Waytashek is a one-man portable sawmill

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

Todd Waytashek is a one-man band – band-sawer, that is. His portable sawmill job started as a part-time hobby, and now it keeps him busy year-round.

Waytashek, who lives in rural Sauk Rapids, is the owner/operator of TK Timber, who brings his portable sawmill to any place far and wide to cut timber planks from people’s downed trees. His customers use the planks for walls and buildings, to make furniture, wood-carved bowls and other art works, and even cribbage boards.

“And some people just want the boards, so they can build a garage with them,” Waytashek added.

Besides sawing planks, TK Timber also offers drying of wood, site prep, demolition, land-clearing, brush-chopping, dirt-moving, snow removal and light- and heavy-hauling.

Todd named his company TK after himself, Todd, and his 14-year-old son Kyle, who helps his father in so many tasks and who designed the company’s website. Kyle is the only child of Waytashek and wife Vickie, a social worker for Benton County.

Like snowflakes, no two timber planks are alike, Waytashek said, and that is why he enjoys his job. It’s always an exciting surprise to cut into a tree with his portable band saw to see what’s inside.

“There’s always something different,” he said. “You never know what you’re going to get when you open a tree. One time, I hit something that broke my blade. When I checked, I found I’d hit a six-inch pole barn nail inside the tree, and that tree was from very deep in the woods, so I kept wondering how that pole barn nail ended up inside the tree.”

Born in Omaha, Neb., Waytashek moved to Minnesota with his family when he was 2 years old. They lived near Osseo, then near Mille Lacs where his father farmed. To this day, Todd still does some part-time farming on the old farmstead between Pierz and Onamia. This past season, he planted 150 acres of soybeans.

When he’s not sawing logs or doing the 101 other tasks he does, the 51-year-old Waytashek is very busy as an active colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. Years ago, he did two years of active duty in the Army, then mustered out and joined the Minnesota National Guard to which he dedicated 26 years. He joined the Reserve five years ago and spent a year in the Pentagon in its logistics-operations center. That was in 2012-13, and he vividly remembers hunkering down in the Pentagon while raging Hurricane Sandy howled overhead.

Waytashek served with the 34th Infantry for three tours of duty in war zones – first in Bosnia, then Kuwait and most recently in Iraq.

In the 1980s, Waytashek started a wood cabinet shop in St. Cloud. Later, also in St. Cloud, he started “Triple A Courier” in 1991, then sold the place just before his first deployment in 2003 (Bosnia).

Two years ago, Waytashek decided to buy a 16-year-old portable sawmill, an orange-colored Wood Mizer brand. He enjoyed using it, so much so he decided it would be a central part of his new business TK Timber.

The machine was manufactured in Indianapolis. Every now and then, Waytashek has to drive all the way to Charlotte, N.C., for military drills. One time, on the way down, he made arrangements to drive a few miles out of his way at Indianapolis to the Wood Mizer manufacturing company, so he could get the machine re-calibrated to make sure it was cutting precisely, accurately. He hooked the Wood Mizer to the back of his trusty Toyota and off they went. At the Indianapolis factory, the experts there checked it out. Back home, Waytashak made many test cuts with it. It was right-on, perfection, precise to the smallest fraction of an inch.

Using his band saw, Waytashek can cut planks of any thickness up to three feet across and 21 feet long.

“Some people want just the best wood cuts out of a tree,” he said. “Others don’t care. They just want the planks and don’t care if they’re special or not. I cut any kind of trees. But some people want the most interesting pieces of wood so they can make bar tops or tables.”

One of Waytashek’s favorite woods to cut is oak burls. They are like big bumps or bubbles on a tree trunk in which the grain has grown in a deformed manner. They are filled with small “knots” from dormant buds. The burls, Wayatshek noted, contain extraordinarily and unique grains with intricate, interlacing patterns.

One of his favorite stories concerns a man from Little Falls who was driving a veteran to the St. Cloud VA Hospital. While on Hwy. 10 halfway between Rice and Sauk Rapids, the man looked over to the east and saw a portable sawmill parked near the service road, where Waytashek lives. He contacted Waytashek later and asked if he would cut a 30-inch oak burl of his. He told Waytashek he wanted to make cribbage boards from the cuts to give to friends as gifts.

“That was one of my first sawing jobs this spring,” he said. “It only took me 20 minutes, and I didn’t charge the guy anything. I thought it was good of him to help get that veteran to the VA, so I cut the burl as a favor.”

Three weeks later, Waytashek looked out and saw something on his deck. There was a cribbage board the man had made and left, just for him.

“That guy is an example of why I love this work,” Waytashek said. “I love the variety of this work. I love the variety of the wood and the variety of the people I talk with and work with. Nothing’s ever the same.”