A Mobile Sawmill Helps to Save Money on Log Transportation

The small town of Valdobbiadene nestled in the foothills of the Italian Alps is a home for brothers Sergio and Bruno Geronazzo. They uncovered a unique business opportunity: operating a mobile sawmill to help those who need to mill timber in inaccessible mountain areas.

“We were born and raised in the middle of logs, planks, and a lot of sawdust,” says Bruno proudly, recalling the passion his father put into the family’s sawmill business. But Bruno admits that this is “a job that is disappearing”. Large sawmills often close. Family farms, small carpenters, and individuals who once worked with local wood are now unable to do what they used to because they don’t have access to a sawmill. “Our idea was born from there,” Bruno says. “A home grown sawmilling business.”

The dream of the Geronazzo brothers became reality with the purchase of a Wood-Mizer LT40, a hydraulic mobile sawmill with a diesel engine. "We noticed it during a trade show and we quickly fell in love with it,” explains Sergio. "Thanks to the sawmill, we can go directly to the places where logs have been cut down and do our work there: we arrive with the LT40, we warm up the engine in just a few minutes, and we start working.”

“In this way,” continues Sergio, “we eliminate the problem of transport and help our customers to save money. We no longer need a tractor to pull the logs out of the woods or a truck to transport ready boards to the customer's location.”

The LT40 has two advantages that the Geronazzo brothers utilize for a precise cut. The first is the electronic Accuset, which allows to set up precise measurements of the boards they want to cut, without manually checking the measurement scale for each board.

“With Wood-Mizer’s Accuset, we can be very precise,” says Bruno. “We saw lamellas, which are 7 mm thick boards. So you can cut a board, bring back the sawhead, and it’s already measured for the next cut. It’s very simple and very fast.”

Secondly, Bruno and Sergio use specific Wood-Mizer blades based on the type of wood they cut. “Wood-Mizer makes its own blades,” says Sergio. "There is one for each type of wood, from the softer woods to the harder and more fibrous woods. We can count on these blades that always make the best cuts.”

The versatility of the LT40 has also allowed the Geronazzo brothers to build profitable relationships with other local businesses in the wood industry, specifically those who recover building materials from old homes and bring them back to life.

“A couple of years ago,” recalls Sergio, “we managed to recover some beautiful old wooden beams from the Val Venosta farm, thanks to the LT40. We took care of cutting them onsite and another company processed them. The wood has since been used for wood flooring, furniture, and a charming chalet.”