32 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



March 25, 1921 



Dull saws and rounded corners cost the operator a 

 good deal more money than a well paid, competent filer. 

 To put a cheap man into the filing room is one way to 

 lose money. Again, cheap tools and machinery are not 

 good, and good tools and machinery are not cheap. It 

 not infrequently happens that as between two machines 

 for filing room service and also for wood-working pur- 

 poses, the price for one may be from 50 per cent to 100 

 per cent higher than the other. You may rest assured 

 that in almost every instance you get just what you pay 



for. 



Filer Should Specialize 



It is doubtful whether the policy practiced in some mills 

 and factories of making the filer a general utility man, 

 liable to interruptions and calls upon his time for duties 

 entirely outside his regular work, is a good one. Thus 

 in some factories the filer is expected to keep up a lot 

 of machines, keep up an engine or two, take care of a 

 lot of belting, do filing on saws that require the very finest 

 and most skillful treatment, and do all this perhaps with 

 an outfit of odds and ends, when, in fact it couldn't be 

 done with the very best of filing machinery. Certainly 

 it is a fact that a factory filer who is thoroughly com- 



petent deserves as much pay as he generally gets. 



Keep your saws jointed so every tooth touches the 

 jointer, and you will have a round saw with each tooth 

 performing its portion of the cutting. Understand that 

 fine work from any kind of a saw depends mainly on the 

 fitting and the way it is benched. Maintain teeth not 

 too long nor too short, but according to the work being 

 done — also round, and nice round throats. The stock 

 should be fed to any saw so that the teeth will take a deep, 

 full cut rather than a slight scraping one, as they will 

 stand up to the work with less tendency to dull. 1 have 

 often observed in sawing dry hardwoods that the saw is 

 dulled in a short time, and this can easily be traced to 

 improper feeding. 



There are conditions of excellence that must exist in 

 the machines on which saws are to run aWays requisite 

 to the successful operation of the saw, however well- 

 fitted, and it is presupposed that every saw arbor is level, 

 and in line with the table or carriage, and runs without 

 end play, or lost motion in the boxes, and especially that 

 the mandrel hole in the saw^ fits the arbor, and boxes run 

 cool, etc., otherwise the best fitted saws will not be able 

 to do good work. 



Conditions in Grand Rapids 



Conditions in the furniture business are not yet such as to make 

 either the manufacturer of furniture nor the manufacturer of lum- 

 ber that goes into furniture worry about his next year's income tax. 

 Business in the furniture game just naturally has not yet shown the 

 improvement that was hoped for it immediately following the Jan- 

 uary market. It will be remembered that at that time it was the 

 general expectation that March might see a sufficient awakening of 

 business to indicate that the spring business would be heavy. That 

 has not been the case. February sales were only fairly successful 

 and that only in certain sections of the country, and March busi- 

 ness for the furniture manufacturer has not been what was hoped 

 nor is it indicated that business will be on its feet much before 

 the July market at earliest. 



It is true that most of the factories in and around Grand Rapids 

 are running part time with part crews, but this is made possible 

 only by the fact that some orders are constantly coming in, but 

 these are so small and so few that should a week pass without about 

 so many coming in the factories would be forced to close down. 

 Indeed, a great many of them have been at the point of closing, 

 have closed, in fact, when a few orders would sift in and the plant 

 would be kept going, for it has been made the policy of the furni- 

 ture manufacturers to keep their men employed as much as possible 

 for part of the time at least. 



The men who sell lumber in the Grand Rapids market have felt 

 this situation most keenly. Furniture manufacturers had large sup- 

 plies of lumber in their yards last summer when the bottom dropped 

 out of business. This lumber cost a lot of money, for most of it 

 was bought when the price was at the very highest level. They are 

 not disposed to buy more lumber until their yards have been cleared 

 of what they have on hand, and the result is that the lumber sales- 

 men are finding the picking in and around Grand Rapids about as 

 poor as it ever was. 



The condition of the furniture industry is well shown by a recent 

 periodical survey made by the National Alliance of Case Goods 



Manufacturers. With 1 34 case goods manufacturers quoted the | 



following is shown: _ i 



Those with enough orders to keep them in operation: i 



Less than 5 days, 56 firms, approximately 42 per cent of the I 



total. I 



More than 5 days but less than 15,51 firms, or approximately j 



38 per cent of the total. ! 



Thirty days, I 9 firms, or approximately 1 3 per cent of total. ; 



Sixty days, 5 firms, or approximately 5 per cent of the total. 



Ninety days, 3 firms, or approxiinately 2 per cent of the total. , 



The average amount of unfilled orders was only $17,102 per 1 



firm. 1 



Eighty per cent of all reporting had less than 30 days' orders 



unshipped. * 



Southern Furniture Exposition Takes Place in June 



Widespread interest has been developed among the producers 

 and buyers of furniture in the opening show of the Southern 

 Furniture Market, which will be held in the new "Million Dollar" 

 Southern Furniture Exposition Building at High Point, N. C, 

 June 20 to July 2. The Southern Furniture Market Association is 

 giving the most extensive publicity to the show and is sparing no 

 effort to attract buyers and other interested persons not only from 

 the immediate southern territory, but from all over the country. 

 They are appealing to the "furniture buyers of the nation," as the 

 exposition marks the largest and most determined organized effort 

 of the southern manufacturers' association to develop the national 

 market. The High Point market is being advertised as "The most 

 accessible market in the United States. On the main line of the 

 Southern Railway between New York and New Orleans. The 

 furniture buyers' first opportunity to see all southern lines of im- 

 portance and many lines from north, east and west at one market 

 — under one roof." 



