Flexible Hours and Excellent Compensation

Rich Littauer: "The success of this business is the flexible hours and excellent compensation."

Rich Littauer is one of two winners in the AC-36 portable sawmill class in our January issue of our Cook's Saw Catalog.

Rich lives in Connecticut. His story is very interesting. I still remember when he got his sawmill. It was the first portable sawmill that we had shipped to Connecticut. He has used it in custom cutting to make some extra money as well as being a good neighbor and cutting lumber and helping to work on a camp for children.

This is truly a good story when you can enjoy making money as well as helping out your community. Thanks for the story Rich! ~ Stephen

From the day that Kenneth Cook delivered my Cooks AC-36 hydraulic sawmill almost four years ago, I have enjoyed cooking up new projects for our farm and for neighbors.

Success for me is enjoying being a sawyer, helping others, getting well paid for a fair day’s work, saving money, and completing a needed project with my own wood. The success is in the daily work of a sawyer, the discovery and presentation of beautiful wood prepared with my Accu-Trac hydraulic sawmill.

My success story began when Kenneth Cook pulled into our Connecticut farm yard with my new Accu-Trac sawmill. I still remember the day. After a short lesson in set up, we fired up the hydraulic sawmill and cut up some fine white oak. The lessons of the morning yielded the success of the afternoon. After my lesson, Ken had to head back to home base in Alabama. I was ready to start sawing on my own. I began sawing wood for a white oak picnic table, my first "honey do" project, and a practice piece for a timber frame home I hoped to build with the new hydraulic sawmill.

I also sawed up some cherry tops left over in the woods from a prior logging job. After the boards dried, a good family friend crafted a serving table for our dining room set. It sits proudly in our home. With the Cooks Saw hydraulic portable sawmill I have successfully utilized and enjoyed wood, which the commercial sawmills pass over. Later that summer I also built a lengthy wooden fence of hemlock sawn with my Accu-Trac sawmill… in a field behind our home, all for the cost of three dollars - the cost of a box of screws.

I began a part-time portable saw business, serving various clients. The success of this business is the flexible hours and excellent compensation. I schedule my work around the weather, as well as my choice of clients and projects. If my client has a dream, I seek to fulfill it on their schedule. I earn 30 to 35 cents a board foot plus set up charges. One of my clients owns and operates a circular sawmill.

I had the privilege of sawing out some black walnut, red oak and black cherry for him. I demonstrated to him that the valuable wood that his mill turned into sawdust could be salvaged, sawed, dried and then sold at a nice profit. We successfully saved him approximately $2,000 by doing the work for him. Furthermore, much of the wood had metal, which I surgically removed with Cooks Saw AC-36 hydraulic sawmill.

A couple of years ago I received a call from Chuck Gieser, Director of Deerfoot Lodge, an outstanding Christian wilderness boys camp in the Adirondack Mountains. My son Graham has learned so much about God’s love and His creation at Deerfoot Lodge. The camp had a one-time opportunity to purchase 600 trees at a dollar a tree. Chuck asked me, "If we bought the trees, would you come up with your portable sawmill and saw up the wood?

The camp needed a number of new log cabins and a new washroom, affectionately known as the Waldorf. I gladly offered to make the four-hour trip twice the next summer for two long weekends. We successfully produced a huge pile of lumber and the new buildings now show off the most beautiful rough-sawn white pine and spruce in the mountains. You cannot put a price on the joy of giving time and wood to friends dedicated to providing a rewarding camp experience.

Over the years I have successfully completed many farm projects with the Cooks Accu-Trac hydraulic sawmill. I have replaced many boards in two roofing projects. One of the most interesting projects was the replacement of the front porch on a historical farmhouse that sits on my land.

Two years ago, the heavy New England snows demolished the large front porch, leaving rotten boards and a sagging roof. I wanted to retain the historical features of the old farmhouse as I repaired the porch’s structure. Lumberyard wood would not make the grade.

I harvested some nice white oak from the hills, sawed it to spec with the Accu-Trac, and replaced the porch. Local building codes required that the wood be graded and stamped for structural integrity. I hired NELMA to grade and stamp the wood for two hundred dollars. Everything was set. As a bonus, the contractor my insurance company hired to build the porch for me bought some of this wood at retail price. I not only successfully saved a lot of money on the wood, but also made a couple thousand dollars to put toward some other projects.

I measure success with AC-36 hydraulic sawmill in the hours I enjoy selecting and cutting the right piece of wood for each project. I select, grade, and dimension the best species for each use. This is truly custom sawing. I unlock and discover each board’s own story with Cooks Saw AC-36 portable sawmill. If you are ever in this neck the woods, stop by and share in the success.

Rich Littauer

Connecticut