I love this Frontier OS23.

I was on the fence between a frontier OS27 and a WM26; the 20% sale sealed the deal. I received it faster than expected, found it was easier to assemble from pictures than the actual instructions, and sawed my first log just after thanksgiving. This entire process has been absolutely seamless, and I love the capabilities of this sawmill. First, order 10 Ripper 37, 144”, 7°, .042”, 1 1/4” blades, and 10 of the same blades in 10°. Use the 10° for very hard, frozen, or petrified wood, use the 10° for pine, dry oak, etc. I used a brand new 7° blade on a giant piece of Purple Heart wood, and it was pretty impressive, just how quickly it went through the log! I cannot say enough about the quality, value, customer service, patience of the reps, and the sense that I’ve joined a cool group of people who are doing something very few people ever have the opportunity to do. I would venture to say that this was the best $4500 I’ve spent. Thank you, Frontier! Merry Christmas!

Just finished putting the mill together, overall it went very well. The OS27 arrived on a well built skid with only slight damage to the crate. The contents were not damaged in any way. Assembly took about 10 hours from start to finish. The power head was in the crate fully assembled and needed very little fine tuning. After we finished and triple checked all the bolts we added gas and oil and made a few experimental cuts on some junk logs. I was very surprised at how little effort it took to make a pass through the log.

There were a few negative points to the entire process. The biggest problem resulted from the shipper refusing to deliver to a dead end road. The second problem was the instruction manual and the labels on the bags. After a learning curve and some backtracking it was all worked out with little lost time.

After cutting with an power saw mill for over a year this Mill will be a total game changer for my hobby. I look forward to dealing with Frontier Sawmills in the future.

* I just ordered this mill today and have not received it yet so, this review is based solely on customer service alone and I'll leave another review based on the products once I've received my order.

I had some issues placing my order due to a problem with my bank. I called Frontier customer service and spoke with Andrew. It was the best customer service I've experienced. They honored the Black Friday sales price even after it had ended and even added a pack of blades to my order. The problem I was having was with my bank and not Frontier so they definitely did not have to go above and beyond for me. The fact that I received 5 star customer service leaves no doubt in my mind that once I do receive my sawmill, I know for a fact, if I ever need customer service they will take care of me.

I have owned my mill for close to 2 years now. I had absolutely no knowledge of being a sawyer or lumber in general,other then I am from a long line of Austrian “Tischlerei”And would Cringe when cutting up beautiful lumber for firewood!There had to be a better use from this wood!Well there is. And it’s my saw the OS 27. This saw is the perfect saw if you are a beginning sawyer. With that said to be just a good sawyer is hard and takes some doing but is one of the greatest joys that there is! Whether it’s a Shed ,barn, table headboard. When you cut it from your wood and then take that same lumber and build anything and your chest will just want to explode. The reason after cutting for a couple I am writing is that the excitement and the fulfillment has not waned. Now to the saw
1: Perfect size, In my mind it’s big enough to grapple a decent size log yet small enough not to feel overwhelmed
2: Performance, As a beginner or seasoned veteran this saw can produce lumber at an astonishing rate without the feeling that you have “Go like your killing Snakes
3 : Quality , This saw I would put against any saw for the precision cut and finished product
4: Value, This is a simple easy strong dependable piece of equipment, I have literally had two big Cherry trees fall on it and it took half a day to straighten align and begin sawing again
I would buy this saw again for sure! I opted to put it on wheels and I think that was a good call as was buying the sharpening system. I will buy bed extension and tooth setter and that will give me all I need.There again is another beautiful thing with Norwood/Frontier. Take your time and build the saw you need at your leisure. I can t tell you what the saw you need will look like but as you saw you will see and understand what YOUR saw should be, I don t want to get all corny here but sawing at the Hobby level is truly a ZEN like experience for me it is anyway.
Now it wasn’t a cakewalk but I also decided to do this during the Pandemic! With that the experience SUCKED! I received in my saw box mimeographed copies of all 4 Mills, I also had saw boxes that were just forked to death. I called Norwood and e mailed for almost 4 months. No help no return calls I literally thought they went under during the Pandemic! Not because but in spite of the and being a fearless farm boy (I m 62) I got it built! Then came the straw that broke the camels back. Due to a Surgery there was about 6 months loss: Started sawing and had bought a 5 pack of blades and the time came to set up my sharpener! Well that box was put on a shelf and it to had suffered a tough life getting to me, Set up and no grinding wheels. If you had been with me for this build ,you wouldn’t have thought that this would have been the trigger but it was! And here is where it all CHANGED ! I was introduced to Annette and now there is no reason for me to be mad anymore! She gave me her extension and I will take that number to my grave! So in ending. Great Saw Great Feeling and now me and Annette Great Team !

I spent six month researching small band mill and choose the Frontier OS23. It is a great and rugged little mill. I did get the ten horse power motor, I made right choice buying this mill.

Bought our mill in April had it together in 2- weeks , we made it totally portable mounted it on a 18’ utility trailer so we can haul more slabs / lumber after milling . Great machine downfall is waiting on extra parts . Sadly I can’t leave a picture we also put our logo on the face of the saw mill.

FRONTIER OS23 SAWMILL WITH 10HP (306CC) BRIGGS & STRATTON (RECOIL START) ENGINE

Kit looks great with all the parts I may/will need in the future for my OS31. Thank you for the quick shipping on this order. (p.s. I love my OS31...)

I love this sawmill, it cuts great and runs smoothly. It had a few more pieces to assemble than I anticipated so prepare for spending some substantial time for assembly - however other brands would take even longer as the Frontier OS31 comes with the sawhead/engine section already assembled which was very nice. I requested a PDF and printed copies of the owner/assembly manual as the one in my crate was for the OS23 not the OS31 so I had to look online at a lot of pictures to assemble it as the OS23 is substantially different - I have never gotten a response from Frontier on this. I am also still waiting (over 6 months) for the auto-lube system that I ordered, and still waiting (over 3 months) for the track extension and a few other items, to ship to me. I cannot seem to get any response to my emails asking about shipping of these items - they are not shown as "out of stock" on their website so I don't know what the issue is. It would have gotten 5 stars if they had at least replied to my messages let alone shipped the manual that I should have had initially, and shipped the two complete orders that I have outstanding for over 3 and 6 months.

I would definitely recommend the frontier OS 23. I've had mine for 2 years now and it has paid for itself many times over. My only caution would be, you must be mechanically inclined because you will be working on it a lot. One of the fly wheels kept coming off...I now have that fixed. Forget about the automatic waterer they sell...I rigged up my own and it works so much better! The list goes on but the bottom line is, I'd still recommend it! I've cut some beautiful lumber for my cabin and have no regrets for buying my OS23. PS: They don't give a cap away with a sawmill purchase. Very disappointed about that! Lol

So far, I am really loving this mill. I was milking with a chainsaw mill, and that took a couple hours just to mill one log. Now it takes less than 30 minutes to mill one. Plus, it leaves a much smoother cut. For an entry-level mill you can’t beat it.

I simply love my OS23. Sawmill is well built and works flawlessly. I’m glad I made the investment.

I absolutely love having my mill attached to the trailer. This makes things just that much easier on me in some ways, but of course you have to make sure you've a method for loading the logs once you have it on a trailer.

I am not happy with the instructions, which clearly were not meant for this trailer. The wiring required soldering and shrink tubing. I had to drill holes through the sides to run the wires, and my grounding wire wasn't long enough. Someone needs to review the instructions and create a better direction for assembly.

My review of my month old OS23. The OS 23 is a great mill for the price but it could be better. I looked at everything in its price range it is seems a lot heavier than the competition at its price point. It does what its supposed to do quite well. Would I'd buy it again, Yes. Now the little things that made my purchase not as smooth as I would have liked. The manual is not current to the saw so you will have to think things through. Read the whole thing. One section tells you that the items pre-assembled will all have to be checked and you will have to disassemble some things and do this and that? Then why pre-assembled? It is an imported\outsourced sawmill and the assembly was not bad BUT the packaging of the nuts and bolts (all metric) was a nightmare. All the hardware comes in separate plastic bags. They were labeled with a marker with the size and qty. Except most of the writing was illegible because it wore off the bag. The manual lists a Norwood Item # which would make it easy to locate what you need except not one bag of hardware had the item # on them.
The real frustration when milling is the water manual tank valve. It is a screw type valve, where to let the water flow you have to unscrew the valve to increase or decrease the flow. Its knurled and it actually has a slot for a screwdriver? The head is about 3/8" est. in diameter. There is a knurled locking nut/ring that locks the screw at what you set it at. The locking ring is about 2 mm larger than the screw valve so that makes it very hard to just turn the ring and not the valve. You have to adjust the valve so there is not too much water or to little. Too much water and the dust clogs the extraction port. So after every cut you can let the water run or unlock the valve shut it off and repeat the resetting of the flow on the next cut. A royal pain, a simple ball valve would have made much more sense without all the readjusting the flow every time you make a cut.
Norwoods email customer service is mediocre at best. I contacted them a couple of times and had to get my salesman to contact someone because I never got a response from the info e-mail address. I'm sure the 1-800 responses are faster but I find e-mail with pictures makes it easier explaining what your problems are.
Ill repeat its a great saw BUT the experience could be a lot better.

I shopped around for 3 weeks looking at various mills before purchasing my OS27. This model stood above the rest for various reasons.

1. Adjustable blade guides allow you to make the blade width narrower and therefore more controlled on smaller cuts. Other models in this price range do not have this so this was a benefit.

2. The infinite adjustable blade height is useful because you can cut any board thickness you would like.

3. Price wise this mill offered a 23 inch guide to guide cut in a $3200 package...This was a really big factor in terms of value.

4. Support is EXCELLENT. Don't believe me? Call them up and talk to them..Frontier missed a water valve in my package and replaced a bend blade guide within 24 hours. The support is excellent and frankly it has to be to maintain business. When i upgrade to a wide slab cut mill I will certainly be buying NOORWOOD again.