The customer wants to have a go!!

[Octoman]

Have you ever done a job when the customer has been present and has had the kind of look about them that they would give their right arm just to be able to take the controls for a while and saw a few boards?  Recently I gave in to a guy who must have been in his sixties.  After explaining the basics of kerf loss and most importantly not sawing into the mill he VERY slowly sawed a couple of boards.  It made his day!  Only later did the reality of letting someone loose on the mill really kick in.  This lead me to think that other sawyers might have let their customers have a go with tragic results!!!

[Kedwards]

"that they would give their right arm just to be able to take the controls for a while and saw a few boards?"

Probably not a good choice of words when talking about a visitor using the sawmill  :D. I think about how much I like all my stuff I worked hard to earn and say "nah" especially with the litigation that can occur if he/she/it ruptures a disk or pulls a muscle..

[Dan_Shade]

I'd say that's a "case by case" basis.  some folks have mechanical smarts and sense, some don't.  Often you can tell pretty quickly.

I wouldn't loose much sleep over letting one of those with smarts run it for a few at the end of the day.  (that said, i don't make a living with my mill).

I kinda put it to people driving my car, as long as they don't hit a tree, they won't do any more damage to it than I already have :-D

[Tom]

I have no qualms letting someone cut a board or two and have done it many times.   It has brightened the day of an old, retired sawyer and led to youngsters buying mills of their own.

It makes my day to see these fellows beam too.

Here is a day with one on the Older folks thread.

Mr Elliot the sawyer


another link:
And this is the reason I do these things

[brdmkr]

Tom

Thanks for that link.   After your link, I'll be sure to be looking for those opportunities.

[oldschoolmiller]

I do not see the problem if you are standing right there to instruct them, but I would never allow someone to use my mill unwatched, too much liability, what the heck, you made the old guys day  ;)

[Brad_S.]

I've done it often as well. I watch em' like a hawk not because I'm worried about the mill, I doubt they could come up with some torture for it that I haven't already subjected it to, but I do care about my blade investment. Besides being a thrill for them, it lets them appreciate that it's trickier than you make it look.

[DanG]

Tom, I didn't even have to open that link to see Mr. Elliot sawing that log.  I see it all the time in my mind.  I remember when you first posted it.  It told me that you care about a whole lot more than the "bottom line" and are willing to give a little of yourself to make someone else happy.  I said to myself, "Here is a QUALITY person", and you have yet to prove that instinct wrong.  Good on ya!

[isawlogs]

  I have done that myself a good many times . Actualy done it today , was sawing some oak for this older gentelmen , cabinet maker and allaround woodworker , he was asking how this was done and how that was , and how to scale for boards , I just let him have a go at it .... Told him what was to be done and he was at it sawing away , let him saw the rest of a cant after it had been squared up .  he was so happy to have sawed some of his lumber , told me that it was the first time someone let him saw his own wood and that these boards where going to become something special .
  After we where finished sawing and the mill was packed and ready to go we sat down and had a cold one .  Thats when he started ....  how he had worked in the logging camps , done the river drive he started to tell me where he had went down the river in the spring of 57 and that he had saved a man from drowning at the foot of the fallls of the  east branch river ...  well that hit home purdy quick seeing that that is the exact spot that I have my hunting camp .  Told him that  and also told him that I would be there all of next week , told him to come up there and that I would be glad to offer him a cold one . He inquired about the road , told him that it was in the same condition he left it close to fifty years ago . I did need to explain to him how to get back ther eand he should be coming up there on wenesday . Did I mention that he is 82 and that he had a hip replaced a year ago and that he was the only offbearer for two and a half days .....  He is in better shape then a lot of younger fellows that I have sawed for . I need to go back there and take a few pics ... he has one of the stoves that they caried around on the drive for doing the meals . He also has a saw or two that I would not mind becoming owner of ...
   I think I could of spent a week just sitting there listening to him tell me about them days , How they  would wake up in the morning and having to go into the water to get some logs going and that there would be ice on the shore for two to three feet into the water ... Thats when his wife stepped in and said something about how cold water must of had a reaction on a surten part of him and that mustof been why it did not get to be to large .... That set him off into another story about how big the pine logs where and that he did the drive one spring and that it was enough for him ... as he put it  *  been there done that * .... 
I hope he does come up and see me at my camp , my son and nephews will be there and I would really like it for them to hear this man tell them all about what it was like to have done the drive . 
  I was ther e sunday and there is a pine log in the bay , If I can I will try to get it out and bring it back , give him a call and  saw it , give him the wood and see what he will make of it .
That should make his day ... I know it will make mine . 

[Brad_S.]

OK, I finally had time to read Tom's whole post, links and all. 

:'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

As our friends down under would say, 'Good on you, mate.' smiley_old_guy

[Tom]

isawlogs,

It's a wonderful feeling to know you have made someone so happy, isn't it?   You'll strut for a week. :D

Brad, Dan and all,  It's the pat on the back that feels good too, even if it can be a little embarrasing.   Thanks.   There's all kinds of things happening to make me feel good.  I like it. ;D

[DanG]

Great story, Marcel!  I sure hope the old guy come's up to your camp for a visit.

Ya know, one of these days, WE will be the old guys telling of the hard times, when we had to pull levers to make the sawmill run, or had to start our chainsaws by hand.  And, every once in a while, a younger fella will come along and be fascinated by our reminiscenses, and try to learn a little something from our years of experience.  All the while, he'll be saying to himself, "What's a chainsaw?"



;D Gotcha! :D :D :D

[isawlogs]

Tom
   So will I ... and he will be also  :D
 Its amazes me sometimes how little it takes to get these older fellows gleaming , his eyes where lit up and he was almost huging those boards ..  I sure do hope he makes it up to my camp .
 Ya know it dont cost anything to let them saw a few boards , and I know he cant do anything to my mill I aint done myself , and to tell you the truth , even if he had done and busted a blade i would not have cared ... the look on his face was worth more to me then any cost of replacing a blade .  

[isawlogs]

  When that happens  Dan I hope to have around my dads first saw ... a Rocket PM  I think that the DanG thing wheighs around 35 lbs  empty of gas ....  and be able to hand it to him .... ;D
  When my dad was working at a loging camp way back in the early fiftys , there was a old guy there that worked with my dad , He told my dad that there would be a time when saws would weigh  less then ten pounds,  Of course my dad did not really beleive  every thing that was told to him at camp ...
 

[Frickman]

I run a big old, rip-roaring circle mill so I say NO on my mill. For you guys with band mills I say go for it, as long as you back seat drive.  Tom, I also well remember your story about Mr. Elliot. You didn't make his day, you probably made his life, or at least the later stages of it.

[Engineer]

I don't saw for others, it's strictly for my own use, so I have encouraged my Dad and brother to try it out.  They don't want to.  I did some small bit of sawing for a friend a while back, and as I was running out of time and he still had a big pile, I just left the mill there (after we had both run it for the afternoon) and said "call me when you're done with it".   He had his share of broken blades and miscuts, but I figure a 20-year old WM LT30 can't be broken too bad that a new part or a bit of welding can't fix.  As for bodily harm, it's no different having me run it (with limited experience) than anybody else who follows instructions well.  He got his boards, and I got a few out of the deal as a gift for helping him out. 

I have been asked by a couple different people if I would rent or loan out my mill, and that answer is no.   Just too much liability.