Milling Applied to the Modern Distribution Yard

An East Coast distribution yard for western lumber is designed to handle large and small orders for millwork of both standard and special types on short order. Twenty percent of the West Coast lumber handled through the distribution center is modified by milling. In this way the customer’s needs are satisfied much sooner than would he possible if the milling were performed by the shipping mill on the West Coast. Partial or complete fabrication of an item is also possible. As an added service, the distribution yard facilities are available for custom-milling of the customer’s own lumber when it can be fit into the daily, schedule. Materials are moved to and from each machine, located within the building, by narrow-gage trucks leading to and from each machine. Feeding into the machines is done by hand since the large number of small orders makes investment in loaders and unloaders unjustified. Machines found in the typical distribution yard are: Planer-matcher, moulder, band ripsaw, band resaw, timber cut-off saws, gang ripsaw, movable plywood ripsaw, mutiple boring machines, double-end trimmer, and miscellaneous special equipment. Sawmill equipment is available to handle timbers up to 24 inches square and 60 feet in length. The cost of millwork is determined by time studies. Orders of less than 1500 feet are charged a flat fee using as a basis the experience of a mill foreman, since setup time is costly. Quality is upheld through the milling personnel’s knowledge of number of knives required, ideal running speeds, and milling characteristics of lumber. Flat-grain, dry Douglas-Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is milled satisfactorily with a 25? cutting angle and a 1/32-inch or less heel on the knife. The maximum dressing should be 1/32-inch on a dressed surface and 1/16-inch on a resawn surface. Running speeds resulting in 8 to 12 knife cuts per inch should always be the maximum to prevent rapid dulling and burning of the knives. White or ponderosa pine (Pinus monticola, Pinus ponderosa) can be run satisfactorily with a maximum heel of 1/16-inch. Minimum dressing can be 1/64-inch. A well-equipped grinding room is necessary to keep machines in operation and to assure quality.

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