I own and operate a portable sawmill which I use to help people convert trees into usable lumber. I also have a small chainsaw mill for slabbing logs that are not easily accessible. I am located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but can travel out of town for a fee. I currently charge $60 per hour for sawing, $.55 per mile travel each way, and there is a $20 per damaged blade fee for when nails and other "non-tree" objects are encountered. Contact me for more information. NOTE: I will be working out of state for the next few months and will not be available for sawing, sorry.
Salvaging a large dead cherry tree found during a road construction project.
If you have a lot of logs to saw it helps to arrange them in an orderly row. This saves time and money, which I'm told are the same thing, to some people.
This stack of slabs contains elm, walnut, cherry, and mulberry. All were cut down to clear the way for a street expansion project. The ends are painted to seal end grain from drying too quickly. This should help prevent excessive checking. To finish the pile I later added a few concrete blocks and pieces of old plywood to deflect the rain. I'll occasionally check the drying with a moisture meter and when it gets as low as it can outdoors I'll move it inside.
This is a "stickered" pile of Siberian elm, which came from a dying tree in my neighbor's yard. The slabs sawed from the log are typically stacked again in the same order, with uniformly sized sticks placed in between which allows air to flow through and dry the wood. For most projects, such as furniture, I prefer to leave the natural edges on the wood. This allows for more design options later on, it also takes less time on the sawmill.