Our little mill

Really one of the neatest chapters of my story to have built,run,feed and manage a little mill as a new part of the family business,started as a dream,slowly came alive to feed off our logging side and add value and employment from our wood,it had potential,like any mill, but a mill is like a watch with so many pieces that have to flow with and toward the next system,deep involvment in building a flow through sytem is a wonderful experience in innovating,building something out of nothing,staying awake endless nights figuring out how to automate a station,eliminate tasks,centre an area an employee works at so theres as much activity around him to keep him doing 3 different thing at the same spot,I loved the challenges,but the log supply is a tough end you never have total control over,and have to pay more for logs than everyone else if you want to get them,as our mill expanded its ouput from 1600 to 2200 fbm a day to then later 4000-6000 fbm a day with the record s hitting just under 10,000fbm on a perfect day,it was tough to feed it with a small local supply of hardwoods,that had fierce competition from other buyers as well.Then markets softened,log prices increases,supply was spotty,equipment was high maintanace,people dont share the same goals of seeing high outputs,it was just too much,and became a typical B.C. sawmill story,short lived and faded into history.It was sold piece by piece,some remains close by at other operations,amazing the memories and sentiments one can have about ,a bunch of edgers,resaws,feed decks,radicons,outfeedtables,live rolls,and mudsaws though,a mill really develops its own character and personality

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• the mill
• bandsaw.bandmill
• resaw
• edger
• mill yard

[foggymedia]

were u getting your logs from small independents? Did the large companies make it a challenge to get enough raw log supply?

[skadill]

@foggymedia We logged most of our own hardwood from private landowners and delivered it to our mill.The last two years we mostly bought other peoples wood from land clearing,and subdivision site,and a bit of overflow from Weyrehauser when the workers went on strike,and sometimes would do a run of logs fora competitors mill when they had too much supply.The Weyerhauser mill made it tough to compete against for supply,and a couple larger independent mills paid more than we could for logs too..

[foggymedia]

@skadill Thanks for your reply. The logistics of setting up the operation would've been something that would have fascinated me too.

Doesn't the BC government allow small mills to access and pay stumpage fees on crown land? Companies like Weyerhauser keeps getting subsidies, do the independent mills get a share of any of the subsidies?

[skadill]

@foggymedia One would be led to believe as we did,that some scrappy hardwood could be offered at market value to a little mill that only needs a truckload or two a day and supported over 6 guys income sometimes.I argued forestrys own policies at the time to them that should have allowed us wood access,and got nowhere with that,they just said 'bid a timber sale' .But we couldnt use the softwood species for and didnt want.It was tough to build a mill on hope and with 0% guarantee of getting logs.

[localcrew]

It's tough to keep a business going. Even a simple one, much less one as complex as this. The more complicated it gets, the harder it is to keep things going. Looks as if you gave it a good shot though.

[skadill]

@753190247130 -Got a piece of 48" steel gas pipe,and cut 2 pieces from it,welded ears and cut a hole on each side for a bolt to hold it to the grapple,saved needing a second machine at the mill yard to load Valley pulps trucks,Its good to have to get a job done, with no money,ideas are quickly born.