Ralph
Pelham was in a quandary. After a windstorm, several downed
Douglas fir logs were on the ground, scattered over his northwest
Oregon family homestead. Although the logs were too good to
just make into firewood, the relatively small number and
inconsistent quality prevented profitable marketing. His
problem was solved by a neighbor with a portable thin-kerf LT40
Wood-Mizer bandsaw who converted the logs into lumber at Ralph’s
home for use in some planned construction projects. The logs
were put to their best possible use and construction projects could
be completed at a fraction of the cost to Ralph that would have been
incurred had he had sold the logs and bought the lumber.
Like Ralph, woodland owners throughout the nation
are finding portable sawmills to be a significant management tool
that maximizes options, optimizes resource utilization and increases
revenues while making a positive environmental contribution.
Portable Thin Kerf Milling Profits the Small
Woodland Owner
When first introduced on a commercial basis about 25
years ago portable thin kerf band sawmills drew little attention
from the commercial forest industry but the low cost of the units
combined with their capacity to produce fine quality lumber, even
when run by neophytes, led to enthusiastic acceptance of the new
concept by hobbyists, farmers, and others wanting to saw relatively
small quantities of inexpensive lumber to support personal needs.
More importantly, the availability of this new
technology provided a tool to profitably turn previously "useless
and worthless" trees into valuable lumber with an initial investment
less than the cost of a small tractor. The highly portable
mills can be operated by a single operator to produce lumber from
logs conventional sawmills cannot or will not accept.
Portability equates to the mill going to the logs
and minimizing transportation costs. Clatskanie, Oregon mill owner,
Tyler Bond easily tows his mill behind his pickup to locations
within a 50 mile radius of his home as he saws custom lumber to
support his family. He says, "Within 20 minutes his LT40 super
hydraulic mill can be set up and working although the location may
have uneven ground."
Additionally, thin kerf band saws use blades as thin
as .045 inch to produce very thin kerfs resulting in smooth and
consistent lumber often useable without secondary processing.
"Kerf" is the thickness of the cut a saw blade makes as it passes
through wood fiber when lumber is milled. The ratio of usable
lumber to sawdust generated in sawmill operations has a direct
relationship to kerf. Thinner kerfs yield more lumber and
generate less sawdust from a given volume of wood fiber.
Thin-kerf mills produce more, and higher grade,
lumber from each log processed when compared to those processed by
traditional circle saw mills with .250 inch or greater kerfs.
And, more lumber means more value and profit generated.
In many cases sawmill owners have found that the
portable thin kerf mills not only enable them to turn a profit from
their own woodlands, but many have expanded into custom sawmilling
for neighbors to supplement their income and some have even gone
into part or full time sawing businesses.
Ralph Pelham’s neighbor is a small woodland owner
managing 54 acres. He purchased Wood-Mizer’s LT40 thin-kerf
mill with a hydraulic package to mill lumber for his own use,
knowing that others also could benefit, and would pay, from the
service he would be able to provide. Now he supplements
his own income by custom sawing for people like Ralph.
Some mills are equipped with hydraulic lifting arms,
clamps and log turner taking much of the labor out of milling logs
as big as 36 inches in diameter and up to 21 feet long.
Oversized logs can be split with a chainsaw prior to milling. In
addition to hydraulics, portable sawmills come equipped with a
variety of optional features that enhance their usability.
Computerized controls, debarkers, lubrication systems, automatic
clutches and attachments to cut shakes or beveled siding increase
their value as an asset and their utility.
Environmental Benefits – A Significant Bonus
A number of tangible and measurable environmental
benefits are realized by utilizing thin-kerf sawmills.
While there may be considerable controversy
regarding greenhouse emissions and global warming, most agree that
where greenhouse gases can be reduced with little difficulty or
expense, they ought to be. Portable sawmills can, and do, play
an important role in some of the carbon mitigation strategies many
believe to be critical in reducing atmospheric carbon.
Portable sawmills often utilize raw materials that
otherwise would be left to rot, burned or at best processed into
chips, all of which eventually release significant amounts of carbon
into the atmosphere. By converting these materials into
lumber, the durable wood products sequester the carbon and thereby
minimize contributions to atmospheric greenhouse gasses.
Additionally, the lumber recovered from this type of material
reduces the need for additional harvest from standing forests.
The forests allowed to remain standing continue to "scrub" carbon
from the air and release oxygen further contributing to atmospheric
health, not to mention the reduction in emissions associated with
harvesting and processing the trees.
Not only did Ralph Pelham have his storm-downed fir
trees milled, he also had several thousand board feet of cedar logs
processed. These cedar logs had been left to rot after a
logging job a number of years ago and Ralph salvaged them.
Although they offered little, if any, commercial value, by using the
services of a portable sawmill, a significant amount of good and
high valuable lumber could be produced.
The utilization of thin kerf technology also
increases the amount of lumber produced from a given volume of logs.
Thin kerf saw mill operators often report yields above scale ranging
between 30 and 200 percent depending on the length and quality of
logs being processed. By producing more lumber and less
sawdust from a log even more carbon is sequestered.
The availability of this technology not only allows
woodland owners an option for a more profitable business but also
enhances the environment. Land best used for growing trees is
optimized by managing not only for greatest income but to enhance
wildlife habitat, provide watersheds for improving water quality and
contribute to atmospheric health.
Portable Thin Kerf Sawmilling – An Alternative to
Commercial Harvests
For some timber holders, thin kerf sawmilling may
provide a more flexible, and more profitable, alternative to
traditional commercial harvests philosophies. In commercial
settings, a significant number of trees must be harvested at one
time in order to make harvests financially feasible. In the
less than ideal real world, most land owners have a significant
number of lower quality trees that net negligible return to the land
owner, even though there is a significant amount of wood fiber
shipped. Utilization of a portable mill offers several
potential advantages over such traditional commercial harvest.
Portable mills allow landowners flexibility to
manage small woodlands for optimum long term production.
Landowners can remove and mill trees that most improve the future of
their stand, rather than being forced to produce a certain volume to
pay for logging and in order to ship full loads to mills.
Lower quality trees can be harvested profitably.
Portable mills offer the flexibility to work around defects of
individual blocks and can profitably mill trees that would be
significantly depreciated at the mill’s grading yard. Rather
than shipping a "poor quality" log to a commercial mill that will
only pay a small amount for it, the portable mill can glean much
valuable lumber for the owner
