Rich Thompson owns a 25-acre tree farm in North Carolina that is stocked with white pine and a variety of hardwoods!
He was looking for a mill that could cut through softwood and hardwood and was going to last, and eventually decided on an 8″ 20hp WPF with Hi/Lo tracks. He believes the savings on his barn alone have already paid for the mill.
Rich’s mill can cut 16″x8″ boards/beams without turning the mill, log, or centre unit around. “I really like the fact that the Peterson can handle big logs and I can leave it outside and it won’t rust,” he said.
He found out about Peterson’s from reading the Woodweb online, and also in Shootout magazines, and further research convinced him that the Peterson was the right one for him.
Rich has used his Peterson mill to saw selectively felled trees on his farm into timber to build his barn and finish building his house. The house was 75% finished when Rich bought his mill, but the barn is 100% Peterson.
Now his only regret is that he didn’t buy his mill earlier so he could have cut all his own timber instead of having to buy it from the hardware store.
“The Peterson mill is exactly what I needed. Boards come off the mill accurate and dead straight and I’m not wasting time sharpening blades.”
After the barn was finished Rich moved straight on to building a solar kiln. Rich also intends to start a small business milling his selectively felled trees and drying the timber, which he will sell to local woodworkers and furniture makers.