Jackson Lumber Harvester

[D._Frederick]

The January issue of TIMBER LINE featured a Jackson Lumber Harvester circler mill that had sawed 53 million ft. during 30 years. This type mill does not have wheels on the carriage, but rides on bearings that are mounted to the track frame. The carriage is very light weight and should be very fast in moving.

Has anyone owned, sawed with, or seen this type mill operating. Give us your 2 cents worth.

[Ron Wenrich]

I sawed on one of those for about 10 years. Production was about 2 MMbf/yr, sawing grade hardwoods.

It was a pretty simple mill.  It was basically made as a portable circular mill, but most guys put them on a concrete slab and made it permananent.  Taking it to the woods would have some drawbacks.

The log deck was jus a 2 stand deck, but could handle any log we put on it.  The log turner bolted to the mill side, so it wouldn't walk away.  We used that same turner on our present mill until this year, when we bought a new Jackson log turner.  Its a bar type, and works real well.

The mill had 5 headblocks, but only 2 were live.  The tapers were the dogs.  They moved in and out and were pretty easy to set.  The bottom dogs were also the downturns.  You could turn some pretty big logs with just the downturns.

There were a few drawbacks.  In cold weather, those bearings would break, especially where you were turning logs.  The setworks only accomodated 4/4, 5/4, 6/4 & 8/4.  They were adjustable, and pretty accurate.  The carriage also would spring from the dogs being on the 2 & 4 headblocks.  It never seemed to effect the lumber.  The booth got really hot in the summer.   You really need an AC and a heater in the winter.

I used to cut logs to 24' and cut accurate bridge timbers to 10x17x15.  It handled anything we could throw to it.  Maintenance was minimal, and repairs could normally be made with parts from a hardware store.  They're designed to be repaired in the field.  Hoses with replaceable ends, for example.

All in all, I think Jackson makes a fine product.  I've seen these mills for sale for around $15K with a power unit.  It'll saw a lot of lumber with small crew.  10 Mbf/day is about average, depending on logs and cutting patterns.  If I was starting out, I'd look at one of these mills.

[AtLast]

I cant answer the question but I can gloat a tad.....right?....thought you guys might get a kick outta this
file:///H:/TimberLine Article Archives.htm

[D._Frederick]

Ron,

THANKS for the reply!  Have you ever operated a mill with a hydrostatic carriage drive? What are your thoughts  on this system?

[Frickman]

There used to be several of the Jackson automatics in our area. One or two they took to the woods to cut mine blocking,  the grade logs were hauled back to the home mill. All these mills had vertical edgers, so one guy and a couple of stackers could saw alot of lumber. They sawed pretty good, except in the winter the bearings would do as Ron said, freeze up and break. With the log deck and outfeed belts and deck you needed a good sized level spot to setup, but once it was running it would put out the lumber. The environmental regulations, specifically disposal of sawdust and bark, have eliminated most of these large portable operations, and the logs are all being trucked back to the home mill. A few years ago a friend bought one of those mills at an auction at a good price, so I guy might still find a good deal on one.

[Ron Wenrich]

Our Morbark is running a Sundstrand.  I believe this to be your hydrostatic feed.  They are expensive and we have ours rebuilt every 2 years.  I think its running at 47 GPM.

The action on these is pretty positive.  You can reverse direction really quick without hesitation or jerking.  It has a really nice feel and isn't hard to get used to.

The feed on the Jackson was just a straight hydraulic motor.  That worked well, but not as responsive.  We talked about putting on a vertical edger, but it seemed to be more of a hassle than what it was worth.