Sawmill EXPO 2009

[Sawyer Rob]

Well, the Sawmill EXPO 2009 is now over, and if you didn't make the Morgantown WV. show, you missed a chance to see many brands and styles of sawmills in action, side by side.

The show was smaller than the 2007 show, but it still had a lot of sawmills, and other forestry related equipment to look over, and even try out for yourself.

The five of us that were at the Norwood booth met at the showgrounds on thursday to set up and check out the LM2000 sent for the show.

Once we were set up, we headed to a "great" supper, when all of a sudden, some SEVERE weather came through! It rained and blew VERY hard with thunder and lightening... When it let up, we decided to go back to the show grounds, to make sure everything was "ok". Once there, it was easy to see the wind had done a LOT of damage!!

Our demo tent was crumbled, and we weren't alone either! Many fared much worse than we did!

I noticed a couple minor food vendors packed up and left the show, but all of the "important folks" made the best of it just like we did, bending our metal tubeing back into shape, and putting the tent back up...

Anyway, friday morning was the "Shootout" and we already had the mill set up and ready to go... When the horn blew, "JP" and "John" got into action...

and it wasn't long before a pile of nice wide "yellow poplar" boards started stacking up! Because all of the poplar logs came to the EXPO "caked" with mud, the folks running the show decided to "debark" all of the logs... "Morbark" had a huge debarker there, and it made "short work" of getting all of that caked mud off the logs!

JP and John used Norwoods log loader to load the logs,

And the saw dust kept flying...

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Soon there was a big pile of lumber, and JP was edgeing the last board!

About the Shootout: What we all tried to do, was to run the mill just like any new purchaser would, using the factory options that "anyone" can buy on a Lumbermate 2000. We left the wheels on the mill, even though pulling them off and sawing with the mill on the ground would have made loading much faster... Also, we could have added "extra track" (like some others did) so boards to be edged, could have been set into place while more lumber was coming off the cant. JP and i had already talked about all of this, and JP said he just wanted to saw with the mill, "just like you would normally buy one"... We even had the 15 Kohler motor, and had we used the B&S 23, the cutting speed would have almost doubled in wide cuts...

Once the Shootout was over, we moved the Lumbermate back under our demo tent, and instantly folks started coming by to ask questions about it and the Lumberlite 24 we had there.

I think the most fun for me at the show, was watching the folks that stopped by, run the mill... There was "older" folks like me,

to "younger" folks that also had a lot of sawmill interest,

and some were even "good looking" folks...

but, they just kept coming, with all of them saying they "really enjoyed" trying out the mill...

Anyway, saturday was more of the same, and i took the time to walk around to see some of the "other" mills at the show...

There were all kinds of mills to look at, from chainsaw mills,

To HD industrial production mills with edgers,

To swing mills,

 

[Sawyer Rob]

To VW powered,

Three bladed mills, like this Mobile Deminsion,

To this "cant spliter" that you started a cant in,

and it came out the other end looking like this...

It sawed the cant with "sawzall" like blades that went up and down... You can see them just below center of this pict... Man, this thing was sloooooow!

And before long, it was time to pack up, and get ready for the drive home...

And here's the whole crew... Left to Right: John, Glenn, JP, Robert, and Imo,

I'd like to personally thank Norwood for inviteing me to the show. It was a lot of fun, and a HUGE learning experience for me!

Rob

 

[DRB]

Looks like a good time. Thanks for posting

 

[Woodsurfer]

Interesting pictures, nice to see the variety of machines out there. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Brmorgan]

Lucky... There is usually a show like that in a city a few hours north of me every year, but it got cancelled this year due to the almost complete collapse of the industry here. It was a total forestry expo though, so a lot more than just sawmills. Heavy equipment, full-scale industrial sawmill stuff, you name it.

 

[deeker]

Now, where is my rifle?????

Holding that walnut slab for ransom...

Nice pics!!!!

 

[mscott]

Nice pictures

Hi Rob
Great meeting all you guys in person here in WV. Good to see you all had a safe trip home. Kim says hi too. I came home and ordered the LM2000. It looks like it will take a couple weeks before it gets here but i'll need the time to figure out how i'm going to come up with a perfect level area of concrete or what to assemble it. The salesman said he would'nt even consider gravel. If you have any hot tips on assemble please share them.
Mike

 

[excess650]

Hi Rob
Great meeting all you guys in person here in WV. Good to see you all had a safe trip home. Kim says hi too. I came home and ordered the LM2000. It looks like it will take a couple weeks before it gets here but i'll need the time to figure out how i'm going to come up with a perfect level area of concrete or what to assemble it. The salesman said he would'nt even consider gravel. If you have any hot tips on assemble please share them.
Mike

Its good that I didn't talk to a salesman about WHERE or WHERE NOT to assemble my LM2000. I placed 6' 4x4s on my back yard(grass) and used blocks of wood and shims to get the rails level. I think that it would have been easier on gravel with 4x4s.

tip: Use the STRING to make everything straight, and don't be surprised if the rails "move" after they've been tightened.

What did you order?

 

[mscott]

Tips

Thanks excess650 for the tip! I see myself having to assemble it on 4x4 or 6x6's. I usually end up doing everything the hard way. At this point I don't know enough about it to ask good questions.
Mike

 

[mscott]

Tips

Thanks excess650 for the tip! I see myself having to assemble it on 4x4 or 6x6's. I usually end up doing everything the hard way. At this point I don't know enough about it to ask good questions.
Mike
I ordered the base LM2000

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Hi Rob
Great meeting all you guys in person here in WV. Good to see you all had a safe trip home. Kim says hi too. I came home and ordered the LM2000. It looks like it will take a couple weeks before it gets here but i'll need the time to figure out how i'm going to come up with a perfect level area of concrete or what to assemble it. The salesman said he would'nt even consider gravel. If you have any hot tips on assemble please share them.
Mike

Congrats to you Mike, your going to love your new Lumbermate!

I assembled one mill on the deck of a trailor, and it came out well. The deck was level and it went together just fine. Another option is to put it together on a friends concrete drive, or on a paved parking lot. And of course, you can always do what excess 650 did, just be careful that you have everything level.

I think from talking to you, that you won't have any problems getting it together, and then Kim can show you how to run it... ha ha ha

Rob

 

[deeker]

Congrats to you Mike, your going to love your new Lumbermate!

I assembled one mill on the deck of a trailor, and it came out well. The deck was level and it went together just fine. Another option is to put it together on a friends concrete drive, or on a paved parking lot. And of course, you can always do what excess 650 did, just be careful that you have everything level.

I think from talking to you, that you won't have any problems getting it together, and then Kim can show you how to run it... ha ha ha

Rob

Watch out for Robert, he is a trouble maker.

I like my LM2000, use it all the time.

Where is my Krieghoff?????

Don't forget the Ziess.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Where is my Krieghoff?????

"Which" one?? :dunno:

 

[deeker]

"Which" one?? :dunno:

I would be proud to take all of 'em off your hands. Dad.

 

[mscott]

Boost of confidence

:agree2:Yep I'll get the LM2000 together and then I''l set back and watch Kim use it....Worse things I could be wasteing my time doing.

 

[BIG JAKE]

Nice pics Rob thks for posting.

 

[excess650]

I had planned on going to the Expo, but a number of things came up. My mother had her knee replaced, my wife wanted to go to a wedding on short notice, and having driven some 1100 miles the week prior all contributed. The weather forecast for Friday was another factor.

It sure looks like it would have been an interesting event, and I'm happy to see some faces associated with the crew.