sawmill tour

paul case · September 10, 2011, 02:36:21 PM

i was invited to tour missouri walnuts sawmill and wood processing facility in neosho mo. so i thought i would take youall along with me. hope you enjoy the self guided tour.

the first thing i noticed was a pile of logs and cants outside the sawmill #2 building. mostly hardware logs and i am sure they paid good money for them.

they had these 2 lt300 mills breaking down logs into 7'' cants to feed this.

a 6 head wm resaw. more to come. pc

paul case · September 10, 2011, 03:03:05 PM

they also had this machine in the same building . i learned it is a flooring cutter that cuts out all the knots in a board. they mark the board with a metalic chalk and the saw reads the lines to saw. i first thought it was just a edger but nooo that is too low tech for this outfit.

the next building we went by was their steamer kilns. 3 of them.

then it was on to the boiler house that feeds the steam to the kilns. the worker there said they burn 1 to 3 semi trailer loads of bark and sawdust and ground up wood per day. it all produces less than 1 yard of waste per trailer load burned. here is some pics of the boiler.

then we went on to sawmill #3. it was a big saw set up. pics from the op cab werent very good. the head saw was set on a 17 degree angle. then another big breakdown saw was vertical just past the headsaw. the grader said that the 2nd saw could make 3500 to 5000 ft per hour in good logs and 8/4 lumber. here is the pics.

their saw shop. those big saws had welded on cutters instead of set teeth.

even though it was end of summer and walnut season is a few days from starting they seem to still have a lot of logs on the lot.

i would imagine we saw a few hundred thousand feet of dried lumber stacked up in buildings and most of them had these.

i had never seen aluminum stickers before. the grader said that they didnt stain and mostly they dont change size or warp. but they do cost $3 each.
they finished it off by a good barbque for lunch. it was a good tour and dakota and i enjoyed it. lots of eye candy. pc

r.man · September 10, 2011, 04:13:59 PM

Nice pictures Paul, many thanks for the tour. What is walnut season?

sandhills · September 10, 2011, 05:49:25 PM

Thanks for the tour Paul, growing up in central Nebraska you don't get to see much of that sort of thing, the pictures truly are worth a thousand words!

paul case · September 10, 2011, 06:11:41 PM

season runs from september 15(when leaves come off) till leaves come on in the spring. the prices are generally much better in the season. i bet there is a reason but i dont know what it is. pc

Bibbyman · September 10, 2011, 08:13:03 PM

Quote from: paul case on September 10, 2011, 06:11:41 PM
season runs from september 15(when leaves come off) till leaves come on in the spring. the prices are generally much better in the season. i bet there is a reason but i dont know what it is. pc

For one thing it's cooler and the logs don't split open nearly as bad. In the heat of the summer, they pop like watermellons!

r.man · September 10, 2011, 08:22:40 PM

Bibby, do you mean when the logs are being cut or when they sit for a while.

shelbycharger400 · September 10, 2011, 08:44:01 PM

im currious as to how the aluminum doesn't react with the tanins, and create smut or rust as most will associate it with.

Larry · September 10, 2011, 08:49:50 PM

When I sold walnut logs and lumber I was told the wood needed to be fresh for it to steam properly. Summertime they wanted the fresh sawn lumber within a few days before it had a chance to dry. Winter it would hold for several weeks.

I did sell to Missouri Walnut but they didn't seem to be near as particular as other buyers. I wonder if it depends on how they steamed the walnut?

Bill Gaiche · September 11, 2011, 12:51:33 AM

Good job pc & thanks, bg

Magicman · September 11, 2011, 04:17:55 PM

Thanks for the photo tour Paul. It's always so interesting to see how the "production" guys do it.

sgschwend · September 11, 2011, 06:41:42 PM

Good tour, just like in a magazine!

There is a cedar mill near here, perhaps they would provide a tour.

paul case · September 11, 2011, 09:20:23 PM

i think this was an annual thing for them. it is just the first time i sold them enough stuff to get invited. pc

thecfarm · September 12, 2011, 07:32:09 AM

Nice tour. I went to a big sawmill tour,but I did not bring a camera,nor did anyone else. Must a been about 100 people there. Some companies don't want thier ideas used.

Bibbyman · September 12, 2011, 07:48:34 AM

Thanks for the tour! And thank Missouri Walnut. I hope they know you were sharing your tour with the world.

The factory where I worked would not allow any cameras or even recorders of any kind on their property. Now that cell phones are so prevalent, it's pretty hard to enforce.

I've been to places where you could not take pictures and to others where only specific pictures would be allowed under supervision of someone of authority. I hear the stave mill in New Florence, Mo. is very tight - not allowing anyone inside their operation – camera or not. Proprietary processes and custom built equipment would be the major things they would be trying to protect.

Safety is another issue. I know at Bruce Hardwoods in West Plains everyone walks the line. They were safety vests, helmets and have walkways clearly marked. The forklifts all have chocks and when they climb out of their machines, the chocks are put in place. You don't get out of your truck once you enter the unloading zone. I'd love to get a tour of that place but I've not even asked.

Another mill we do business with is loose as a goose. I usually have to roam around to find the guy to unload my truck. They have a cable across the gate but it's not locked. So if you get there early, just let it down and drive on in.

paul case · September 12, 2011, 08:16:31 AM

i bet there was 100 or more folks here too. they pretty muchgave us a map and just turned us loose. they was supposed to be workers in each building that would explain to us about the set up, but in the building with the 2 lt300's there wasnt when we went through anyway. i didnt try to hide the camera at all and even took some pictures right in front of their workers and no one said anything. when i have sold them oak lumber they invited me to go up on the line and visit with their grader. i dont think these folks are too tight. no equipment was running except the boiler on the tour day so safety wasnt much of a concern. most tourist were either loggers or sawmillers so the crowd was probably well aware of any dangerous places to stay away from.
one of their workers turned out to be good friends with the sawyer i trade with. small world. pc

Bibbyman · September 12, 2011, 09:06:37 AM

So it was an open house kind of deal? They probably wouldn't be too willing to let your roam free when they're operating.

I would have like to watch them saw up some of those twisted, nasty logs. We've sawn a million of them and they're are production killers. Make a mountain of slabs though!