Hull-Oakes Lumber is the
last steam-powered commerical saw mill in
the country, and they're one of the few mills
capable of cutting large timbers up to 85'
long. The mill has been on the National Register
of Historic Places since 1996. Large long
timbers are still used in railroad trestles,
the restoration of historic structures, and
for the spars and masts of ships. By coincidence,
the day I arrived the mill was cutting an
80 ft. long timber for the restoration of
the C.A. Thayer, an early 20th century three-masted
schooner used to transport lumber along the
West Coast |
| |
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| In 1934 Ralph
Hull went into the sawmill business by leasing
a mill which had been closed since the depression.
Hull started building a plant on the current
site in 1938, Right up until he passed away,
in May, 2002, he continued to check in on operations,
but his grandson, Todd Nystrom, now runs the
mill, located about fifteen miles south of Corvallis,
Or. |
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OPERATION
OF THE MILL |
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Trucks arrive
loaded with logs.
The waggoner, a log-handling
machine, grabs the logs before the binders are
released, then lifts the logs clear of the truck. |
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| The truck
pulls out and... |
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the waggoner drops the logs over the log brow
and ... |
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| into the log
pond. |
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| Then the truck
backs up under the A-frame hoist, the driver
releases the trailer... |
|
| and the trailer
is hoisted "piggy back" onto the truck. |
|
| The waggoner
operator also doubles as the "pond monkey."
Back in the early 20th century, a pondman walked
the logs in the pond, arranging them with a
pikepole and stacking them at the log lift. |
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| But today
a pond boat quickly shuffles the logs, picking
and ordering them at the base of the lift, so
the boat operator is often called a "pond
bronc." |
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| The bark that
accumulates in the pond is lifted on a conveyor
up to the mill, where it's transported to the
chipper. All debris goes to the chipper. |
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| Once the logs
are ordered and stacked ready to be lifted,
the boat operator goes back to off-load another
truck of logs. |
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| The log-lift
hoists the logs individually out of the pond
and... |
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| drops them
into a chain-driven conveyor, called the 'long
transfer', that transports the logs through... |
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| the barker,
where the bark is stripped off and conveyed
to the chipper. |
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| The logs continue
on the conveyor to the 'short transfer' or log
table, where they stack up. The sprocket-and-chain
operated table moves the logs individually to
the log cradle (hooked bar on left) which holds
each log in preparation for a short tumble down
to the log deck and the log turner. |
|
| The log turner
lifts, rolls, and shoves each log onto the carriage.
The heavy steel arms--operated by steam cylinders--can
throw around a six-foot diameter, eighty-foot
long log. At the right side of the photograph,
the next log is held by the cradle. |
|
| This 80 ft.
log is carefully rolled and positioned in the
carriage prior to making the first cut. All
the cutting operations are powered by steam. |
|
| Now the log
has been rotated to minimize waste. The first
cut removes mostly wane--the round and bark-covered
edge of the log. |
|
| The off-bearer
(right side of photo) secures the fall-off until
the log clears the blade, though large logs
require more help. Here the ratchet setter
lends a hand, too. |
|
| The carriage
rides on tracks, like a railroad car.
The movement of the carriage is controled by
the sawyer. |
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| The sawyer
looks at his order board then motions to the
rachet setter, who operates the carriage, racheting
the log closer or farther from the blade. Hand
signals are the only way to communicate with
all the thunderous noise. Everyone wears
ear protection. |
|
| The sawyer
and the rachet setter must be sharp and quick,
as the carriage moves the log past the blade
quickly. Two fingers means the log must be moved
out for a two-inch cut; a fist or a connected
finger and thumb followed by four fingers means
a 14 in. cut. In this way, the rachet
setter knows that the carraige must be returned
to the log turner so the log can be rotated
before the next cut. |
|
| The Sawyer
controls the movement of the carriage with the
wooden-handled lever on the left, while simulataneously
controlling log-loading and log-turning with
the control on the right. The control on the
right also operates the 'short transfer' chain
conveyor and the log cradle. |
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| The rachet-setter
is seated behind controls that operate the movement
of the log on the carriage, and controls that
secure the log to the carriage. |
|
| This log now
lies flat on a clean cut, ready for another
pass through the band mill, which squares the
timber in preparation for making a new mast
for the C.A. Thayer. The mast is so long
that transporting the log required a truck-and-trailor
with stearable rear wheels. The finished
timber will be transported by barge to the ship
restoration project in San Francisco. |
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| The off-bearer
works right beside the blade, as the mill squares
up the timber. |
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| The off-bearer
relies on an assortment of tools to help move
both slabs and sawdust away from the headrig. |
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| Measuring
the final cut. |
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| Long timbers
become a hands-on operation when they've developed
a slight bow. |
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| Hull-Oakes
specializes in cutting long logs and big ones,
too, over 6-ft. in diameter. |
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| The off-bearer
guides the second cut onto the rollers, |
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| and helps
pivot the slab slightly. Gravity does
the rest. |
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| The slab is
shoved tight against the straight-edge fence
of the edger table before going through the
edger. |
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| The edger
cuts wide slabs... |
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| into narrower
beams and boards. |
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| All the fall
off, the bark, the wane and waste, goes into
the wood chipper. Some of the resulting
material is used to fire the boilers, but most
of the chips are shipped to Toledo, a nearby
paper company. |
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| After cross-cutting
for length, |
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| timbers and
beams are hoisted to a pallet, loaded on a lumber
carrier, |
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| and stacked
ready for shipment. |
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THE
HEADRIG |
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| The over-sized
bandsaw blade runs around two wheels in the
headrig. The headrig includes the blade,
pulleys, and protective housing. |
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| The blade
is removed for sharpening every two hours.
The doors on the blade housing swing open and
a carraige moves the blade off the pulleys... |
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| then lowers
the blade to the ground. The saw filer,
with assistance, |
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| guides the
blade onto a long dolly. |
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| It only takes
two men to position the blade |
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| in several
careful steps |
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| into the sharpening
station. |
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| The carborundum
grinder must be dressed before sharpening each
blade, then the saw filer calibrates the machine
for the stone, adjusts the travelers, and starts
the machine, which |
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| runs automatically. |
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| Though the
saw filer still has to keep an eye on the process. |
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| The shark-size
teeth on this blade are a little larger than
those found on most band-saw blades. |
|
| This old boiler,
now used to store water, has the doors removed,
revealing the inner tubing. |
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| The heat from
the fire below circulates through the tubes,
boiling the water within the tank. |
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| The fires
are fueled by a mixture of sawdust, planer dust,
and bark, |
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| transported
on conveyor belts from the mill |
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| and fed into
the furnaces. Two boilers supply steam
to the steam engines. |
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| The headrig,
carriage, edger, and log-table are powered by
steam engines. The main engine, an Ames
twin-cylinder, built in 1906 and still operating,
powers the headrig and edger. A second
steam engine powers the carriage, which is drawn
back and forth on its tracks by a cable-and-pulley
system. |
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| The steam
engines have fewer breakdowns than any other
equipment at the mill. The larger engine
has two 16 in. cylinders, an 18” stroke,
and the pulley is 8’ in diameter. The
engine is 13’ long and 10’5”
wide. |
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| But it's an
assortment of chains... |
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| sprockets... |
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| and gears
that provide the fine tuning power of this mill. |
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| Bill Oakes
adjusts the steam pressure feeding the engines.
Bill's family, like many employees at the mill,
has a long history of working at the mill: his
father, Ken Oakes, fell timber in the logging
woods for forty years, providing logs for the
mill. Ken retired at the age of 71 and past
away in September 2001 in his 90th year. Today,
Bill's grandson pulls and sorts lumber at Hull-Oakes. |
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| The operation
of the mill is dependent upon the millwrights,
who repair everything from hydraulic lines,
to steam engines, to boilers.. |
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| The millwrights
have to know every inch of the plant, and how
to operate nearly every aspect of the mill. |
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| Finished timbers
ready for shipment. |
