Rich Thompson: The Peterson mill is exactly what I need

Rich Thompson’s house that he finished building with his Peterson.

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.

The barn begins to take shape.

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 barn and solar kiln completed.

“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.

Related Articles
Scroll to Top

Looking for our sawmill prices?

Peterson Portable Sawmills manufacture and export worldwide from our factory in Rotorua, New Zealand. Encountering fluctuating freight, raw materials, currencies and export costs, therefore we have tailored pricelists pertaining to each country.
We also have over 40 different mill configurations to suit all applications, so it often helps to call and speak to us about your particular needs.

If you would like to recieve a copy of our digital Info Pack and Price List, please click here.