UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
£ BULLETIN No. 718 
susr&mn* 
Contribution from the Forest Service 
HENRY S. GRAVES, Forester. 
Washington, D. C. 
December 17, 1918 
SMALL SAWMILLS: THEIR EQUIPMENT, CON 
STRUCTION, AND OPERATION. 
By Daniel F. Seerey, Logging Engineer. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Object of the bulletin 1 
General suggestions for portable sawmill 
owners „ 2 
Look before you leap 2 
Capital required. 3 
Credits 3 
Cost keeping 3 
Organization 4 
Mill site 5 
Labor 5 
Commissary. 7 
Marketing. 7 
Grading lumber 8 
Auxiliary products 9 
Some don'ts for sawmill operators. 9 
The mill and milling. 11 
Regular equipment 12 
A ux iliary equipment 15 
Engines and boilers 16 
Water power 21 
Belting 22 
Page. 
Circular saws ' 25 
Log deck.. 31 
Narrow gauge lumber lorry track. 32 
Setting up a portable mill- 32 
Operating the mill 34 
Sawing 35 
Piling lumber. 37 
Fire protection '37 
Logging 38. 
Saw crew and equipment 38 
Crosscut saws 39 
Notching and felling , 41 
Preparing special products 4i 
The main logging road.. 44 
Skidding 45 
Skidways 46 
Chutes 48 
Loading logs 49 
Scaling 51 
Logging outfit 53 
Appendix ' 57 
OBJECT OF THE BULLETIN. 
Running a portable sawmill is no longer an easy occupation. The 
more accessible timber in the West has mostly been cut out or burned, 
and to-day the principal stands are far back in the hills, making log- 
ging and milling expensive as well as strenuous work. Profitable 
operation calls for first-class logging equipment and modern mills, 
and for good business ability, skill, and hardihood on the part of the 
operator. Physical weaklings are more out of place in logging work 
than in any other kind of virile employment. Mere physical strength, 
however, is hot in itself sufficient. A successful logger needs to be 
"strong" in the head as well as in the muscles. 
This bulletin offers to portable sawmill operators suggestions 
regarding methods of organization, milling, and logging which have 
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