Industry Developments

Lumber Quality Insitute announced two February workshops to be held in Atlanta, Ga. at Learning Tree International.

The 27th Annual Lumber Quality & Process Control Workshop will be held February 23-24. This workshop is a must for sawmills seeking to maximize board foot and grade recovery. Newly added material provides practical information and up-to-date techniques that will help sawmill personnel to:

At Full Speed by Rich Donnell

CEO of Midwest Hardwood Corporation (MHC), knows something about recessionary markets. He started up his business in the middle of one back in 1981, working from his home in Duluth, Minn., selling building products.

Since then, Midwest Hardwood Corp., through its affiliated, stand-alone companies, has grown to employ 450 and operate four divisions—sawmill, dry kiln, distribution and value-added. Three hardwood sawmills comprise the sawmill business. The lumber drying business also works from three sites. The sawmills and drying/concentration yards produce and/or dry approximately 80MMBF annually of all domestic hardwood species, including a significant percentage of walnut, for domestic and international markets. There are four distribution locales, which also move foreign species lumber. And the purchase last year of Westby Hardwood Products in Wisconsin immersed MHC into the value-added (ripped, cut-to-size, moldings, strips, blocks, etc.) business.

Financial Cobweb by Brian Perkins & Al Schuler

The financial crisis that started in August 2007 has been a long time coming. The government response so far has yet to fix the crisis. Currently, the banks are hoarding money in order to build their reserves against future losses, the Federal Reserve Bank has largely run out of firepower (near zero interest rate and a balance sheet full of questionable collateral), international trade is coming to a standstill as letters of credit dry up, and the deflationary pressures of falling real estate, energy and equity prices continue to have an effect on consumers.

The financial crisis has been global in scope due to the flow of international capital despite its acute causes that are mainly attributable to the

Meister Log & Lumber

In April 2003 a fire that started in the air compressor room swept through the Meister Log & Lumber sawmill in Reedsburg, Wis. Midwest Hardwood Corp. had purchased Meister Log & Lumber in 1987 at another Reedsburg location, before moving operations in 1992 to an industrial park and building a new sawmill. MHC had upgraded the mill several times since 1992.

The fire prompted owner Mike Flynn to start anew and build a state-of-the-art, high production-capable hardwood sawmill, located half a football field from the burned mill. Flynn designed the mill and worked closely with several vendors, including McDonough Mfg., Precision Fabricating, and Hi-Tech Engineering (now Baxley Equipment), along with Waco Construction for the detailed engineering. The sawmill started up in July 2004.

Equipment & Supplier News

American Wood Dryers proudly points to its affiliation with Timber Processing’s 2009 Man of the Year, Mike Flynn, president of Midwest Hardwood Corp.

AWD President Bill Moore reports that MHC operates 18 AWD kilns totaling 960MBF of drying capacity at MHC’s three drying locations, plus a 600MBF predryer and three 30MBF walnut steamers at Reedsburg, Wis. Moore says MHC’s drying operation, Superior Kilns at Mellen, Wis., has installed AWD’s ThermoVent Heat Recovery System on their newest kiln, which has four 25 HP 72 in. diameter fans and produces “paper-white” hard maple.

Hard News In The Making

Mountain pine beetle infestations from New Mexico to Canada are spreading, forcing governments and communities to come to grips with an issue that affects ecosystems, tourism economies and the forest products industry.

Colorado is expected to lose almost 25% of its forested acreage; British Columbia has lost 33 million acres of lodgepole pine forest; and Montana has already lost a million acres, with much more to come.

#21: FLYNN by Rich Donnell

It was at Meister Log & Lumber where I rendezvoused with our Man of the Year. It’s not like I didn’t know who Mike Flynn was. Over a decade ago, another writer on our staff had visited Flynn at his Park Falls Hardwoods sawmill. I remember then being impressed with how Flynn had grown his company, Midwest Hardwood Corporation.

But my main objective for visiting MHC’s Meister Log & Lumber operation was not so much to meet with Flynn as it was to tour the sawmill, which was built greenfield and started up in 2004 with more bandmill sawing power and optimization, and just more heavy duty handling stuff, than any hardwood lumber mill, maybe ever.

New Products & Technologies

Wagner Electronics unveiled “Sweet Spot” technology. This patent pending technology is the result of a year-long study and investigation into lumber drying process variability conducted by the team composed of Dr. Michael Milota, Associate Professor, Oregon State University; Ed Wagner, CEO and Vice President of Engineering, Wagner Electronics; and Tim Duncan, Research and Development Engineering Manager, Wagner Electronics. Utilizing “Sweet Spot” technology to actively control the kiln-drying process enables customers to increase profit by as much as $400,000 a year depending on actual production throughput, according to Wagner. Much of the profit recovery is due to the program’s ability to cut down on energy and time costs.

“Sweet Spot” technology utilizes a business analytics approach to calculate and determine the best way to dry lumber. The “Sweet Spot” is determined by analyzing the varying cost of energy and degrade accounting for process deviations and naturally occurr

No, We're Not Out Of Our Minds

Hey say that the middle of an economic downturn is no time to sit idly by, or else when the rebound happens you’ll be a step behind those who weren’t sitting idly by but rather were regrouping, repositioning, perhaps even rebuilding.

Our magazine publishing business is no different. We’ve been feeling the pain like everybody else. As a result, we’ve taken a hard look at where we are, and in particular we’ve been searching for an opportunity during this moment of adversity.