Log n' Demo Show and Visit with Eric

[Ga_Boy]

This is my second draft of this post, my first was at 3:30 AM this morning.  I was about half way through this and managed to close the browser session and loose all my work. 

I had not had my Red Bull so I did more than loose my work.  I'll go into what else I lost in a minute.

Now, here is why I am writing.

I had the opportunity to take my swinger down to Vass, NC for the Log n' Demo show.  When I knew I was going down, I called Eric AKA, FeltzE, and asked if he could get me some logs to mill.  Well being the good ole' boy that he is he said sure.

So, on Thursday morning I point my truck south and hit the road; road trip to NC.

Well, I get to Eric's house around 10 AM and he ain't there, so I settle in for a nap.  Just as I was about to fall asleep, Eric pulls in with his trailer in tow.  I see what he has on his trailer, there are the biggest crotch Oak logs that I have ever seen.  These things had to be 40" plus on the big end.   

Now here is the bad part.  I took lots of pictures; I was transferring them to my computer this morning (3:30 AM).  I thought the transfer was complete so I deleted the pictures from the disk.  I tried to pull them up to compress so I could post, but they were not there.   :-[

Eric, I am very sorry about this and for bending your size scale on the Baker.  I'll go into this later.   

There were some nice shots of Eric and John; his step son running the Peterson reducing these monsters to boards and saw dust.    I even got a picture of Chris Williams (CosmoPak) and the logs.  Chris was nice enough to send a Cat up to where we were setting up to unload the logs.  Nice machine that Cat 422, it did not hesitate when it latched on to those 2,000 pound beasts.  The engine did not tach up at all when the operator swung around with the logs in the grapple and sit them down right where we asked.  Now that is how it should be.   The show went well, folks liked seeing a swinger in action and Eric and John made it look easy.   We made a 8/4 slab from the biggest log and Eric sold it at the show along with two 6x6 beams he cut.

On Sunday; Eric, John and me took some Oak and Hickory 4/4 stock that I brought with me and ran it through the Baker edger.  This is where I bent the sliding scale, when I was passing a board back to Eric.   After running the stock through the Baker, Michelle, Eric's wife called us to breakfast.  Eggs, biscuits gravy and bacon, now that was good food.   Michelle, thank you again for that fine breakfast.

Next the three of us head back to the shop and run the ripped stock through the Logosol to finish it down to 3/4 " thick stock for stickers blanks.  That Logosol is a very nice machine.  With three folks feeding it you can run a lot of stock through in a short amount of time and produce a very nice product.

Eric gives me the nickel tour; he has a very nice operation there. 

I'll get some pictures of the Paul Bunyan show this weekend and will not delete them till I know they are saved.   

[JimBuis]

Ga_boy, I don't know what kind of computer you have, but you can probably UNdelete those pictures.  Just a thought.

[Ga_Boy]

Jim,

I deleted the pictures off the flash card in the camera.  They never made it to my box.

[FeltzE]

Actually I keyed in some secret squirll  stuff and had your pics deleted because I couldn't stand to have anyone witness you trying to convert me from my mizer & baker combo to that Peterson... 

I loaded those logs with an International Truck equipped with a prentice loader and it grunted and moaned but made the lift. Grabbed the biggest of the logs and was afraid the jaws wouldn't open wide enough, they did, ... then thought they wouldn't grip well enough ... might slip out... but they held and I didn't drop a log through the trailer deck (my biggest fear).  At the show they unloaded with a tracked monster that didn't grunt even a bit. I did notice the track lifted an inch or two on the back side as he reached to max extension and set the last log down.... ;)

Well I could use one of those Peterson WPFs around here for the monsters, but would want to get inserted point blades because of the risk of tramp metal. I definitely think that the swingers and band mills are complimentary!

Mark, I took the scale off grabbed my plastic hammer, made a 6 increment hammer adjustment and put the scale back on, good as new not even chipped paint!

I'll be running back to buffalo this weekend leaving thursday night returning tuesday. If anyone is in the area drop a line... could use a hand at the mill, I'm falling behind (broke my big toe helping a friend jack a house)... don't ask

Eric
I really enjoyed the opportunity to help demo the Peterson line, ended up buying a cpl new blue cant hooks. And most of all enjoyed comparing notes and information with Ga_Boy aka Mark!