In the 20th century the introduction of electricity and high technology furthered this process, and now most sawmills are massive and expensive facilities in which most aspects of the work are computerized. By 1900, the largest sawmill in the world was operated by the Atlantic Lumber Company in Georgetown, South Carolina, using logs floated down the Pee Dee River from the Appalachian Mountains. The arrival of railroads meant that logs could be transported to mills rather than mills being built besides navigable waterways. Scrap lumber from the mill provided a source of fuel for firing the boiler. An early improvement was the development of a movable carriage, also water powered, to move the log steadily through the saw blade.īy the time of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, the circular saw blade had been invented, and with the development of steam power in the 19th century, a much greater degree of mechanisation was possible. Generally, only the saw was powered, and the logs had to be loaded and moved by hand. The circular motion of the wheel was converted to a reciprocating motion at the saw blade. Other water-powered mills followed and by the 11th century they were widespread in Spain and North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, and in the next few centuries, spread across Europe.
The earliest known mechanical mill is the Hierapolis sawmill, a Roman water-powered stone mill at Hierapolis, Asia Minor dating back to the 3rd century AD.
#Sawing logs manual
The most basic kind of sawmill consists of a chainsaw and a customized jig ("Alaskan sawmill"), with similar horizontal operation.īefore the invention of the sawmill, boards were made in various manual ways, either rived (split) and planed, hewn, or more often hand sawn by two men with a whipsaw, one above and another in a saw pit below. The log lies flat on a steel bed, and the motorized saw cuts the log horizontally along the length of the bed, by the operator manually pushing the saw. The "portable" sawmill is of simple operation. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ( dimensional lumber). I use the wood to heat my shop in the colder months.Early 20th-century sawmill, maintained at Jerome, Arizona.Ī sawmill ( saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Here I am sawing them up, useing a PTO powered "buzz saw". The piled slabs are moved into position, and cut into 16 inch lengths. That way I can easily pick the piles up with my tractor and move them to where they will be sawn into firewood. This one beech flitch made (2) 2圆's, and (1) 2x2, all over 16' long. Here's some of the flitches from the bigger beech log shown in picture #3 above. This makes sawing much faster and easier!! I'm making 2圆's here.
When I'm sawing construction lumber, I run the flitches through my edger to the width of lumber I want. Even my "saw mill dog" has to get in on the action! One is already sawn, there's another one being sawn, and still another on the forks. This is also the best method for edging flitches on the saw mill. Stacking several boards together, and resawing them all at once is a real time saver. It's easy to see the huge savings of a band saw!! The engine is a 13 HP Honda, and it does a very good job. Circular saw blades, and chain saw chains make up to about 9/32" kerf. See how narrow the kerf is when using a band saw (about 1/32")? For each 1/32" of kerf, you loose 2% of lumber out of the log to sawdust. In this picture I'm sawing off the last slab.
#Sawing logs full
Logs are full of water, and keeping them wet will also make sure they won't dry out too fast while waiting to be milled. If I have more logs than I can mill in a few weeks or so, I store them in my ponds. This loader will pick up more than 3,600 pounds! There are quite a few logs of this size on my farm. My FWA Agco Allis tractor makes short work out of logs like this 29" x 10' red oak.
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