“Leaving a 6-month review for my HD36v2 23HP Briggs. I'm a hobbyist and this is my first sawmill. I bought this mill for two main reasons. First, I liked the fact that I can upgrade it to a hydraulic mill piece-by-piece. Second, I figured I'd be saving money by assembling it myself.
TLDR: I now feel my reasoning was flawed. I've had problems with the mill that have led to a lot of downtime and frustration. This mill has a long track record of success in the industry, but there are better options for an inexperienced hobbyist like me.
First, the positives. Shipping was great. I wasn't missing a single part, which is impressive when you see just how many parts there are. The entire mill feels solid and well-built. Cuts straight enough for my needs. If I could purchase this mill fully-assembled and tested, I would do it again. Four stars for design and build quality.
Now the negatives.
1) There are a LOT of parts and assembly is a monumental task. Norwood is upfront about this, but I was taken aback by how bad the documentation is. Thankfully there are some great videos on YouTube from other users that explain things much better.
2) I have had nothing but problems with my engine (23HP Briggs). I admittedly only have basic small-engine troubleshooting skills. Getting help from Norwood was surprisingly difficult. It's possible my limited knowledge prevented me from clearly explaining the problems. One important thing to know is that Norwood doesn't provide support for the engines, since they are warrantied by Briggs. I've pulled the engine off my mill 5+ times and taken it to a Briggs dealer three times. 6 months in, and it still runs terribly. It idles poorly, shuts off between cuts, loses power at high rpm, and won't start cold without electric start. It's fine that they don't service engines, but at some point I expect companies to look past technical details and commit to their customer's experience. I was stuck in a perpetual technical service loop, and my emails appear to have gone unanswered after a few weeks (I don't think I was being unreasonable or impolite). Confusing to say the least. One star for support and customer service.
I underestimated the pitfalls that come with assembling a mill from boxes of parts. If I could do it again, I would purchase a cheaper mill that had a pre-assembled and tested carriage. I just can't defend my decision to purchase a Norwood when there are so many companies selling solid starter mills that come pre-assembled. When the time comes to go hydraulic, I would purchase a mill that was full assembled and went through rigorous quality assurance. I now realize the idea of building one piecemeal without much technical support is a stretch for a hobbyist like me.
Lots of optimism going into my purchase, but unfortunately lots of pessimism going forward. Hoping my experience will help a few first-time sawyers think about their purchase from the perspective of "what happens if things go wrong", rather than focusing on minor technical specs.”
“The mill is absolutely fantastic. The design makes it incredibly customizable. I've move a few things around since I started milling. I went with the Setworks & full hydraulics. While neither are needed, and if your budget doesn't allow, you could certainly skip them. I do like the the situational awareness of being able to move around with Setworks. You can also get away from the dust & noise. The hydraulics are robust and save a lot of time & effort. I've called customer service once and spoke to Mark, who advised on what I needed to do to fix something (that I messed up). He too is a sawyer and extremely knowledgeable as he has the same mill as me. My salesperson, Steph, was also so helpful in getting everything together and shipped to me.”
“If all of my previous internal combustion engines functioned like this one I would have never purchased a battery operated and/or electric tool for any purpose. It has started first time every time and runs well. I don't know why bigger engines are even offered.”
