools Down here to tension the blade I know Some you've got to have a ratchet and a Torque wrench and all that this one it's Got a built-in t-handle and you know That you're at the right tension when This uh washer here is directly Underneath that little stick it's it's Kind of your Uh guide for making sure that the blade Tensioner is right so Maybe about another half a turn Okay so Right there so you don't need a torque Wrench or anything to measure your your Tension nice and simple I see it's got a Honda engine do you know what the Horsepower on your engine is You know what I don't know what model is It there it's a 690 it's a gx690 I'm not Sure it might be 26 horsepower or Something we'll look up the horsepower And I'll put that on the screen yeah I Do know that is an upgraded engine they I think they offer two or three Different models you can get a base Level Honda a mid-tier and a premium I Think that's the premium engine on this One a lot of them are 9 and 14 but yeah We'll look it up and see what it is yeah Okay and are you electric start we do Have electric start on that as well all Right so Honda engine with an electric Start that's a that's a nice engine

Setup So are you gonna do Live Edge or I can't I'm gonna do a can I'm gonna cut stuff Like that over there right So now what I'll do is I'll come over Here And just try to eyeball What I want that first cut to be 12 Inches is about right there So I think that would be a good first Cut I know Brock didn't drive all the Way from Kansas to Pennsylvania to watch Me Mill the log so I'm Gonna Let You Mill this I'll coach you through it Though When I actually came here I'm not going To tell him but I came here to tear up a Mill Ion so I just hit the go pedal now and Yeah so there the one thing I really Like about this Mill is it's all manual So literally to adjust your throat undo This key handle and slide this out well It's frozen now there we go so it Literally is just a piece of square Tubing inside another piece of square Tubing and it's adjustable so you set it So that it'll slide through the log Without hitting anything Tighten this back down And then to adjust the mill up and down Here's your brake And that's your crank so just let go of That either Crank It Up or crank it down

So we measured 12 inches go ahead and Set that to 12 inches right there you Can see right there is your line And just drop that down to 12 inches That's Unique I like the way that's set Up but now Craig just to get a feel for It crank it up you have to so I would Stand here and use both hands so you Release the brake and now Okay yeah To turn your blade Lube on Look right here And then to start the blade it's this Handle right here and you can see it Slides the motor that way to engage the Drive belt so And I usually right here is the handles And push and then I usually put one hand Here and one hand here Okay There's a handbrake there [Music] Yep Toss these off now yep [Music] So we'll turn this up on its side have That up flat against those so that's Perfectly 90. We're making a square can't not live Edge so we're making our 490 turning at 90 degrees and making each cut So right now you're going to measure From your base up to You're kind of almost eyeballing right

What the how big the camp can be that You're measuring up to that point and Then you're setting your off your Scale Based on that number that measurement Yep yeah so we'll go over it and Basically on the other side we'll take Our tape measure and measure from the Bed rail up to where we've got you know Clean clean wood to bark and we'll set The log to that height there hopefully When we come through it'll just make a Nice even cut to clear off the the slab And give us a nice Square Edge once Again we've got the smaller end of the Log on this side and the ability to Raise and lower this side to Center the Pith he's checking right now taking Measurements to see if that's necessary Six and a half on this side and three And a half on this side and you're Measuring from the base up to the pit I'm just using a flat straight edge Across the bottom to give me a reference Point and using that so like right here We're three and a half inches so I need To come up about I'm going to say two inches because as I Raise this end that end will drop Thank you These snow flurries it's starting to Look like sleet so he's gonna bust out The rest of this look and I'm gonna Watch and then we'll kind of give our Thoughts on it a lot to a lot to like

About this Mill Okay Sometimes we emphasize that these are What you would call like a rough cut Mill but this is uniform thickness all The way down And so is the last piece yeah I mean That's that's borderline veneer if that If that was hardwood you could you could Mill veneer on this Mill very nice I was Thinking we could go warm up and and Give our closing thoughts on a review of This Mill from inside yeah we got caught In a blizzard here trying to Mill this Log up all right so that was a lot of Fun and it was pretty quick too it Didn't take very long really that's one Thing I noticed when I'm Milling is yeah There's a lot of Lumber in big logs but There's so much manhandling and it's Very time consuming to Mill the big logs Those small logs not a lot of Lumber in Them but easy you can do it by hand just Use a little log Turner and you can move From log to log to log very quickly so I'll give my thoughts on it and then let You give a little bit more expert Opinion on it so Some of the things I like and you can Get details on this too but I've seen Your explanation on why that head is Angled so it's not hitting the bark as Much the direction of Blade travel so The head on it is angled

Um very much in the same manner that When you're rocking a chainsaw through a Log it just it's supposed to help pull The on a chainsaw help pull the chain Through the Wood on The Sawmill it's Supposed to help pull the uh the blade Through the Wood and I don't know if you Noticed but if you have a good sharp Blade on The Sawmill which that blade is Pretty new I mean you can literally push That through the wood with two fingers It just coasts right through the wood And that is one thing I immediately Noticed that pushed really easy and it Always does make a difference There's a few different factors one Being the size of the log and the Species of wood made that a little Easier but then also you know how good Your bearings and how just how smooth The the track slides it was very easy to Push for being the widest Mill that I've Ever used now the other thing you were Started to talk about was Um with how the the blade feeds on the Right side of the mill and you're always Turning the log to the log stops on the Right side of the mill the only cut that You make with the blade is uh going That's going through the bark is your Very first cut once you make that first Cut and flip the log once now that Leading Edge of the blade is always Going to be going through a fresh clean

Cut and not through dirty bark which is Going to help lengthen the life of the Blades yeah and that's the other thing From any other Mill that I've ran that Felt left-handed like I was on the Opposite side and the stops were on the Opposite side and that's what you're Accomplishing there yeah usually the log Stops are on the left side of most other Mills whereas on the easy Boardwalk They're on the right side of the know And that's another takeaway I have from Running this what it felt like was that It's kind of engineered from the ground Up by a group of individuals or you know The the founder of the company rather Than being like a recreation of the same Mill over and over again it to me it Feels like it was made in somebody's Garage Um which you know you can view that as a Bad thing yeah wood Miser has all the Computerized digital microchips all that Stuff Um what I like about it is very simple I'm I'm not super mechanically inclined Like I said I'm an accountant but I can Wrap my head around how that Sawmill Works if anything were to break on it I Could go to the auto parts store or Whatever get new bearings anything like That and fix it so when I first saw this Sawmill on the channel I'm already Shopping I'm thinking about what I want

I see atoms I'm like it's blue I've Never seen that before it seems It's Kind of spread out and like there's not A lot to it and I thought Adams got Himself like a cheap knockoff Sawmill Like a Chinese Sawmill and uh I didn't Know anything about it and then over Time I've kind of learned a little bit More but I want to address that more Where it comes from so it's it's made in Missouri it's actually made here in the States and like I said it's it it's They're a very small company I think I Talked to them they've got a one-year Lead time on the Mills right now so if You do decide to go with that brand it's Going to be a while before you can get It but they've only got a handful of Employees I think he's told me they do 120 to 150 meals a year is what they can Produce with the Manpower that they have But yeah it's a it's a small American-made business and like I said It looks like it's designed out of Somebody's garage and that's that's what I like about it some people that may be A turn off but I like that about it and They're made in Missouri which is where I grew up and I now live just across the Kansas line but the closer to home you Get the more I consider that a selling Feature yeah let's talk about some other Functionality things one I thought I had Heard that Woodland Mills was one one of

The one of the few Sawmills that Automatically turns on your lubricant Whenever the Blade's turning but I saw There's a very simple mechanical setup That isn't likely to fail in any way That makes this Mill do the same thing Yeah when you hit the lever on The Sawmill to engage the engine and the Blade that lever is also tied to another Lever which switches a valve on your Blade Loop that opens that valve and Allows blade Lube to trickle onto the Blade So positives I noticed Simplicity of design Probably ease of Maintenance it's got a Good strong Honda engine on it a lot of Things to like but none of that would be Probably the I like all those things but Probably what would lead me to buy this Is that wider cutting head Typically what I see in Sawmills is if You want to get into something Affordable you're going to have a very Narrow width of cut and as you go up to Wider Cuts you get into a more premium Mill and it starts having a lot of Features that add to the cost and we we Know there's 30 40 50 000 Sawmills out There and I don't want to get anywhere In that range I think if you're in the Three to four thousand dollar range Which is most entry level budget Sawmills your width of cut is 22 inches

Right that seems to be pretty standard Um whereas that one is a we mentioned Before a 40 inch cut and I think if You're like me and your number one PRI Your top two priorities by a long shot Are cost and width of cut this might be The best bang for your buck I've been Saying that Woodland Mills the hm-130 Max gives you a true 30 inch throat At you know six to eight thousand dollar Range is the cheapest way to get into a Wider cut but this goes way beyond that In Cut width and you're going up in Price but it's not double and triple Right so I really thought it was a great Mill a lot a lot to like about it yeah And I know you said you wanted to do Your uh you know half hour review of it And I've got a two year review it I've Been very happy with it over the last Two years so that's all I can say about It is simple to use and we haven't had Any problems with it so that's that's All we're really looking for huh so all Right well I really appreciate you Having me out that was a lot of fun We're going to do some more content We're going to have another video on Adam's channel uh where we're going into Another topic and then we're going to do Some more videos from my channel here so Make sure to check the rest of those out Subscribe to Hometown Acres if if you Like Adam yeah thank you guys we

Appreciate it and we'll see on the next One