I was a new sawyer with a Woodland Mills HM 130 MAX, and I soon learned that a common hazard other sawyers faced was cutting into a log stop with the sawblade. Many sawyers joked that this was a rite of passage, but I wanted to avoid it. I read many posts on Facebook sawmill groups about this issue and various solutions that some sawyers had tried. I thought of making a guard that would keep the sawblade away from the log stop. Woodland Mills had a guard device that attached to one of the blade guides, but many sawyers either didn’t use it properly or got rid of it altogether. The problem persisted and more sawyers joined the “log stop club”. Then I had an idea. What if I made a device that would stick out from the top of the log stop and block the door that covered the sawmill drive wheel if the log stop was in danger of being hit by the sawblade? This way, the sawmill carriage would stop if the log stop was too high. It sounded simple, but I needed to figure out how to make it and how long it should be. I made a cardboard template and went to see my friend John, who is an master welder. We discussed some options and decided to start with a piece of steel tubing that fit inside the log stop tube. He welded a piece of flat metal to the top of it, which extended horizontally from the log stop for about 5 inches. I took it home and tested it on my mill. It worked. If the log stop was within an inch or so of the sawblade, the sawmill carriage couldn’t get close enough to hit it. But there were some issues. The tubing was almost too big for the log stop tube and so I had to file off the small weld bead inside the log stop tube. This was too much hassle. I called John and said, “Why don’t we just weld a piece of the flat metal to the bottom of the horizontal part at a 45-degree angle?” He made a sample the next day and that’s how Gustaf-Guard^TM was born! After that, I worked on improving the design, making it as simple as possible, applying a good coat of red paint, applying for a patent, and planning how to market it. Then Gustaf-Guard^TM was ready to help sawyers avoid the “log stop club”!