For the last 20 years, our family has owned property in southern Tennesse and in 2020, I began to post videos on YouTube documenting the journey of transforming an abandoned shed on our property into a home.

It gave me the opportunity to work with my Dad while I finished my computer engineering degree and learn about construction. I’ve had no experience with construction in the past, so everything was new to me including concrete, framing, roofing, electrical, plumbing, etc.

Dad wanted a sawmill for a long time. To be honest, I’ve been much more interested in programming and building electronic things than timber and carpentry.

That all changed when our Woodland Mills HM130MAX was delivered last May. We had one of our subscribers bring his portable sawmill up to the land a year earlier, but setting up our own sawmill on a permanent base and milling the first log from the property was incredible!

"We absolutely love our sawmill and the support from Woodland Mills pre and post sale has been one of the best experiences we’ve had in customer service."

The Current Plan:

We have 22 acres of hardwoods: Black Cherry, Black Walnut, Maple, White & Red Oak, Tulip Poplar (our state tree), Pecan, Hickory, Ash, Honey Locust, Persimmon, and more. We also have Eastern Red cedar, but don’t have a single pine tree; however, a neighbor recently dropped off 300 logs, mostly southern yellow pine along with red cedar, so that’s exciting.

We intend on milling all the finish carpentry lumber on our HM130MAX including floors, ceilings, walls, cabinets, desk, stairs, and board & batten siding. In the coming weeks, we’ll build our solar kiln and sawmill shed from milled lumber.

We finished our first milled project - a Red Cedar front porch. We milled the 3 6x6 posts and even used the sawmill to notch them for the 18 ft. 3x10 main header beam. We also milled 2x6 for the rafters and ¾ in. planks for the decking.

Currently, we are milling the 1x4 lathe that will be installed over the insulation to secure the metal roof for the entire shed and additions. It’s finally feeling normal to grab a log and mill the lumber needed for a project.

We also partnered with xTool and I’m designing a line of laser-engraved wood products for our subscribers. I’ll use only wood from our sawmill and this combination of technology and nature flipped my sawyer curiosity switch.

Finally, we’ve also been working on an automation controller for sawmill height and power feed, which we should have operating in the next month. Of course, we document all of this on my YouTube channel.

We absolutely love our sawmill and the support from Woodland Mills pre and post sale has been one of the best experiences we’ve had in customer service. We definitely feel this was the right choice for us.

Danner Cronise

@Danner Cronise on YouTube