Haddon Lumbermaker

I love this item. I researched for months Alaskan chain saws . Couldn’t decide what to purchase. Then I came across a you tube of a guy using this item. Same design from the 70s. Their website was old school and I loved the old info booklet it came with from the 1970s with the details on how to use it. It’s solid and made well. Easy to figure out how to use. Best of all, it works great! I used it all day yesterday. Made some amazing looking cedar slabs and boards. My only complaint and it’s a small complaint, is you only get one Allen key. You need this Allen key to tightened and make adjustments. Basically if you are way back in the woods and you drop or loose this little key your day could pretty much be over using the tool to make slabs. I’m going to purchase a ton of extra Allen keys. Otherwise 5 stars!! Super happy with this purchase.

I was skeptical, but it works extremely well for making true 4x4 and 6x6. I tested with a medium-duty Husqvarna 435 with a 18” bar and recent chain (not razor-sharp, not bad either). Wood was cut very square and saw did not slip off this jig. Was happy to claim this old cedar that was downed in a tornado at a family retreat that goes back generations. The end product will be as square as your guide board if you follow the directions. If you are not good with running chainsaws, this is not for you. It would not work with an electric saw unless the wood was very small and very soft. Minimum 18” bar with this- angling it down more than 45 degrees is where it gets unsafe. The overall capability of what you can saw is limited by your saw- again, minimum 18” for 6x6 and minimum 40-50cc. Make a sacrificial crib at least 6 inches off the ground to miss kissing it and ending your chain. The crib doesn’t need to be exactly level and if it moves a little it doesn’t matter so long as you blade stays square on the guide board. Full power, don’t push hard, and draw to you. Make sure the guide board is very true. You only need 2-3 3.5” woods screws to hold this down snug. Make the guide board past past the log about 12” so that you have room to end the cut. Mounting the bar is easy- read the directions. I thought the ‘pinning’ method would slip eventually, and it did start to rotate a little after a few passes, but never slipped off and touched chain to metal. The other method is drilling two holes through your bar and use included grade 8 bolts- I’m doing that next to make this even better. Again, read the directions. First printing was 1976 and a very thoughtful man wrote them. If you have wood to fell, this is a must. I am adding another hobby if dropping trees for top-quality beams now in my spare time.

Haddon Tools is in a relatively tough spot with this tool: they own the patent and their lineage is the original inventor, they manufacture in the US and have a lifetime warranty... BUT the tool is quite simple and something Chinese knock-off companies can easily duplicate for pennies on the dollar and this is easily demonstrated by a search on Amazon. I like the tool. It makes great beams and with big logs can make some very nice lumber. I like the direction booklet... but it’s time to be updated. The instructions are vague and require many re-reads for doing any of the more complicated uses of the tool. The “pictures” are downright awful and that because they are very old pictures printed very small on standard copy paper in black and white. There is a lot of potential to hit the “it’s worth the extra $70” with the booklet/owners manual, but unfortunately the execution leaves me wanting. They have no other real online presence (videos, tutorials, ANYTHING) that would make me feel like they are pushing their company or product further at all... in fact I get the impression that the owners Grandfather did all the sawing and the current owner may not even own a chainsaw... Is it worth more than the Chinese knock-offs?... I’m not so sure.

I have a good stock of 70' power line poles, cut into 8' lengths. Once I got the 2x6 planed and sanded to the correct width, and attached to the poles, I added wax to the sides of the 2x6, just to make the Haddon jig slide easily. It worked perfectly. I'm using it to make lumber from several old power line poles, that are made of cedar. I'm using a Stihl MS251 w/18" bar, with a regular chain. Plan to purchase a 20" bar and chain, so I can reach all the way through some of the larger ends of poles. I have a 12" planer, so the slight rough cut is no issue, as I can slice them off at +1"thick and plane down to 3/4 or 13/16. I'm able to produce lots of perfectly smooth valuable cedar lumber, for fencing and bird house projects at a fraction of lumberyard prices. I would caution everyone to recheck the tightness of the three set screws used to connect the lumbermaker to the chain bar, to insure they stay tight. Be careful to not overtighten and warp or break the casting. I found after using the device for a few minutes that the screws needed a little more tightening. Use all the safety precautions reccommended with the equipment, take your time, be safe.

I used the lumbermaker to turn scrap logs from a tree service job into beautiful 6x6 and 6x8 beams. I also cut a large oak log into 3" thick live-edge slabs, moving the guide board each time. It was so simple to use with a 2x6 as the guide rail. It does take time to cut large logs, even with a ripping chain and a 20" saw, but it was time well spent. The lumbermaker attaches to the bar very simply with set screws or you can drill holes in your bar and mount with bolts. There are other similar products out there for cheaper, and I'm not sure what the difference is, but I've always believed you get what you pay for. The lumbermaker is no exception. It is a well-built, quality product and a great way to turn logs into lumber.

I purchased this jig to mill some douglas fir. I picked out the straightest 2x6 from Home Depot, screwed it down, and ran the cut. The jig has instructions to follow and all was well. Since the screws cannot be over tightened, my major issue was bar oil going on the bar and screws getting loose and the jig would lose its place and crash into the chain killing the teeth. Only plausible solution was to drill holes into my bar to keep the jig secure. Unfortunately the bar is a pain to drill through so after one hole I gave up. Overall, once installed and running, the cuts were great - straight, simple, and easy to do. I was doing a long log 16'+ so if you run along the 2x6 back and forth and make multiple passes, it works very well and much quicker. In the end, hiring a portable sawmill @ $80/hr was a much quicker and efficient choice for the project, but it is a great jig to have part of the kit. USA quality and worth it. A secondary horseshoe should be included in the packaging so if one gets destroyed, we don't have to buy the entire jig again.

Simple to use and install on any chainsaw. Very high quality. Do not consider chainsaw milling your own lumber unless you absolutely have to. This also applies to the Grandberg Mill which I also own. Ripping a log is 1000 times harder on the saw and you than crosscutting. The videos that you see demonstrating these mills are cutting soft woods like pine or spruce. On a 14" dia 8' long walnut log using a Husqvarna 460 with 24 inch rip chain, I would go through 3 tanks of gas and have to sharpen my chain after cutting 2 boards and be standing ankle deep in saw dust. Found a sawmill 35 miles away that sawed up my logs for 30 cents / board foot. Smoother cut, less waste, and a heck of a lot easier.

I've cut several hundred board feet of hardwood over the last 2 years with the Haddon Lumbermaker. It is well made and easy to use. It attaches and aligns quickly. I use a Stihl MS-441C with a 25" blade. The 441C is a powerful, heavy chainsaw and the Haddon is more than strong enough to hold the chainsaw firmly in place. I use a standard 2x6 or 2x4 as a guide. The Haddon fits snug on a 2x6. There is an attachment piece with alignment slots that allows the Haddon to fit to any standard or nonstandard lumber less than the width of a commercial 2x6 (actual dimension 5 1/2").