23 Homemade Sawmill Plans To Cut Logs Into Lumber

Having a homemade sawmill opens up a world of possibilities for cutting logs into lumber easily and affordably. When I first learned about the concept of building my own sawmill, I was intrigued by the idea of being able to transform felled trees into usable lumber for my woodworking projects. It seemed like a practical and cost-effective solution that aligned perfectly with my DIY ethos.

Building a homemade sawmill is surprisingly straightforward and doesn’t require a hefty investment. This aspect appealed to me, as it meant I could save money on purchasing lumber while also enjoying the satisfaction of creating something useful with my own hands. With a portable sawmill, I envisioned being able to cut lumber to the exact specifications needed for my woodworking endeavors, right in my own backyard.

The prospect of having a homemade band saw at my disposal filled me with excitement. It meant that I could customize the length and width of lumber according to the requirements of my projects, without relying on store-bought materials. This level of flexibility and control over the lumber-making process fueled my enthusiasm for embarking on the DIY sawmill project.

Exploring the array of 23 free plans for building a DIY sawmill, I felt inspired to select the design that best suited my milling needs. Each plan offered unique features and construction methods, providing me with valuable guidance and inspiration. Armed with the chosen plan, I eagerly dove into the construction process, eager to bring my homemade sawmill to life and embark on a journey of fulfilling woodworking projects.

1- DIY Bandsaw Mill

As someone passionate about woodworking and the art of milling lumber, stumbling upon the homemade bandsaw mill on YouTube was a game-changer for me. What sets this DIY sawmill apart is its ability to handle large logs with ease, making it the perfect choice for anyone serious about milling sizable lumber. The prospect of transforming logs up to 16 feet long into custom-sized boards to suit my woodworking projects is incredibly appealing and aligns perfectly with my ambitions in the craft.

What I particularly like about this homemade bandsaw mill is its robust construction and thoughtful design. Constructed from steel tubing and 8-inch concrete blocks, the sawmill boasts stability, levelness, and the capacity to handle even the largest of logs. The use of square steel tubing for the bandsaw’s frame ensures durability and precision, while the 27-horsepower twin V motor provides ample power to effortlessly cut through hardwood trees. The attention to detail in the construction ensures that the sawmill is not only functional but also built to last, making it a worthwhile investment for any woodworking enthusiast.

Furthermore, the availability of detailed instructions in the YouTube video makes the construction process accessible to DIYers of all skill levels. Whether you’re a seasoned woodworker or a novice looking to embark on your first DIY project, the step-by-step guidance provided in the video offers clarity and confidence in building your own bandsaw mill. Overall, my personal experience with the homemade bandsaw mill on YouTube fills me with excitement and anticipation. It represents an opportunity to take my woodworking endeavors to new heights, allowing me to mill lumber with precision and efficiency while enjoying the satisfaction of creating something truly remarkable with my own hands.

2- Weight Lifting To Homemade Sawmill

Here is another great idea for recycling an old item into something brand new and beneficial. Many of us have an old weight lifting set in the garage that no one has used in years and it can become useful once again when it’s transformed into a sawmill component.

To build this homemade sawmill re-purpose two old car tyres, 2×2 metal square metal, 2×4 thin wall metal and a nine horse tiller into a functional diy sawmill that will take old dead log and mill them into fresh new lumber. Use the freshly milled lumber to remodel or build any type of wood project that your heart desires.

There is always something to rebuild or repair on the homestead and having a DIY sawmill by Forestryforum will make the work much easier and less expensive.

3- Motorcycle Wheels and Angle Iron

Discover how you can recycle motorcycle wheels and angle iron into a homemade lumber mill in this Youtube video.

Use these DIY sawmill plans that are easy to follow and the sawmill can be built very quickly. I think industrial gas-powered engine is powerful enough to cut large logs down to the size you need.

Ideal for a homestead, you can build a sawmill from scratch in less than one day. Parts from a variety of recycled items are used in the building of this sawmill. All the lumber you mill will enable you to expand your homestead without spending a lot of money.

4- Backyard Sawmill

If you enjoy woodworking or have a lot of building projects that need to be completed, this backyard sawmill will be a big asset to you.

This homemade sawmill is stationary so it’s ready to saw the lumber anytime you are. It’s large and well able to take large logs and saw them into boards for building. Milling your own lumber is much cheaper than buying boards and you can mill it to your exact specifications.

Mill the lumber using this DIY bandsaw mill by Makezine for building a house or a coffee table or anything in between. It’s ideal for milling all the lumber you will need to build everything needed for a homestead. I would suggest this diy sawmill to those wood crafters that build artisan furniture from felled trees.

Follow these free plans and build yourself a backyard sawmill this weekend.

5- Homemade Band Sawmill

Watch this instructional video that will show you how to build an affordable and efficient homemde sawmill by Practicalsurvivalist from scratch so you can create all the milled lumber you will ever need.

If lumber was more affordable you could build a lot more items for your homestead. Milled lumber can be affordable with this band saw mill that you can build in your backyard.

This diy band sawmill plan is very detailed and will show you every step of the building process for the band sawmill. The finished sawmill can handle long and thick logs, so you will be able to mill lumber for use in building a new house on your homestead. Joists and trusses for new home construction often need to be 12-15 feet in length and this bandsaw mill can handle the logs needed to create long pieces of milled lumber.

Follow these free plans and build one of these useful sawmills for yourself.

Related: You may also like to see DIY sawhorses plans to do many of your DIY woodworking projects.

6- Simple Homemade Sawmill

Learn how to construct a simple homemade sawmill in this YouTube video from a lumber. It is built from construction grade wood and can be built in one afternoon. The design is simple, yet the sawmill is very sturdy and will last for years of lumber cutting. Great for use on a homestead to cut felled trees into lumber that can be used to construct any type of wooden structure needed.

Build a barn for the animal, a storage shed for tools, a smokehouse, outhouse, or any other type of house needed to make life more comfortable on the homestead with lumber milled on this simple DIY sawmill.

7- Homemade Bandsaw Mill

This large bandsaw mill can handle the logs up to 17-feet long and cut them into usable lumber. Logs that are log and have a thick diameter can quickly be sliced into wide planks for use in furniture making or for creating a plank floor.  Large trees can be milled to the desired size with this homemade sawmill on youtube.

Watch this YouTube video for complete, easy to follow instructions.

8- Homemade Bandsaw Mill

A simple homemade bandsaw mill like this one by Forestryforum can be built for less than $1,000. If you have a large DIY project that will require a lot of milled lumber, this bandsaw mill will save you over $1,000 on the first DIY project you use it for.

This is also a homemade portable sawmill that is easy to take with you to the construction site. Hook it up to the trailer hitch on the back of the tractor or truck and pull it to where the logs are located. The portability makes this homemade bandsaw mill a very valuable tool for a homestead.

Fence posts, animal pens, and out-buildings are always needing to be constructed on a homestead, and this diy bandsaw mill can go where it’s needed. Transform those fallen trees into valuable lumber with the assistance of this affordable DIY bandsaw mill.

9- Junk Yard Sawmill

The sawmill did not come from the junk yard but most of the parts to build it did. A little creativity and a trip to the junk yard and flea market can help produce this efficient, powerful, DIY sawmill by Lumberjocks almost nothing.

Building this junk yard sawmill will pay off twice – once when you gather all the building components for free and then again when you can mill lumber from logs and complete wood-working projects for free.

This is a DIY project that keeps giving and is well worth the time to build. You may even be able to get a third benefit from this junk yard sawmill if you sell some of the milled lumber or charge other people for milling their logs.

10- $800 DIY Sawmill

It won’t cost much to build a DIY sawmill by Imgur when you follow these sawmill plans. A small investment of money and time now will save you a ton of money in the future. Lumber that has already been milled is very expensive, and if you enjoy wood-working projects you need a  lot of wood.

Mill your own lumber to your exact specifications with this homemade sawmill. Use dead trees on your property to help build this sawmill and save even more money.

These free plans provide you with written and pictorial instructions so the building process will be very easy. Building a DIY sawmill for less than $800 is a great investment.

11- Car Wheel as Swmill

There is not too much that can be done with old car wheels but this video will show you a neat idea on how to recycle them.

Old car wheels can be used as an integral part of a homemade sawmill. The wheel enables the bandsaw to go up and down to mill the logs into the desired sized lumber. Mill the lumber you need to build a house, a front porch, a warm enclosure for farm animals, or for building new furniture with this DIY sawmill by Practicalsurvivalist.

The free plans on this video will show you all the details for recycling old car wheels into a new sawmill.

12- Homemade Bandsaw Mill

If you are detailed oriented and need extremely detailed instructions for building something, then here are the perfect free plans for you.

Meticulously detailed plans for this homemade bandsaw by Woodweb show you everything you need to know about the components and building process. Nothing has been left out of the detailed written instructions and photos, plus they are very easy to follow.

This bandsaw was built from junk yard parts, so the components you use for the building  process will vary. These detailed plans are adaptable to whatever parts you have on hand or find in the junk yard. That is one of the great things about a DIY building project, you can adapt and modify as needed to suit your own specifications.

13- Portable Sawmill

Move it where it is needed – this portable sawmill is ready to go when you are and it can handle the logs you need to cut.

Easy to assemble, the components are lightweight and easy to move. The portable sawmill in this YouTube video is sturdy and made from metal so it will last for years and can handle all your milling needs. This sawmill is simple but powerful, and this YouTube video will show you all the details of putting the sawmill together.

If you want written plans the maker of this YouTube video will send them to you upon request. Cut logs into lumber and get busy with woodworking projects around the homestead with this powerful portable sawmill.

14- Small Band Sawmill

This sawmill is small and portable unlike the previous ones that I have shared with you, this band sawmill is designed to mill logs up to 6-feet. Great for furniture building and other small wood-working projects.

If you are considering a money making business by crafting handmade wood objects, then this will be a perfect DIY sawmill for you. The sawmill is not too big, yet it is powerful enough to cut hardwood logs into lumber.

Mill the lumber needed to create popular wood items like signs, birdhouses, craftsman furniture, and more. Make money from home by crafting unique wood pieces from lumber milled from this small band sawmill by Lumberjocks.

The sawmill frame is constructed from scrap pieces of lumber glued together. This makes the frame extra sturdy while keeping the build cost down. The motor for the saw is quick and easy to remove when it is time to relocate the sawmill.

15- Lawn Mower Transformation

Breathe new life into that old lawn mower by using to build a new sawmill. To build this diy sawmill, all you need is welder, various grinders, cutting tools, good straight edges, levels, squares and gloves. There are many other componets to this DIY build but these free plans will show you all the building details step by step.

Think of all the things you could build if you have an unending supply of free milled lumber.  Now drag out that old lawn mower and follow these instructions to build yourself a homemade sawmill by Instructables. After that, there is no limit on what you can build to make your homestead more comfortable and attractive. It will also help the planet by keeping an old lawn mower out of the landfill.

16- Giant Bandsaw Mill

When you have giant trees to cut into giant slabs of wood, there is only one type of saw that can handle the task – a giant bandsaw mill by wilkerdos.

This homemade sawmill has a 76 inch wide cut capacity and 12 feet long length. It’s a must-have for milling large trees to create large slabs of wood that will be used to create one of kind furniture pieces.

Rustic farmhouse furnishings, like a large farmhouse table, sliding interior barn doors, wooden benches and so many more items that require large slabs of wood must be milled on a giant bandsaw mill. You can take your home building and wood crafting to a new level if you have a mill large enough to handle the big trees.

These free building plans are detailed and easy to follow so you can build a homemade sawmill just like this one.

17- Wooden Sawmill

You can build a sawmill from wood with these detailed plans. It’s a DIY chainsaw mill by Brilliantdiy but the frame is built from wood. It’s just as sturdy and efficient as a frame made from metal but it’s a lot cheaper to build.

This is a great DIY solution for making your woodworking tasks easier without spending a lot of money on equipment. The chain sawmill can be customized to meet your needs so that you can efficiently turn felled trees into usable raw lumber.

Milling your own lumber will provide you with high quality material at a fraction of what you would have to pay for it at the lumber supply company. You can even use a homemade sawmill to make money by milling lumber for other people.

Build your family a homestead with lumber milled on your own sawmill. Use fallen trees from your property to build home furnishings for your homestead. Outbuildings, fence posts, and barns will all be cheap to build when you harvest the trees from your property and mill them on your own DIY sawmill like this one.

Watch the video to get the detailed building plans and other valuable information for building this wooden saw.

18- Homemade Bandsaw Mill

This homemade bandsaw mill has a wooden frame and can handle large trees. Ideal for building in your backyard so you can mill lumber that will be used to create unique furniture pieces.

These free plans are on video so they are easy to follow and watch over and over again as needed. This bandsaw mill by Ibuildit is cheap to build and does not take up a lot of space in the backyard. Ideal for the hobbyist woodworker or artisan that wants to reduce the cost of the raw material needed for building. Having a sawmill in your backyard will save you a lot of money and you will be able to mill the lumber to your specifications. You can build what you want when you want if you have a sawmill for milling the lumber at home.

A homemade sawmill like this one can be built for a fraction of the cost of buying one. You can save time and money by having your own sawmill in the backyard. You can also use it to make money.

19- DIY Sawmill For Under $1,000

How would you like to build a log home and furnish it with handcrafted furniture? You can do that plus build all the outbuildings and fencing you will need with this inexpensive homemade sawmill by Motherearthnews.

These free plans will show you how to build a strong, sturdy, efficient sawmill for under $1,000. That’s a good investment when you consider all the things you will be able to build from the lumber you mill with the sawmill.

This is ideal for anyone starting a homestead. Build the sawmill first, then you can mill all the lumber needed to build almost everything else needed on the homestead. When your homestead is completed, use the sawmill for milling lumber for other people so you can generate an income.

The initial investment of 1,000 can turn into many 1,000‘s of dollars in saved and earned income. See also some relevant woodworking projects such as diy table saws and diy miter saw stand.

20- Scrap Metal Salvage

Build a homemade sawmill like this one on youtube from salvaged materials so you can save money, have a steady supply of lumber, and keep usable items out of the landfill.

All the details you need to know regarding how to build a homemade sawmill from scrap metal can be found on this YouTube video. The 13-horsepower gas motor can handle average sized logs but adding a larger motor to the sawmill would be an easy thing to do. A larger motor would enable you to mill larger logs.

This DIY sawmill incorporates safety features to help keep the user safe while milling lumber.

21- Large Milling Capacity

If you plan on milling large logs into large pieces of lumber, this homemade sawmill on youtube is the one for you. Capable of milling boards 32 inches wide and 16 feet long, this DIY sawmill is a real money maker.

Large boards are needed for building homes and barns on the homestead, plus they are in demand by the commercial housing industry. If you can mill the large boards, you can make money with a homemade sawmill.

Watch this YouTube video for detailed instructions on how to build a homemade sawmill with a large milling capacity.

22- Portable Sawmill

If you need a sawmill that can be moved around the property as needed, then check this portable DIY sawmill in this YouTube video.

The bandsaw is built from scrap parts and cut a whole log into boards the exact size you want. The sawmill is also portable so you can move it to where the logs are instead of hauling the logs to the sawmill.

Built from scrap pieces of metal and recycled parts, this portable sawmill will cost you almost nothing to build. Watch this YouTube video and get started building a DIY sawmill for your homestead this weekend.

23- More Than One

If your wood-working projects will require more than one homemade sawmill, then you need to watch this YouTube video.

Different wood-working projects may need different sizes of milled lumber and these cheap portable sawmills in this YouTube video will enable you to mill the lumber to the desired specifications. Take a sawmill along with you so the cut logs can be milled on-site to reduce the number of times the logs have to be moved.

Having more than one homemade sawmill is convenient and affordable when it’s a DIY sawmill. This YouTube video will show you some different kinds of sawmills that you can build and provide practical advice for building and using each one.

Here I have prepared a questioner that is commonly asked.

FAQs

What is a sawmill?

A sawmill is a machine used for cutting logs into lumber. The machine will contain some type of saw blade and motor and is powered by gas, electricity, or another form of propellant.

How Does A Sawmill Work?

A sawmill uses a bandsaw to cut the logs down to size. A bandsaw is a circular chain of small blades that is kept running by a motor. A log is placed on the frame of the sawmill and moved forward through the bandsaw to cut one board from the log. The moving frame is also operated by the motor.

The log is moved back to the starting point and repeatedly moved through the bandsaw until it is cut into the desired thickness and length.

What Can I Make From A Sawmill?

By turning logs into lumber, you can use the finished lumber for any type of building project. Build houses, furniture, home decor, fences, or barns. You can use the sawn lumber to create works of art or functional pieces for everyday home use.

Whatever you need lumber for, a homemade sawmill will enable you to transform rough logs into smooth boards for your project.

What Are The Different Types Of Sawmills?

There are two different types of sawmills but they all do the same thing – cut logs into lumber.

There are bandsaws and circular saws. Different cuts of lumber can be made with either of these sawmill types.

The lumber cuts are called quarter sawn, rift sawn, or plain sawn. The cut is determined by how the log is placed and cut at the sawmill. One type of cut is not better than the other, it’s just a matter of how you plan to use the finished piece of wood.

There is also a stationary sawmill and a portable sawmill. The stationary type remains in one location and the logs are brought to the sawmill. The portable type can be used in the same place or taken where the logs are, which is ideal when someone is cutting down a large tract of trees.

Can You Make Money With A Sawmill?

Yes, you can make a good income with a sawmill. Look around at all the things that are created from wood. From the smallest pencil to the biggest building, wood is essential for daily life.

The price of lumber has risen sharply in recent years and anyone who has a homemade sawmill can sell lumber cheaper than the lumber yards and home improvement stores and still make a lot of money.

It’s estimated that a sawmill that is operational full time can generate an income of one million dollars per year. Even running a homemade lumber mill part time can generate enough income to provide a good living for your family.

Conclusion

So these are our list of homemade sawmill plans you can choose to make your own milling project. Obviously these would help you to do your woodworking tasks easier without the need to buy expensive lumber from the market.

References:

Acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley, by Tracy Hmielowski, pub:28 October 2016, “Students use sawmill to learn forestry concepts”, https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2134/csa2016-61-11-5

Global Spec, “Lumber and Sawmill Equipment Information”, https://www.globalspec.com/learnmore/specialized_industrial_products/wood_processing_products/lumber_sawmill_equipment

Reasearch Gate: Authors: Marika Makkonen, pub: January 2019, DOI:10.14214/df.269, “Renewing the sawmill industry: studies on innovation, customer value and digitalization” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330562125_Renewing_the_sawmill_industry_studies_on_innovation_customer_value_and_digitalization

USDA, Forest Service Us Department Of Agriculture, Authors: James P. Barnett, Everett W. Lueck, Year: 2020, “Sawmill towns: work, community life, and industrial development in the pineywoods of Louisiana and the New South”, https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/61601