Jackson Lumber Harvester

[D._Frederick]

Has any of the members, owned or run the above mill?

[LOGDOG]

Hi D. ,

   I looked at buying a JLH a long time back. I knew several individuals who owned and ran them. They cut a lot of really nice lumber. I passed on buying one. One of the reasons was because it seemed like you needed to be an octopus to run the thing. I'm sure it's like anything - you get better with practice - but I prefer joysticks given the choice over levers. Less to keep track of in my mind I guess and less clutter. Just a personal preference. I know a guy up in WI that has a JLH though if you're interested in buying one. I'm pretty certain he'd sell it at a very reasonable price. He runs a couple of WoodMizers and thought he wanted to have the big mill set up but just never got around to it. Let me know if you're interested and I'll hook you two up.

LOGDOG

[Ron Wenrich]

Yep.  Had 3 of them.  2 were the portable mills and one was a Big Jake mill.  They are really easy to maintain and wouldn't pass one up if the price is right.

The older ones are pretty mechanical in operation.  As long as the operator has his head on straight, you'll get consistent boards, since you have to reset your setworks.  Tapers are on your dogs, and downturns are really slick. 

You have to have your cab operations set up to be user friendly.  Put your controls in groups and things work out pretty well.   

What type of mill are you looking at?

[logwalker]

A friend of mine here on San Juan Island is running one that his Dad set up many years ago. I got the tour recently and it is a very impressive machine. You talk about production, this has it. It was originally portable also but has a building around it now. Lots of good features to speed production and make better boards. Joe