sawmill without a bobcat?

Ok, so.  I have a chainsaw mill that I have been using for several years.  I have a LOT of wood to mill right now, as a giant cherry tree was dumped in my driveway, and I have some dried gum slabs I made when I first got the mill.
  My problem is, it is really slow - and the dried wood especially dulls the chains really fast.
I am ready to spend about 3K for a small portable mill.  However - I do not have a bobcat, forklift, or any other farm vehicle.  The subaru is the closest.
  There are a number of mills that meet my pricepoint - Hud-son is one I've been looking at.  However, it seems like it weight in at close to 400 pounds, and I'm not clear how you would move that without a tractor.  The swing blade mills seem like more of what I want, but I haven't been able to find one for less that 13K, which is, sadly, out of my price range at this point.
    Does anyone know of a cheaper swing blade mill?  Or a small bandsaw mill that is easy enough to dis- and re- assemble close enough to a log to then cant hook the log onto it?  or is this a situation where you really just either need a vehicle, or to cough up the big bucks for a swing blade?

     

What sized finished boards do you want to be able to make?  Swing blades are great but quite limited in their depth/width of cut.  The one I borrow can only go up to 6".  That might force you to go with a bandsaw mill.

Moving logs around the saw yard can be done with human power but it takes a lot longer.  Lifting them up onto a mill would take a lot of creativity.

Lina,

A tractor or skid steer sure would be nice, but if you need a way to move logs by hand, you might consider a log arch.  Logrite has several log arches, the smaller ones cost around $500-$1200.  These can move sizable logs by hand fairly easily.  They may not get them up on the platform of your log mill, but they will at least get the logs to your log mill.

Just a thought,

Eric

I looked at those Hud-son mills and they are rather nifty.  With the frame fully containing the log they really limit the size of trees you can cut up.  

Eric Hanson wrote:Lina,

Logrite has several log arches, the smaller ones cost around $500-$1200.  These can move sizable logs by hand fairly easily.  They may not get them up on the platform of your log mill, but they will at least get the logs to your log mill.

Just a thought,

Eric

Now THATS what I need! Thank you, I hadn’t heard of these before. I think ramps and a canthook can get me on to the platform, but getting the logs over to the mill is a big deal.
Add it to the shopping list…

Mike - there is definitely a size limit, but if I don’t want a skid steer, I probably shouldn’t be trying to handle logs over that limit!
I can partially get around it (I think) by using the chainsaw mill to do the bark cut. That is usually a curve with at least an inch or two, which means i can go up to 24 inch diameter or so. Beyond that, I’d probably find someone with a bigger mill to come and get them. That happed once! My first log dump through chip drop was 10 foot lengths a good 3 feet diameter. They sat there until we needed some driveway work done, when the guy asked if he could take us to his uncle’s saw mill. He got themout of my way so I could concentrate on the more manageable pieces.

Here are some ideas;