The time has come.... (snif snif) I gotta sell my mill

[Swing_blade_Andy]

With a heavy heart and a very slow paint brush, I’m sprucing her up to make her look her best.

My Lucas mill which has been with me for more than 5 years now is up for sale and she's got to go.

Snif Snif .............

Together we cut some of the biggest logs that can be cut.

We travelled through 5 countries and visited tiny little farms and grand Castles.

I cut wood for the finest people you'll ever meet and some of the biggest 8!@#%^&* I thought could never possibly exist.

Yes I'm all but out of the timber business. I loved it but it just about broke me in half... most of the time broke my heart. But then there was those joys, like cutting through the 1.8 meter diameter black walnut tree.. got me 12 tonnes of the most beautiful timber on earth from one tree. Making a table for my kitchen from a tree that everyone thought was firewood. Working at this desk from an Ash tree I milled when I first bought the mill... my very first job.

I'll remember the time very well though.. I loved it. Most of all I loved talking with you guys. I learned a tremendous amount, I did a virtual apprenticeship with all of you as my mentor. We swapped stories and I was addicted to the forum. I checked in every time I could to see what was happening in all the parts of the world where you all live. It’s been incredible, I feel that you all are better friends that anyone could ever hope to meet, and yet with one exception, we've never met.

I’m very emotional as you can gather not just because I’m saying goodbye but because I felt I belonged to a community which was about some thing other than just money. It was about working with wood and that’s a whole lot better. I can do that now, and a lot of it is down to you all.

So I want to say ..


Thanks.


Andrew Henderson
Swing-blade-Andy (retired)

[wiam]

Andy,  I do not think owning a mill is a requirement to be a member here.


Will

[sprucebunny]

I sure hope you will keep visiting

You don't sound like you lost your love for wood

[DanG]

Just hold yer horses there, Andy!  You ain't gotta leave the ForestryForum just because you're taking a break from sawing!  If anything, you will now have more time to share your knowledge and tell us of some of your adventures. 

[tnlogger]

yup andy just cause you're selling the mill dont mean ya have to leave cause if we havta we'll sick Roxie on ya and i read here somewhere she"s  got mean swing.  yes er stick around .

[sigidi]

Andy,

sad to hear your swinger is going on to a new home, but you don't have to go to a new home, like has been said by everyone before me, git ya mill  anew home, but keep your home here!!

[Fla._Deadheader]

  There's only one way outta this family, Feet First.  

[Frank_Pender]

Andy, with the experiences you have had throughout 5 countries and all, there is plenty of time now, for telling about your adventures.  There have got to be some gut holding stories to share.  How about some of the castle scenes and your cutting for those sorts of folks.  You could write a book, I am sure.  I want the first printing, of course.   

[Ernie]

Andy, you could write the world's first traveloge from the point of view of a swinger (Mill that is)

Actually, sounds like a great TV series

[Swing_blade_Andy]

Thanks for the support and kind words guys

I guess that I will look in from time to time. But as for what I can contribute.. well I feel kinda naked without a mill, armchair experts are not nearly as interesting as guys doing it every day.

But I'll enjoy reading about you guys are doing it.

As for writing about it... well most of the best stuff I don't even have pics, as as you all know if you don't have the pics to prove it .. well then did it really happen?

(I was thinking about the time I milled up a tasty elm tree in the middle of a good size river. Milling with water just over my knees rushing by. That was a bit hairy at times but fun. Nice wood too, well worth the risk.)

So anyway, I gotta seach for a good home in Europe for my mill and ... well I jest wanted to say thanks.



Andrew

[Swede]

So anyway, I gotta seach for a good home in Europe for my mill and ...

Sad to hear You´re leaving the business and I can feel Your pain. 
Wish I had the opportunity to give her a new home and feed her now and then with the ugly oaks Amerika-Sågen can´t  swallow. 

But I´m shure You don´t have to leave this family!

Swede.

[Jeff]

Andy, ya can't go! I don't saw in the big mill any longer so I dont wanna go. I aint got no problem sitting here being an arm chair sawyer for a while. Heck, its going to take YEARS for most of these fellows to catch up.   You and I can sit here in the knowledge that we did some stuff that maybe nobody else ever did and maybe every once in a while we can just jump in there and remind em.

Really Andy, this aint all about sawing. Its about community. We need you here as much as we ever did. Heck, yer an old timer, and us old timers get the right to tell the same old stories and dispense the same good advice advice every chance we get.

[isawlogs]

 You said     

well most of the best stuff I don't even have pics, as as you all know if you don't have the pics to prove it .. well then did it really happen?

  I have listen to my dad and grand dad all my life tell me stories that had no pics to them .. the pics though where in my head , If you can tell it we can read it and imagine the pics.
  Try me , I'm sure I could put a pic on any of your stories ..    And would be greatful for it ... 

[Chet]

  I got a pic in my head, of Andy knee deep in da river millin' right now.   

[Grawulf]

And the thing with the castle in the background sawing up a big walnut....... you don't need pics for that, Andy. In fact I can see Monty Python looking for the Holy Grail...........    Keep 'em comin',Andy - I think armchair sawyers may be even smarter than those of us who do it day to day!

[Furby]

I got a pic in my head, of Andy knee deep in da river millin' right now.

Me too!
Actually sounds like fun!

[sigidi]

Yeah Andy tell us more about...

...I milled up a tasty elm tree in the middle of a good size river.

Andy tell us more about that one...

There has to be more to the story thatn just that???

[Swing_blade_Andy]

OK OK guys you got me ( too much LOVE out there .. have to keep going.)

The river thing was a hoot.

I was driving the rig with mill on board just after finishing with a real nasty bunch in the west of Ireland. This bunch screwed every last cut from me and haggled for hours over the bill. I ended with my standard trick and put the chainsaw through all of the boards that they weren't gonna pay for. Just to be of help you understand.... because they said that they were only good for the fire. An me thinking that a 20' piece of oak wouldn't fit in the fire as as part of my 'service' to the client, I'd make em shorter so they would fit. Turns out they wanted to use them for to reroof their barn but they figured that they should pay for them couse it was only a barn. I said that id lend them some glue to put them back together.... they got really mad... so I left.

Didn't feel to go about it... don't like confrontation.

Anyway driving, driving, driving following a river ... pretty hmmm

whoa stop stop stop.... wasat.... tree in river... what it.. !@(*@ me its an Elm.

Looking around .. farm house .. where is it .. OK Over ther. KNock knock

Nice ol guy answers.. me says .. yer know the tree in the river... who owns it then.

He says.. it used to be his but he thinks that no one owns it now. Been ther for 5 years or more.

Says I. Can I have it.. He said if you can get .. go for it. I've already got my boots on and parks the rig up desides. He comes along with his son just to watch the 'stupid' aussie with this contraption widing out into a flowing river.

So after a bit so sneddin and straining, mill is errected over log.
I cut some of the finest elm that day I've ever seen. The son gave me a hand for a bit of cash and the farmer let me store the timber till I could get back with an empty trailer. Loaded it for me with his tractor. Tried to pay him but he refused. He said the story he now had to tell down the pub was worth more than the few bucks I could offer him.

HHHMMM good day
Nice people... forgotten all about the others.

Well there's one for yer
Just a day in the life of a mobile miller
Andy

[Wife]

Hey Andy, what kinda glue do you recomend?
Keep in touch, we all love those stories.

[sigidi]

Now Andy,

come on, you didn't seriously cut up timber you had milled just milled with ya saw, cause they weren't gonna pay, did you?

Holy smoke that's another story in itself!!!!

Who reckons we should have a post of "Andy's Bedtime Stories" each week you add a new story for us all to read before we go to our respective beds

  Great to hear you have finnaly re-gained your senses and will stay with us

[Fla._Deadheader]

  A man after my own heart. 

  I once cut a boat in half, to end a partnership. 

  Go Andy.    Stories like that, we NEVER get tired of reading. 

[Swing_blade_Andy]

Yeah Dnag right I did.

I cut about 25 oak beams (not just in half, but more) they were about 250 x 80 mm x 6 meters. They were the cuts on the outside of the log will irregular shapes, bark and sometimes only 3 sided.

My rules are (were) anything with 4 sides is a board and is therefore worth 10 euro to cut. If its not worth that then i'll cut it up because its obviously not a board.

When you are paid on output and not time (fairer I think) then you Have to set the rules and enforce them.

Its clear with all my clients and they have signed the work order that they understand them, but some blokes (ratbags in OZ) can't resist messin' with it still. If they don't like the rules than I'll drive away and they'll get noone else on the island of Ireland to do the work QED.

Andy

[tnlogger]

now see andy you have a lot more to contribute then ya think great story 

[UrbanLogger]

Andy,

Yer a man after my own heart!

We prefer to saw at hourly rates but have a few old gents that will only pay by the bdft even though our hourly always comes out to 20-40 cents/bdft depending on the size, cleanliness and quality of their logs (40 cents is when we're quartersawing or sawing little cedars).

When we are pressed to saw by the bdft (30 cents), we make the customer sort his "acceptables" as we saw and set up a pair of horses for him to put his "rejects on". Throughout the day my cousin tosses the good rejects in the back of my truck and firewoods the slabs and truly unworthy flitches. At the end of the day, if the customer doesn't have a woodburner, we load up firewood too.

Almost invariably the customer brings up the flitches in the back of the truck--"ain't those mine?" 

I says, "sure if your paying for them."   

Most want them back and pay, if they don't, they're mine since I ran my saw through them.

When we settle up, I run the numbers both ways (by bdft and hourly). Often the hourly comes out better than the footage and if it's their first time, I give it to them. 

If they make me saw by the foot, I also keep rough track of the time they make me spend jawin' or turning logs for their notion of grade and note it on their bill. If it's real high, I tell 'em I'm hourly next time, if there is one.     

[Ernie]

Good one Scott

Hey Andy Keep em coming, We love it

[Swing_blade_Andy]

ITS SOLD

My Lucas is sold now to a couple of great guys in Britanny- Phillipe and Claude. They have a Woodmizer lt 80 which just can't take the big stuff, so they bought my mill and the trailer to go git the big fellas and then do it all.

Good luck to them, unfortunately they don't own a computer so the Furom will not benefit.. and their english is struggling.

Anyway, just thought I'd let you all know that its sold.

Thanks for all the leads which were sent my way.

Cheers

Andrew (no longer swing_blade)

[Frank_Pender]

Andy, once a sawyer, always a sawyer; swing blade or not swing blade.



   And, good on ya, mate for being able to market your mill, ya.

[Fla._Deadheader]

 You will still be "Swing_Blade_Andy" around here. 

[doublecut]

You will still be "Swing_Blade_Andy" around here. 

Here Here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
doublecut

[DR_Buck]

Sounds to me like you'er just taking a sawbaticle!   

[inspectorwoody]

Andy

You can't go... I'm just a young pup getting my start in this industry. Advice that you and others could give me is priceless. I really enjoyed reading what you have posted so far...you have a lot to share so you can't go.

Sorry to hear that you are getting out of sawing etc. but as everyone else said, now is the time to share it all.

Best regards

Gadget