Woodworking Artisans
Creative Craftsmen
Gap’s Custom Milling is a small business with a desire to produce fine woodworking products. Nearly all of our artisans have served in the United States military. Our goal is to keep as many trees from the dump or mulch piles as possible. Urban wood can produce wonderful items and even artful relics.
James “Gap” Gapinski
Primary Sawyer, CNC operator and woodworker.
Meddled in woodworking while serving in the Air Force and began serious woodworking after retiring from a defense contracting company in 2021. Enjoys producing boards from logs, milling them into boards and making useful items for folks using our CNC equipment. Gap is a mid-level woodworker with the desire to become a skilled artisan.
Mike “Stivey” Stiverson
Primary woodworker and experienced with the latest laser technologies.
Stivey is the most experienced woodworker at our mill. His woodworking, laser skills, and CNC talents contribute in every way to our ability to produce beautiful wood products for our customers. His expertise on many of our laser systems provides even more breadth to his talents. Stivey is a very creative person and has an innate ability to visualize unique products hidden within wood. He works full time as a defense contractor and still greatly contributes to our woodworking activities at the mill.
J.R. “Coop” Cooper
Primary laser expert and budding CNC operator.
ike Stivey, Coop is fully employed by a defense contractor but still active in the work at Gap’s Custom Milling. He is hyper-focused on laser applications for our products and is skilled on numerous laser systems. Coop is also computer and software savvy. As the technology in woodworking, lasing, and CNC operations evolves, his expertise is important to staying abreast of newer technologies and their application to our efforts.
Ben Wiese
He is the mechanical brains keeping the machinery at our mill in good working order.
Ben has an extensive mechanical background from years of hard work in oil fields, the firefighting industry, and logistics. He is a key contributor to our efforts across the board and is very helpful in all aspects of the mill. He has dabbled in old-school woodworking and is learning newer technologies while keeping the old reliable tooling ready for action.
Chase Musselman
Chase is the youngest woodworker in our mill.
He graduated from Glenwood, Iowa high school in 2021. He joined us in the Spring of 2024 and is becoming adept using the CNC, cutting boards with the TimberKing sawmill, and using the requisite machinery and tools in our shop. He also provides youthful energy and picks up the new technologies like a sponge. He is very creative and provides an artistic capability to many of our products.
Katelyn Uhing
Katelyn is our primary sales and marketing person.
She surveilles the market and provides key inputs on products that are in demand. Her research provides the genesis for our products, pricing, target markets, and business systems. She has a background in retail sales, marketing, and restaurant ownership. Her inputs keep our business systems and infrastructure synchronized while the artisans are busy producing products for our customers. Her knowledge in on-line sales and marketing are key to our business growth and availability of our products to customers nation-wide.