Alligator Tails

[Alligator]

Does any one mind if I tell sawmill stories? Talk about what I have seen? Express my opinions about production? I have 40 years of sawmill knowledge, experience that is withering away. I have a one man sawmill wondering around my head that I need to build but, don't have time nor money. I have seen some pieces that are close, but not all together.

Is there anyone running a Windham Feed works?  Not the later hydraulic ones. The ones made from Ford brake drums?

From a Stacking thread about A-rack stacking lumber to dry.

How long ago was that for you?

50 years ago. I'm 60. The last time I remember my father counting was in the 60's. They paid by the 1000. The stackers would put their mark on the edge where they started and where they finished each day. I have some pictures somewhere. My father and uncle started in 1946, when they came home from WWII. They borrowed $1500 from their father, bought 6 teams of mules and a head rig. I didn't officially start working at the sawmill until after 2 years of college in 1974. I have an exceptional mechanical skills, bat mine were dwarfed by my fathers. We closed in 1988. I rebuilt every piece of the mill at least once, and most 2 or 3 times.

The long and short of why I am here is, from the first thing I can remember the family ate, slept, and breathed sawmill. We never went on vacation that we didn't stop by somebody's sawmill and see how they were doing it.

[Alligator]

After Casey Brothers Lumber Company closed in 1988. I went to work for Paul Windham, Windham Equipment Co. If you have a Powerlift, Nasco, or Windham forklift he had a hand in starting all 3 companies. We ran his head rig, the entire time we were in business, so I was familiar with his equipment.

I was doing sales and service cold calls, and went by his plant in Elba Al. He offered me a job selling his forklifts and sawmills. I went to work for him the next week.  8)  Sept 1,1989. He was already old, late 70s early 80s. This was his third forklift company and second sawmill company. He guaranteed me a job until Jan. 1 if I would quit my job and go to work for him. I did! He paid me 10% commission on company sales, as I was the only salesperson. I sold 8 forklifts and 4 sawmills before Thanksgiving. He fired me! Effect Jan 1.

This was that period of time when video cameras were expensive, rare and new. I rented one and made this video, and sent it to all the prospects we got from our add in the industry mags. It worked. Being still young (34) and not have worked in the world outside the family but twice, I was unaware of some aspects of business. One of which was if a company has all the orders they can fill for 2 years, they will do one of two things. Hire more employees or fire the salesman. >:(
This video got me fired  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR8On8WEbz0  Live and learn
Alligator

[VictorH]

I'm enjoying reading these.  Keep the stories coming.   

[Alligator]

Most of you working with logs, lumber and machinery know, they are all quite dangerous. If you work around this stuff, after a while it is easy to become complacent. Please be careful when you are working around your mills and look for traps before the catch you or someone else.

IF YOU ARE SQUEMISH DON'T READ BELOW. These get progressively worse.

With in the first 2 years of being employed officially at CBLC (Casey Brothers Lumber Company) I saw my first blood. The guy tailing the head saw got to close and cut the index finger off clean and quick. We stopped everything, dug around in the sawdust found the digit and took off for the doctor. To my amazement he cleaned it up and sewed it back on, also amazing was the fact that after 6 months it worked to some extent.
He went back to work. About 4 years later he cut the same finger off again, same drill, the doctor sewed it on again. I took a few months longer to heal and it was stiff. He returned to work same job. 2 years later guess what? Same finger. When I showed the doctor the severed finger, he threw it in the trash, and refused to re attach it, saying the risk of gangrene was to great. This guy worked for us another 6 years.

You never know!
One fine spring afternoon I was standing behind the planner, just watching the 2x10-16' come out, hit the transfer chain to the trim saw, the grader was stamping life was normal as it got. We had a popup trimmer, and one came thru with a 4 ft. wane (not in spell check)(log sided) . The trimmer guy popped up 2 saws, 12 and 14, the piece between the to saws was launched like a Frisbee in my direction. I hit Billy, who was standing next to me receiving instructions, above and behind his left eye. Dropped him right there, took him to the emergency room, he had a fractured skull, but recovered after a month. Ware your *DanG hard hat! This was the day the mandatory hard hat became, MANDATORY!

Still have nightmares
We didn't have our own logging crews we bought logs from loggers. They were their own independent business, we finances timber for the, but they were responsible for their own, payroll, equipment, and employees. One of the particularly small ones, the owner drove his own log truck for deliveries. In those days the standards (uprights) one side was welded stationary the other was held upright by a releasable cable. This cable was suppose to be released from the stationary side. This logger had, had issues with it not releasing from the back side, so he would crawl under and un hang it. We had told him not to unload without the forklift holding for him. But, one day the fork didn't arrive promptly enough, and he tripped without it. When I arrived he had a 18" log on his leg just above the knee. He was screaming GET IT OFF repeatedly. One of the few times I panicked in my life. I / the forklift driver carefully removed enough other logs to get to this one, and removed it. Wrong thing to do. His femoral artery had been crushed. He didn't live to get inside the ambulance.

Please be careful with logs, saws sawmill equipment, and trucks. You never know when or how they will bite you.

 

[Alligator]

Don't Fight Gravity in a sawmill.
My father and uncle CBLC both were draft into the Army in WWII. Before he was drafted (at 31 y.o.) my fathers occupation was as a horse and mule trader/trainer. After 4 years in the Army in New Guinea he returned home to find that was no longer a viable occupation. Mechanization in the US was already well on its way, but by the end of the war all the factories that were cranking out war machines flooded the US with farm machines, making horses and mules obsolete as farm equipment. The logging industry was another story.

When they started CBLC, they borrowed $1500 and my father traded up 5 teams of mules. They bought a headrig and a butt nose truck and moved to the locations where they bought timber to saw. (All before I was born, so this is stories told to me by hands that worked for CBLC the entire existence) The tie in to don't fight gravity. They say my father would always go to a new site and find the highest point to ramp logs. He then trained the mules to pull to that spot and release get a hand full of sweet feed a drink of water and go back to the woods. After a couple of days at a new site they didn't even need an escort.

Having the logs ramped at the highest point made all the rolls down hill. The mill was setup just below. They would dig a hole 2 post / short logs, v-notch the top end, put 2 logs horizontal, with the other end buried in the ground. Instant log ramp, kinda. Pull them to the top roll them onto the log ramp and roll them onto the carriage. Let the mules do the heavy lifting.

By the time I was old enough to work in the sawmill it was stationary. That same principal was used when the mill was designed. The incoming log ramp was 8' high with a catwalk down one end, and sloped slightly forward. It was chain drive. If the motor went out or chain broke, no problem, get the hook and roll'em th the debarker. Same thing from the debarker to the headrig just slight drops. All the way thru the mill every next step was lower. Exception being when cants dropped from the headrig, they went into a v-trough to get them out of the way of the tail guy. But they were raised back up 6' by chain, so the lumber was back high when it came out of the sash gang. The lumber came thru and out to the green chain about a foot higher than a full pile at perfect work height, which was good, because the green chain was the "hell job" anyway.

I have been trying to dig up some pictures. It seems that no one thought hard work was an interesting subject back then. Here is one of my father scaling logs sometime after the mill was stationary. Probably 1955 -1958


 

[thechknhwk]

Good stuff keep on going.

[ellmoe]

    Very interesting and good to document it.
Mark

[Texas Ranger]

Short story.  There was a mill on the east side of Woodville, Texas, for decades, gone now.  I was in Woodville working for the forest service and there was a unique accident.  The bull edger shot a wane cut out, and transfixed the legs of a worker.  The mill came to  a halt and they cut the protruding edges of the stick near his legs, and transferred him to the emergency room.  ER doc had to wait to get a skill saw to cut the stick between his legs, then removed the sticks from his legs.  Major tissue damage but missed the femoral.  The guy was back to work a month or so later, and stayed on the job till they closed.

He was one tough old east Texan.

[Alligator]

Good stuff keep on going.

When I started posting on the forum. I didn't know I had much to say? As I started reading I understood that this forum was about a place I had spent more than half my life. The problem with this thread is I started scattering my post all over the place as something struck my interest or jogged a memory. Here is a link where I started thinking back to when we A-Racked  lumber to dry.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,78807.msg1196237.html#msg1196237

[Alligator]

Another scattered bit about getting in the De-barker / chipper business
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,78437.msg1190527.html#msg1190527

[Alligator]

Scattered bits
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,78053.msg1185956.html#msg1185956
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,77886.msg1182804.html#msg1182804

[Alligator]

Scattered Bits and:

CBLC ran a Windham Carriage and feedworks my entire time there. I'm sure my father had something else, I just don't remember it.

I may be repeating myself. After we auctioned off CBLC, I went to work Windham Equipment Co. (i.e. Paul Windham) Mr Paul was a three time millionaire and two time bankruptcy veteran. He started Windham Power Lift in the 60s and sold it to investors in the 70s. The investors had government backing and wanted to ramp up production to ship to Viet Nam. He agreed to a 5 year no compete contract, but wound up being a super secret silent investor and designer in Nasco Forklifts. When his 5 years was up he sold his interest in Nasco, and started Windham Equipment Co, making Forklifts and portable circle sawmills. I worked for him for 4 months in 1988 Sept. - Dec. He was a grumpy old mechanical wizard. I was working a saw route and stopped in. He offered me 10% of sales + $250 a week. I traveled Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee. When I wasn't traveling I was in the office returning calls to adds in the Southern Lumberman and some other trade mags. Those who can remember 1988 will remember that VHS, and VCRs were relatively new then. One of my limitations sales was being unable the show the mill in action. So, the next demonstration we had lined up, I rented the best Panasonic Camcorder they had at the local photo shop and recorded it. Time ate the forklift tape. Don't know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WQwJYQGb4w
I started sending them out to all the seemingly serious inquiries. He had sold 3 forklifts and a sawmill the 12 months before I started. I sold 8 forklifts and 4 sawmills before Thanksgiving. Just before the holidays he called me in the office and wanted to know how I had done it. I gave him a copy of each of the videos to watch over the holidays. The Monday after Thanksgiving he called me in his office, I could tell he was mad. He was furious about the videos. He fired me. I reminded him that he guaranteed me a job until Dec. 31. He agreed. I later learned that what I sold was 18 to 24 months of production and he didn't want to hire more people. My 10% deal was from my first day until my last. A guy from Canada was upset that I had been fired and was first in line for a forklift and a sawmill. He mailed his check paid in full. It arrived Dec. 28. $5000 in commission. He was hot. I thought he was going to have a stroke. But he paid me. The sawmill was $34,500 and the forklift was $16,500 to my best recollection. In Feb. of 1989 I got a job in a Waldensoftware store, and have been in IT  since then.   

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,76744.msg1165358.html#msg1165358

[4x4American]

I'm digging the Alligator Tales!

[Alligator]

I'm digging the Alligator Tales!

Thanks I'll try to keep links to my more long winded updated here.

[thecfarm]

Good stories. I know what you mean about pictures. With my grandparents,seem like I have more pictures of hunting and farm animals than I do of family and the farm.

[coxy]

most of my pic of my dad is logging think I have maybe 10-15 of him with family