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Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



May 25, 1917 



A Panel Argument 



Problems Confronting Users Who Undertake to Make Their Own Panels 



NE OF THE POINTS upon which the producers 

 of veneers and panels, and the consumers of 

 these products, never entirely agree is whether 

 the panel manufacturers can produce panels 

 more economically than the panel consumer. A question 

 of local conditions plays an important part, but some of 

 the panel consumers are disposed to argue that they 

 should be able to make panels as economically as any 

 panel man, regardless of local conditions. 



A panel man has emphasized the point of the failure 

 on the part of the panel consumer to properly consider the 

 elements of waste of veneer and core stock involved in 

 making panels. This waste ranges from about 20 per 

 cent to 50 per cent and will perhaps average 33 1-3. 



Even supposing the average were only 25 per cent, 

 it is a factor that soon attains considerable importance. 

 The panel consumer is too likely to figure his panels on 

 practically the same basis as he would figure the surface 

 veneer and the core stock for making them. If he has 

 an order which involves 1,000 feet surface measure of 

 panels, he is inclined to figure that it means 1,000 feet 

 of face veneer, of backs and of fillers or core stock, and 

 that the cost should simply be this plus the work and the 

 overhead involved in making it up into panels. He may 

 take into consideration that the panels in the rough must 

 be made half an inch or an inch longer than the net size 

 and something like the same in width to allow for the 

 final trimming to specific sizes. But he is not likely to 

 take into consideration the full per cent of waste involved 

 between the buying of the veneer and the final finishing 

 of the panels. 



This involves waste in jointing veneers, loss through 

 defects, also from spoiling veneers and panels in the 

 process of making. Then if solid core bodies are used, 

 there is a waste in the core lumber. This, like the veneer, 

 varies considerably. TTie smallest waste is found when 

 one buys comparatively high-grade wide stock in lumber 

 so that there will be little jointing and the minimum of 

 cutting out for defects. This makes the core lumber cost 

 high, however, and it is questionable whether it makes 

 as good a core as may be obtained from narrow units 

 matched and glued together. 



When it comes to making up core body from narrow 

 strips, either dovetailed or worked over a regulation 

 tongue and groove glue jointer, the percentage of waste 

 increases. So, when a man makes his own panels, figur- 

 ing veneer cost, lumber cost and the cost of gluing up, he 

 is likely to make a showing in favor of doing his own 

 work compared with buying the panels, by neglecting to 

 figure in waste as he should. 



The panel manufacturer, with long experience in a 

 special line and a trade covering a wide range of sizes 



and grades of panels, is generally in a position to utilize 

 both core stock and veneer to better advantage than the 

 individual user of panels. TTiere are, of course, some 

 users of panels who have undertakings so large and so 

 varied that conditions with them are practically the same 

 as those in the well established panel plant, but these are 

 the exception. The average panel user wants only cer- 

 tain sizes and grades in panels at a specified time, and to 

 make these up himself will not only cost him more in the 

 way of labor and other shop expense, but the item of 

 waste itself will run enough larger to make a fair margin 

 of profit for the panel manufacturer who is in a position 

 to reduce the waste by expert knowledge of how to 

 handle, and by the wide variety ofi products, making it 

 easily practical for him to utilize his raw^ material all 

 around to better advantage. T. C. J. 



Proposed Furniture Alliance 



During the meeting of the National Furniture Manufacturers' 

 Association in Chicago, May 9 and 10, action was taken looking to 

 the federation of several case goods associations into one strong 

 body in order to manage the business better and organize efforts 

 into team work. The matter of fixing a schedule for the manu- 

 facturers of bedroom and dining room furniture was discussed 

 and progress in that direction was made, though it is not ex- 

 pected that complete results can be announced for several 

 months. It was decided that the new organization shall be 

 known as the National Alliance of Case Goods Associations. The 

 several local associations will maintain their own organizations 

 and each will be represented on the executive board of the cen- 

 tral body. 



The proposed constitution and by-laws has been formulated and 

 it will take its course round the different associations for dis- 

 cussion, changes, and adoption. It is expected that additional 

 associations can be formed in parts where none exist now. 



Some of the associations have satisfactory cost accounting sys- 

 tems; among such are the upholsterers, the makers of chairs, and 

 desks. The manufacturers of the dining room and bedroom 

 furniture have not so complete a system for determining basic 

 cost: and this is to be renriedied by an expert who will visit various 

 factories and work out a cost schedule. 



The idea of the proposed alliance is to insure the best of co-op- 

 eration between the case goods men, and it is felt nothing will 

 bind them closer than the utilization of such a schedule as it has 

 been decided to produce in the coming months. The necessity 

 of securing a better equalization of selling prices on the same 

 article in different sections v^as realized. Just now the prices in 

 various centers on a certain piece of goods will vary from one to 

 several dollars, whereas it is believed that the variations should 

 be measured only by cents. The adoption of the proposed 

 schedule will obviate that trouble. 



The general opinion is that case goods men must get better 

 prices in the July markets than they got in January. 



H. B. Spencer and M. C. Williamson, Cotton Plant, Ark., who 

 recently acquired the veneer paint at Newport, Ark., have placed 

 this in operation after an idleness of more than a year. It is the 

 largest plant of the kind in that section, and when operating at full 

 capacity will give employment to several hundred men. 



