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Comhined Saw and Veneer Mill 



The s;nvinill uiili mmh.t i-uttiii),' ina.-liiiies ;iil.lf<l. "Iiilc ict lli,' 

 usual thing in the hardwooil imliistrv, is found so tri-quent ly these 

 ■ lays that it can hardly be ealled a new thing or a novelty. Quite a 

 number of the hardwood sawniillin); plants ereeted during the past 

 few years in the South have im ludeil veneer eutting with sawniilling. 

 There are two combinations of this kind made. One is the combina- 

 tion of' veneer sawing with sawniilling, and the other is i-ombiniug 

 rotary veneer rutting with sawniilling. 



The first eombination of this kind taken up with was that of 

 \eneer sawing, and usually the pnijiosition involves working with 

 high-grade oak which will produi-e good quartered Hitches. The 

 veneer saws are useil to work these Hitches into .(uartercd veneer 

 for face work. There are a few instances where veneer saws have 

 been used in combination with sawmills for making thin lumber, 

 sueh as cigar box and panel stock from poplar, cottonnood and 

 gum. I'sually, though, the more important eombuiations of veneer 

 sawing and sawniilling involve the working of oak, and the veneer 

 saws are used to reiluce the finer quartered oak stock to face veneer. 

 Where this idea is carried out the veneer saws really become a part 

 nf the sawinill and mark an e.Ntendiiig of the work of reducing logs 

 finer marketable products by the process of sawing. 



.■^onie mil's in reducing to ^hin lumber instead of fine thin veneer 

 follow the process of resawing instead of turning to the veneer sans. 

 For example, one may find a hardwood mill equipped with one big 

 mill band saw, one big resaw and further along a smaller or regu- 

 lation size resaw. Here the big saw cuts flitches thick enough for 

 two boards; these go through the big resaw and those boards which 

 it is desired to resaw again and reduce to thin lumber go through 

 the second resaw. To some extent this process is taking the place 

 of the former method of making thin lumber by producing heavy 

 flitches on the mill saw and then working them into thin lumber on 

 the veneer saws. The resaw will do nuieh more work in the same 

 length of time. 



For the hardwood sawmill working mixed hardwoods, and esijecially 

 those where considerable quantities of sap or white gum are involved, 

 there comes a combination of veneer cutting with sawniilling in 

 which rotary veneer machines are used. Where the veneer cutting 

 end of the business assumes much magnitude it puts the millnian 

 to figuring his sawing on a different basis. 



One man talked to recently who was operating a mill in which 

 the veneer cutting department had grown fully as large if not larger 

 than the sawmilling end itself, was lamenting his troubles. He said 

 it was almost impossible to make the sawmill pay a profit when he 

 figured cost as it shoulil be figured. 



He had a modern mill with resaws to facilitate the work of 

 reducing timber to boards and every convenience for handling both 

 logs and lumber and it looked like he ought to be making lumber 

 about as economically as it is practical to make it. 



He explained, however, that his trouble came from the fact that 

 most of his be.st logs went to the veneer mill and as a result he was 

 operating his sawmill mainly on low-grade logs and the resultant 

 low-grade lumber would not average high enough in price to pay 

 any kind of a profit. In other words, he felt at times that the 

 veneer mill was robbing him of his best sawmill profits, by taking 

 the higher grade logs, especially in gum. His timber consi-sted of a 

 mixture of hardwood, including gum as an important item. Along 

 with it was oak, ash, some cypress, sycamore and elm. 



.\bout the only really high-grade, high priced lumber that he was 

 able to get from the mill was oak. He was not cutting oak on 

 the veneer machines but cutting box shooks and plain veneer from 

 sueh woods as gum and sycamore so that he had some fine oak for 

 quartering as well as jilain and rough oak, and his main complaint 

 was that his best gum went into the veneer mill and the low-grade 

 gum cut in the sawmill was really cut at a loss because the entire 

 product was low-priced lumber. 



He was figuring in this instance from the sawmill standpoint alone, 

 and not taking into consideration the question of whether the rotary 



MiiiMT iii.-icliiiics uiTi- gi'tling more out of the giiii' than it would 

 be practical for him to get out of them with the sawmill. 



Good red gum that shows figure may be worked advantageously 

 in the sawmill, and the chances are the average sawmill man will 

 get more out of high-grade red gum in the form of lumber than if 

 lie worked it on a rotary veneer machine, especially if he were to 

 turn it into plain veneer and box shooks on the veneer machine. To 

 make the high-grade red gum into face veneer and fine stock is a 

 different thing, a thing not usually done with the rotary cutting 

 department of the sawmill. It belongs to the class of veneering 

 known as fine veneering, and is best handled at plants where they 

 specialize in face veneer. There they get more out of it than the 

 sawmill man does, but usually where plain veneer making is done 

 as a side issue or in connection with sawmilling the. better plan is 

 to work the high-grade reil gum logs into lumber. 



In white gum or gum that runs largely to sap it is a difierent mat- 

 ter. The .sawmill working this class of gum is likely to accumulate 

 quite a stock of upjier grades and find more trouble in realizing 

 I he price that should be had for white and sap gum that runs above 

 No. 1 common than it will have in finding a market at current prices 

 for the lower grade stock. Here is where the veneer mill combina- 

 tion comes in. There is an enormous demand for thin stock in plain 

 wood of this kind for furniture panels, drawer bottoms, for box 

 shooks in single ply and for built-up box panels, and it is here that 

 in the modern scheme of things the veneer cutting machine helps 

 out in the proper utilization of timber. 



It is a pretty safe bet that in the instance where the inillman was 

 coin]daining that his sawmill department was having a hard time 

 to make money iiccause the veneer mill was taking his best gum 

 logs, if he had taken the returns from the veneer mill in conjunction 

 with those of the sawmill he would have found that the veneer mill 

 was getting more for that high-grade sapwood than he would have 

 been able to get for it cut into lumber. In other words, the final 

 results from the entire plant in the way of net returns were better 

 flora this eombination than if he had worked the gum and sycamore 

 into lumber. 



Another opportunity in utilization furnished by the veneer depart- 

 ment was easily apparent from the quantity of blocks or short 

 lengths that were coming in. There were many short blocks, evi- 

 dently made short originally because the timber was crooked or 

 because good short lengths could be secured between heavy knots 

 and burls along the trunk of the tree and thus there was obtained 

 for the veneer mill lots of timber that would have been left in the 

 woods had the sawmill alone been depended upon for working it up. 



This should not be taken, however, as an argument in favor of 

 cutting short blocks voluntarily for the' veneer department, for long 

 logs arc better and more economical in the veneer mill as well as in 

 the .sawmill and ordinarily logs for the veneer mill shcnilil be cut as 

 long as it is practical to handle them. The advantage is in thw 

 saving of timber and in it lieing easier to cross-cut them to length 

 with the drag saw of the sawmill than with the hand cross-cut in 

 the woods. Perhaps the greater advantage is in saving timber. 

 Stock cut to block lengths in the woods checks in the emls and three 

 or four or even six inches must be allowed for trimming with the 

 score knives on the veneer machines to get sound stock, whereas 

 if the blocks are freshly cut from the log at the veneer mill this 

 end trimming allowance can be reduced to one-half or even one- 

 fourth of what is required when the blocks are cut to length in the 

 woods. The only advantage in the short block idea is the chance it 

 offers to cut out and utilize timber in the woods that will not make 

 the longer logs. This is often ()uite a decided advantage, however, 

 and the rotary veneer mill enables the loggers to glean many a thou- 

 sand feet of timber that would otherwise go to waste. 



Why buy a machine for ripping lumber and then push the lum- 

 ber through by hand? Let power do the feeding as well as the 

 driving of ripsaws — it is better, and eventually cheaper. 



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