I lack a tree farm, so I'm always out of that darn stuff.
You can build a slow one right from the get-go. Planter+harvester, one relay some tubes, two hobbist steam engines, one powered furnace, one AA, one of those tubes with an iron choker and four barrels.
You just have to leave it chug along quietly. Build the farm above your chunkloaded dirt hole workplace and you'll have more wood overnight than you'll know what to do with
.
Build up a supply and a get some fire charges, you can build LP boilers very early on and you'll be well into mid-game before you can even start pumping lava.
All of this with an hours worth of work
. (if you have at least some of the per-requisite machines and materials)