How do I increase production?

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

Bigger, but not clearer.

Phil L.

The rollers coming off the LT70 are shown as powered,
but don't have to be.


The edger man would need a foot
switch to operate a kicker.  The kicker would throw the
double thickness boards to the lateral transfer/holding line. 
Then the boards would end up on the powered rollers,
pressing them against the resaw.

Slabs would proceed as they do now - on thru the edger.

This idea would need little tending.   The edger man could
have a long cane pole to bump the unruly thickuns into line
when needed.

[customsawyer]

I am going to try to put a sketch in here for you guys so you understand what I am working with right now and maybe yall can let me know where you think the resaw should go.
                                   
            [                 ]            [old house]                                     [old shed]
            [  log           ]
            [  deck        ]      [well]
            [                 ]
            [                 ]                                     16' lumber                  pallet lumber
            [                 ]               slabs         Y                                                                   lumber
          ______________   __ __________    ___________     ______     ________  [         ]
         [      mill                ]      rollers                  Rollers               [ edger  ]    rollers         [         ]
         [ _____________]  __  __________   ___________     [_____]     ________  [          ]
                                                                                                                                      [          ]
                                             cants          Y     10' lumber                fletches                             
                                                                      12' lumber
                                                                       14' lumber



              [ A few trees and a creek are about here]

Need less to say that I am boxed in pretty good. There isn't any where else that they can stick me as there remaining acres are coverd with there mill, logs and lumber. The other side of that coin is that right now I am not any there way and they aren't in mine so I don't get interupted by any of there doings. This isn't completly to scale but it is close I do have single phase power and have talked to power company about  3 phase but it takes $1,500.00 and a 5 year contract. I hope this clears up some of the questions.

[customsawyer]

I meant to add that my plan was to put the resaw about where the shorter lumber is and then it could be stacked behind the resaw and I could just use the Y that I have there.

P.S. there is a few extra bars on there that I don't know how they got there but they don't mean anything.

[LOGDOG]

CustomSawyer,

  If it were me and we were talking a horizontal band resaw I'd locate it between the word "cants" and the letter "Y". You may have to spread things out just a bit. What I would do is put in an air operated transfer deck that could catch your cants as they come back on the first set of rollers. As the cant comes across the operator can actuate the tilt deck, lifting it and using gravity to move it in line with the resaw. Cant goes through the resaw. On the end of the resaw I'd have a similar transfer deck going back towards your original line. You'd need to put an air kicker in to knock the cant off the top of the board that was just cut as it will likely be on the bottom. Deadrolls or a conveyor would be necessary to cue it up to the top again like a run around system. Each board that would be cut would be eligible to continue down the transfer deck back to the original line and pass through the edger, either to trim wane or size to closest inch if necessary. Your lumber would still end up in the same piles since everything ends up back in the original line. You'll likely want a blower on that resaw as well since the head is stationary and sawdust is likely to pile up.

   We'll look forward to seeing what you come up with.

LOGDOG

[Furby]

Ok, that's where I got lost.
You were talking about equipment that was already decided against using.
The return on the resaw and edger makes what you talked about Ron, much more practical.
I was talking based on the $12K resaw Customsawyer was talking about.


I also made the changes to the last layout to use items he already had AND not have any powered rollers.
This makes it a lot cheaper AND easier to try and see if it works as well as leaves room to move things around really easy to try other options.

Adding a two head resaw would be just as easy as a single, it really don't matter and the cycle time won't change on anything other then the LT70. Meaning, if the resaw keeps up with the LT70 with one head, the speed will be the same with two, the LT70 just goes back to spitting out slabs and flitches sooner, and the edger was waiting anyways.

DanG, the reason I don't care for the diverter bar idea is that we are talking about long heavy boards.
It takes a lot to shift one that way and it would need twice the length of rollers to do it right.
The edger and resaw both need the wood fed in straight every time. That's why I keep coming back to having someone there.
Don't get me wrong, it can be done like you suggest, but to keep things simple, I would try to avoid it.
I have the resaw in a straight line with the mill because I assume the boards for the resaw will weigh more then the flitches, and the flitches will be easier to slide sideways by hand.
With the resaw in line with the mill, if there was a need for a switch in products say 8x8 beams, the resaw could be rasied and the band removed if needed, to allow the product to pass straight through.

[customsawyer]

Ok where I have the word cants that is where I put the 3 5/8" x8" cants from the heart of the tree as it has the most knots they just have me make a cant out of it and they sell it to some pallet shops that have there own resaws. So those cants wont move they will stay right there mostly because when they have me cutting large cant for a cypress order I have to pipes that I put on my roller table there and then we just have to push the cant and it will roll off onto the pipes and down to some 4x6s we let them build up there for a bit and then move them with the backhoe. So anything that is not going to the resaw or the edger will be pulled off there. The reason I pull the cants off there is we don't have to push them on the rollers as far and I am kind of lazy. ;D
I should have added that I have one man beside the rollers between me and the edger, another man at the edger to adjust the blade on it and catch any of the fletches that are big enough to get another piece of pallet lumber out of, and a third man behind the edger to stack the lumber from the edger.
I was thinking of puting the resaw over to the side of the edger but closer to the 70 but what Furby says about the boards going to the edger being lighter and easier to move makes since to me. The only negative on that is there is going to be more cuts going to the edger than the resaw.
When I get the cant squared at 16"x20" than I take the 20" side down to about 4" from the heart turn 180 degrees and take it down to 8" than turn 90 degrees and take it down in 4/4 cuts tell I get close to the heart turn 180 degrees again then take it down till I have my 3 5/8" pallet cant. Now if the face I am cutting on turns bad then you make changes accordingly as you well know trying to get the best face on the widest boards that I can they only want boards up to 18" wide but the packs have to stay under 50" so they can dip them. So I just use the 16" wide rule of thumb so that way 3 boards side by side don't end up over 50". Reason for that is that when working with hired help they can't seem to understand that all the 18" boards have to be one to the layer or the pack will be over 50" and it is always close to the bottom and then we have to restack the whole thing.

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

Jake,
After looking at this sketch,  I don't think you can do
a lot better, unless you take Ron's advice and go to
a full-fledged [albeit slow moving] green chain.

This reflects where you are now, but focuses all your
final lumber out at the end of two lines.

Phil L.

[Bibbyman]

You've got the Wood-Mizer logdeck.  Did you look into the rest of the support equipment for the LT70 and LT300 line including conveyors and transfer tables, etc. that Wood-Mizer has available?



Here is a picture of their sawmill operations in Madisonville, KY where they have two LT300s pumping lumber toward each other.  They have two three-way conveyors that can be operated buy the sawyer or the edger guy.  They can dump both ways.  Note the nearer conveyor is raised and dumping a board or flitch.

If you got an extra day, I'd think it'd be worth the trip up to Madisonville and look at what they're doing.  I was impressed.

AWMV (Wood-Mizer Industrial)

[customsawyer]

I have a friend that has all of that stuff as well. I just don't want to go dig that deep into the money well. I am cheap.