An Excellent First,Second etc... Day

[Snag]

Well, I got up at 3am Saturday morning and my buddy and I headed down to see Captain at around 4am.  Mapquest lied to us and we arrived an hour and 45 minutes early (ooops).  We got to meet and chat with Captain, Mrs. Captain and Captain Jr..  Stan P arrived a little while later and the training started.  It was amazing how quick the mills assembled and how quickly we were sawing.  Mrs. Captain made us up a delicious lunch and we hung around until 4:45pm.  The trip back was a little long.  We hit some nice snow squalls and a couple wrong turns later, we got home around 10:45pm.  The return trip was WAY too long.  Anywhooo, Sunday morning I was up with the sun to get my chores out of the way so we could get down to business.  The two of us were able to unload and have the mill ready to saw in around 20 - 25 min.  Not too shabby for our first solo setup.  A friend stopped by before we began and asked about some 1x6's for a hay wagon.  Sounded like a good first project.  We loaded a 12' hemlock and away we went.  I really coulnt believe how easy it was and how smoothly everything went.  We produce 2 dozen 12' 1x6's in almost no time at all.  And they were perfect!  I would like to take the credit for how well they came out, but I think that credit goes to the mill.  The rest of the time sawing went to cutting stickers.  We ended up with just over 550 4' 1x1 stickers.  The hour meter read 1hr when we started and 4 when we quit (we had to skid some logs before the ground thaws).  The mill has exceeded all my expectations and is well worth every penny. 

I really want to thank Captain and family for their hospitality and their training.  They went above and beyond.  We had a blast while we were there.   Thanks a ton.

I have a couple pics, and will post them when I get a few minutes.   

[sprucebunny]

Congratulations on your new mill  8) 8) 8)

I'm glad everything went well. Sure is exciting opening up that first log, eh ? ;D

[IL Bull]

Congrats on your new mill. 8)  How did your friend like his 1 x 6's? ???

[Stan P]

Hi Snag,

 Nice meeting you and thanks again to Captain and Mrs Captain.  How did the hemlock cut.  That's what I will be cutting a lot of in a couple weeks.  What did you use for stickers?  

take care

Stan

[Snag]

Yeah, it was a pretty cool feeling sawing into the first log.  He was real pleased with the 1x6's.  They werent the prettiest to look at.  The logs I cut for him have been laying around for a year and a half and a bit discolored.  They came out real nice though.

Stan- Hope things are going well for you and Joel.  It was nice to meet you guys.  I have some pics of you guys and your mill.  I will send them on to you when I get a chance to dl them.  The hemlock cuts easy.  I followed Captain's recommendation for minimum rpm as a guide to how fast I should cut, and I couldnt even come close to bogging it down.  It cut as fast as I could move the carriage.  We sawed mostly basswood for the stickers and a little bit of pine.  We have two more basswood logs to saw into stickers (1-12' and 1-8') and then we will just supplement the sticker supply as we cut other stuff.

[Troy]

Congratulations Snag!  Milling with a Peterson Swingmill sure is fun.  So let's see... you have 550 stickers, that should last you about a week if you just mill on the weekends!

[Snag]

Crap.  I figured that would probably be the case, but I've got a hankerin' to cut something other than 1x1's.  At least the next couple logs.  Then maybe squeeze a sticker log in here and there.  I dont want to start having nightmares about 1x1's.  Thank god for that repetitive cut stopper.

[getoverit]

congrats on the new mill SNAG !

I'm sure you will enjoy your Peterson as much as I do mine. The word is starting to spread that I have a mill now, and everybody was right.... logs are finding me  ;)  I soent the 6 weeks that I was waiting on my mill to arrive cutting up stickers, and had ran out of them by the end of the first tree I milled. Seems as though you cant never have enough stickers...

Post some pictures when you have a chance?

[Captain]

Glad you had a good day, Jerome.  We had fun too.  It has been a long road of work since you left, Saturday we worked until after dark to get that tree down, and out with the Fire Department for station coverage Saturday night.  Sunday we sawed at a customer's location for 9 hours until 6PM, and got home to a nice dinner.  I was just going to get ready to take a shower, and we got called into the City of Taunton for a Structure Fire at the abandoned State Hospital complex.  The duty crew was out on Rescue, and I made the ladder out the door.  We beat the ladder from Taunton as it was unmanned due to staffing issues.  We had a front row seat with the ladder pipe operation.. and were there until 4:30 AM.   After work yesterday, I was sure ready for bed.  Thankfully, no interruptions with the Fire Department last night.

Keep up with those progress reports, and get those pictures up!!

Thanks to Charlie, Stan and Joel as well.

Captain

[Part_Timer]

Congrats on the new mill.  They are a lot of fun.

Which one did ya get??

Tom

[Snag]

Thanks all.

Tom- After discussing the various options and what I would be doing with it, Captain and I figured on an 8" WPF, 27hp, hi/lo, electric winch and weatherboard.  So far, I think he directed me perfectly.  I dont think I would change a thing.

Here are some pics from Saturday.  None of them are of actual sawing, 'cause I was too busy testing out the mill.  I only took them for a couple minutes so I didnt miss out on any of Captain's instruction.

My brand new WPF prior to cutting:



Charlie checking out the control and adjustments (Charlie is a friend of mine that will be running the mill on a regular basis):



Charlie trying to remember where he put his head.  I think Captain pumped him with too much info and it popped.:



Captain, Stan (Stan P) and Joel (HarleyRider) setting up the new ATS (Charlie looking on in the first one):







I will get some photos of my mill in action this weekend along with the sawing results.

[Captain]

I still had my "cold weather" hat on in those pics  ;D  That was early in the day!!

Captain

[Snag]

The air temp didnt seem too bad, but that breeze ya got goin on there is nasty.  I dont know how it gets through all those trees around your place, but that wind sure was chilly.  By the way, what do you call that type of hat in your parts?  I am originally from way up north on the canadian border near cronwall, so around there, we call it a toque.  I now live just south of Ticonderoga and get looked at funny when I call it that.

BTW- Charlie and I thought we were beat after our Saturday/Sunday ventures, but man, I'm twice as tired after reading what you and the Mrs. went through.  I think its great how you and others are able to contribute so much of your time to stuff like that.  I know there are a bunch of you on the board that are members of volunteer fire/rescue etc.   Hats off to you.  I am compiling so questions for you, will email you sometime later this week or weekend.  Thanks.

[Hammy]

Great stuff Jerome, hope you had Captain working hard enough that he had to take that winter hat off at some point.  ;)

Hammond

[Snag]

Here are a couple pics of what we did this weekend.....  Our first "customer" job.  Over 1500 board feet after approx 8 hrs sawing.  We're getting there.  Our system gets more refined with each log.  Can't seem to get either of us actually sawing or anything.  Reason being we are too busy working and noone else is around to take them.  

8' and up 1x8's and 1x2's for board and batten.  Somewhere around 225 of each:


A shot of our setup and logs waitin' for us:

[Captain]

Yup, sounds like you're getting there....

Ahh, and people wonder why it is called the Winch Production Frame.....

Congrats Jerome,  now work on that photographer...

Captain