Pics of old sawmill equipment in my own backyard (almost!)

[YarraValleyDude]

Cool pics there, thanks for posting.

Where i live we have a lot of that stuff left in the bush but most of the good stuff was pilfered years ago, that site looks all intact still.

 

[Brmorgan]

I get the feeling this thread happened to fall between a little bit of a feud somehow... I take no sides! LOL.

TT, I forgot to also clarify a couple things in that last post:

1. The saw bed in the photo is ALL wood other than the various bolts and washers that hold it together (which are NOT salvageable). I can't see any metal left anywhere on it, so I'm not sure what would be left if I were to replace all the wood. It would be a good template to pattern a new one after though.

2. The "pieces of winch" are just that, I suppose, but they are in fact the driveline for the carriage. Cable was wrapped a few turns around both spools, and when you turned the main spool it would pull cable from the secondary on the carriage, thereby causing it to turn and drive the carriage across the bed. Reverse the rotation on the main spool, and the carriage would return. Modern headrig carriages are driven by exactly the same sort of idea, though much more modern. I could probably take a picture of the old unused one at work sometime if you like.

3.

Many of the old sawmills merely have a movable bed on them, which allows you to secure the log and make a cut. You adjust the log, that's your setworks! Set your log and cut it!

That's true as far as turning the log, but horizontal thickness-of-cut adjustment was done through the carriage setworks. As an aside, up here any log turning mechanisms on headrig carriages are TO THIS DAY commonly referred to as "ni**ers" because back 100 years ago before hydraulic/mechanical turners, you would often see some big unlucky black fellow riding the end of the carriage turning the logs by hand. I say unlucky because more than a couple guys were killed by getting out of position and getting drug through the headsaw by accident. The turners on the headrig at work are still labeled as such on the control panels and electrical boxes, though I did notice that some of the more conspicuous labels got ripped down after I showed my foreman when he didn't believe me that they were called that. I was just wondering if that term was common to describe log turners in parts farther south?

 

[Coalsmoke]

Not really a feud, more one sided. I called Mr.Tool on his BS a few months back and he's had his underwear in a knot ever since. Brad, I can see you writing a book about the interior bush mills. You should give it some thought. Have you ever read the book "Tie hackers to timber harvesters"? It provides an interesting historical account of the industry in BC.

 

[Brmorgan]

Not really a feud, more one sided. I called Mr.Tool on his BS a few months back and he's had his underwear in a knot ever since. Brad, I can see you writing a book about the interior bush mills. You should give it some thought. Have you ever read the book "Tie hackers to timber harvesters"? It provides an interesting historical account of the industry in BC.

No, I don't think I've heard of that one. I'm presently working my way through one called "The Green Chain" which is written by a guy from town here who made a film by the same name about the forest industry a couple years back. I haven't seen it though. I bought the book because there's a chapter in there which is an interview of the head of the local IWA (now USW) union office. I've dealt with and talked to him quite a bit over the years.

I'm trying to get my hands on a copy of this old book/paper:

http://www.jstor.org/pss/4005172

As per writing a book, it would be an interesting project but would take a long time. I do know quite a few people with such info though. For instance I just found out the location of another mill today from the old guy I often get saw parts from. I'd never heard of it before.

FWIW i started poking around on Google Earth, and I counted 17 now-defunct mill sites that I know of for sure, possibly 20 if a couple hunches are right, all within 50 miles of town and most much closer.

 

[Coalsmoke]

I can believe it. The industry has faced amazing changes over the past 50 years. I'll keep an eye out for that book for you down here.

 

[Old Hilly]

As a bit of trivia about old sawmills. The town near me, Wauchope, NSW (now called Wauchope, the Timber Town by the tourist people) used to support well over 20 sawmills within the town itself and another 20 odd mills out in the bush. Some of these mills only employed 2 men and processed waste from the larger mills. They cut fence pailings, garden stakes, oyster sticks and more. Some cut weather boards, flooring, cladding and lining boards, other mills cut big timbers and there was also a NSW Government Railway Mill that just cut timber for the railways dpt.
Those times are long gone now. There are only a couple of mills working in the area today, one being run by the Daughter of the man who built it way back in the mid 1940's. This lady is now in her 60's so how long that mill will keep going, who knows.
Dennis.

 

[TraditionalTool]

Not really a feud, more one sided. I called Mr.Tool on his BS a few months back and he's had his underwear in a knot ever since. Brad, I can see you writing a book about the interior bush mills. You should give it some thought. Have you ever read the book "Tie hackers to timber harvesters"? It provides an interesting historical account of the industry in BC.

Nope, actually coal you proved that you don't know WTF your doing about logging, after braggin' about it for months about how you were gonna show folks...then you sold your mill because you couldn't make a go of it.

Talk is cheap, and you have a lot to learn about life, after you get out of diapers. Now your down to your CSM, and I imagine you'll show everyone how to make a business out of that also...

In just a month your went from showing all the loggers how to do it, to folding up your operation...pretty pathetic...

Then I see you giving advice on this circular mill... :newbie:

 

[Old Hilly]

Well, I'm going to add my little bit of knowledge of old mills to this discussion.
In the old and basic mills in this area the first stage of milling was the "breaking-down saw", often a "Canadian" saw with 2 blades, one set above the other so big logs could be cut without having a single huge circular blade. The log was pulled through the saw while riding on a timber carrige and pulled by a winch which was controled by a man called the "friction driver" because the winch had a sort of slip-clutch to control the speed the log was fed into the saw.
Once the first cut had been made the log was rolled onto it's flat face and "bumped" into position for the second cut. When there were 2 flat faces on the log it would be "bumped" across the trolley, usually with a hefty lever, ready for the first "flitch" to come off the log. This "flitch" then went to the main saw bench to get broken down to 3x2's or whatever was on the cut list. Those timbers, "scantlings", then got flipped over by the "tailer-out" to the docking bench where the "dockerman" cut them to length and flipped the waste into the rubbish bin. The wanted timber went down a chute into the "yard" where the "yardman" would assemble the orders as the required sizes were cut.
Takes me back to a better time, this does.
Dennis.

 

[Old Hilly]

One thing I should have mentioned is that there was very little metal used in these old mills. By far the the most common component was timber, including the rails that the cariges ran on were made of timber. Much of the saw frame was timber, as were all the benches and mill frame.When a mill burned down there was little to salvage. All the steel would fit on a big utility trailer and the ash and charcoal got 'dozed into the firepit where the sawdust and scraps were normally burnt. Then the boys would start over and do it all again.