Swingmill Demo

[Hokiemill]

Thanks to everyone who gave great advice on the safe distances for doing a swingmill demo.  The demo took place last Saturday and went off without a hitch.

I was invited by the Central Virginia Woodworkers Guild to give a demo of my swingmill for the annual picnic.  One of the members supplied a near-perfect 21" diameter cherry log and we milled it quickly into about 110 bd ft (the center had some rot) in front of about 30 very interested onlookers.  There were lots of great questions and a fair number of very kind comments.

It was a great time and a good learning experience.  I took a piece of furniture I had built and displayed it with some of the other members' work.  The food was great and it was really fun talking about logs, milling, lumber, my solar kiln, and building furniture.  My Mom, Dad, Wife, and Daughter were all there so everything I love (wood and family) all came together for a perfect day.  Besides, you can't have a bad day with views like those.

Here are some pictures of us setting up the log and starting up the mill demo.

[Captain]

Good Stuff, Randy.  Any pics of the finished product?

Captain

[Hokiemill]

Unfortunately no. :(  I was too busy answering questions and mingling that I forgot to get a picture of the boards.  They were beautiful.  There was some curl in some of the boards.  I was taking some vertical boards off and I could see the horizontal surface below was curly.  Each time I made a pass I got to look down at the curl and get excited about when I could start taking those horizontal boards.