75% here!

August 17, 2007 (5:52am)

41º F, Clear, Calm Wind, 0 mph.

Good morning,

It is a bit cooler this morning. The weatherman is talking of frost possible Saturday or Sunday nights. Cool! Wonderful, sunny, and nice day yesterday. Last night before going to bed, we heard coyotes “singing” in the not too far distance. A first for us to hear here. Kind of raw wild sound. Sure don’t hear that in the city.

Finally, the sawmill arrived - almost. Three of the four boxes arrived late yesterday afternoon. The fourth, one 9' rail, is still to come. Some how it missed the truck bringing it from Memphis north the other night. It should come today and I asked the driver if he would just leave it if we are not here. All of them went from Madison, Mississippi to Kewaunee, before coming here. Sent several emails to the company trying to figure out why the detour. Someone there forgot to change the address on the shipment papers. The change was made about a month ago. When I sent a copy of the email changing the address, the boxes were redirected at once. I think they assumed I had not told them and would be responsible for the extra shipping charges. Implementation!

Of course I had to take everything out of the boxes and play a bit with the pieces. It is a pretty healthy construction of all the pieces. Much of the mill is made of some pretty heavy aluminum. The machining and extrusion is of excellent quality. I really am impressed. A lot of care has gone into the design and construction of the mill. Much better quality than on some others I have actually seen “in the flesh.” The extra rail, not normally with the mill, should allow me to cut logs a bit over 20' long. I can cut longer, but would have to re-set the log on the mill. Now I am anxious to get it set up and working. It is pretty late in the season, but still expect to be cutting lumber before the snow is eyeball deep.

The rails are connected together with a very clever system. The rail is a rectangular box, about 1½”x4" (but in metric measurements of course coming from Sweden) in cross-section, with several “ears” for the carriage to slide on. A very interesting piece about 1' long is machined that fits into the open box. It has a “V” on each side that is pressed onto the edges of the box. Between them is a “W” shaped member of aluminum, that is expanded to force the “V’s” into the four corners of the box with 4 cap screws, aligning it and holding it in place. Very interesting concept and one I would not have thought of at all.

The entire system is very simple in implementation. The machining and extrusion of the parts are the difficult part. The entire mill is also surprisingly light weight too. Of course that doesn’t include the base that I need to build to make it function. That should give me some exercise for a while. The entire mill can be made stationary, as I intend to do, or can be used in various parts, taking it to the log and milling it, after attaching the mill to the log. Really some though and experience went into the whole system.

We are heading to Kewaunee today, hopefully early this morning. We want to pick up an apartment size gas range on the way down. We think we have a way to “jury-rig” it for use until I can knock another wall out and redo the kitchen some. Too many other items on the 2-DO list ahead of that however. Margriet is excited with the possibility of being able to bake bread again. Me too! In the process, she will gain a couple of feet of counter space next to the sink, but lose it in the eating place part of the kitchen. The range will also stick out some, but we will make do and eat better I think.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><