Custom Sawing & Slabbing
- Southwest Woodworks offers custom sawmilling at your site. Our portable sawmill has a 5' diameter x 20' long capacity.
- We can mill dimensional lumber and slabs up to 5' (60") wide and 20' long.
- Our mill is extremely portable and can be hand carted through an opening as small as 36" wide. No big trucks or trailers to tear up your property.
- My Lucas sawmill allows me to setup around large logs lying on the ground, so no heavy equipment is needed for lifting/moving the logs.
- Rates are $65 per hour for dimensional lumber and $78 per hour for slabbing. $275 minimum.
Slab Flattening
- Southwest Woodworks can flatten slabs on our CNC up to 4' wide x 10' long. CNC rate for flattening is $50 per hour with a 1 hour minimum.
- We can also flatten slabs up to 5' wide x 20' long on our Lucas mill using a special carbide cutter head. Lucas mill rate for flattening is $60 per hour with a 3 hour minimum.
Kiln Drying
- Southwest Woodworks offers kiln drying in our professional Nyle kiln, which has a 12.5' long lumber capacity and can dry up to 1000bf of hardwood lumber.
- We monitor the drying in real time to produce top quality lumber.
- We also sterilize all loads in temperatures in excess of 140°F.
- Kiln rate is $22 per day with a $300 minimum. (Daily rate and minimum fee will be much less for small loads, if we have a similar load that is going into the kiln, where they can be combined.)
- $22 per day sounds expensive, but the per bf rate can be quite low based on quantity and initial moisture content. For example: 500 bf of air dried 6/4 cherry usually takes 18 days to dry in the kiln. 18 days x $22 = $396. $396/500 bf = $0.79 per bf!
- All total drying times are very dependent on initial moisture content, species, and thickness of the lumber. It takes much longer to dry 8/4 red oak at 30% EMC versus 4/4 cherry at 20% EMC.
