Always wanted a sawmill of your own? Well here's your chance!

[HSV]

Hey all    This is looking really good!!!
There are some great stories coming through, really excellent.  Thanks to all who have entered so far.
Mr Mom, that's exactly what we want, honesty.  Thanks for that, you're entered!
Well, it's the weekend here now, I'm hoping all goes well for everyone attending the demo in WI and that the weather holds out! 
I will be checking into this thread over the weekend in case anyone has any questions. 
Happy Posting!!! 

[KGNC]

Here's my entry. My writing has certainly never won me anything before but hope springs eternal.

I come from a long family history of working in the trees and mills in the NC mountains. A lot of my family was fed from the lumber industry.  They did it for other reasons as well, I had a great uncle that went to work in a  timber camp up in the hills to avoid a certain young lady looking for him. The last mill in the family was a square mill my father and grandfather set up to sell squares to the furniture plants.

About 1 ½ years ago I started looking at sawmills and found the Forestry Forum and this really got me to considering the possibilities.  At a family dinner I mentioned that I would like to have a small mill and the whole family started making plans for it. My mother has a lathe and wants me to cut turning blanks. My sister is doing intarsia and thinks I should cut a lot of wood for her projects. (she has already taken over my planner)  My dad does carpentry and some wood working and is always looking for good/special lumber. We also started a tradition of drawing names and making handmade gifts for Christmas, so every fall there are usually two or three of us looking for lumber. I gave my dad some copies of Sawmill and Woodlot magazine. He has gone through and picked out his choices in mills. So if I ever get a Skillmill it will really be a family mill with me being the caretaker for the rest of the clan.

  We have plenty of trees to cut. I have a total of about 35 acres of mostly hardwood with another 25 or so among the rest of the family.  I've got about 6-7 logs right now I could saw if I had the equipment. Our biggest concern will be where to set up the mill first. 

For me it's hard to justify a sawmill, maybe I'm just cheap.  I don't like to spend money I don't have and with two sons headed to college in a few years it's hard to divert that much money for a hobby. If I look at making it more than a hobby I worry that right now I will lose time that I should be spending with the boys.

When the Skillmill was introduced last year I added it near the top of my list of things I would like to have. I have been waiting to hear from some other owners and I had planned to see one in operation at Sawlex this spring.

I hesitate to make too many comments on a mill I haven't seen in person.  Peterson seems to have done a great job designing a system for hobbyist like myself.  The multiple angles of cut is a great feature. I can see where that would be great for taking the corners off of the turning blocks. I do wonder how you hold profiled pieces in place to make that last cut or two. One thing that I would like to check out is the stability of the saw carriage, when you watch the video, at the beginning of one of the cuts it looks likes the carriage skews or wobbles slightly.
I had considered building my only swing mill. A general question about swing mills I have wonder about is the rails. Having the track rails fixed and raising and lowering the saw on the carriage might be more convenient, maybe I'm missing something.

I'm planning on being at Sawlex with my boys, dad and maybe my sister. I will be glad to pick up the Skillmill there to save you fine folks the shipping charges.

[SPIKER]

YEA BOY I got to toss my hat into the ring too ! (sorry I don't have any cow skinned cowboy hat or else I would let ya pull my name out of it ;) ) BUT I'll sure toss in my greasy old dust covered ball cap in there (I'm sure no one will pick that thing up or get close enough to pull out anyone else's name fer sure ;) lol

More about me other than having a worn out hat on my head (mainly to cover the graying hair now a days)   

I been looking at making lumber out of trees for a good long while. I was looking & asking questions locally for many years and spoke to a lot of people on other forums until I found a good bunch of people who knew their behinds from a knot hole here on Forestry Forum!.   I joined back in September '05 and have been reading on & off as time permitted.   I even went to visit a few FF members.   BBTOM in particular,  has taught me a LOT as I have stopped at his place 4 or 5 times now I think.   I got to watch him cut and helped tail/unload, and rip saw for him a bit.    I actually asked a lot of silly questions while I watched him run his LT40HD.   I'm sure I got in his way a bunch and cost him a good poke in the eye with a stick when he was showing me some ins and outs of making Maple Syrup. (Sorry again Tom :-[.)

I have been to a few places and talked to many sawmill owner's. So far all of them have been band mills, but I love the way the swingers move so much so that I've TRIED ( I repeat TRIED) to buy 3 of them in the last year or so on Evil Bay >:( only to get out bid by SNIPERS at the last seconds of the auction!  :(  I even clicked to PAY once only to received an outbid notice instead of the YOU WON notice I was expecting :(   These were used units as I'm working too many hours and have had too many setbacks in the last few years to be able to afford a nice new mill like the one offered (even if it is the demo model I would be ecstatic!)

Anyhow back to ME I just turned 40 so I still got a few good years left in me, (don't ask my woman if there are any left as she thinks I past my prime at least that many years ago  )   I've been into any and everything having to do with Wood, Cars, Metal and or Electricity.   I am the youngest in my family so I had benefits of mom being used to plenty of problems (me & my older brother were her biggest from an early age  : we hunted, fished, ran a muck and basically spent more time outside than inside from the time we could walk until well EVER.   Both of us still work around each other a lot despite his picking on me every chance he got when we were kids...    But as we got older he got into cars and so did I.   I painted my first car by the time I was 14, (actually HIS car) and went into Auto Body Painting & repair in high school.  By that time I knew how to paint better than the instructor @ my school.   I got pretty board with that by my 2nd year of it in Vocational Tech School I had gotten great grades (mostly A's the last 2 years I only missed one day (wrecked my brothers car going to school! OOPS ) and decided to Join the Military. Just to get away from him so he couldn't kill me. :D

So into US Air Force I went.  I got some more great schooling on Hydraulics & Flight systems and all that good stuff.   I was in active duty during the first gulf war and spent 9 months working 12 hr shifts without a day off...   later the AF transfered me from Kansas into the high desert where there weren't any trees so when my reenlistment date came I got out.   I came back to Ohio and have been here ever since.   

I worked as an Industrial Equipment Designer & Fabricator.   I welded, wired & Installed all sorts of Industrial Equipment.   So I'm sure I'll be changing something eventually on the mill if I was luckily enough to win it.!  I'm still the way I was when growing up, fix it yourself, make it faster/better,  hot rodder type person.   Making small changes to personalize you're tools is usually faster & safer than starting from scratch.

   Anyhow, I ended up buying my property 6 years ago.  I have 26 acres of trees (some was open so I planted 5000 + trees, 2000 sugar maples, 2000 white pine and 1000 Spruce all in one year 2004.)    I also planted a LOT of Black Walnut, Oaks and Fruit Tree over the years.   While working at building the equipment I was looking at a way to build my own mill.   Unfortunately our shop basically ended up closing as no shops/companies were buying NEW equipment.   I lost the job I loved doing after 10 years for this reason.   

I'm now working in a factory as most jobs in my area have dried up really bad in the last 5 years.   (So many Industrial Plants have closed around my area that being able to BUILD something wasn't keeping my bills paid.)  I spent 2 of the last 5 years looking for work and so has my woman, who lost her job last year.   She was laid off over a year and has had to take a temporary job simply to help pay the bills that the high gas prices in our area and low number of jobs.   We started building our House/Home on the farm back in 2001 but with the poor job market and high prices we have not been able to finish it.   It has been empty and un-finished for 4 years now. :(   That is one of the reasons I need a good mill.

I have plenty of Lumber in the Log form but no way to cut it, I (this winter) downed 10+ larger maples and Elms to turn that into flooring that will be used in our home.   I say downed but much of these were heavily damaged back in the big ice storm that we had a few years ago.  My place (like BBTOMS) had a one two punch with lots of ice, heavy rain and high winds.  This was the case 3 or 4 times in the last couple years so what was (when I bought my place) a Beautiful old growth woods is now a ruin of tree branches uprooted trees and outright blow downs.   While I'm sure I'll be able to eventually get these logs into someone to be milled it would be so much easier to mill them right in the yard.   I need to make a lot of flooring, shelves, all of the trim and kitchen counter tops.   I know of a few places that would turn my boards into these but if I got started with a good mill I might be able to swing getting a nice molder/planner eventually as well.   I'm hoping to get my down stairs concrete poured this year (been trying for 4 years now) prices have almost doubled for it so I'm stuck attempting to find small odd jobs in the spare time to save & pay for items as I'm just not a person to BUY something I can't afford...   I don't use my plastic unless I HAVE to have something (recently both cars were down and I had to buy brake lines and fix one only to find the steering parts are all shot.)   I got the other car running which had a broken/stuck transmission cable on it.  I think it will last a little longer but the cable linkage damaged the tranny pretty bad as it was slipping In & Out of gear when driving it home.   

While I've never MILLED a board out of a log I've been there and helped do it while learning something new.   I've worked with my hands one way or the other since I was a kid & don't think I will ever STOP for anything other than old age and or the end of all good things.   I built a lot of items from scratch and loved pretty much every one of them (baring that dang Air Hockey Table I built in junior high shop class!)    It gave me some scaring (emotionally that is lol)   not to mention a lot of black-n-blue fingers from the pucks flying up into you're hands when playing it!   : :D   

Well now that I went & got all LONG winded I better just say I'll surely put one of those nice skill mills to work for a good long time if I get 1/2 (or 1/10th) a chance ;)

Mark M

[DWM II]

Good luck everyone, I enjoy your stories and I know a new mill will be as enjoyable as productive and an asset to your lives as mine has been to me. HSV, thanks for the investment in other folks, it wont go unreturned.
Donnie

[limbrat]

 I started in the woods while still in school in the early 80s cutting bug pines during the sourthern pine beatle epidemic. I ran on federal contracts cutting in national forest all i had to do was lay them down inside the line. After a couple of years i went to construction and built myself a job in quality assurance. Stayed there for thirteen yrs. and finished being raised by my wife and three girls.
About ten yrs ago my dad passed away from complications due to cancer. Me and mom have always had a special relationship and she was already living with us. Mom had a stroke at the same time that dad died (i will always believe he was calling her) she was not able to go to the services and didnt wake up till after they were over. The kids were on ther own so me and lilya got a little place on twenty acres about half hard wood pine mix and remodled it to fit moms needs. She lived there with us untill last year, her health degraded to a point were we could no longer give her the care she needed so i put her in a local nursing home. That was the first time that i couldnt care for moms needs and it got me down till the house burnt then i was so happy that mom wasnt there
About that Skillmill i havent seen one up close but it looks like a nice outfit. I would encourage the extentions some times a fellow just need 16' 2x8s or a half dozen 18' 6x10s. Does the planer blade fit it. Im guessing that a jig and adaptors that would allow a 70cc or so chain saw power head to be the power supply when away from a outlet is still in the planning stages. A 13500 rpm 5 hp loud oil dripping chain saw power head might give its own set of problems but it sure would be handy if made to work.
I have plans to get a mill to build my house and every thing in it, though my furniture so far could be called rustic at best. Right now im cutting beams with a chainsaw mill ( hope that dont exclude me) and that Skillmill would be just the thing to cut all these 3x5 purlins i need. Even the 6x10 and 6x6 beams and post i have left would benfit. I could cut the 1x and 2xs off the sides and leave the boxed hearts for the timbers, not to mention all the 1xs that i need to deck the roof.
The only time i have been around a mill was after the house burnt and i call a recomended sawyer out with his lt28 to cut red oak 1xs and pine 2xs for paneling and trust. My first contact with this forum was to check on him. I had never heard of stacking framing lumber on edge to dry, as it turns out he was steering me right. This forum has a lot of good information but can add to you too i saw a fellows beautiful end grain cutting boards on here and thought that would make nice flooring. I have learned other things here too how too spell lutefisk and build a solar kiln and my northern bretherns misconception of grits. For those who dont know one is worth the time and trouble to make right and the other is a regional dare that should be avoided and never eaten.

[sawguy21]

Mr Mom, I think a gas engine would be too heavy and awkward on this design and would add too the cost.

[Mr Mom]

     Sawguy21...I just thought if they put a motor on it the same size as the electric but gas.
     Just a thought,just a thought. Never said that my ideas were good.

     Thanks Alot Mr Mom

[Danny_S]

well I better get my name in the hat for this draw!

Background... Well, I grew up on my grandfathers old farm, not an active farm at the time but my neighbours was, so I spent alot of time over there learning how to do stuff. Unfortunately I learned how to smoke, swear and drink beer too but you gotta take the bad with the good ;) .I am glad I did as now I seem to fall into the "Jack of all trades" category, and I owe alot of that from growing up on a farm. I quit smoking about 10 years later and cant afford beer anymore. The swearing now, well we will talk about that another time....

So with that being said I basically worked at labour jobs when I was younger, working on a Beansprout / Cattle farm for many years. We did alot of construction while I was there, building outbuildings and a barn, renovations to the house and just general farm maintenance. My boss at the time and I took a 2 week farm welding course and that started me on the road to metalworking.

After I left that job I went to work for a large company that made wood products. They are currently known as Marwood Ltd. It was a pressure treating facility that made outdoor wood products such as decking, handrails, ballusters, lattice, stair treads, risers, 4x4 and 6x6 posts and treated dimensional lumber...among many other products. The first job I worked at was making fence components, pickets and such. I built fence panels for a while until I got offered a job installing autoglass for ALOT more money. Well that stint didnt last long and I returned to Marwood. While I was gone they had built a plant for making ballusters for the most part, along with some handrail and some fence pickets. I started there operating a 6 head Diehl moulder that made ballusters...alot of ballusters. I cant remember the numbers but we put out thousands a shift. From there I moved into the grinding room and did moulder/plant maintenance. To this day, it has been about 8 years, I can remember every inch of that production line.

This job inspired me to work with milling lumber, in all aspects from milling logs to moulding lumber, to making wood products. I always loved working on the machinery and coming up with new ideas on the line to make it work better,safer, more efficient. At this point I had taken the urge to build my own portable bandsaw mill. Having lots of sources from work for parts it was working out good. But after a few years I left that job and carried on.  The mill however was still in progress.

After alot of research online  :P and of course, that cashflow problem I decided to make the mill into a chainsaw mill, purchased a brand new Husky 3120 and got things up and running. It worked pretty good, didnt get all the bugs out of it before I decided to sell it as my family and I were in the plans to move. :-[  I was moving to a duplex where I would have zero space for the mill, and away from anyone that I knew, to get logs from ect. I posted it for sale on the forum here and pretty much sold the mill and the chainsaw within weeks. I still had the urge for a mill but was not feasable at the time. So we moved for my wife's job, a nurse, so I followed and just started looking for work. I found a job at Craig Manufacturing, as maintenance / welder. I have worked there for 3 years now and man could I ever build a nice mill here!!  I now own my own place where I could have a little mill but with 2 kids now and some different intrests taking up spare time, building a mill would take be about 28 years. If I was to win the lottery, after a new truck and fifthwheel camper, and a long trip, a mill would be one of my next purchases. I would get one because I would love to build a post and beam style home with lots of woodwork.

Anyways, enough rambling about me... ;)

The skillmill.. in my limited research on this nice little mill, I give it a thumbs up for sure. It is simple, portable, easy to use, and would be pretty quiet with the electric motor. I have always liked how these types of mills worked. The only thing I could see that would make it better would be a chair and beverage cooler attachment on it! 

It is what it is, a simple, affordable, portable mill so you cant expect all the bells and whistles. I guess I wont be so long winded talking about the mill as I was about myself...

If I was to win the mill, which I have my doubts because I never win anything, :'( .... I would have lots of projects for it. We just recently bought our house and allready want to expand. Having the mill and now knowing some friends with woodlots, I could make an addition affordable. We both like wood so there would also be some renovations to the current house inside. I would likely also do some custom sawing for people, a good little sideline for some extra income. I also have some friends back home that would likely want to borrow it and that would be no problem as I borrowed their stuff lots...got to love the barter system!

So there, I have not ever in my life filled out such a long entry ballot for a draw!  Good luck to eveyone else entering for this draw! If your like me you will need it!!!

[sawguy21]

     Sawguy21...I just thought if they put a motor on it the same size as the electric but gas.
     Just a thought,just a thought. Never said that my ideas were good.

     Thanks Alot Mr Mom

Trouble is, a gas motor needs to be about three times the hp, that is you would need a 15 hp gas to replace a 5 hp electric, to produce the same torque. Their electric is also direct drive which would not be practical with a gas job, a clutch would be required

[urbanlumberinc]

is it possible to enter on behalf of another?? If so I'd like to enter the fine woodworking program at Red Rocks Community College here in CO.  I held a demo there over the weekend and was amazed by not only the turnout, but also by the passion displayed by both students and staff.  Everyone was so jazzed in fact, that only about half of the logs I brought got sawed up, I spent too much time runnin my mouth and not enough runnin my mill.  I really think this is a great idea, and salute Peterson for it, but I think the mill would do more good in a setting where a whole group of dedicated individuals can benifit, rather than just one or two.   

[HSV]

Hey there urbanlumberinc,

We don't have a problem with you entering on behalf of the Red Rocks Community College so long as a representative from the College agrees with the Terms and Conditions of the competition. 

So tell us a little more about the College and its Fine Woodworking Program, complete #'s 2&3 of the entry, ask a rep. of the College to contact me at lrobinson@petersonsawmills.com before the competition closes (May 16), and we will pass your story around with the others and it may make it to the hat at Sawlex.

Thanks.

Hey everyone, we're loving your stories, keep 'em coming!!

[Wyatt]

I started out as a Park Ranger (TREES) in Ohio, then to Sequoia National park (BIG TREES) then US fish & Wildlife Officer (TREES) then changed course and followed my Love (TREES) to a custom cabinet apprenticeship outside Wash DC. Eleven years ago moved here to Wisconsin (TREES). I stared Graber Woodworking LLC www.graberwoodworking.com (shameless advertising). I found myself aquiring logs and having them cut for my business, then building a DH kiln to dry the lumber. Now I have them cut (no mill, shameless pandering) twice a year or so and dry for use in my pieces bearing tribute to....(TREES). No other profession offers such complete satisfaction than being able to start the chaisaw and ultimately end up with oohhhs and aahhhs from the client's of the finished piece.

I have operated (limited) bandmills and a, dare I say it,,,,, Lucas mill, but after seeing the Peterson make short work of that Monster redwood saturday in Madison, I'm very impressed! after investigating the Skillmill I find it a great match for me and my business. Cutting standard boards and slabs (I use both) from 24-30" logs which I'm always on the lookout for, and my kiln only takes 12.5'....PERFECT! My only improvement to the Skillmill would be to strap it to the forks of a skidloader of your choice to make moving logs and lumber more efficient ;D I do, love the electric power!,low noise, & emissions.

The Skillmill would be used in my business to make the (TREE) journey complete! I liken this contest to "lottery fantasy" come on guys you know what I mean. You buy the ticket the day of the drawing and fantasize all day long about what you could do with all that loot. But now I have a full 16 days of fantasy left  :D :D :D :D  Thanks for the opportunity! Dean

[Sprucegum]

The mini-mill I built for my 359 Husky probably disqualifies me but I am going to enter anyway because I like talking about myself  ;D and I really like talking about anything to do with wood.

I got my first taste of sprucegum when I was 7 years old, we moved to a small mixed farm in the Rocky foothills and lived the good life.
That was 50 years ago. I have had 1/2 dozen careers since in driving, carpentry,equipment operating, welding. Through them all I have always turned to woodworking at home to relax and satisfy my creative urges. I have built all the furniture we could not afford to buy as well as priceless(useless  ;) ) keepsakes for friends and family.

The Skillmill caught my eye as soon as it hit the market because it will do everything I need and its inexpensive, portable, and easy to maintain. In your video I noticed the sawdust was blowing back onto the log. I would like a 45 or 90 degree elbow to deflect it off to one side or the other. My mitersaw has a friction fit plastic elbow that I can point in any direction with a light twist.

In '05 I bought 160 acres of woodland, just for firewood and a recreational getaway I thought. Now I need a woodshed, I need a storage shed, I need a camp kitchen, I need a bunkhouse, I NEED A MILL!

Thanks for letting me play  :D  8)  :D

[Loghead]

My hat says LOGHEAD so I had better throw it in and give it a try.  ;D
My love of wood and working outdoors started when in highschool, shop class was the only place I felt really at home and in my element weather it was wood shop or hot metals before I could graduate I started working with a few friends
on a project to build and recondition an old belsaw mill, add a big ole desiel and a gang edger and we were taking diseased elm from the twin cities of MN. and turning out 10,000 bdft a day of 6x8 cants for a pallet factory.
There were aprox 100 truck loads a day that came to this site to be burned and we saved what we could!
Then I went into percision machining (cnc milling) for the next 11 yrs.
At the end of this time I built a log home and it was a very hard project for a 25 yr old and I said I would never do that again but after another 14 years of feeling locked in a block building with no windows I had to try something elce so I bought a peice of land on the Crow Wing chain of lakes and started building my company Crow Wing Tile (kitchen and bath remodeling) along the way I ran into my mentor and started another hand scribed jack pine cabin and found the work and the characters along the way very rewarding.
  Note THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE NOT PLANNED!!   8) 8)

The Skillmill would be great for me it looks light and easy to use and electric too this would be an asset to the cabin and shop for all the custom window trim and gable end wavy boards I still need to create. not to mention the sign material for the chainsaw art (bears and benches) and yes there are trees on the property I just finished pressure washing all the railing material I cut last fall for the loft and stairs.
Hope to start looking for the decking for the upstairs loft next month it would be great to be able to mill it myself instead of paying that guy with the orange mill like I did for the inside black cherry loft floor cut from my back yard.
Will be setting in my old reconditioned rocking chair next to the red elm slab table with solid brass turned legs, oh and I will leave the diamond willow lamp on for ya all .    ;D   8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

[junkyard]

If I won This would be a hobby mill for me. Due to artheritis I can't acomplish much in a day. During my 68 yearsI have worked in the woods and construction local low paying jobs, I have always thought that logs were not bringing much for either the landowner or jhe jober. Seems that a mill to make value added would be the to go. After trying to cob up a couple of old circlemills. I gave up. Just not enough time to work a job to make a living and do all of the rest to. The last twenty years of my working life was spent at a factory. I have dreamed of building a band mill but the money is not there.
I have a few acres of woods that I could make a little lumber and fire wood from the slabs and be happy. The electric part would be nice as when my knees give out I could just hit the switch and be done and start up would not intail a gas can and the maintanance of a gas engine.
                                       Junkyard

[Nailhead]

My dad's parents immigrated from Finland and settled in the old saw milling town of Pequaming. My Grandfather worked as a Mill Wright at the Ford saw mill there.
In my dad's senior year in school and for about a year and a half after graduation, up to the time he went into the Army air corps during WWII, my dad was a band setter and filer at the Pequaming mill. So something about mills must have rubbed off on me because I have always been interested in milling but have never had time to own and operate one of my own.
Before I had started my own business, which by the way gave me quite a bit of opportunity to repair and build larger sawmill equipment I ran a chip plant for a saw mill owner, and if somebody didn't show up for work, I would have to work the GREEN CHAIN for a few hours or a full day. I have always said that all kids should spend a summer on the green chain and we parents wouldn't have to tell them how easy they have it!
Having owned a machining and fab shop for 28 years, I like to think I know quality. I was impressed with the Peterson swing mill I saw at the expo in Sault Canada last year. The quality and fit of the components and welds was something I had mentioned to the other FF guys that I was there with.
I really like the fact that the Skill Mill is electric, not only for noise reasons, but for maintenance reasons.
I would LOVE to own the skill mill for theseother reasons too:
Thou I have worked around mills, loading and off loading, I have never ran a mill of any kind. I would like to learn how to get the most out of every log!
When I need some milling done, I have a guy about a ½ mile away with a wood miser. I usually take my backhoe with forks to pick up what was milled and by the time I'm half way home I have a 100bf or more on the ground and have the road blocked while I am picking it all back up.Of cource, nobody comes by until I almost finished picking up my mess! My wife always tells everybody that I play pick-up-sticks with lumber and not tooth picks.
Lastly, I have a lot of ash on my property, and with the encroachment of the Emerald Ash Borer I am going to be needing to cut and mill these trees or lose them.
They won't go to waste, as I like working with ASH in the wood shop.
Nailhead 

[Part_Timer]

Mr. Mom

The motor rotated from 0 to 90 degrees and every 5 degrees inbetween.  I don't think the gas motor would run being tilted on  it's side like that would it?

[joelmar10]

For nearly twenty years I've been working for the same company servicing copiers.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, I'm pretty good at it.  Unfortunately, because for the last dozen or so years my heart has been somewhere else.  I first became interested in portable sawmills in the early 90's when I happened on one in southern Illinois at a gas station.  "What the heck is that thing?!"  Over the years I've requested info from nearly every manufacturer in the business.  Some of whom are now out of business.  Probably due in part to my wasting their advertising budget.

The most intriguing sawmill to me is the Peterson swinger.  Ever since I saw the article in Sawmill & Woodlot Magazine where the WPF won first in the $10K and under division of the sawmill shootout.  Even beat most of the hydraulic bandmills in the other classes!  It's been a while since a Peterson has been under $10K...

Until now!!!

I won't go into a sad story (though there is one) as to why I've never been able to buy or build a mill, other than to say the needs of my family have priority.  But I will tell you about my love for making sawdust. 

It all started in 1965 with the first cry of a bouncing baby boy at St. Mary's Hospital.  The doctor spanked my little behind, put drops in my eyes, and reached for a tongue depressor...that first taste of wood began a love affair that would last a lifetime...okay, maybe I should fast forward a little ...

In 2002 I came up with a plan.  I bought a used 16" planer on eBay and drove behind the Cheddar Curtain into Wisconsin to get it.  Then I bought three pallet loads of kiln dried appalachian hardwood cutoffs from a sawmill in southern Kentucky (again on eBay).  The cutoffs ran from 18 to 48 inches long and 3 to 12 inches wide, unsurfaced, cut on a circular rig.  These were trimmed from lumber for export (China maybe?).  I rented a 24 foot straight truck to drive it back to Illinois.  I came home with 400 to 500 bd ft each of 4/4 red oak, 4/4 white oak, 5/4 ash, and also some 4/4 hard maple cutoffs I bought while at the sawmill.

Once my garage was set up I got to work planing the maple cutoffs.  I was into the second board when the end of the head (aluminum) twisted off.  I spent more time than I wanted being a planer technician or waiting for parts as the goofy thing twisted the ends off two more heads before I figured out what the problem was. 

Eventually I managed that winter to plane half of the wood, trim it clear on my tablesaw, and sell the boards in packs on eBay.  To my amazement, the best money was for the boards with the most character.  Including a bookmatched pair of red oak crotchwood, bark inclusions and all.  Hmmmm...  My eBay sales paid for the planer, the cutoffs, and the trip in the truck.  The last of the wood I sold unplaned in 2006, again on eBay.

The most awesome part of the whole "wood thing" for me is the discovery.  The quilt figure you find in the maple.  The fleck of the quartersawn oak.  The old barn board you stick in the planer that turns out to be American Chestnut...and not a wormhole in it!  Resawing black walnut into veneer... really short veneer, since your neighbor converted his tree into firewood lengths before you could stop him.

Wood.  I love the smell of it. I love the sight of it.  I love the feel of it.  When I walk through the woods with my family, I see logs and lumber where I used to see trees.  I even love to blow sawdust out of my nose at the end of the day.  It simply doesn't get better than that.

"What would I find if I opened the log myself?"

That is the haunting question of a long-suffering sawyer wannabe...

I asked my wife to chime in and here's what she had to say...

"When Joel told me about this opportunity, I knew that I just had to put my two cents in. Joel and I have been married for almost 12 years. This sawmill thing drives me nuts! (Along with a FEW other things). He has always had the wood bug. After 12 years, I still don't understand it and realize I have no control over it. So, I must accept it. So, I tell him after competing with the books and the forums and the tinkering all these years, "Honey, go ahead and buy a sawmill." And he says to me, "I need to do it debt-free." God's been working on that with us and now he decides to apply it!!!! I think that he's read everything there is to read on wood, and sawing, and making stuff, and whatever else goes through your wood heads. I'm ready for him just to do it.  So, I'll be praying that this debt-free plan might involve a FREE sawmill and maybe at the next step, I'll gain a little better understanding of what you all think. And you all say that women are complicated!   HUMPH!!!!"

She's been very, very patient.  A sawmill widow to a guy who doesn't even own one.

I am now doing handyman work part-time.  I think that custom wood offerings would be very useful as I build my business and my reputation with the midterm goal of becoming self-employed.

My longterm goal is to be Birky from Timbergreen.  Forty or more acres of woods, installing homegrown, homesawn, homedried, homemoulded flooring in guess what?  Homes.  All the while improving my timberstand by taking the worst trees first.   How cool is that?

By the way, I believe I may have been one of the first to see the U.S. Skillmill website.  In fact I feel like I was an active participant in the Skillmill website rollout.

Again I apologize for any time pressure I put on the web team!

Peterson is awesome.  The Skillmill is awesome.  The only improvement I could suggest is to make it free.  But you beat me to it, didn't you!

I still have the original videotape I requested from Peterson many years ago.  It's the one where the original deep jungle mill was still chainsaw driven...before the ATS.   Was I supposed to send that tape back?  I hope I didn't damage the advertising budget...

Thanks Peterson and FF!

P.S.  My wife says I'm very photogenic.

     

[tsodak]

Wow, this is an absolutley wonderful opportunity. I have been looking at a mill for about 12 months but the realization that this was even possible here has led to its own set of problems. First, I live in a place where there is no timber culture. The nearest real stand of native woodland is 40 miles away, and about twice that to anyplace any real logging was ever done. I literally have never known anyone with a mill until recently. I farmed for 7 years after college and did a lot of sawing for firewood, and have always been truly annoyed that the majority of trees that are taken down in this part of the country are simply pushed into a pile and burned after a couple of years to clear farmland.

I made a friend in ND after I left the farm to work as a biologist from Iowa who had some experiance with real trees, and he taught me a lot about possibilities. We cut a lot of wod to feed my fireplace and he would talk about real oak or hickory instead of siberian elm and cottonwood. Last year I got a job to bring me back to SD, and built a home last summer. My goal now is to set myself up so that I can build my deck , fences, and a barn in the next year with trees that would have been simply discarded and burned by other. I am extremely intriqued by the skillmill, and was within 1 inch of ordering one, but stumbled upon a way to test drive a small band mill for a couple of weeks. Still trying to decide which way I should go. I have access to a lot of big trees, and it seems in some ways that bringing the mill to the tree would be a great deal. The electric also makes sense to me, and the swingmill would really cut the dimensional stuff I need. I started a thread here looking for input and still am stewing.

As is fairly common my wife thinks I am crazy, mainly because of the 6 inch scar that bisects my scalp frm a chainsaw accident 10 years ago. Lucky to be alive, but I just have never seemed to be able to keep the saw out of my hands. I have done all the finish work on my home, and wish like crazy that I could have cut my trim and assorteds. 

If I were to recieve this mill it would be coming into a place where literally noone that I can find owns a mill within 60 miles, many huge cottonwoods exist (that is what I am going to use for a lot of my stuff) and  the chainsaw is the height of wood handling. A lot of these trees are starting to see removal for conversion back to farmland, (they were planted for erosion control after the thirties) and this year for the first time I watched a feller come in and take truckloads of cottonwood out to be hauled 200 miles for milling into pallets. I think folks here are going to be very interested once I get a mill, and I am giessing this will turn into a bit of a side business as well.

No matter what, this is just plain the best deal I have seen in a long time. A heap of thanks to you boys from down under.

[walexander]

It sounds too easy huh?  Well there is a little something you have to do to be in to win.

1.   Tell us a little about yourself.  What is your background?  Do you have woodchips in your blood?  Have you used a sawmill before - if so, what kind and in what application?

I am a Civil Engineer that is building my own house right now and I have always loved working with wood, although I never have done it professionally. I want a sawmill, but haven't been able to bring myself to buy one yet. I am looking for that perfect deal to come along...this one seems like a really good one!

2.   Click here to take a look at the Skillmill website if you haven't already.  This is the mill you may be winning.  What features appeal to you the most?  Do you have any suggestions on how we could improve the mill? 

I like the one man capabilities as well as the capability to make interesting cuts. I would like to be able to cut larger beams perhaps on occassion.

3.   Finally, tell us what you would use it for if you won?  Do you have trees on your property?  Do you make furniture etc?

I would use it to cut dimensional lumber from trees on our own property to and leave it set up in an open air shed for lumber just around the farm and house.

[DragonsBane]

Ok I'll bite.

I've been a termite, ;D, I mean carpenter for the last 17 years. So I guess that would qualify me as having chips on my blood. Been a volunteer firefighter for 18 years now too. Never ran a real sawmill before, but I used to cut up small logs on a bandsaw. At least until the day I almost cut my thumb off and my other half put a stop to that.  Docs sewwed it back on and it works fine now.

What's nice about the Skillmill is it is small, quiet (no annoyed neighbors, well at least not about the sawmill noise. The log pile might be a different story.), its easily transportable, and I might be able to get the wife run it while I kick back in the lawn chair and have a few cold ones. :D Don't think i could offer any improvements since I never ran one.

Most likely I would use it to make things for the wife. Maybe I could build her the dining room table she always wanted. Maybe build some furniture. I would definintely use it to "dispose" of the trees I have to cut off the roadways as a firefighter at 3 a.m. Just a couple of weeks ago we had to cut up a beautiful cherry that was blown down. It was about 26" in dia. and had about 20' without a branch. It's now sitting in my backyard drying for winter to heat my house. It was almost enough to make me cry. And if all else fails I'm sure I could "dispose" of those pesky yard trees that eveyone wants to get rid of.

[HSV]

Hi everyone,
great to hear from you all.  There are so many cool and very different stories flowing in.  I'm pleased everyone is keen on sharing a little about yourselves and your lives in and around wood.
I'm sitting in my office at the factory.  It's relatively warm outside today (and it's coming up to wintertime!) so the boys are out there playing with (testing) mills and the chainsaws are roaring!  Sounds great out there.  Can't wait 'till August when I do a couple of shows in NY State, it's great to get out and talk to folks and cut some wood.
Keep your entries coming in, there's only 9 days of the competition left!
Good luck  ;D

[Egreet]

WELL, WELL, WELL. There is a God!!! Just found out about this forum and registered to help find some answers to some questions and possible leads for some suppliers. Low and behold you are not only a source of information but the minute I sign on you guys dangle a free mill in front of my nose!!! Anyway this sounds fun so let me tell you my story.

Once upon a time,..... In a land far, far away....... better known as Gods country (The U.P.)....... Where you can hunt and fish while burl shopping, "I had a dream".  Build furniture and they will come!!!! So I set my mind to that goal 17 years ago, although it has always been my life's dream.

My great grandfather, and grandfather were carpenters, and I remember the days when my grandfather would throw me a hammer and nail and tell me to pound it through a 2 x 4 at the age of 4.  Believe it or not I didn't even smash a finger. But just one year later I gracefully sliced my thumb off for the first time on a table saw, with NO supervision from any adults. Well at least I had the sense to show my mother my masterpiece, by squirting blood down the back of her dress as she stood at the sink washing the dishes. While in complete panic, both of my parents managed to grab my thumb on the way out the back door as we broke the land speed record to the hospital. Good news, I still have it to go along with the other 3 fingers on my hand but that's another story!!!

My passion with wood has carried me through the past 48 years to where I am at today. I have an education in furniture design from Central Michigan University where I also played football, Go Chippewas!!! I own a Mom and Pop Cabinet/furniture shop and love my life!!! When I started doing this as a business I scrimped and scrounged for anything I could get my hands on to build furniture with.  This included  green wood, which makes the most beautiful furniture you have ever seen!!  The only problem is it lasts about 30/60 days before all hell breaks loose, thus starting the life of the ever needed "repetitive experience building" technique. It does make you more skilled, I guarantee it!!!!

Well without trying to give you my life history in this entry as there will be plenty of time for that, let me say that I do not own a mill and would really like to win this one as it would allow me to cut down on my expenses, and make use of a stack of logs that I have been sitting on for the past several years. In the past I have paid others to saw up my logs for me. These ones are well spalted by now and would look great made into some fine furniture for my home. And, if I win, I will donate a beautiful spalted piece of fine furniture to help continue the great forestry forum with another possible give away or fund raiser.

I have been commissioned by many customers to build one of a kind pieces. I have also designed a line of bent lamination Birdseye maple bedroom furniture that has been featured in the Construction Association of Michigan (CAM) Magazine and homes all over the US and even as far as Ireland and Germany. I would love to build a one of a kind for you guys to continue this type of giveaway or to assist in fund raising for a party as you guys seem to enjoy this type of relaxation according to what I have read in the forum.  Thanks for this opportunity and good luck to everyone who enters.

egreet

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Howdy!

HSV-

This is an awesome opportunity and I'd like to thank you for making it possible.  I'm sure someone will be very happy.

I'm one of those lurkers you mentioned and I would like to enter but before I do, does a CSM count as a sawmill in this contest?

Thanks

[Jeff]

whats a csm?

Opps, forgot. Howdy!  :D