Two Mills Working in Tandem

Guy Jackson is a contract sawmiller and a maker. A maker of large outdoor/indoor tables, bench tops, bed frames… and wooden spoons. Guy grew up on a farm near the small town of Ashburton, which is situated on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island.

While working on a farm as a tractor driver, he started milling some of the logs that were lying around with an Alaskan mill. Guy noticed that there was increasing demand for custom milling services in the area, so the acquisition of a second hand mill (a retro Peterson Production Frame) was a logical next step. That was in 2013. He also tried out a twin blade sawmill, which comes equipped with one fixed horizontal and one fixed vertical blade. Guy says about that mill: “The blades would often get stuck. It was a real pain trying to get them out while quarter sawing. My twin blade wasn’t as versatile as my Peterson”.

As the demand for his custom milling services grew, Guy started focusing more and more on making money out of it. As a result, he had less time available to work on the farm (owned by his wife’s family). The flexibility of the farm work enabled him to try out milling before plunging into it full-time. He now successfully owns and operated GMS (Guy Mills Stuff/Guy Makes Stuff) Jackson Ltd.

In 2016 he upgraded his old Peterson to a brand new WPF with an 8” blade. “I’m amazed by the portability and quick set-up time of just 15-20 minutes”, says Guy.

As you might have guessed by now, Guy is an efficient sort of guy. For making slabs out of a log, he initially used our clip-on slabber which enabled him to quickly turn his sawmill into a chainsaw slabber.

However, what Guy really wanted was a readily available slabbing machine, such as our Dedicated Wide Slabber. So when a second hand DWS came up for sale in a village nearby early 2019, Guy worked out a deal with the seller so that he could afford to buy it and taste what the ultimate sawmill set-up would allow him to produce.