26 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



July 10 1917 



on a hand wheel. The heavy cone friction for running 

 the knife bar back and forth is powerful enough to pull 

 the knife out of the heaviest cut immediately. The 

 double clutch pulleys give two speeds. The quick chang- 

 ing of gears provides for different thickness of stock. All 

 of these improvements tend to keep the knife in the cut 

 the greater part of the time and the lathe turning. 



Veneer Conveyor 



There is a chance for development in the methods 

 used for handling the sheet from the lathe through the 

 slipper. 



I believe that some one will sooner or later develop 

 a variable speed conveyor to take the veneer at exactly 

 the speed that it comes from the lathe, and deliver it 

 under an electrically operated clipper, the man at the 

 clipper, pressing a button as the stock comes under the 

 machine at the place where it is to be cut. This would 

 not be such a difficult thing to work out for one width 

 stock but where the stock is spurred into two or more 

 widths it would be somewhat difficult. However, it is 

 worth thinking about, and it might cut the lathe crew 

 down somewhat, and save stock. 



In few mills has any effort been made to develop a 

 conveyor system and about the only thing of this kind 

 in sight in the average mill is the clipper table and pos- 

 sibly a blower system to handle sawdust and shavings or 

 a short conveyor from the hog to the boiler room. 



Handling the Cores 



The cores from the lathes are handled in a very crude 

 manner in many mills. It is frequently necessary to 

 locate the short log mill for saw^ing the cores into crated 

 stock at a point where it is not possible to get the cores to 

 it without much hand labor. If the mill floor is not on 

 the ground it is often a simple problem to drop the cores 

 through a hole in the floor back of the lathe and into a 

 conveyor which will deliver them where they are wanted. 

 If the lathes are located so this cannot be done they may 

 be elevated in a conveyor and carried overhead. This 

 conveyor is simply a light log-haul. I recently pointed 

 out to one mill manager how he could save two men by 

 handling his cores in this way and changing the location 

 of his short log mill, at a total expenditure of about three 

 hundred dollars. 



TTie average veneer mill is equipped with a few factory 

 trucks, but not nearly enough to handle the stock prop- 

 erly, and as a result the stock after it comes from the 

 clipper has to be moved from floor to truck and from 

 truck to floor several times before it reaches the ware- 

 house or car. This is all extra labor and the breakage 

 in handling is no small item. 



I see no reason why a single sheet or panel should ever 

 touch the floor until it lands in the car or warehouse. 



With the old style factory truck there might have been 



some excuse for this. Such a large number of trucks were 



required, and the cost was considerable. Also these 



trucks required considerable floor space when not in use. 



With the present system of portable platforms, only 



a very few trucks are required, at most one or two in each 

 room, to move the platforms. The platforms may be of 

 any convenient size, can be made very cheaply and when 

 not in use require little room, for they may be stacked 

 up to the ceiling, each one requiring about eight inches 

 in height. The veneers may be placed on these plat- 

 forms at the clipper and delivered to the dryer. When 

 dried they may be placed on a platform and go to the 

 glue room, warehouse or car. If they are for immediate 

 shipment a crate may be in waiting at the end of the 

 dryer and as the veneers come from the machine the 

 crate, which is also on a truck platform, may be filled 

 and delivered to the car. 



Mechanical Dryer 



Probably the greatest labor saving machine in a veneer 

 mill is the mechanical dryer. The cost of this machine 

 is considerable; it is about equal to the rest of the cutting 

 room equipment. For this reason and because it is pos- 

 sible to operate without one, some concerns hesitate 

 about adding this machine to their equipment. Some of 

 you seem to think the price of this machine is excessive, 

 that the manufacturers are making more than a fair profit. 

 I can assure you that this is not the case. The manu- 

 facturers of these machines sell them at the usual profit 

 of a machinery plant — usually 1 to 15 per cent. How 

 many of you would be satisfied with a profit of 1 to 

 I 5 per cent on veneers or panels? 



Some hesitate because they are not satisfied that a 

 mechanical dryer will dry their stock satisfactorily. Can 

 you dry it better in any other way? Can you dry it as 

 cheaply or as quickly in any other way? How many 

 customers have you that are not satisfied with machine- 

 dried stock, and will they pay you a premium on stock 

 that has been dried in some other way and at a greater 

 cost to you? Does your drying cost compete with that 

 of the concerns using the machines? The mechanical 

 dryer saves labor, material and time. 



About a year ago 1 went over the drying proposition 

 with the owner of a mill and pointed out to him where 

 he could save $6,000 per year with a mechanical dryer 

 in labor alone. There was no question about the saving. 

 He knew the machine and knew what it would do. He 

 agreed that my estimate of the saving was correct. He 

 expected to buy a dryer for about $8,000, of a size that 

 would handle his output. He found that the machine 

 would cost about $12,000 and concluded to wait a while 

 before placing his order. That was a year ago. He is 

 still waiting. In the meantime he has paid half the cost 

 of the machine at that time for labor which he might 

 have saved. 



I was in a slicing plant recently. The yard was filled 

 with logs and the books were filled with orders. They 

 quit cutting at two o'clock in the afternoon because the 

 drying racks were filled at that time. To build more 

 racks would require an extra building. It was a problem 

 to find work for the cutting room crew after two o'clock 

 to put in the balance of the day. It was simply a waste 



