Industry Developments

The “From Forest To Finished Products” (F2FP) conference, mill tours and demo event will be held November 16-19 in Athens, Ga.

A pre-conference Specialization Day will be held November 16 from 1-5 p.m. and all day November 17, including a Live In-Forest Bio-Fiber Demo, along with static exhibits on Plum Creek land. Conference sponsors Georgia Research Institute and University of Georgia Center of Continuing Education report that live exhibitor participants will include Caterpillar, John Deere, Bandit, SuperTrak, Yancey Brothers and Auburn University. Static exhibitors include Landmark Systems, Haglof, Cellfor, Primex, Davis-Garvin, Arborgen, F&W Forestry, Plum Creek, Georgia Forestry Commission, OSHA and GM.

As She Goes by Rich Donnell

A malfunction in the break room refrigerator was the culprit. At about 10 p.m. the refrigerator caught on fire and burned through the wooden counter it was sitting on, down through the wooden floor and right into the air compressor room below. The combination of the cold air and the oil enhanced the blaze. Fortunately, the fire department responded quickly and was able to keep the blaze mostly contained or at least away from the lumber and log inventories, with sprinklers running for several days after.

The sawmill proper (the green end) was destroyed, including a quarter-million dollar new carriage feedworks that had been installed three weeks earlier. The fire also took down the maintenance shop, which was connected to the sawmill, and ruined two John Deere log loaders in the shop as well as all three of the company’s trucks. The planer mill and dry kilns were saved.

Sawing Downstream

2RS Inc., the same people that brought you the original McGehee curve-saw gang along with the McGehee Robo edger, have once again delivered a truly state-of-the-art lineal edger system. Ron McGehee, Rory Mitchell and Scott Bye have combined their 70 plus years of sawmill machinery experience to come up with the next generation of lineal edgers.

The 2RS lineal edger system has been designed with two things in mind. Firstly, to increase throughput by being able to shift the saws faster, minimizing the gap between pieces. This is achieved by using a robust saw steering and shifting system positioned by electric actuators, along with a unique board feeder infeed that can gap the boards consistently.

Small Log Upgrade by Dan Shell

Small logs are now handled more efficiently and productively at Collins Companies’ Lakeview Sawmill here, following the recent addition of a new small log line to process an expected increase in thinning material coming off nearby public and private lands in southeast Oregon as landowners in the region seek to improve forest health and reduce fire hazards in overstocked forests.

The new small log line complements the company’s recent signing of a long-term stewardship contract with the Fremont National Forest to reduce fuel loads and wildfire danger that includes 125MMBF of small diameter timber removal during the next 10 years. The stewardship project will also provide raw material for a new biomass energy plant that’s being planned for Lakeview and may break ground next year.

SmithCo Delivers Kiln Fan Innovation by Dan Shell

A lumber dry kiln manufacturer wanting to make its own fans is like owning an oil refinery to fill your car with gas, said Smithco founder Bill Smith years ago. The success of his company proves the adage correct, as the company provides kiln fan propellers for multiple major kiln manufacturers in North America and overseas.

The Smithco story dates to the 1970s, when Smith, an independent HVAC system sales rep working out of the Portland area, began selling a few fans to some of the many lumber dry kiln manufacturers then located in or near Portland. Like any good salesman looking to expand a new market niche, Smith began working closer with his new customers, who began asking for different products and services. He also encouraged use of the first 100% reversible fan with an S-shaped propeller design that almost all kiln fan suppliers have adopted to some degree.

Equipment & Supplier News

Hauling wood chips, sawdust, shavings and hog fuel along unforgiving northern highways from sawmills in the Hearst, Ontario area, 600 miles north of Toronto, to Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Terrace, Iroquois Falls and other faraway destinations can take a costly toll on transport trailers. Having done it since 1985, Michel and Gyslin Alary, the owners of Nor-Jean Transport in Hearst, know the challenges only too well. The Alarys have turned to Titan Trailers and Marc Levesque, Sales Manager at All North Truck Centre.

“Given the harsh conditions under which we operate, durability is an important quality we expect from our trailers. They must stand up to challenging stresses, while at the same time providing us with maximum volume,” says Michel Alary. “And it doesn’t hurt if they look great, too.”

Hard News In The Making

Carroll M. Edwards, who built a large and successful wood products business in North Carolina, and who was known as a philanthropist, died August 24 in Marshville, NC of acute leukemia. He was 71.

Friends frequently referred to Edwards’ integrity, independence, compassion and humor.

Ford Frick by Rich Donnell

Being an avid baseball fan, I had always wondered about Frick Lumber Co., based in this quaint northeast Indiana town. I knew that Frick Lumber was a longtime, highly respected producer of hardwood lumber. But what always caught my attention whenever their name crossed my desk was the name of the current president, Ford Frick.

Ford Frick was also the name of the commissioner of major league baseball. I remember him being the commissioner. He was wrapping up his 14-year tenure as commissioner in 1965, about the same time yours truly as a 10-year-old was accumulating piles of baseball cards.

Lumber Tracking

Lineal scanning in lumber mills provides some critical technology advantages over transverse methods, with the most significant being the ability to apply more diverse sensor technologies to deal with the challenge of emulating the human brain. Physics and cost are the two primary factors that limit the use of multiple scanning techniques. However, the downside of lineal scanning is that boards must eventually transition to a transverse orientation for trimming and sorting. That material handling requirement can lead to problems when boards get mixed up or removed (broken) before getting singulated and lugged for further processing. Typical tracking methods utilize inkjet or paint spray systems to mark lumber during the scanning process and then look for those markings once the board gets onto the lug chain. This introduces a high maintenance mechanical element into the automated process that adds cost and complexity, taking away from the bottom line.

The Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Bailout by Jennifer McCary

If it works, and that is a big IF given today’s precarious economy, the government’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could soften the landing of the housing market’s two-year freefall, kind of like opening a parachute to bring the ailing market to a controlled landing. That is the hope anyway.

Problem is, the bailout is only a stop gap measure and it does nothing to halt foreclosure rates in the near term, which continue to swell the bulging housing inventories on the market, delaying a rebound in construction starts and keeping the lumber business in the doldrums.