I am a wood worker as well, I too have felled my share of timber, and I chainsaw mill my own lumber for my own use. it is very labor intensive. Then it has to be moved to the side as you mill it, then moved again to load into my truck to bring it home, then moved again to get it into the drying shed, then it has to be stickered and stacked for drying it is very labor intensive. Then I air dry the lumber for a year or more depending on the thickness that I milled it. And that just to get the lumber from the logs to the shed. Do you have any idea how heavy a 2" thick 3' wide 8' long soaking wet board is? Cutting the tree down and cleaning up the debris is another story in itself. and with urban lumber you have to plan on hitting nails and taking time to resharpen your chains. milling with a chainsaw mill itself is very physically demanding, and the equipment is very expensive to purchase and then there is the maintenance, parts, and fuel for the saws. The cost are even higher for a guy with a portable bandmill. Milling lumber for my own use and for my hobby is fun and a great way for me to acquire wood for my own personal use, but it would be damn near impossible to make any money at it with a chainsaw mill, and it would take a lot of logs just to break even with a bandmill. With a chainsaw mill I can mill a log where it falls and carry it away a board at a time, with a bandmill you have to get the 5,000lb or 10,000lb log to the mill to saw it. People never really understand the cost and labor that is involved in milling wood to make a marketable product and get it to market, let alone to use it. Sheesh!........I'm glad its just a hobby for me. That's my old chainsaw mill in my avatar with a couple of smaller boards I milled. The sawmill has a new $1,200 powerhead on it now because milling killed the old powerhead, just flat out wore it out!
I NEVER PAY FOR LOGS!!!!