Pics of our sawmill and forestry operations

[Geoff]

Man I just love reading and looking at pictures of everyone else's mill.  Here's a few of what we're up to....

Geoff


Installing maple syrup pipeline in the spring...


Our LT40 with the edger, transfer deck and green chain


The star of the show "Maggie".  She's our main breeding mare and does a lot of the horselogging.


Some 4/4 Sel&Btr 1&2 White KD Hard Maple...


The lower cow barn..


Skidding some cedar with our Case 1494 4WD with an Igland winch


Skidding some Red Oak with the JD 544 Skidder


A big Hemlock sitting on the forwarder


An aerial shot over the farm last time I flew...


Skidding some cedar with the JD


Forwarding and sorting some cedar at the landing with the Hardy forwarder


Our new warehouse and storage area.  65" wide by 110' long.  The photo was taken before the endwalls were installed.


Our upper barn where the offices and stables are.  Depending who you ask, I belong in one or the other... :D :D

Hope you all enjoyed these, and thanks for all the tips over the years.

[HORSELOGGER]

Hi Geoff, that ol mare aint budged since the last time ya posted :D Do you use horses from the stump to a main skidder trail or just on select jobs? Been thinkin about gettin a small machine to help on the long skids, workin a single trail out of the timber, with the team haulin to it

[UNCLEBUCK]

You have a beautiful place Geoff, I think I could get lost forever there . thanks for showing it !

[sandmar]

WOW..nice place Geoff! Sounds like you have a fun set up. Not crazy about all the white stuff on the ground though......must be the GA boy in me :D

Sandmar

[TN_man]

Thanks for the pics Geoff! Looks like ya got a nice place.
I'm with Sandmar, I see white stuff and you're calling it spring. ??? I call it winter.

[dewwood]

Geoff,

Beautiful pictures!

Like you I always enjoy seeing how someone else's operation works.  Thanks!

Dewey

[oakiemac]

Alright Geoff, you got me jealous ;D
Nice looking place and good set up. I been thinking of ways of making a log deck and green chain. You got any closer pics of those?

[T_in_SC]

Great setup and a beautiful place, Geoff.

[Geoff]

Thanks guys..

Oakiemac, I built the green chain and transfer deck myself.  I'll get some closer pics for you.  Basically, the roller conveyor comes out of the edger and at the 12' point powered top and bottom rollers speed up the board and edging rips, sending them up and onto a set of chains that move the material laterally onto the three strand green chain.

Lumber and slabs off the mill are put directly on the green chain.  Lumber is off beared into pack sorts by length etc., and the waste drops off the end into a storage rack for the forwarder to move away.

I didn't post pics, but we've also got a 5,000 bf. DH kiln purchased from Innovative Control Systems.  It's a stainless steel unit, computer controlled, with a end loading cart system.  A wood boiler fires the unit (hot water), as well as provides heat for the workshop, office, my house (hot water and heat).

TN_man and Sandmar,  we sure do get winter.  There's not as much as when I was a kid.  We used to drive the snowmobiles over the fences!  The first dusting of snow came yesterday, but there's warm(ish) weather in the forecast.

[Geoff]

Horselogger,

It's only once a year that either the mare or I stand still long enough for a picture.  Here's a pic of Amos, the new stud colt that was born last spring.  This was about 1/2 hour after he broke out of the sack.



As you can tell from the photos, we're geared up for just about any site condition, or logging requirement.  As for the horses, we use them for short hitches, often bringing timber out of small, environmentally sensitive areas.  The forwarder takes the logs and fuelwood up to the landing.  My preference is actually a single hitch, because we're not afraid to pull all 100 yards of cable off the winch to get a tree out.  Even the best horselogger can't compete with a little winch line through the woods for minimal impact.   The key is... GET OFF THE *&(^%^ SEAT and pull the line.

[JimY]

Geoff,
Is Maggie a Belgian?
She's beautiful regardless.
You have a gorgeous place and an impressive operation.
Jim

[Geoff]

Oakiemac,

Here's some pics of the kiln, transfer deck and green chain...

This is the kiln.  The top tower you see is the heat exchanger where the hot, wet air is vented out.


Here's the controls.  There's actually another set of controls on the computer that records the kiln temps and performance.


The transfer deck is powered by roller chain off the edger which allows us to match speeds...


Lumber comes out of the edger (picture is looking from where the operator is, over the edger), and is pushed out into the top rollers..


The top rollers speed up the boards and edging rips, dropping them down onto the lateral roller chain which sends it off onto the green chain


The top roller is not powered, but the bottom one is.


Here's the roller chain that slides the wood over to the green chain.  It sits about 1/4" above the conveyor roller.


This is the green chain (since painted with WM orange).  5' spacing between the chains, 10' total width


It's driven by a Honda 5HP with gear reduction and a second pulley which drives a hydraulic pump at the same time for accessories at the mill.  The slack you see on the drive chain is so that when we've got a full pack of lumber on it, and the chain is stopped, it doesn't rip the guts out of the gear reducer.


Main green chain sprockets are adjustable for tension.


Chain slides in a plastic sleeve to minimize friction and reduces rusting.


If you have any other questions, let me know...

Geoff

[Percy]

Heya Geoff.
Impressive setup you have there. Im working on building a setup similar to yours (more mechanization). Whats your best day productionwise so far with all the gizzmos?? Im noticing that the hired help is much more productive when they dont have to wrassle  the heavy stuff :D :D :D

[Geoff]

Percy,

I'm a bad one to ask about production.  You're right about the need to make it easier for the help, but we've gone exactly the opposite direction.

We focus on low volume, high value products in niche markets which allows us to keep the pressure off the mill and all the headaches that it involves.  By being a well rounded, vertically integrated situation, we can make more from less and most importantly - KEEP IT FUN.  Everyday is some different project, and different customer.

To really answer your question...our consistent production is:

2 guys
8 hour days less 1 hour lunch
2 blade changes
Everything cleaned up, greased up, swept off, stacked down, wrapped up, banded up and put away - DAILY

= 800 - 1300 bf of 4/4 grade hardwood (maximum possible yield of high grade lumber from each log)

= 2000 - 2500 bf of 1" and 2" cedar or pine lumber (maximum possible yield of lumber at any size from each log)

The gizmos are great, but our time is divided around them all.  Somedays we're loading the kiln, some days logging, some days sorting lumber.  Everyday doing something we enjoy.

Hope this helps...

Geoff