Sponsored by NC State University, along with The Wood Education and Resource Center and Sawmill and Woodlot Magazine, the focus of this workshop is to present the foundational ideas needed to successful operate a thick lumber slab business that is profitable and produces quality thick lumber slabs for sale to the public.
It will be held at the Burke County Agricultural Center in Morganton, NC on May 24, 2018.
A brochure is attached.
Register Online at: https:// thicklumberslabworkshop.eventbrite.com/
Is there anything scheduled for Julie or Audrey? :D
Thanks Scott, I'm going to try to go. I see where they don't discriminate because of age so I should be good ;D.
Quote from: LeeB on March 21, 2018, 02:58:44 AM
Is there anything scheduled for Julie or Audrey? :D
Not that I know of but I've heard a rumor that they will accept payment in SGU's...... :D
:D :D :D
Well, its a thousand miles each way, and five days of lost production during prime time of the year... but only 31 miles from my wife's newly found little sister, so I'm gonna try to make it.
I had trouble with the link above, this link got me to the ticket order form;
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/thick-lumber-slabs-workshop-tickets-44154266600?aff=es2 (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/thick-lumber-slabs-workshop-tickets-44154266600?aff=es2)
See you there :)
I received the email notification for this event and another being held is WV June 7th on the Firewood Business. I would have liked to attend the slab event but I have way to much going on right now and taking the trip to the Logging Expo in Richmond on the 18th is all I can fit in.
Thanks for sharing Scott. I plan to be there..
Did anyone notice that the Southeastern Dry Kiln Club annual meeting (also sponsored by NC State) is set for May 24, 25 in Conover, NC. The Slab Workshop is on May 24th, only about 30 miles away in Morganton. Seems like they might be drawing from the same audience.
Just checking to see how many here are going. It about a 3 hour drive for me so I'll have to leave here early or go tonight and get a room.
Ricky, we rolled yesterday.
Tom
We (the two Don's) just put in a long day but got 'er done, we'll leave here about 0600. Check your emails, Harry sent one today.
I'm here now. See y'all in the morning.
Take some pics :).
See y'all in the morning.
Scott
That was a good workshop, thanks to everyone for taking the time to put it together. Scott is a fountain of experience and wisdom both in wood and business. Dean, @copperhead10 (http://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=27215), is quite an artist, has an amazing showroom, sawmill/workshop, and staff. After a few minutes with one of his employees I told him the tips he passed on to me were well worth the price of admission and I learned a great deal from others as well. Thank you all for sharing. We had quite a conversation about what we had seen and learned on the way home. I got to put faces to a few of the names I see on here which was fun. Several of you travelled quite a distance, safe travels home. I sure didn't need supper after that lunch, well done!
What was the most significant thing that you learned?
Thought about you guys and this workshop quite a bit recently. Would loved to have come but had some others stuff that needed attention. Hope there is another sometime.
Quote from: WDH on May 25, 2018, 07:18:38 AM
What was the most significant thing that you learned?
From the morning classroom session;
From Scott, and I'm sure he can explain it better, don't forget to factor in the amount of time your slab investment is tied up. If I have say 10 grand tied up in slabs for 3 years drying and processing. If I had invested that same amount in the bank or somewhere else I would expect a return during that period, don't forget to factor that in, it becomes major on these timeframes.
We should be thinking about a way to rank slabs along the processing chain in a way that lets the customer know what processing has gone into a slab. There are 5 basic steps along the way to finished product: Green, Air Dried, Kiln Dried, Sterilized, Surfaced. A star system was suggested with a green slab being a 1 star and a planed slab being a 5.
Think about the costs associated with each step along the way.
From the afternoon showroom and shop tour; prices were more in line with what I expected than what I've seen on the net. I didn't see any slabs that knocked my socks off in character or in price, the prices were in line with what seemed reasonable for urban recovered trees. There was a good mix of finished work and slabs for sale. Lots of ideas in the showroom. I'm still adjusting what I have looked for and used in lumber, generally high grade material, and what a slab is, a more rustic large live edged timber. We sawed a healthy pile of recovered trees this winter and as a storm closed in we got off the mountain ahead of it, trailered a couple of loads down and I told the hired man to just firewood the rest. In my mind it was too far gone. I now realize it probably wasn't. I'm more of a technician than artist and look at wood differently and in this case probably wrongly. The customer may prefer that character.
Dean was using shade cloth curtains and had quite a bit of covered shed storage, it was well organized and accessible. Just like that grass fed burger, low and slow is the way to go drying. He ratchet straps his piles and cinches them up monthly.
The electric bill on the DH container kiln runs about $500/month, solar is probably a better way to dry with daily equalization but it would take much more dryer space. The electric bill in a little over a year eclipses the cost of the unit. My little Ebac probably just puked. I think we'll go solar till time is the problem... which brings up sterilization. Might be worth thinking about solar/ borate, and is that then a 4 star or 5?
The big hit for us was chain grinding angles on the slabbing bar. We ended up in the tool room with one of the employees talking about sharpening angles, tension, drag heights, bar grooves, etc. We are going to try some changes tomorrow. We were talking about that at our table, I can smoke the belts pretty easily, the other guys weren't having trouble. One thing we've learned is its almost always the sharpening and we've been experimenting. It is always good to kick ideas around with them that's doin'.