I'm thinking of expanding some more into running flooring and mouldings. I have a guy now that does some for me but he can't keep up with demand so I am thinking of buying some equipment. I need some numbers to come up with a buisness plan.
Basically I need to know how long on average does it take to turn out 1000sq ft of flooring from rough sawn lumber?
Does anyone use a Logosol 4 sided moulder/planner?
What basic equipment is recommended? I knw I need a 4 sided planner but what else? Straight line rip saw? Gang rip saw? Any other equipment?
Also can one man pretty much do this by himself or is 2 people recommended?
Thanks for any input.
I run flooring on a Wiening molder/planer. Woodmizer nows carries one very similar to mine. We usually run at 40ft/min., butt to butt. With 6" bds that's about 1000bf/hr. Of course it never works out that way! ;D Boards hang up, blowers get plugged, customers interrupt, etc. .Just like sawing , you never maintain the pace you do at peak speeds. I have run flooring by myself, but it is better with two. The machine I have and the woodmizer are quite different from the Logosol so I can't give you fiqures on that level of machine. You get what you pay for. :) If you plan on running many patterns, I recommend getting extra heads so you can leave your most popular patterns set-up. We do alot of short runs and it is much easier and cheaper in the long run to swap out heads than to be constantly changing knives. I very happy that we made this step. I hope it works out for you.
Mark
Quote from: ellmoe on February 21, 2006, 08:55:30 PM
I run flooring on a Wiening molder/planer. Woodmizer nows carries one very similar to mine. We usually run at 40ft/min., butt to butt. With 6" bds that's about 1000bf/hr. Of course it never works out that way! ;D
HOW TRUE
After spending alot of time with my Logosol, I would definatly say that in the case of a moulder for full time operaton, 5 heads are woth the extra cost.
A guy down the road runs a PH260 in line with an overhead straightline rip, the combined price close to 20 grand. I would say for that price, why not just buy a 5 head that will joint it on the way in?
That being said, i do very much like my Logosol. I just wouldn't want to have to make a living with it thats all
Would a highend planer/moulder similar to the woodmizer allow someone to skip the straight line rip saw step?
How does a straightline rip saw differ in concept from a table saw?
Sorry to Hijack this thread but I've never figured this one out...
Scott, I have the same question.
Norwiscutter, are you saying the Ph260 is too slow of a machine? You would recommend a 5 head machine instead?
Scott, the straight line rip runs with a chain drive arrangement instead of against a fence like a table saw. It's sole purpose is to put a straight side on a board. I straighten my flooring lumber by running a long fence on my shaper and feeder, with a straight cutter. Sometimes I have to make more than one pass. It is the same principle as a jointer, but I can run longer pieces than I am able to control on the jointer.
Even with the finest of moulders, a straight line rip saw is needed. It is also used to rip the board to width at the same time, as you need fairly uniform blanks no matter what machine you run. The degree of uniformity depends on the moulder. My Logosol needs fairly tight tolerances, my friends 7 headed, monster motored machine can remove huge amounts of irregularities with no degradation of final product, but closer to uniform is always better.
SLR saws are not cheap, but I am. I get by with using my edger, but even with a conveyor feed, it sometimes pulls and gives a crooked board. If precision is in order, I use the mill, but that can be time consuming.
has anyone ever used the woodmaster as a gang rip saw?
I don't think I would be interested in it as a moulder, I think I would rather spend more money and buy a logosol, but I have thought of buying one as a drum sander and a rip saw. I just wonder how well they work in this mode. they are fairly inexpensive compared to a slr saw. I have run small runs of flooring and t+g paneling with a table saw and a router table, but if it was more than a few hundred feet at a time, I would need to work a little faster. ;)
One of the main advantages of a 5 head is that the first head can be configured to act as a jointer before profiling takes place, in essence straightening out the board to a certain degree. "Speed" of the Logosol is not the problem, the problem lies in the the extra time I spend preparing my blanks before they enter the machine. As I said, my me the machine is entirely adaquate and serves my purpose. However if I was in a full time situation doing large runs, I would likely go with a 5 or 6 head moulder to give me some leeway in my blank sizing. I think what has to be determined is what percentage of missruns is acceptable before straightline ripping becomes necessary. In pine , I consistantly loose 10 -15 % when running them with out being SLR. I don't mind because this is an acceptable lose for me. However, if it is clear oak that we are talking about, pre sizing my blanks is worthwhile because I am unwilling to take that much of a loss. If my blanks are SLR, then my loses only come in at around 5%.
I got this month's sub of sawmill & woodlot magazine today which had a logosol ad in it, and since y'all were talking about it, I decided to go to logosol's website to check out the PH260.
by the way, dont go to http://www.logsol.com... it is somebody's wedding pictures... go to http://www.logosol.com to see the planers and mill.
OUCH !! I was expecting it to be on the pricy side, but wasnt expecting $10 grand for a 4 sided planer/moulder... Guess I'll have to wait a while on this tool ;)