This is going to be a long read, so, get yer beverages ready. I am not going into a mud slinging pissing contest or badmouthing of Tom. This is my complete and honest version to what Kirk posted.
I have been shot at and missed but never thought I would be shit at and hit, especially behind my back.
I have been up since 2AM, USA time, trying to figure out why Tom would say something like that, behind my and my Son's back. My Son won't take this well. He really thought a lot of Tom. My wife here knew Tom, and when I read what Kirk had written, she just looked at me and could not speak. She adored Tom.
Tom is not able to defend his actions, so, I will not go there. I will just tell my side of the story and
y'all can believe what you want.
I started out on the Woodweb forum, looking for info on the river logging idea and that's where I was contacted
by Tom, to go over to the Forestry Forum. I believe I was #185 or so to register ?
I started to ask about portable sawmills, because we were being downgraded prices on our river logs.
I admit, we were not finding big logs and the buyer was helping us along by buying what we brought him. It just wasn't enough.
So, I decided to build a bandmill. Nearly everyone on the FF thought I was crazy and were offering no encouragement.
Anyway, I pushed on and finally told my Son we were going to build an oversized WoodMizer, and I showed him the catalog they sent me.
Even he raised his eyebrows at me and said, OOooooooo K. We had a welding shop and sand scoop manufacturing business we started from scratch, so we had the means. I spent hours measuring parts on the brochure and scaling them to what we needed. Also got a little help on the FF, but not a lot. Slowly we started and after 4 months we were ready to start it up and see if we could keep the blade on.
Actually, I had upright bandsaw experience and knew about the tracking adjustments. All this time, Tom was saying he just couldn't see this coming together, but he offered encouragement. We finally had a stump and a log to try, and just could not get the blade to saw straight across
the stump and log. It seemed to run at a 30 degree angle, idle wheel side trailing. Tom offered to come down, a 3.5 hour trip house to house and see if he could help. So be it. He stayed over and went home the next day after I fixed breakfast. We kept working on the mill and had all the smartasses at the warehouse compound laughing and joking about the fiasco sawmill project. A month or so later we went back to logging.
We, a partner and I were not doing well, so, I made a rash decision and went up a tributary river and started finding better logs. Things were looking up, but, the buyer was now screwing us around on the scale and cut the price, pissing me off.
The partner was getting desperate to make a salary of some kind and soon left me holding the bag with a $35,000.00 2nd mortgage on our house.
My Son came up to the campsite and we went scouting, finding more logs, only, not big diameter logs. Buyer kept on shorting us, so, I said fine and never went back.
Now it was Son and me, and I struggled along while he built and shipped scoops and would come up on Sat and Sunday and we would pull a few logs.
This was all black water diving, you can't see your hands in the water.
Anyway, come October of that year, I read about the Moultrie Georgia Ag and Sawmill expo and got Tom to go up with us. He had been before. While there, my Son had drifted off and had talked to a blade vendor in a small tent. He got me to go talk to the guy, and he sent us a free blade 3 days later.
We were trying to saw some Yellow Pine lumber for the campsite owner and making a mess and breaking blades. With the new blade in hand, we went to the camp, 4 hours away.
We put the blade on, adjusted it up, and tried a log we had problems with. Damn blade just melted right through that log. We could not believe it.
4 hours later we had a stack of 457 bd/ft of dock decking and the camp owner was amazed.
Onward and upward, we HAD a working mill and did not NEED Tom's WoodMizer. He and I made several road trips together and got along well, so I thought. One day, he offered us his old LT40 mill. It needed refurbing, and after seeing what we had accomplished, he said, I'd like you guys to take the WoodMizer and fix it up. It's not for sale, but maybe my Son could take it and build a custom sawing business. That way, IF he ever wanted it back, he knew where it would be. We didn't want to do this, but, we had become good friends, and appreciated his trust in us, so, we reluctantly agreed. At least, I told him, the mill would be refurbished.
After having the mill slightly taken apart, we sand blasted and primered and painted the main frame. Up/down and forward/reverse motors were not working,
part of the rear cover where sawdust accumulates were rotted away, main power belt was bad, both blade wheel belts were bad, engine had not been started in several years, etc.
Now, a year after we brought the mill home, and being crazy with working to pay bills, we were not all that far along with the WoodMizer, when we were hit with 3 back to back to back
hurricanes, partly tearing up the house roof shingles, no power for over 2 weeks, no work, our lumber buyers lumber yard torn up and the building they stored what we sold them, collapsed around them, then my wife passes away, unexpectedly, my best friend up north, his wife passed away, my buddy gold prospector down here falls and dies 17 days later, I about lost it. I started having flashbacks from 'Nam, what the hell would anybody expect ? I talked it over with my 3 grown son and daughters and said I was considering selling the house, they would get some money and I would go to CR and saw lumber.
After that, I called Tom and explained why we didn't get his mill rebuilt and would get it back to his house within a week. He was disappointed, but, what can I say ?
We DID take it back up there and parked it under an open shed on the side of his storage barn. Every part of that mill was returned including the manuals and a big box of new and used parts,
except for the 2 manual log stops we had misplaced somehow. The last I talked with Tom, a guy named Rusty that Tom knew had the mill and was sawing in Georgia.
This all happened after I was sitting in CR waiting for my container to be delivered with the Peterson sawmill, clothes, tools, etc.
This is the first time I have heard this story.
Now, if this is the way to get treated by being upfront and truthful, I guess I need to become an old prick and be mean and nasty to everyone, right ?
Harold Matthews AKA Fla.Deadheader
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