Thread: Peterson Sawmills

Yup

Mines an old model with the Chainsaw powerhead for power. It has a pulley/belt in place of the chain sprocket and the whole engine swings with the blade. 8" cut but only about 8hp from the Stihl 090. So it slows down a bit in the 8" cuts. Makes 4x2s fast as though.

Would love one of the new ones, but hard to justify unless I was cutting professionally.

I have had a play with an ASM mill, now thats a cutting machine

Ian

Yeah I forgot about you Ian - sorry.

I was recently directed to Peterson's [ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=6c9DXR-5MCc"]YouTube[/ame] vids from their newsletter and wanted to know how folkes sharpened their Peterson blades with this jig? It seems like it could/would move around a bit while sharpening?

Well Sigidi after years of reading these forums I have finally decided it's time to get involved. Firstly because I like the idea of conversing with people who don't think it's strange to spend six hours making a red ceder toilet roll holder and secondly because you asked a question I can answer and that may never happen again. I recently purchased an 8" Peterson ATS and like you I wasn't to sure about the sharpener but one use was all it took to figure it out. Just push down and in firmly and move it till the diamond wheel touchs the face of the tooth, swivel up and down a few times and its done. It does have the potential to move but because of the low powered motor it would be unlikly to cause any serious damage before the operator corrected it.Only takes a few minutes but like any cutting edge if you get slack and put it off for just that one more log it's going to take longer. Having spent many years running the tungsten tipped blades off the saw bench up to Gympie to be sharpened after touching them up a couple of times with a handheld diamond stone I think it's brilliant. Then again, stepping from a bench made from scrap metal, car parts and a beer keg running blades I cut down and gulleted with an angle grinder it's hard not to be happy.

The blade sharpener on the Lucas is exactly the same but much more convenient, you stay standing instead of fumbling around under the machine

i own a peterson wpf very nice mill to operate and i find the sharpening jig very easy quick and accurate to use

Well first of all a very big hearty welcome to you Baron!!

I'm pleased, I have been the one to get you out the closet so to speak

Thanks for your input concerning the Peterson, what setup are you running - motor size and saw blade?

Funky Chicken, sorry if I come across a bit picky, but the Lucas sharpener is not "exactly the same" as the Peterson sharpener. They do both use the same 12V Sharpboy, but the way in which Lucas have designed it, the grinder is fixed to a post while sharpening, the Peterson one just sits on the blade, with nothing other than a bit of geometry and the operator to hold it in place. This is why I asked about it, as I felt it had the potential to give considerable variation in results, and we all know a majority of the results experienced from milling is dependant on the blade and how well it is working.

Tlbsg, thanks for your reply too, I was beginning to think the forum might be renamed Lucas central as I hadn't had any response other than Ian, who admittedly I did forget (sorry Ian)

How about you guys posting some pics of your mills and telling us (me) more about them. Purely self involved reasoning - I thought about a Peterson a heck of a lot before buying my mill, a few things tipped the scales in Lucas's favor, but not having access to a Peterson in all its sawdust flying glory didn't help

Thanks for the welcome Sigidi, the only thing stopping me contributing was my total lack of computer savy.

Recently I read the position discription for my job and it appears I am not qualified to hold it so I am now getting all the practice I can. When I receive an email at work containing a question, instead of providing the answer in person or by phone I send an email. It takes five times as long but it seems to keep a lot of otherwise unemployable people happy.

So to the mill - 8" All Terrain Saw with 27hp Kohler engine, 6m cut, 6.2 if you position everything just so. It"s a Lucas mill in red instead of green. So far all problems associated with it's operation have been mine and no fault of the machine, although with our current wet spell it's hard to get the hours up on it, only 25 so far.

The reason for the purchase was we need a new house and I wanted to start with standing trees and finish up with a nice home on a minimal budget. I've done it before using my home made saw bench when I decided to build a cheap holiday shack up on the Burrum River which of cause ended up doubled. Double the bedrooms, double the bathrooms, double the verandahs but I learn't to build a house almost singlehanded and one day I'll finish it.

The problem with a bench is finding someone to tail out who knows what they are doing so I ended up cutting almost the whole house out solo and I,m too old to do that again. So a new swingsaw it was to be but which one. I too spent a lot of time researching those available and chose the Peterson because the height adjustment is at the operators end and I dont have to turn the saw around to cut wide boards which means if someone wants to help they only have to be able to stay awake and lift heavy things.

Of course I told my wife I would sell it as soon as I had finished cutting all the timber we need but she's not silly, it's marked down as all my christmas, birthday and fathers day presents for the rest of my life. Now you wanted photos but I think I might need some help from my son for that to happen.

Baron, I'm doing the same thing with my mill, bought it becasue I couldn't steal a job several years back after a work accident and I always knew I would build my own house.

My wife and I have been on the house for 30 months now and we're not finished, but we've had minimal trade assisstance throughtout the job (four days with chipie/builder and 3/4days plumber and 2 days with sparky)

I've checked out where Kureelpa is - not very far from us here at gympie about an hour the computer says. Sometime you are playing with the Peterson and you need a hand I'd like to come and see it in action if you don't mind, the rep was too far away at time of purchase so I never played with one

hi ya ive got a 8inchwpf

ive had a lot of trouble since switching from pine to hardwood , its hard to make the sharpner agree with the angles of the teeth

nesco do you use different angles for hardwood versus oine?

Just on the subject of sharpening, I rarely bother. My experience is that the time taken is not worth the return in improved cutting and that the sharpener is too prone to going slightly out of adjustment, even with the Lucas unit, which seems a much more robust a design than the Peterson. In addition, as I mill urban hardwood logs almost exclusively, the tips don't last very long anyway and there's nothing more frustrating than spending 20 minutes getting the tips just right only to hit a nail or some nasty cross-grain and have them smashed.

Do you sharpen much, sigidi?

My mill doesn't have a lot of power (chainsaw powerhead) so keeping the blade sharp does make a big difference. You dont notice the slow drop off in cutting speed, but eventually you notice you are slowing down more on the deep cuts. Then you pull out the sharpener, touch up the tips and think "should have done that 1/2 and hour ago "

I think the the thing about the sharpening angles is it doesn't have to be perfect. People use different angles for different woods, so a couple of degrees out isn't a big deal. Just keep it as close to 90deg across the tooth, if you start getting a side angle happening it's going to pull the blade in the cut.

My logs are usually metal free, but often covered with mud. That takes the edge off pretty quick, but 5mins with the grinder has them right again. My sharpening system is different to the new one, same general idea.

Ian

i sent both blades to Thodes Saws in Healsville, to be retipped to cut mainly Vic Ash, There was alot of difference in the angles, they cut really well, but ive always had trouble sharpening since