Planer Mills

[Tobacco Plug]

A lot of my customers, and I too, sometimes, need to have lumber dressed.  This used to be fairly easy to do as the countryside was full of small or not so small planer mills.  In the past three or four years the last two in our area closed.  The bigger mills that are left won't mess with doing custom work.  So I am wondering, what do you do when you need some lumber dressed and it is more than is practical than to run through on a typical home shop planer?

[Tom]

I think we all suffer from that plight.  Individuals around here have invested in single sided planers like Grizzly, Woodmaster and RBI to dress and size their wood.  It is a monumental task almost as laborious as the sawmilling of the boards to begin with.

I've a friend in South Georgia who acquired a big Chinese planer and opened up shop as a planer mill. He had nothing better to do in his spare time and was doing everything from dressing cabinet boards to sizing construction wood for the locals.

We have one planer mill in the area that services the population with a 12" X 4 sided planer.  The biggest holdback is the lack of graders to stamp the wood.  It just so happens that the fellow that has the 4 sided planer has a grade stamp and that drives his business as much, or more, than the operation of planing.  People want their wood graded so they can use it in their house legally.  He offers a package of Grading if you let him plane it.

A planer mill looks to me like a prime business opportunity for a young fellow.

[Fla._Deadheader]

   HEY, yesterday I received an older copy of the "Southern Pine Inspection Bureau" handbook on grading SYP. ;D
   It is based in Pensacola Fl. and details how the graders are certified and what all the stuff from the stamp on the lumber stands for.
  Wish I could understand it all better. I am gonna TRY to decypher some of it and make a post on the "Rules of Grading SYP". I know there has been interest in that, here.

[Percy]

Speaking of planing, does anyone have any experience with that Logosol 4 head planer? I just ordered the video but those things could even make me look good :D(mebey not). Id appreciate some info from anyone who has hands on experience with this unit.  8)

[Paul_H]

Here is a link to a thread from last year.I have been picking up more work for the planer for flooring and 2x6 t&g Fir and Cedar decking.Last Wednesday we ran 4300 lin feet of flooring with widths 0f 3-9 inches.

It is an oldie,but it was built right and we learn as we go with a lot of help by "oldtimers.

Heaps Waterous Planer

Percy,
A friend of mine in Lillooet has been looking in to the Logosol but doesn't know much about it yet.It would be good to see one working and find out how they hold up.


While I was typing this post,a customer who is a building contractor phoned to ask about 8" and 6" flooring for a couple of houses he is building.He is coming over later to see our floor and I'm hoping,order up a floor.

The kiln is about a week away from being operational.

Good luck on your new venture Lawrence.

[D._Frederick]

Percy,
I seen this planer operate at showns, they were planing cedar into tongue and groove. It did an OK job on this, but remember you get what you pay for. It has only 4 hp motors on the cutter heads and is light weight. The direct drive on the motor is turning the cutter heads at only 3600 rpm. The big machines use a motor generator set-up to produce 120 Hertz which runs the cutters at 7200 rpm, there faster and do a better job. The Logosol feed rollers are on the small side, on some woods may have feed problems. Have you looked at the MW molder?  This is a nice machine and is heavy enough that it should hold alignment.