Zip-O Log Mill/Logging Co

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OregonSawyer

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I am just curious if any of the regulars on here from Willamette Valley area know of Zip-O Log Co? I was a sawyer (a real one, not the alaskan mill type) for them and have built some pretty great relationships with a couple of the older guys that worked there. Just curious if there are any guys on here that I may share mutual friends with. The most of the logging they did was in the Fall Creek region (Zip-O National Forest as the Foresters referred to it).

Anyway, I have posted on here a little bit and figured I would introduce myself a bit and how I was involved with the lumber industry...

I'm currently going to school for Forest/Civil Engineering as well... Still early on though.

Alan

BTW I may have to sneak up some pics of our me and the Headrig if you woods guys are into the sawmill equipment at all :laugh:
 
Sawmills? You're kidding right? Anything with logs or timber is always of interest. I took any chance to look at whatever mills where in the area, one of the coolest was on Indian Creek near Happy Camp, a good portion of the mill ran off of driveshaft driven belts. They milled pecky Cedar for fence boards, you could smell that sawmill for miles.
Part of the family business was sawmills, I wanted to be a sawyer, ended up making stumps instead.
 
Make mine a double.

I grew up in Centralia, close enough to NW Hardwoods to hear and smell the mill when it wasn't raining. Some days the HS band would be marching to the south and the mill wailing to the north and as a kid that seemed to be about how things ought to be. Dad worked for Weyerhauser. The coal mine was still open. Satsop wasn't dead yet.

So, uh, yeah, do tell -- please!
 
I was born across the street from a sawmill.

kids.jpg
 
lived almost my whole life within earshot of the wail of a mill. youngest years werein a town that it whole existants was the mill. gota do something with the trees that get tipped.
 
I don't have any pics or vids on my comp right now. They are all on my external hard-drive. I'll get a couple things up tomorrow.

We ("they", I don't work there anymore) are a Doug-Fir only mill. Have the capability to cut up to 5' diameter and 52' long. One of the last few bigger cutting mills around. A couple of summers ago we got an order for bridge truss replacements that were 18"x32" between 32'-40'. I've got a couple pictures of a load of those somewhere. Unfortunately the only picture I have of a big log being sawn is from the old mill (26' length). They used to cut quite a bit of 12" clear cants for vertical grain products. The log in the "old" picture is about a 6 footer that had to be "rolled" back after every cut because it was taller than the saw guide was high. It'll probably make more sense when I post the picture... It's a biggun, and not quartered. Although it should have been.

One of my best friends from the mill used to be in charge of the logging company that Zip-O used to run back in the 70's-90's. He's been there 43 years. Still refers to me as a mill-rat. He says that is what loggers refer to mill workers as... Haha. I try to milk as many old logging stories out of that guy as possible. He's also my golfing partner, so I usually am able to get quite a few good ones out in 18.
 
Logs generally go somewhere else than the woods so the woods folks can get paid. Although it is one of those jobs that are enjoyed by folks that do it. Life's good when you get paid to do what you enjoy.



Making stumps is just the first of many cuts on that log. You are just a sawmill sawyer working a little closer to the ground.
 
I've never had anything to do with a mill until about a month ago. We have 2 mills in eastern lewis county, both of them incredibly high speed stud mills. They mill 800,00 ft per shift. I hadn't been in the one in Randle since my freshman year in high school. The technology today in mills is incredible. They had called me up to put on a chainsaw training for them. I toured the mill for 3 hours listening to them tell me what the hangups are and how they have to deal with them. Inspected their saws. Whoa! Now, I've hit a few rocks in my day and some of them lightly and went back for more. I think you can get the picture. These chains were brutal. With the powersaws in the mill it's not a question of "if" you're going to hit something, it's a question of when. Chains traveling at that speed and hitting something like a conveyor or dog just don't come out on the winning end. I'll be going back to help them with a program just to deal with their saws and chains. Seems the guy that used the saw last just put it back in the saw box. You can see where the production and saftey go in the toilet. I did get an education and appreciation of what those mill guys have to do. I'll tell you one thing, when going through the mill, I found myself jumping quite a bit when those cants and lumber would be coming at you miles an hour and make a sudden stop. My guides looked at me kind of funny not realizing how it is where I'd come from. One of the millwrights I had broke in many years ago saw the writing on the wall and opted for a steadier job at the mill. He would just look at me and grin.
 
I've never had anything to do with a mill until about a month ago. We have 2 mills in eastern lewis county, both of them incredibly high speed stud mills. They mill 800,00 ft per shift. I hadn't been in the one in Randle since my freshman year in high school. The technology today in mills is incredible. They had called me up to put on a chainsaw training for them. I toured the mill for 3 hours listening to them tell me what the hangups are and how they have to deal with them. Inspected their saws. Whoa! Now, I've hit a few rocks in my day and some of them lightly and went back for more. I think you can get the picture. These chains were brutal. With the powersaws in the mill it's not a question of "if" you're going to hit something, it's a question of when. Chains traveling at that speed and hitting something like a conveyor or dog just don't come out on the winning end. I'll be going back to help them with a program just to deal with their saws and chains. Seems the guy that used the saw last just put it back in the saw box. You can see where the production and saftey go in the toilet. I did get an education and appreciation of what those mill guys have to do. I'll tell you one thing, when going through the mill, I found myself jumping quite a bit when those cants and lumber would be coming at you miles an hour and make a sudden stop. My guides looked at me kind of funny not realizing how it is where I'd come from. One of the millwrights I had broke in many years ago saw the writing on the wall and opted for a steadier job at the mill. He would just look at me and grin.

800,000 bd ft is a TON! We would cut 150,000 in a GOOD shift. I think the most I ever cut was somewhere around 175 MBF. I know exactly what you are talking about with the chainsaws at mills... There is a lot of metal around and most of the guys have NO idea what they are doing! They'll cut into metal 3-4 times really good and then just go put it back in the saw room. What's better is when you hit something (like an insulator or three) with the headsaw and it literally blows in half. With teeth on both sides and keeping the saw under a 6500 lb strain it creates some havoc when it comes off/apart. Zip-O has some of the newer technology such as log scanners for length, diameter, sweep etc. In a timber cutting mill the log grade is more important though, so it is often up to the saywer to decide how to break down the log. It's a pretty neat setup that I imagine some of your guys from in the woods would find interesting. The lumber market is pretty up and down (as I'm sure you guys know) so I had to look for something else to do.
 
I live in Veneta

I'm not really familiar with the Zip O Mill other than having heard of it. As a woodcutter I don't have anything to do with the mills other than buying the logs they don't want for my lil firewood operation.

I cut and sell on the coast at Waldport. The mill at Toledo is the closest one and seems to be paying good money to the truck drivers. Its next to impossible to get a driver to deliver a load at a price I can afford simply because of my proximity to that mill.

Regards,

SAWS
 
LOL,

I ate biscuits and gravy for breakfast today! Great food with a dab of cayenne pepper sauce. Not from Bigs tho, I have finally trained my GF how to make a proper baked dough ball...it only took years.

Then I put a new receiver in my GF's explorer so she can listen to her Iphone music thru the truck speakers.

:clap:

Regards,

SAWs
 
Finally got around to getting a couple pics together

This first one is of some 18"x32" timbers between 36' and 40'. They were for a bridge repair up in Canada. The one on the top right (not the 8 footer, the full length one) got thrown out... The 8 footer was a trim-back from another one. They were taking true #1 wane on these so we were able to squeeze them out of some reasonably small logs.

Just for reference, the timber off to the right, by itself is an 8x14

IMG_1762.jpg


Here is just a few finished units of 8" timbers that are ready for shipment.

Zipo64.jpg


The Headrig cutting what looks to be about a 2 1/2 footer with a little white speck in the butt...

Zipo18.jpg


Using the "log turner" to get it positioned just right on the carriage.

vlcsnap-4549888.png


Turning that same log...

vlcsnap-4550265.png
 
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800,000 bd ft is a TON! We would cut 150,000 in a GOOD shift. I think the most I ever cut was somewhere around 175 MBF. I know exactly what you are talking about with the chainsaws at mills... There is a lot of metal around and most of the guys have NO idea what they are doing! They'll cut into metal 3-4 times really good and then just go put it back in the saw room. What's better is when you hit something (like an insulator or three) with the headsaw and it literally blows in half. With teeth on both sides and keeping the saw under a 6500 lb strain it creates some havoc when it comes off/apart. Zip-O has some of the newer technology such as log scanners for length, diameter, sweep etc. In a timber cutting mill the log grade is more important though, so it is often up to the saywer to decide how to break down the log. It's a pretty neat setup that I imagine some of your guys from in the woods would find interesting. The lumber market is pretty up and down (as I'm sure you guys know) so I had to look for something else to do.
I hear you on that log market. The Chinese are paying a premium for all the logs they can get right now. Matter of fact, the Randle mill has been shut down for 2 weeks and the Morton mill is due to shut down next week. Pretty amazing how these guys play it so close to the market. It doesn't sound too good for the next few months.
Are you very close to Tillamook? I think that's a dimensional mill owned by Hampton, the owners of the two mills here in eastern Lewis county. Their production is truly amazing. When I last visited it in '69 they were bragging about 150k per shift. I'm sure that was a lot back then. They were also cutting much bigger wood. No one would even cut the stuff they're making lumber out of now for firewood back then. There'd be piles of it on the landings.
 
I hear you on that log market. The Chinese are paying a premium for all the logs they can get right now. Matter of fact, the Randle mill has been shut down for 2 weeks and the Morton mill is due to shut down next week. Pretty amazing how these guys play it so close to the market. It doesn't sound too good for the next few months.
Are you very close to Tillamook? I think that's a dimensional mill owned by Hampton, the owners of the two mills here in eastern Lewis county. Their production is truly amazing. When I last visited it in '69 they were bragging about 150k per shift. I'm sure that was a lot back then. They were also cutting much bigger wood. No one would even cut the stuff they're making lumber out of now for firewood back then. There'd be piles of it on the landings.

I still talk to the salesman at the mill fairly regularly and he was saying the exact same thing about the Chinese. Just buying up EVERYTHING! As for location, Eugene is 120 miles south of Portland. The mill itself is located in town actually...

The bigger stuff is definitely more fun/challenging to cut, but it will put a bit of a damper on production when the diameter starts to get a little too big. I'm sure it's roughly the same for falling. Gotta spend a little extra time and energy to get the bigger ones just right.

As for how quickly the mill adapts: Last summer there were a couple times where we would get an order that needed to be shipped out like yesterday. We were able to find the right log(s) (either in the deck at the mill or our log yard a couple miles away), get it/them to the mill, sawn, packaged and on a truck within that shift! Gotta act fast in a competitive market!
 
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You talkin' about the teepee burners?

Yep they glow. That one had a big conveyor that dumped crap in, at night it gave off clouds of sparks. I know of only three teepees left, none are in use.
 
You talkin' about the teepee burners?

Yep they glow. That one had a big conveyor that dumped crap in, at night it gave off clouds of sparks. I know of only three teepees left, none are in use.
Alright. I've been trying to remember the name of those teepee burners for the last 6 months. What is it? I know there's a name for them and was trying to tell a guy about them but just couldn't remember the name of them. We had about 6 of them here at one time. At night they would be just red hot like you said, spewing sparks into the air.
 
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