Customer Stories

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Third Generation Electrician Develops Sawmilling Business in Ohio

Located in Cincinnati, Ohio, Paul Gangloff went from electrician to sawyer, opening his own sawmilling business, Riverside Logging and Sawmill. Paul's new company developed and grew a long-standing family business and brought his family together.

 From Electrician to Sawyer 

Paul's Grandfather

Paul is an electrician in the 3rd generation. "My grandfather established a company, Riverside Electric, in 1945," Paul says.

Paul Electrical Business

However, Paul learned that he has a passion for working with wood. Thus, Paul decided to open his own logging and sawmilling business.

Paul Working

"We just decided to keep the Riverside brand, the Riverside name, and went forward with that when we named our company Riverside Logging and Sawmill." However, Riverside Electric Incorporated is still part of his family, as his daughter, Christa, now runs the company.

Riverside

"Riverside Logging and Sawmill started by heading up and down the highway on I-74," says Paul. "Passing the Wood-Mizer just outside of Batesville, I was intrigued by what they did there. I've always loved messing with wood; if I had to do it all over again, I probably would have been a carpenter if I wasn't born into an electrical contracting family cause I love working with wood."

Wood-Mizer Batesville

Paul discussed the opportunity of buying a Wood-Mizer sawmill with his wife. "My wife said, 'Look, I know you enough to know you'll want to buy the smallest available unit. Please, don't do that. Buy big enough to where it'll take you into the future because you're probably going to want a bigger one pretty soon.”

Paul on Computer

Taking her advice, Paul went ahead and bought an LT15 portable sawmill. "However, the LT15GO was great, and it worked for about 2 weeks, and then I just had tree trimming start dropping off logs that would not fit in the LT15GO," says Paul. He returned to his wife and explained that he would need a bigger mill. "She said, 'I knew it! I knew you were going to do that." They purchased the LT50 Super Hydraulic sawmill, and later, Paul added a WM1000 industrial sawmill capable of cutting extra-large logs up to 67" in diameter.

Riverside WM1000

 Expanding Riverside 

Riverside LT50

With two sawmills, the business began to proliferate. "I was still very involved in the electrical part of the family business and always needed getting somebody in here full time to mill." This new addition to Riverside was Richie. "Richie is here now; he has been here probably over a year. He's doing a great job," says Paul.

Richie Working

In the short time Paul and Richie have spent together, they have formed a strong team. "Paul reminds me of my father, who's passed away now. I really enjoy working with him, and we're learning together," says Richie.

Every day at Riverside is different. "My day-to-day working here can vary greatly. Some days, we have a bunch of logs out in our yard, and we'll pick certain logs, and I'll slab them how I want. On other days, we will have customers here that want dimensional lumber. Some days, I can be on the SlabMizer; other days, I can be on the big saw WM1000 doing a 56" wide tree," explains Richie.

Paul and Richie

"We're a job shop, very much a job shop, and then in between jobs, we just mill our own wood for our own purposes and just to have it on inventory," comments Paul.

Richie on Sawmill

The main focus at Riverside is to utilize trees that typically go to waste. "As a company, we're not actively sawing down live trees. We are taking things that are already down. We like to look at it like we are repurposing it here to make something cool. Rather than have wood that's down and going to rot or turn it into mulch. We have fun with it and appreciate every piece we cut." says Paul.

Utilizing their Wood-Mizer equipment allowed Riverside to go above and beyond just milling their lumber. "We have an edger and a planer, which we just recently purchased within the last year. So, we are excited because we can do way more than just milling now. We can actually process and finish," says Paul.

Wood Stack at Riverside

"Luke 19:10 says, 'For the Son of man came to seek and save that which was lost.' Seek and save really came from that scripture; you know it's got dual meaning, and it's an important part of what we do here."

Scripture Sign

 The Future of Sawmilling 

Wood-Mizer also contacted them about a particular project because of the wisdom and expertise that Paul and Riverside offer. "Wood-Mizer, a local guy who lives right up the hill in Blue Ash, visited us and looked around at our operation one day. We got to talking, and he asked if we would be interested in demoing a new piece of equipment," explains Paul. This mill was the LT15WIDE battery-powered portable sawmill - an industry first.

Riverside Battery Mill

"When it first came, I looked at the batteries and just kind of laughed, 'Really, this is going to cut wood?' But when I cut my first log on it, it was incredible. This thing had the power. After the first few cuts, we were fascinated; since then, I've fallen in love with it. It's a great machine," says Richie.

Richie on the Battery Mill

"The LT15 is a beast, we love it. It's a really great unit. It will definitely be our next purchase," explains Paul.

 Family and Sawmilling 

Paul with Grandkids

Paul's sawmilling extends past his work life and into his family life. He continues to be grateful for how the sawmill has brought his family together. "Because of the family business I've always been involved with my whole life, I relish the opportunity to come into work and hug my daughter every day; many people don't get to do that. I'm a family man; I love my family, children, and grandchildren." 

Paul's Treehouse

Recently, Paul got an idea to build a treehouse near their creek as his grandchildren love to play in that area whenever they visit. "Usually, I get more of the stuff done in the fall and winter when there's not much else doing on. It's a 20 ft. by 40ft, so it's about an 800-square-foot platform, of which the treehouse takes up about 700 square feet. We got the Cedar siding on it; it's exciting. It's going to be neat when it's done."

Paul Gangloff

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Good Wood Nashville Preserves History through Salvaged and Reclaimed Urban Wood

Good Wood Nashville, located in scenic Nashville, Tennessee, is dedicated to turning salvaged and reclaimed wood from tragedies, natural disasters, and urban development into amazing works of art including a once-in-a-lifetime project with Belmont University.

 Finding the Good in Wood 

Inside Good Wood

The very idea that good things can come from saving wood is what inspired Dave Puncochar to create Good Wood Nashville in 2012. “I bought a 1906 Victorian in East Nashville, a lot of historic homes. And I walked into that house and half of the floors were damaged,” says Dave. “The interesting thing was the floors were old-growth poplar, it is very hard to find old-growth poplar. So, you know it was kind of a quest for me to figure out how to match those floors. My frustration in my process of trying to solve my own problem is actually what stimulated me to start Good Wood Nashville.”

Good Wood Mugs

In addition, Dave and his family have witnessed firsthand the destruction and damage that natural disasters can have on a community when the tornadoes of 2020 hit Nashville. “I was trying to put my life back together…so we saved as many of our own trees as we could as well. Just to preserve and try to make something good out of that tragedy,” says Dave.

Good Wood Tables

Through their mission, Good Wood Nashville is doing amazing sustainable work by creating projects with wood that would typically be discarded. According to the World Resources Institute, “Each year, 36 million trees come down in cities across the United States due to disease, development, or old age. Much of this wood ends up burned, chipped into mulch, or tossed into landfills.” Good Wood Nashville is helping recover and upcycle that would-be urban wood waste into higher-value products such as furniture, flooring, and construction material.

 Traditioned Innovation 

Belmont Campus

Since 2012, Good Wood Nashville has dedicated its craftmanship to the individuals and community of Nashville. Most notably, their once in a lifetime project with Belmont University.

The porch on the oldest academic building on campus, Freeman Hall, had begun to exhibit noticeable signs of wear and tear. After examining the columns and making holes at the top to remove them from inside the decorative column cladding, it was clear that four of the six timber columns which held up the porch had rotted and needed replaced.

Belmont University

Upon removal of the rotted columns, Belmont University Architect in Residence, David Minnigan, explains that he noticed several of them being taken to the dumpster. “I saw them and said, ‘Don’t throw those away.’ I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, but I knew that if we didn’t save those columns, we would never have the opportunity to do something. I called my good friend Dave Puncochar at Good Wood and said we've got this great opportunity to do something, I don’t know if they're any good or not, I don’t know what kind of wood it is. But I know you and I know you know wood and I know you know how to reuse old things and make things new,” says David.

Wooden Beams

As Dave and his Good Wood team came to examine the wood, “he called me and said ‘I think we've got an amazing opportunity, they’re chestnut!’” exclaimed David. American chestnut trees had been seemingly wiped out from the area in the early 1900s. “If these were cut down in 1905, then they were probably some of the last of that wood. It was an incredible opportunity that was about 200 years in the making,” says David.

Wood Stack

According to Belmont University, “The prolific American Chestnut in its prime totaled more than four billion trees at the beginning of the 20th century. As a dominant species in the eastern United States, it became one of the largest, tallest and fastest growing trees in the region. The wood is also known as ‘wormy chestnut,’ referring to trees that succumbed to the chestnut blight of the early 1900s which killed off nearly the entire population. Worms tore through the trees leaving holes and discoloration. Many trees were too far gone, but those still usable were harvested for use as affordable lumber.”

To increase the usage of the historic 20th century American chestnut columns, Good Wood decided to mill the wood very thin, almost like a veneer. After 8 months, Dave and his team were able to create a stunning conference table that seats 15 to 18 people and now sits in the heart of the Belmont University campus in the Jack C. Massey Center.

Belmont Table

“The main purpose of this building is to showcase the collaborative spirit of education. It is the welcome center of the university. Every potential student that comes to Belmont University will pass through the doors and see this building,” explains David. “Belmont has a saying that we are about traditioned innovation and I think that this table is the embodiment of traditioned innovation. Because of the talents that have been utilized, we have something that will live forever.”

Good Wood Sawmill

With a special opening ceremony, Good Wood Nashville’s work not only received appreciation from Belmont University students, faculty, and alumni but the entire local community. “When people know what we did for Belmont, word gets out,” says Dave.

 From Root to Table 

Good Wood Nashville likes to work in two specific ways with craftsmen as well as individuals. “Good Wood does work with a lot of designers, architects, and luxury builders. So, we do work with the trade. And then we also do work direct to consumer with homeowners and families who call us and want us to build something for them,” says Dave.

Working on the Wood-Mizer

What kind of wood they use then depends on the customer and their wants and needs. “Sometimes they have their own wood, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes we can tell them the story of wood we have in stock which is really special,” shares Dave.

Good Wood Products

Good Wood Nashville loves to take wood that would normally be thrown away and turn it into something unique and meaningful that will last generations. “If you had a 100-year-old tree in your parent’s yard that fell down we have the capability to come on out to your yard and milling it right there or grabbing the log, milling it, and making something out of it, anything,” explains Good Wood Nashville's Director of Operations, Ken Hood.

Good Wood Inventory

Good Wood makes the most out of each piece with the use of their Wood-Mizer LT50WIDE portable sawmill which allows them to turn logs and beams into boards, slabs and more. “That’s what I love about the sawmill, you just get to see the beauty that’s in there. All we are doing is revealing the beauty that’s there. And then one day a year or two later we'll turn it into furniture and say look at the grain again. It’s a really magical time,” says Dave.

Table

The entire team is truly excited and passionate about the work they are doing for their community. “From the root to the table, I feel like our whole team as they touch it are highly skilled, very capable, and really great people,” says Dave.

 Family & Community 

Good Wood Staff

Dave gives much of the success of Good Wood to his talented team. “Early on I knew I needed help, cause I love talking to people, but you can’t do both. You can’t run the business and build the furniture. Or be with customers and be moving stacks of wood all at the same time. So, over the course of 11 years now, we have had steady growth as a team. I feel like we've got the best team we've ever had,” says Dave.

Good Wood Wooden Sign

“Every day at Good Wood is different and it's one of the things I love about it. We have four full time furniture makers, we have two guys that are kind of our flex guys. They might to installs they might help with furniture, and then we have a sales team, a support team, an admin team, and office managers. And then me who's always just having hands in a little bit of everything, looking for new vendors, looking for trees, I love running the sawmill,” says Dave.

Good Wood Display Room

“The people are absolutely amazing and that’s the first thing I picked up on day one when I started working here. It really just seems like a big family,” says Ken.

Good Wood Employee

This family-feel also extends to the community of Nashville as well. “It's just so special to be a part of the community where we can be a part of things that make the community more beautiful and mean things to people, I love that,” says Dave.

Being such a close-knit team has allowed Good Wood to better help their community by providing quality crafted, unique wood products from would be waste. “You know we don’t sell plastic widgets that are made in another country, what we do is we make things that people make memories around. The things we make…they have a lot of soul and I think that’s because the people that work here have a lot of soul and they put everything they’ve have into every piece…I’m just proud to be a part of that process,” says Dave.

Stacking Wood

Dave’s future goal for Good Wood is to continue to see them grow. “We’ve got some of the best artisans in the country, we’ve got some of the best woodshops and sawmills in the country, and we’re just having fun. We’re just getting started,” says Dave.

Dave from Good Wood

To connect with more urban wood programs and learn how you can make a difference, visit the Urban Wood Network.

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Constructing a Unique Wooden Chapel on a Connecticut Farm

“I've been a builder for 40 years and have built a lot of different things over the years. But I think this chapel is the best thing I've ever done,” says Bill Finnegan, a farm owner in Connecticut and one of those involved in creating the unique Trinity Knot Chapel.

Trinity Knot Rainbow

About ten years ago, Bill Finnegan and his wife Amy Finnegan purchased an 18-acre (7-hectare) farm in New Milford, Connecticut. “The original Finnegan's Farm belongs to Amy's family in Ireland. So, we call ours Finnegan’s Farm, West,” Bill laughs.

Bill and Amy

The area used to be completely forested, so over time, Bill cleared it and turned it into an organic farm. At the same time, he built up a certain amount of logs. “I don’t like to throw away good wood,” Bill admits.

Building Trinity Knot

Inspiration struck Bill and Amy while they were traveling in Iceland. Being farmers themselves, they are interested in everything related to farm life in other places.

Amy and Bill Together

Door Way

Bill and Amy learned that since the island's rural population is widely spread and neighboring farmsteads are located at a considerable distance, it is practical for some rural farmers to build a place of worship right there on their farm.

Cow Sawmill

“This inspired us incredibly!” says Bill. “We decided to build a small chapel on our farm as a place to thank God for our blessings!”

Returning to Connecticut, they shared the idea with their friend Jon Scott, who lives about an hour's drive from their farm. Jon was immediately involved and soon arrived at the farm with his Wood-Mizer LT40WIDE portable sawmill to begin the project!

In just three days, they milled a small log pile into the required sizes of lumber, including Northern white ash, black cherry, and hemlock. 

Trinity Knot Chapel

“Of course, we had to tinker with the cherry wood,” Bill admits.

Several years ago, while clearing out a riding arena, Bill and Jon cut down several dozen cherry trees on the property. “The fact is that cherry leaves contain chemicals that can poison horses and cows,” explains Bill.

Amy and Bill Wedding

Anyone who has ever milled cherry trees knows how difficult it is. Cherry trunks are dense and incredibly curved. To mill such a tree, you must have excellent skills and a high-quality sawmill. Luckily, Jon had both! Their reward was exceptionally durable and beautifully textured cherry wood intended for the structural elements of the chapel.

Trinity Knot Construction

“The cherry was particularly challenging, as the trees are notoriously twisted, and we needed 4" x 6" (100 x 150 mm) and 4" x 4" (100 x 100 mm) beams, along with 2" x 4"s (50 x 100 mm) for the plates. Some beams featuring wains are incorporated into the structure as they don’t affect the strength. Moreover, they add to the rustic appearance Bill was hoping for,” Jon explains.

“I admit, we wouldn't have been able to complete the chapel project if it weren't for my Wood-Mizer,” Jon says.

Trinity Knot Chapel Ariel View

They neatly stacked lumber and left it outdoors to air dry for about a year. Two experienced carpenters, Scott Keller and Kevin Parsons, joined Bill in constructing the chapel, which took them about four months to complete. They also decided to use a thatched roof for the chapel as a nod to Amy and Bill's Irish heritage.

“We once figured that the three of us had a combined 135 years of carpentry experience,” Bill laughs.

Now we can see the Trinity Knot Chapel's open structure, in which the primary posts and beams, the steeple, and the wall supports are all milled from cherry, the horizontal supports and siding are white ash, and the flooring is hickory.

“The only material that I didn't mill on the Wood-Mizer was the hemlock tongue and groove boards we used for the ceiling,” says Jon. “I didn’t have a Wood-Mizer four-sided planer/moulder to create the tongue and grooves. I do now!”

Inside Shot

The chapel's antique glass windows were reclaimed from the Tiffany Estate in Greenwich, CT, and they obtained a brass bell, cast in 1820 in Troy, NY, from a bell restorer in Michigan.

Overall, the farm chapel looks terrific. “Unusual and unique” is the most common response from those who visit the farm, amazed by the design and skills of the builders. The Trinity Knot Chapel is a great place to pray and meditate, to slow down and rest, or to think about an exciting new project.

Trinity Knot Chapel Front Shot

“We already have a wedding planned for the Trinity Knot Chapel,” Bill says proudly. “I think that will be the first of many.”

Amy and Bill's vow renewal was the first ceremony at the chapel. Bill’s father, who is a 93 year old pastor, consecrated the chapel and presided over their vow renewal.

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Expanding the Narrow Gate Through Woodworking

Expanding the Narrow Gate Through Woodworking

Established by Bill and Stacy Spencer in 2004, the Narrow Gate Foundation has helped more than 500 young men discover a relationship with Jesus Christ while finding and pursuing their life's purpose. With multiple facets of the foundation including Narrow Gate Lodge and Narrow Gate Trading Co., Narrow Gate utilizes Wood-Mizer portable sawmill equipment to help make a difference in the lives of young men.

Narrow Gate Entrance

Narrow Gate Lodge

The residential ministry that serves as the centerpiece of Narrow Gate allows young men to live and work together for 8 months while pursuing biblical training, personal discipleship, and new life skills. This enables them to pause from the distractions of daily life to discover who Jesus says they are and their calling for the future.

Narrow Gate Ariel Shot

Since 2004, Narrow Gate has helped more than 500 young men to find their purpose and have a generational impact on their families and communities in a positive way. “What happens at Narrow Gate really depends on who you're talking to, because Narrow Gate is represented in a lot of different facets,” explains Founder, Bill Spencer. Most will automatically think of the Narrow Gate Lodge program to help young men between the ages of 18 and 25, however, there is so much more to Narrow Gate.

“But what really happens to those young men we wrap up in the phrase ‘transformation through relationship and confidence through craftsmanship.’" Through this philosophy, the leaders at Narrow Gate were able to expand beyond the lodge into Narrow Gate Leather Goods, Narrow Gate Woodworks, and Narrow Gate Coffee Co. “The transformation from wood, leather, and coffee from raw to finished is just a metaphor for what is going on inside of them,” says Bill.

Narrow Gate Sawmill Shed

“The whole idea of woodworking is in the beginning you have this tree that is dead. It has fallen down and if somebody doesn’t come along and do something to it, it's just going to rot away. But then somewhere along the way somebody comes along and determines that that actually does have value. Transforming what was destined for death into a work of art”, says Graduate, Landon Norman.

Wood Stack

Narrow Gate Trading Co.

With 128 acres of property including dozens of acres of timber, Narrow Gate was set up as a prime location for a woodworking operation. Although it was nothing but a dream at the time, this interest reached an 87-year-old local woodworker, Tom Yontz, who donated his entire woodshop and woodworking equipment for Narrow Gate to get started.

Woodshop

However, even with equipment to process and finish boards into finished projects, Narrow Gate was still relying on purchasing costly lumber instead of sawing logs and producing lumber themselves. Wood-Mizer caught the attention of Narrow Gate which led to their interest in having their own portable sawmill.

Wood-Mizer Sawmill Logo

Today, Narrow Gate uses two Wood-Mizer portable sawmills including an LT15 and an LT35 Hydraulic portable sawmill which enables them to saw their own logs into lumber either from harvested trees on their own property or from donated logs from local arborists. Using their Wood-Mizer portable sawmills, the leaders and students can accomplish amazing projects such as creating quality wood products and doing renovations at the Narrow Gate facility.

Grant Batson explains that the buildings, including their current woodworking shop, found on the Narrow Gate property were, “actually built by us with our students. We did it all, concrete, plumbing, electrical, framing, everything.”

LT35 Sawmill

“As Narrow Gate began year to year to reiterate its expression of who we are we discovered that craftsmanship is a huge component. So, our woodshop got more and more and more involved in our curriculum. The wood education facility is almost 9,000 square feet. Every piece of siding, interior, and exterior was milled out of donated logs that were milled and dried on our property and went into that facility,” says Bill.

With a multitude of different buildings around the property, there are always different upkeep and restoration needs. “We’re constantly running siding materials and building materials for that. We also do some craftmanship oriented things and the sawmill really makes that craftmanship possible in a way that it wouldn’t be if we didn’t have it,” says Graduate, John Moucka.

Student on Sawmill

Using a sawmill has changed how those at Narrow Gate can do projects around the property. Bill explained, "Now we can take trees that came down in development or that came down in storms and we can convert that into dimensional lumber or slabs that can turn into furniture, turn into building projects. The buildings we build on this property we literally side and frame with the lumber that is milled on our sawmill.”

Being able to work hands-on with machines is something some of the men at Narrow Gate have never had the opportunity to do. As a graduate, John explains that “it’s always fun for the guys to learn how to operate that kind of stuff and the sawmill is one of the most useful things that you can have.”

“The thing that I love about Wood-Mizer, is that Wood-Mizer sees its operation as a vested opportunity for every single person in that environment. Every single individual is seen for the advantage that they play and Wood-Mizer operates as a body, just like Narrow Gate. Operates as a body. That kind of symbiosis between the two entities makes a perfect fit,” says Bill.

Woodworking Project

The Future of Narrow Gate

As Narrow Gate continues, they want to make sure they stay true to their beliefs and missions.

“I think woodworking illustrates the process of transformation well because on one end of the operation you run into a boy who doesn’t who he is or what he wants to do with his life. And on the other side of the program out comes a man,” says John.

Students Sitting Around the Fire

Narrow Gate is ultimately a community of brothers who can gather to better themselves while serving God and others.

“Everything is good for something. I really want them to walk away more confident. I want them to walk away having overcome a fear. I believe that every one of them walks away feeling like they can do something and that’s life changing,” says Grant.

Prayer Circle

Narrow Gates allows these young men the opportunity to work with hands and to do something impactful. One student explains that, “knowing that I have a purpose motivates me and it gets me excited to get up and work and love and live.”

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Father and Son Industrial Sawmill Business in Ohio

Located in the lush rolling hills of Piketon, Ohio, Brandon Wooldridge and his son Bryce run their own sawmill business, Deep Woods Lumber Co. The family owned and operated sawmill business was established in 1998 and recently upgraded their equipment to a Wood-Mizer WM4500 industrial sawmill system to carry on their long family tradition of sawmilling.

Ariel View

Starting a Family Sawmill Business

Bryce and Brandon

Brandon started in the sawmilling industry right out of college and worked for a local timber business owner for 3 ½ years. “I decided to go out on my own, and my father helped me,” said Brandon. “I needed to put a sawmill in, so I put in a Frick sawmill.”

Old Saw

First Sawmill

For more than 25 years, Deep Woods Lumber Co. has remained a family business thanks to the help of Brandon’s son Bryce. “I am a 4th generation sawyer, so it's kind of just in the blood,” said Bryce. Growing up seeing his father work in the logging and sawmilling business, it was only a matter of time before Bryce took an interest himself. “I used to skip school and go with him, hang out in the log yard, and help my grandpa cut up logs and stuff. I’ve just been around it since I was a little old thing,” said Bryce.

Father and Son Working Together

For a few decades, Brandon ran the circular sawmill, and now that his son was a part of the business, Brandon wanted to make some improvements by upgrading to a Wood-Mizer industrial sawmill system. “I didn't want Bryce sawing on a circular mill, it’s dangerous. The Wood-Mizer WM4500 is the best move I made in 25 years of business,” said Brandon.

The Sawmilling Process

Bruce Walking at Deep Woods Lumber Co.

Lumber Stack

Deeps Woods Lumber Co. is in the perfect area to find a variety of different timber species, with especially tall timber growing in the valleys of Ohio. They can mill species such as hard maple, soft maple, red oak, white oak, and chestnut oak, milling anywhere from 40,000 to 45,000 feet of lumber per week. Typically, these logs are sawn into 4-quarter and 5-quarter lumber which are 1-1/8” and 1-3/8” thick. “We start out in the woods. We contract a logging crew and a trucking company too. And they’ll get the logs and bring them in here. We unload all the logs and stack them into the piles. We’ll debark those logs according to the purchase order and we’ll saw them out, grade them, put the lumber, the ties, the cants, and everything on the truck, and send them out,” explains Bryce.

Machinery

After the WM4500 industrial sawmill was installed, it didn’t take long for Bryce to learn how to operate the mill. “I hopped up in there and within 3 months I was pushing logs through. The first log I ever cut in my entire life was 3 years ago on that sawmill,” said Bryce. “I’ve learned everything, pretty much just started from the bottom, and learned how to scale logs, I can run every piece of machinery over there.”

WM4500

To keep up with production demands, Deep Woods added a Wood-Mizer industrial board edger to their system which improved their material flow and efficiency. “All of the boards, ties, everything will end up on the same side of the sawmill at the same time. Honestly, we have probably one of the simplest and easiest setups there is for this type of Wood-Mizer,” says Bryce.

Lumber Stack

Along with using Wood-Mizer SilverTip Turbo 7 band sawmill blades to cut their hardwoods, Deep Woods Lumber Co. has also integrated Wood-Mizer blade sharpening equipment to keep their blades sharp in-house. “Normally on our hardwoods, we get three to four runs per band at about an hour and a half per band,” says Bryce. “So, you’re looking at six hours per band. For those bands for the price of them, you can’t ask for much more.”

Bryce

With the thin-kerf sawmill blades removing less sawdust with each cut, Deep Woods is also seeing increased yield from every log which turns to profit. “I can compete now with the other bigger mills because of that saw kerf. Every 10 loads of hardwood lumber we sell, 7,500 board feet per load I gain a load. So, my 11th load is free. And that makes a world of difference, I wasn’t getting that in a circular mill until I put that Wood-Mizer in,” says Brandon.

Wood Stack

Looking Towards the Future

Father and Son

Brandon has big plans for Deep Woods Lumber Co. that includes more Wood-Mizer sawmill equipment, a log yard, a full-time lumber grader, and a bright future for his son Bryce. “In the next five to ten years I can see myself sitting on a beach somewhere with my wife and letting Bryce run the sawmill,” says Brandon. “That’s what I see.”

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Nonprofit Urban Sawmilling in Metro Atlanta System

Located within the city limits of Atlanta, Georgia, the nonprofit sawmill, Atlanta Wood Foundation, was established in 2021 to save damaged, diseased, and fallen urban trees from the landfill while providing high-quality wood to the surrounding woodworking community. 

 Starting a Nonprofit Sawmill 

Founders

During the pandemic as lumber prices began to skyrocket, Atlanta Wood Foundation founders Ali and Kelly Syed decided that in order to grow their woodworking business they needed to buy their own portable sawmill.  

Ali

“We reached out to our partner Chris, a co-worker of Ali’s, about starting a portable milling service operation with us,” said Kelly. “Several ideas were tossed around, and starting a local sawmill is what seemed most logical. Chris came up with the nonprofit idea, in hopes it would give tree service companies an incentive to donate logs to us. As it turns out, it is more of an incentive for homeowners. We mostly work directly with the homeowner who would like to keep their trees out of the landfill. And for some, they love that they can hire a local woodworker to create something for their home once their tree has been milled and dried.” 

Chris

Currently, Ali, Kelly, and Chris volunteer their time running the sawmill and the organization. There are a few hurdles to overcome when starting a nonprofit, one of which is receiving monetary donations. 

Drying Kiln

“All forms of donations are necessary lifelines for nonprofits. It all begins with the tree donor for us. It all begins with the tree donor for us. Once we are contacted by a homeowner about a tree that has to be removed, or that fell, we are able to request the sections and lengths for their tree service deliver to us or to leave for us to retrieve,” shared Kelly. 

Sawmilling in Metropolitan Atlanta

LT15

Though it may come as a surprise, there are a multitude of available trees throughout Atlanta. “All of our trees are donated to us from the Metro Atlanta area. We currently have 13 species,” explained Kelly. “White Oak, Red Oak, Maple, Pecan, Hickory, and Walnut. We are lucky to have such a green canopy for a big city!”

Facility

However, the Atlanta Wood Foundation would not be able to utilize this abundance of trees if it weren't for their Wood-Mizer LT15WIDE portable sawmill. “We did not operate before having our Wood-Mizer,” said Kelly. "The LT15WIDE gets the daily job done. It allows us to create our product, and if we wanted to be mobile, we have the option.”

Drone Shot

Kelly detailed what a typical day looks like for their operation. “Our warehouse is open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays from 9 to 1. The average log size we get is between 14” and 36” in diameter and vary in length from 6’ to 12’. We typically mill 3 to 5 logs a day. Once milled, the slabs get stacked and stickered for air drying outside for several months, and then they go in the kiln for a few months.” As soon as the material is kiln-dried, slabs are measured, photographed, and added to the online store for sale.

Locally Sourced Wood Products

Atlanta Wood Foundation offers a wide variety of live edge slabs that are rough cut and ready for woodworkers to finish and create beautiful furniture or unique wood projects. “All of our live-edge slabs are sold kiln-dried and rough cut through the online store of our website. Red and white oak are currently our best sellers. They are beautiful and sturdy hardwoods,” said Kelly.

Poplar

However, if a customer is not looking for a rough–cut slab, the foundation also offers CNC services for anyone that would like to have their slabs surfaced or flattened. “Many take advantage of the CNC knowing the time it will save them in prepping their slab. Also because a lot of the slabs are over 20" wide, most woodworkers don’t have that size of machinery in their shops to surface them,” shared Kelly.

Project

Atlanta Wood Foundation has appealed to many locals in the area. “Our client base is mostly local Atlanta woodworkers,” said Kelly. “They all appreciate that our slabs come from Metro Atlanta and were saved from the landfill. They like knowing where the trees came from.”

Coffee Table

Atlanta Wood Foundation is a unique sawmilling operation as a nonprofit, but they are making a difference for the environment by salvaging urban trees and providing high-quality wood for the community, one log, one sawmill, and one slab at a time.

Team

“As we grow in sales and monetary donations including grants and sponsorships, we can begin to pay ourselves and add employees, so we can be open daily. We hope to be a true and steady source of Urban Wood in Georgia,” said Kelly.

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Wilson Enterprises Grows with Wood-Mizer WB2000 Industrial Sawmilling System

By Olivia Eaker

Located in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan, family-owned and operated Wilson Enterprises has provided high-quality evergreen and wood products for home décor, construction, and craft projects since 1985. Recently, the company invested in a Wood-Mizer WB2000 industrial sawmilling system to process logs to finished products all in-house while offering their wood products in close to 5,000 retail stores throughout the United States. 

Wilson

From Clean-Up Crew to Enterprise Owner 

Owner of Wilson Enterprises, Gerry Wilson, has been part of the sawmilling and woodworking community since he was young. Starting as a member of the clean-up crew on a local lumber yard at the age of 13, Gerry gained a lot of knowledge and respect for the wood industry and knew he wanted to be a part of the industry long term.  

Logs

Andrea Working on Sawmill

Over the years, Gerry established Wilson Enterprises and continued to grow his experience in the timber industry by handmaking fresh evergreen wreaths and garland and building cabins throughout Michigan. “We ran a business here that manufactured fresh evergreen products for over 20 years,” said Gerry. “I owned a construction company, and we built cabins across the Upper Peninsula. I also produced a lot of tongue and groove lumber and utilized it in the cabin building process. We started off making craft products for the crafting industry. It slowly grew to cutting live edge products, timber mantels, and as the years went on, we developed more products with dimensional lumber and tongue and groove.” 

packaging

From Logs to Finished Products 

“We do everything in-house here. We purchase the logs, we mill them on the mill, we’ll run it through the resaw, we have four large dry kilns here, so everything gets dried in-house,” said Gerry. “From there we actually process everything to a finished product start to finish.”

Andrea

Being in the Upper Peninsula, Wilson Enterprises utilizes all the great natural timber resources that Michigan has to offer. “Almost all our wood is sourced from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan and northern Wisconsin,” said Gerry. When selecting timber, Wilson Enterprises typically purchases 8-inch logs up to logs 36 inches in diameter. With their sawmill, they have the capacity to cut up to 20 feet long but tend to stick between 8 and 12 feet as their common log length.
 

Andrea Operating Sawmill

Wilson Enterprises’ head sawyer, Andrea Walechka, mentioned they utilize woods such as red and white pine for making fireplace mantels and dimensional boards, birch, maple, basswood, aspen, and cedar. “It’s a really good work environment to learn how to work with your hands and know how, from start to finish, a product is made because this is from raw log to kiln dry, to finished product, and it’s nice to be able to see the whole process,” said Andrea.  

 

log on hr2000

cut log

To keep up with their product demand, Wilson Enterprises purchased a Wood-Mizer WB2000 industrial sawmilling system that also includes a six-head resaw, board edger, and material handling equipment. “Our equipment grew over the years, we started with a very small sawmill and now we've moved up to the Wood-Mizer industrial mill,” said Gerry. “We have a WB2000, it's an industrial sawmill. We wanted a mill that would last, and you can tell when we received it, just how well it's built. It's just going to outlast any other mill on the market.” 

Planks

Wilson Enterprises’ sawmill processes between 12 to 15 thousand board feet per day. “That mill has helped us produce a steady flow of timber and lumber and it’s really helped our company grow,” said Gerry. “The service from Wood-Mizer has been really well. They came to our facility, and they went over with us what we could use, and what would work best for us. After we were running it for about a month, they were in the area, they stopped and helped us with problems that we had as far as learning the software and the function of the mill itself.” 

hr700

Along with the WB2000 industrial sawmill, Wilson Enterprises also owns a Wood-Mizer industrial board edger and an HR700 horizontal resaw. “We also have a really nice 6-head resaw so we can square up the logs into a cant. It really helps make the whole process more efficient,” said Gerry. The HR700 horizontal resaw has helped increase production by allowing them to cut 7 boards at a time with the six resaw heads. They also have a transfer table to assist with downstream processing from the sawmill. Once the lumber leaves the sawmill, it is moved onto the table which transfers to either the resaw or their board edger. “It’s a very simple, effective, efficient way to produce lumber,” said Gerry. 

conveyor

conveyor table

With high demand for their products, Wilson Enterprises has made sure that their customers can get ahold of their products in many ways. Not only do they sell dimensional lumber to local lumber yards, but they also sell tongue and groove products to customers in the local area. “We also sell it online, so we have our own websites, we sell on Wayfair and Amazon,” said Gerry. "We have a shipping department here so we ship everyday products directly to people’s homes.” 

lumber

While they produce different varieties of dimensional lumber and tongue and groove products for their larger cooperate customers, they are also able to sell live edge and white birch products. “Right now, we are in close to 5,000 retail stores across the country with our wood products,” said Gerry. 

edges

 

Growing with Wood-Mizer 

As Wilson Enterprises continues to grow, they are in the process of expanding their dimensional lumber line and continuing to produce large amounts of high-end tongue and groove products. “Customers like the fact that they are able to buy lumber directly from the mill,” said Gerry. “We are excited that as we grow, we can grow with Wood-Mizer.” 

finished

Michigan

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Family Run Sawmill Business in Oregon

By Olivia Eaker

Located along the beautiful Pacific coastline in Seaside, Oregon, Marlborough Milling produces rough-sawn lumber as well as custom wood furniture with a Wood-Mizer LT50 Hydraulic portable sawmill. The family-owned and operated sawmill business was established by Dallas Pattie and three more members of the Pattie family who are continuing their family sawmilling and woodworking traditions that have lasted for generations.

MM on Sawmill

Owner of Marlborough Milling, Dallas Pattie, is a licensed contractor as well as a 4th generation carpenter and sawyer. “Wood has always been a big part of my life and the creations that come with it," said Dallas. "As a boy I would always love to poke my head in my dad’s and grandfather’s wood shops. I was constantly surrounded by wood and rough sawn lumber, so the idea of sawmilling has always been on my mind. You could say I was happily born into it.”

Running a Family Sawmill Business

MM Working on the Sawmill

Marlborough Milling was officially started in 2017 when Dallas’ father, David, purchased a Wood-Mizer LT50 Hydraulic portable sawmill. Initially, the sawmill was used for the family farm and small jobs but has since grown into a full-time business. “The Wood-Mizer plays a huge role in what we do and what we stand for,” said Dallas. “The mill is the heart of our business. It’s a work horse, it generates income, and brings the biggest smile to our faces, as well as anyone else who gets to watch and experience its capabilities. We love all aspects of it!”

LT50

Marlborough Milling is a true family business with Dallas as the owner, sawyer, and carpenter, while his wife Genevieve is a sawyer and content creator, and his brother Keys is a graphic designer and merchandise manager.

The Harvesting and Milling Process

“We are constantly searching for local timbers and salvageable trees,” said Dallas. “We are very adamant on sourcing our trees and timber locally. We have a source for practicing low-impact harvesting and we also salvage unwanted trees as much as possible, due to storm damage or removal for safety.”

MM Lumber

Marlborough Milling primarily works with softwoods such as Fir and Hemlock, as these species grow locally on the Oregon coastline. These softwoods are milled into lumber, structural needs, and carpentry projects. “We also mill hardwoods such as Alder and Maple for furniture and other crafts,” said Dallas.

Wood Pile

Much of the lumber sold at Marlborough Milling is rough sawn dimensional lumber that ranges from 8' to 20' long and 12” to 30” wide. The company also provides portable sawmilling and custom finish carpentry services as well as custom tables and furniture.

MM Sawing

“These items are either sold locally here in the Pacific Northwest or through our online presence on the Instagram platform @marlborough.milling,” said Dallas. “After the lumber is sawn, we clean and sticker the material. Sometimes it’s used green right away or it is air-dried or sent to a kiln. If the material or lumber is going towards furniture or someone’s home, we surface and manufacture the material as needed.”

Part of the Community

The main focus of Marlborough Milling is to serve the local community through their high-end carpentry. Clients range from local homeowners to woodworkers in the area. “Wood and timber are what we love,” said Dallas. “Our customers appreciate our service, turnaround time, product, and the fact that we are local and focus on serving our small community.”

MM Product

A major way that the Pattie family is able to do this is through their LT50 portable sawmill and the addition of a shingle lapsiding sawmill attachment. “The mill allows us to create lumber and connect with the community,” said Dallas. “It provides a sustainable source of lumber goods for us and our customers. We also have a lapsiding jig. The Wood-Mizer slab flattener is next on the list, and it would speed up production time.”

To continue serving their community, Marlborough Milling hopes to expand its business in the future while having fun in the process. “Our work is our playtime. We plan on purchasing a new track of land for the company to grow. A warehouse and showroom on-site for customers to view products and materials as well as just be amongst our operation” said Dallas.

Family Photo

While there are breaks in between milling jobs, Marlborough Milling has been able to create a thriving business in producing high-end finished carpentry for the homes and families within their community.

Coming from a long line of carpenters and sawyers, Marlborough Milling has grown into a full-time operation specializing in lumber goods, mobile sawmilling, custom high-end carpentry, and most importantly - a desire to create. “It's our calling to create materials and products that will last generations to come,” said Dallas.

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Nelson Wood Shims Installs Wood-Mizer Sawmill System to Drive Productivity

Based in Minnesota, Nelson Wood Shims is the largest shim manufacturer in North America, producing high quality products for nationwide distribution. The company recently had a comprehensive industrial sawmill system from leading wood processing equipment manufacturer, Wood-Mizer, designed and installed at its modern, high volume sawmill facility. The company made the decision to invest in a new sawmill system to maximize log yield, while minimizing investment and operational costs.

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Nelson Wood Shims cuts a variety of shims from top quality coniferous wood grown in North America and around the world. A shim is a wedge-shaped piece of wood that is used to align and level surfaces or to provide support for construction projects. Nelson Wood Shims takes pride in providing high quality and consistent wood shims for DIY enthusiasts and construction contractors. With 65 years of manufacturing and marketing experience, their recognizable products are sold through many well-known and national home improvement retail stores. “To uphold the legacy of our founder Wilbur Nelson, the manufacturing of high-quality true shims consistent in width and length and with feathered ends, is very important to us,” said Brian Peterson, President, Nelson Wood Shims.  

 

Nelson Wood Shims

Nelson Wood Shims Brian and Scott

In the Summer of 2014, Nelson Wood Shims was not in the sawmill business. “We were struggling to procure the fiber we needed, and our wood shim sales continued to increase,” said Scott Berg, Plant Manager, Nelson Wood Shims. “We began looking at solutions to our problem and Wood-Mizer had an entry-level sawmill that would fit in our current building at the time. Wood-Mizer helped with the learning curve as we had not operated a sawmill before.” In 2015, Nelson Wood Shims added a Wood-Mizer LT50 Hydraulic sawmill to their operation to process logs. “We installed our first sawmill to process our own wood and vertically integrate the manufacturing process. Today, Wood-Mizer continues to help us further streamline and increase production without losing our reputation for high quality,” said Peterson.

Vance Toolshed

As Nelson Wood Shims continued to grow, the company turned to Wood-Mizer to find a solution to expand their sawmill capacity. “We were familiar with Wood-Mizer’s support and desire to please their customer,” said Berg. “Wood-Mizer provided an automated system at an affordable price.” The Wood-Mizer Sawmilling Solutions specialist team designed and installed a new high-throughput commercial processing line to meet the specific requirements of Nelson Wood Shims. Luke Murray of Wood-Mizer said, “The Wood-Mizer range of industrial machines allows us to meet the needs of customers who are experiencing growth or have growth goals. We were thrilled to work with Nelson Wood Shims and install an innovative, heavy-duty sawing system on budget.” 

 

Vance Using Sawmill

Nelson Wood Shims’ sawmill system features a Twin Vertical Saw and a MultiRip Gang Saw that incorporates innovative system controls allowing one operator to process the logs to lumber for reduced labor costs. With the integrated material handling components, lumber moves through the system efficiently for sorting and stacking. The company counts on the system to provide highly accurate cuts along with an excellent sawn finish which improves recovery savings further down the line in the dry-milling and finishing process. 

 

Vance Motor

 

The TV6000 Twin Vertical Saw is Wood-Mizer’s largest and most robust primary breakdown twin-vertical saw, handling a high throughput of small to medium diameter logs up to 21.8ft (6.6 m) in length. “The main priority at this primary stage in the log breakdown process is to achieve equal open faces on the sawn cant,” said Murray.  Our twin bands achieve equal open face cutting using a fast and accurate log feed system coupled with pressurized hold-down rollers and a sharp feed chain. This allows for higher recovery down the line at the multirips, also known as gang saws.” 


The multirips, saws capable of making multiple high tolerance cuts in a single pass, make up the next stage. Optical sensors detect the presence of material, activating pneumatically assisted driven hold-downs to apply pressure down onto the cant, guiding the timber accurately through the MR6000 Gang Saw. “The MR6000 is a workhorse machine, producing the majority of finished product in most sawmills,” said Murray. 

 

Vance with Logs

 

Providing added flexibility, each machine is designed to operate as standalone unit and can be configured differently in a sawmilling line should the requirements of Nelson Wood Shims change. Wood-Mizer’s system engineers and manufacturing capabilities combined with project management, training and commitment to customer service allowed the team to build a heavy-duty, high recovery, and reduced labor system that is running efficiently for Nelson Wood Shims. “Our output has increased by 30% to 50% with less people,” said Berg. “The consistent cuts through the gang saw also allowed for eliminating a planing process.”

The installation at Nelson Wood Shims supports Wood-Mizer’s global reputation for providing innovative sawmilling products and commercial sawing lines. “The design of this system is matched to the customer needs and coupled with solid construction and plenty of power. We believe it will produce high throughput and top-quality results for Nelson Wood Shims for many years to come,” said John Smith, CEO, Wood-Mizer.  “Our dedicated teams are focused on helping our clients build long-term solutions that generate maximum return on investment.” 

Peterson and Berg said that the installation process went very smoothly and the Wood-Mizer team provided in-depth training on all the equipment for mill personnel. “Wood-Mizer delivered on-time and provided excellent installation service. When we ran into challenges, Wood-Mizer was both fair and reasonable as we worked through them,” said Berg. “We appreciate the hands-on involvement, service, and commitment the team provides to support us. This is the start of a long-term partnership with Wood-Mizer,” said Peterson. 

 

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Building Santa’s Sleigh with a Wood-Mizer Portable Sawmill

By Chase Warner

Gregg Turk used to operate his Wood-Mizer portable sawmill to saw material for his fine furniture making and woodcarving business. After being struck with health problems, Gregg was forced to scale back his business and semi-retire. He then decided to try out a new vocation of being Santa Claus, but there was just one problem with the gig. When children saw Gregg’s Santa persona, they would ask, “Santa, where is your sleigh?” Gregg decided it was time to build Santa a proper sleigh.

 

Wood on Sawmill

 

With a little bit of Santa’s magic, the wood from a single poplar tree was transformed into Santa’s sleigh. Gregg did all of the woodworking himself and only contracted out the front bells, upholstery, and wiring system, all of which he still had a hand in designing.

 

Sleigh Furnished

Although the style of the sleigh may look old-fashioned, the dash is outfitted with the latest advances in technology to make Santa’s job a little easier. He has a GPS system, a computer to view the “Great Kids List” and images of space, a switch to activate the locking clamps to help hold the sleigh down when up on the rooftops, and even a liftoff sequence simulation with roaring speakers and fog!

 

Sleigh Frame

Sleigh Rear

 

Not long after Gregg began building, he was contacted by two local cities about being Santa for their Christmas events. Suddenly, the pressure was on. Although December was only a few months away, Gregg was determined to finish the sleigh in time. He worked on building the sleigh eight to ten hours a day and spent his evenings designing the parts he would build next. By milling 100% of the yellow and tulip poplar needed for the sleigh on his Wood-Mizer LT40 Hydraulic portable sawmill, Gregg estimates he saved more than $4,000 on the sleigh that measured 14’ long, 5’ 8” wide, and 7’ high.

 

Sleigh Carving

Sleigh Details

 

Needless to say, Gregg was exhausted at the end of this project, but the final result was worth it. Once the sleigh was completed, Gregg and his wife both sat on the floor of the workshop speechless at the masterpiece in front of them.

 

Sleigh Side

Sleigh Back

 

Gregg considers his sleigh the culmination of more than 35 years of woodworking and the best project he has ever undertaken. His Wood-Mizer sawmill allowed him to work with high grade material that he never could have purchased at a lumberyard and gave him flexibility in the sizing of his material. As Gregg says, “The combination of being a woodworker, a Santa Claus, and owning a Wood-Mizer sawmill allows you to be able to build anything you can imagine!”

Turk as Santa

Turk Sleigh

Northcentral Technical College Sawmill

Sawmilling and Woodworking for Education in Wisconsin

By Olivia Eaker, Wood-Mizer

Located in Northern Wisconsin, in the small town of Antigo, Travis Allen and Logan Wells have dedicated their talents to teaching sawmilling and woodworking at Northcentral Technical College (NTC). In doing so, Travis and Logan have set their sights on educating and preparing the next generation of woodworkers and forest products professionals.

 

NTC instructors Travis and Logan have decades of experience in the wood products industry. From the East to the West coast, “I’ve been heavily involved with the forest products industry, whether that be on the primary end…or the secondary wood products manufacturing industry,” shared Travis.

 

Logan and Travis with Northcentral Tech College

 

In addition, Logan started in the forest products industry while still in high school. “I loved being in the woods and woodworking with my dad,” shared Logan. This interest inspired Logan to purchase a Wood-Mizer LT15 portable sawmill and start his own sawmill business before earning his degree in Forest Management at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and studying Hardwood Lumber Grading as a graduate student at Purdue University.

 

Northcentral Tech College kiln

Laying Down Roots

Travis came to Northcentral Technical College as an instructor around 2010 and was an integral part in developing their Wood Technology Center of Excellence. Travis explained that the purpose of the center is to help train the incumbent work force which he described as, “Employees that are currently employed with the forest products industry and also college students coming through our wood science program.”

 

Northcentral Technical College wooden sign

 

Antigo was clearly the perfect place for the Wood Technology Center, as Wisconsin is a large contributor in the forest products industry, and in 2006, Northcentral Technical College’s Wood Training Program was born.

 

Wood Technology Center CNC machine

Wood Technology Center at Northcentral Tech College

 

The Wood Technology Center of Excellence is home to the training facility for those looking to enter and grow in the forest products industry. Both Travis and Logan stressed the importance of hands-on opportunities and learning and how it plays into their program. “All the students coming through our program are hands-on learners,” said Travis. “So, to be able to have an affordable sawmill for students to work on and learn firsthand is just an excellent opportunity.”

Northcentral Technical College strives to prepare its students for the industry with a multitude of different woodworking equipment including a portable sawmill, CNC machines, wood drying kilns, and more. This is not your typical woodworking program that focuses on one specialty alone. “What makes this program unique is that students get to discover what area of the industry they enjoy,” said Logan.

 

Student sawing with a portable sawmill

Student edging with a sawmill edger

Choosing a Career in the Wood Products Industry

Second-year Wood Science Program student, Brandon Nilles, explained that this program really helped him discover where he wanted to go in his career path. “When I first signed up for this program, I really had no goals, I had no idea what I was going to do. I just knew I liked woodworking,” shared Brandon. Brandon’s story, like many other students attending the program, is a common journey.

 

Student using a sawmill log turner

Student with sawmill board edger

 

“As they get started, they know they like trees, they know they like making things with their hands and then they can kind of discover the path that’s right for them,” said Logan. Northcentral Technical College strives to inspire their students to discover their own paths by introducing them to all the possibilities the wood products industry has to offer.

 

Portable sawmill blade sawing at a school

Hands-On Opportunities and Continuing Education 

Logan clarified that getting the opportunity to work hands-on with woodworking equipment in a safe and supervised environment alongside industry professionals helps to engage students. Travis and Logan get the chance to not only teach them how to use the equipment but also how to troubleshoot any problems they may come across.

 

sawmill board edger at Northcentral Tech College

 

Brandon admitted that going into the program he did not know what to expect, but the abundance of woodworking equipment offered at The Wood Technology Center was able to open his eyes to the endless career possibilities in the forest products industry.

The program is dedicated to highlighting sawing, edging, and trimming, and to do so NTC partnered with Wood-Mizer to purchase an LT40 electric hydraulic sawmill as well as an EG200 twin-blade board edger. “We use this equipment for our students so they can learn how to apply NHLA standard grading rules while they are breaking down a log into lumber to maximize the profit of that log,” shared Travis.

 

Teaching at Northcentral Technical College

 

The Wood Technology Center is truly dedicated to making sure their students are well informed and experience all aspects of the forest products industry. “Aside from our college classes that we offer, we have a lot of continuing education classes. We offer classes on log grading and scaling, manufacturing lumber, setting up a moulder, as well as fine woodworking,” shared Logan.

With access to state-of-the-art equipment and experienced instructors like Travis and Logan, Northcentral Technical College is dedicated to continuing to help students find their own path in the woodworking and forest products industry.

Mesquite Treehouse Milled and Made in Southern Arizona

Mesquite Treehouse Milled and Made in Southern Arizona

By Amanda Buttram, Wood-Mizer Contributing Author

Mesquite trees are a dominant feature across the southern Arizona desert landscape, as these shrubby, irregular plants are a hardy survivor despite the environment’s harsh conditions. The inherently imperfect, dense timber of the Sonoran Desert Velvet Mesquite along with an introduction to the sawmill first drew Arthur and Valerie Flores away from other careers nearly two decades ago. In the 20 years since its beginning, this husband-and-wife team established the Tumacacori Mesquite Sawmill in Tumacacori, Arizona. “[We] now have the reputation as being Arizona’s oldest and largest supplier of responsibly harvested mesquite products,” said Arthur.

 

Mesquite treehouse in southern Arizona

 

When a local rancher explained a treehouse concept for his granddaughters designed to complement the organic, rustic environment of the southern Arizona area, Arthur and Valerie were intrigued with the idea of using mesquite lumber in its construction. The couple are no strangers to creating unique mesquite products themselves and are aware of the many ways indigenous Native Americans utilized various parts of the plant throughout history, but this treehouse idea seemed like a completely new concept. “The prospect of utilizing mesquite for the treehouse took it to a whole different level…twenty feet above ground level, to be exact!” explained Arthur.

 

Balcony of mesquite treehouse

 

The considerable interest this unique idea sparked within Arthur and Valerie led them to join the project team. “The design, engineering, and fabrication was done by The Treehouse Guys, LLC from Vermont. The crew, led by James ‘B-Fer’ Roth, spent approximately 10 weeks here in Arizona during the construction,” shared Arthur. In addition to the treehouse’s unique use of mesquite wood, the structure would also feature an outside deck for spectacular views of the mountainous desert landscape, and its interior would include a living area and bedroom loft, complete with running water and electricity.
 

 

Mesquite treehouse windows

 

All lumber used to create the treehouse was milled at Tumacacori Mesquite Sawmill with their Wood-Mizer LT40HD Super Hydraulic portable sawmill. Douglas fir was chosen for the treehouse’s floor joists, roof, and major structural support. More specifically, the material was old forest Douglas fir sourced from a Canadian pre-WWII barn, obtained and imported by the landowner, and brought to the sawmill on flatbed trucks. “The Douglas fir was relatively easy and took about a week to mill,” said Arthur.

 

Douglas fir treehouse support

 

The indigenous Sonoran Desert Velvet Mesquite used in the stair treads, siding, and stair and balcony rails was primarily sourced from the landowner’s property and other nearby ranches. “Much of this mesquite was cleared for the purpose of increasing farmland or cattle grazing,” explained Arthur. As mesquite is a more challenging wood to work with, it took about 10 weeks to mill to the specifications of The Treehouse Guys’ lead foreman.

 

Balcony of mesquite treehouse

Mesquite treehouse stairs

 

Arthur advises using the right tool for the job to set your project up for success. “For us, the LT40HD Super has and will always be the right tool for the job!” he said. Even with the correct tool on hand, mesquite is never easy to mill. “In general, we’re lucky to mill more than four slabs before needing a fresh blade!"

 

LT40HD Super sawmill in use

 

The completed Mesquite Treehouse sits around 20 feet above ground level and offers an under-roof area of approximately 700 square feet. “We are especially proud to have been a valuable team member of this unique project. The reaction of all who see the Mesquite Treehouse reaffirms our belief that we were a part of something special and unlike anything in southern Arizona,” shared Arthur.

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Mulberry Chapel Built on 450-Acre Farm in Georgia

By Amanda Buttram, Wood-Mizer Contributing Author

For the past 20 years, George Coker has been dreaming and planning the perfect addition to his 450-acre farm in Carnesville, Georgia. Building a chapel on the land had been a project he wanted to start for a long time, as it would provide the perfect venue to expand opportunities on the property. George’s chapel would offer a space to host weddings, events, and activities, allowing more people to enjoy the beauty of Crockett Creek Crossing Farm.

 

George Coker with Wood-Mizer hat

 

A life-long builder, carpenter, and hobbyist woodworker, George put his knowledge and skills to work crafting the farm’s newest feature. Much of the wood that makes up the chapel came from trees on the property where this new structure sits today. “Beams, rafters, and lathing were all sourced from loblolly pine cut on our farm,” George explained. “Benches were made of kiln-dried red maple from the farm as well.” This access to available timber was also a big factor in George’s initial decision to purchase a Wood-Mizer portable sawmill years ago.

 

Crockett Creek Crossing Farm in Georgia

Farm tractors hauled harvested timber to the sawmill that was set up across the farm and building site. George used his Wood-Mizer LT40 Hydraulic portable sawmill to cut all the wood needed for the chapel. “I’ve owned this sawmill for 20 years. The LT40 Hydraulic has convenient log handling without much manual handling. At 80 years old, I am able to maneuver the logs with a single assistant,” shared George.
 

George Coker and Wood-Mizer LT40 portable band sawmill

 

Once milled, each piece of wood was brought to the barn where it was air-dried with stickers, sanded, and stained. Corbel cuts were made using a portable bandsaw and the chapel’s octagonal posts were constructed out of reclaimed power poles. Tractors transported the finished material back across the farm to the building site George had chosen for the chapel.

After decades of dreaming and six months of work, the Mulberry Chapel was complete. The finished project was a stunning 40’ x 48’ open pavilion chapel with a 10’ x 12’ entry that is reminiscent of a country church house. The entry is capped by a custom bell tower and steeple welded from stainless steel sheet metal. Inside the bell tower sits a 14” antique locomotive brass bell, and atop the steeple is a custom cross adorned with dogwood flowers made by a family friend. The chapel sits in a picture-perfect location at the property’s highest point, nestled in the hardwood forest with sweeping views of the farm.

 

Crockett Creek Crossing Farm Chapel steeple

Crockett Creek Crossing Farm Chapel benches

Crockett Creek Crossing Farm Chapel at night

The Mulberry Chapel had been in George’s vision for Crockett Creek Crossing Farm for years, and it was finally brought to life with the help of a very special crew on board from start to finish. “The entire family provided labor,” shared George. His daughter, Carolee, drew the chapel’s blueprints, translating George’s dreams into a workable design. His son was instrumental to the assembly of the structure, and several other members of the Coker family were on-hand throughout the project, assisting with sanding and staining lumber as well as assembling all the timber on site.

 

Crockett Creek Crossing Farm Chapel wedding

Crockett Creek Crossing Farm Chapel wedding altar

 

With this masterpiece now complete, George has been able to bring his family together under the beams of Mulberry Chapel. The weekend before Crockett Creek Crossing Farm was set to host its first wedding in the new chapel, George’s family hosted a dedication for his granddaughter. “Beautiful spring weather contributed to the feelings of pride and love. All 175 guests were amazed by the construction and beauty of our chapel,” George recounted. For the future, George plans to continue sharing his passion of sawing, woodworking, and building with his family. “I look forward to demonstrating and training younger family members how to run the mill,” he said.

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Building Wooden Toy Cars in Michigan for Operation Christmas Child

Republished Courtesy of Samaritan's Purse, International Relief Ministry

Ken Postema lives in Western Michigan, USA about 15 miles east of Grand Rapids, on 10 wooded acres that he purchased 51 years ago when he was a senior in high school. Tall white pines, maples, tulip poplars, and hybrid poplars dot the lush, rolling landscape surrounding Ken’s beautifully handcrafted house, which he built himself. “Some of these hybrid poplars I planted 30 to 35 years ago,” Ken said. “I planted them for a reason, but I didn’t know what that reason was until last year.”

 

 

Last year, Ken built 10,000 toy wooden cars, all of them from downed hybrid poplars and white pines on his property. Why would he build so many? For Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes of course. This year he built 20,000. Ken, 69, is a retired book publisher and has dabbled in woodworking and other creative endeavors his entire life. When he was a teenager he built go-karts and an electric bicycle, and constructed his own bedroom. He learned woodworking from his father, a furniture builder.

 

Wooden cars for Operation Christmas Child

 

“I always looked over dad’s shoulder, and he shared with me many, many ideas, processes, and just the idea of how to work,” Ken said. Now, his dad, Robert, 91, helps put axles and wheels on the cars that Ken builds. Since April, he’s helped assemble over 17,000 cars, an average of around 100 per day. “It’s given him new strength and a reason to get up in the morning,” Ken said. “He’s encouraged knowing where the cars go and what the mission is all about, which is to help tell kids about Jesus.”

 

Ken and his dad Robert make wooden toy cars together

Ken's dad assembling wooden cars

 

Packing Shoeboxes for the First Time

Three years ago, Ken had never packed a shoebox. He didn’t even knew much about Operation Christmas Child. But when a friend, Steve Shattuck, invited Ken and his wife, Laura, to a shoebox packing party, they caught the vision of reaching children for Christ through shoebox gifts. After the event, they started talking and realized that with Ken’s woodworking skills they could create unique items to put in shoeboxes. But what should those items be?

 

Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes

 

Laura, a retired school teacher, had helped pack shoeboxes when she taught at an alternative high school and saw the impact it had on her students. “My students came from all kinds of backgrounds,” Laura said. “Many of them very troubled. Some had very difficult childhoods. But the chance to fill shoeboxes was amazing for them. They knew how important it was to have somebody love them. It was awesome!” Ken and Laura knew they wanted to create a quality item for kids in need and invite others to join them in the process. First, Ken crafted small wooden crosses to be worn as a necklace. He made around 3,000 of them with a laser, but they proved to be very labor intensive, so Steve challenged Ken to instead make a durable, wooden car. “I asked Steve how many he might need, and he said 10,000,” Ken said. “Wow, I thought. That’s a big number.” “I thought it was a ridiculous challenge,” Laura said. “But Ken didn’t think it was. And thankfully he didn’t because he figured out how to do it.”

 

Finished wooden car

Ken Postema with a finished wooden toy car

Papa’s Christmas Car Shop

Over several weeks in early 2020, Ken perfected the building process and began creating cars in his pole barn, which his grandkids quickly dubbed “Papa’s Christmas Car Shop.”

 

Logs prepared for the portable sawmill

Sawing logs on the Wood-Mizer portable sawmill

Sawing logs on the portable sawmill for wooden cars

Boards are made from the logs on the sawmill

 

“We start with a log that’s been blown down in the woods. It’s then put on a sawmill and cut into two-by-fours. They air dry for at least six months,” Ken said.

 

Boards going inside the Wood-Mizer planer moulder

The Wood-Mizer planer moulder turns boards into profiles for wooden cars

A custom-made axle jig

A custom-made wheel jig for assembling wooden cars

 

“Then they are put through a planer/molder, four sided, and it profiles the car. The molded sticks are then brought to a chop saw where individual cars are cut. The cars then go into a cement mixer that is filled with sanding sponges. Fifteen minutes later, they are all sanded smooth. Next, they go to a custom-built axle drill where I can drill holes for up to 1,000 cars in an hour.”

 

Ken's grandkids help assemble the wooden cars

Ken's Bible Study group help assemble the wooden cars

 

After the axle holes are drilled, Ken gets others involved. In addition to his dad, Ken’s seven grandchildren and several couples from his small group Bible study pitch in. He gives each of the couples a kit that contains 100 cars, 400 hundred wheels, and 400 axle pegs, which they assemble. Small group leaders Paul and Tammy Cannon assemble around 300 cars each week, and they’ve been able to share the Gospel and the mission of Operation Christmas Child with friends and neighbors who see them putting the cars together in their driveway. “It’s all about the Gospel message,” Paul said. “My prayer is that these cars will plant a seed in their hearts.”

 

Finished cars ready to send to Operation Christmas Child

 

After the cars are assembled, they are dipped in mineral oil to put a clear finish on them. The oil also protects the cars from scratches and from dirt sticking to them, which is very important to Ken and Laura. “The cars that we make here might be the first gift that some children have ever received,” Laura said. “That makes it even more important to us that we make the cars very durable and lasting.”

 

Grandchildren assembling Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes

Most of the cars that Ken builds are sent to various Operation Christmas Child Processing Centers to help fill shoeboxes that could use an extra item or two. His cars have thus far reached children in South America, Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Pacific.

 

Creating Gospel Opportunities

Steve, who first challenged Ken two years ago to create 10,000 cars and then doubled the challenge to 20,000 this year, said creating the cars is “all about the Gospel. Every Operation Christmas Child box is a Gospel opportunity and that’s why we’re connected to it.” He also hopes that Ken’s story will inspire others across the country to create unique items for shoeboxes. “It might not be with cars. It might be making dolls or whatever they are passionate about,” he said. “They can be a part of creating wonderful gifts that create a Gospel opportunity for kids to hear about Jesus.”

 

Operation Christmas Child Collection Center in Michigan, USA

 

Ken, who is already at work building cars for next year’s shoebox season, agrees. “I hope we can encourage other woodworkers to get involved so we can make a million cars to put in shoeboxes, each one an expression of our love and God’s love for the kids.” 

You can be a part of giving children across the globe great joy and sharing with them the Good News of Jesus Christ by prayerfully packing a gift-filled shoebox with Samaritan's Purse! Learn more about Operation Christmas Child. National Collection Week in 2023 is November 13th - 20th.

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Sawmilling in Trapper Creek, Alaska

Vickie Knapp shares her story of sawmilling in Trapper Creek, Alaska with her late husband and their Wood-Mizer LT40 portable sawmill. After successfully sawing wood siding for her cabin, Vickie plans to finish the cabin interior, build a porch, and continue making beautiful things out of wood with her sawmill.

"When you take a rough, ugly old log, make a cant out of it, and cut the rough part off. You start slicing boards up and they're beautiful. You make order out of chaos. You take something that's not very usable and you make something extremely usable out of it. Wood is beautiful. There's just something nice about wood because each piece is different. If you take a beautiful piece of wood and you turn it into a coffee table, it becomes a piece of art.”

“I live in Trapper Creek, Alaska. Trapper Creek exists because the Petersville Road is there. The Petersville Road exists because it served the mining community of Cache Creek. Homesteaders came in, my mother came in with me and my brother, and that's how I came to be here.”

“Back in the early 1980s, my husband borrowed a Wood-Mizer from one of his friends because he was building one of the first scribe-built log cabins in Trapper Creek and he needed a sawmill to cut wood for the roof and the floor and stuff like that. After he borrowed the Wood-Mizer, he thought so much of it that he always wanted one. When he got the chance, he bought an LT40 (sawmill) and he loved it. It was like his baby, it was like the most fun thing he ever had in his life. I used to help him with it, I was the grunt that pulled the slabs off. Little by little, I kind of learned how to do it.”

“That sawmill had been sitting unused for more than 10 years because my husband had gotten progressively older and sicker. I pulled that (sawmill) over, changed the gas, changed the oil, and it started right up. After my husband passed away, I moved to this new place so I could have electricity. I wanted to put my own lumber on the outside for economical reasons and for aesthetic reasons.”

“I went out and everybody gave me lots of ‘you can do it Vickie’ and so I did. I got a log up there and sawed the first edge off the first slab off the top and I ran inside and called somebody and said ‘you won't believe it. I just sawed a board, I did it!’ Then I went back out and I squared up a cant and everything. I finally got a big pile of lumber and I had a team of guys that helped me. They came over and started nailing it up which they had never done before and they did a very nice job. I put siding on my cabin! I sawed every piece of that lumber up there.”

“The first thing I'm going to do now is saw dimensional lumber and put it on the inside of my cabin. My next project is to build a 10-foot porch on the front of my cabin. I can make all the joists and rafters and everything that I need. No one else will ever have what you have and it's a piece of art and it's extremely valuable. Not only that, but in your heart if you do something, that's what we’re here as humans to do. To make things beautiful and create things of value. That's what a sawmill can help you do.”

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Sawing Lumber for Cabins in Michigan

Steve Kesti, the owner of Backwoods Lumber located in the Upper Peninsula region of Michigan, recalls first becoming interested in woodworking as far back as childhood. “Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to build a cabin in the woods,” said Steve. Carpentry continued to play a role in his life while growing up. His father was a carpenter, and after taking a carpentry class in high school, Steve followed in his father’s footsteps becoming a carpenter himself. “I worked my way up until, eventually, I was running jobs and building houses for other people,” said Steve. In addition to his building expertise, Steve makes time for his other calling: volunteer firefighting.

After purchasing property in the Upper Peninsula, Steve realized he had the perfect opportunity to make his childhood dream come true. “I looked around at all my trees and decided I was going to build that cabin and fulfill that dream,” said Steve. At the time, Steve only possessed a chainsaw mill, and shares that the cabin took the whole summer to build. Nonetheless, the cabin build was a success. “People would come and look at it and would say ‘Oh, you should build these for a living,’” said Steve. At that time, Steve realized that he could start a business building cabins and make dreams come true for others. However, he needed to upgrade his chainsaw mill in order to increase production, yield, and efficiency in milling. Having a long-time interest in Wood-Mizer, Steve made the decision to buy a Wood-Mizer LT40 Hydraulic portable sawmill to jump start his business.

The cabin business represented a career move that perfectly suited Steve’s motivations at the time. “I could work from home right here in the backyard, and people can come pick up their lumber and talk,” said Steve. “They see the kids and they like that when they are buying something, it is going to the little guy with a family.” In addition to the cabin business, Steve began to expand his business into cedar products, adding a Wood-Mizer MP260 planer/moulder to his operation to be able to make finished planed and profiled boards. The MP260 planes and moulds boards on all four sides at once for making flooring, paneling, trim, and more. Steve relies on his MP260 to make tongue and groove boards and other finished products beyond rough sawn lumber. The first year he milled cedar, he cut what he thought would be enough to make it through the winter, but his inventory only lasted until January. The next year, he cut twice as much, but that batch lasted only until October. “It’s been selling as fast as I can get it run through the planer,” said Steve.

Steve has been able to enjoy the versatility that his portable sawmill offers. Along with his business, he has used his sawmill for a variety of personal projects, including chicken coops, siding for new buildings, and sheds on his property. In the heavily forested region of the Upper Peninsula, the possibilities are endless for Steve with his portable sawmill. To keep the sawmill running as much as possible, Steve goes through his fair share of sawmill blades, leading to the purchase of a Wood-Mizer BMS250 bandsaw blade sharpener. “I run Wood-Mizer blades. I can just have about 30 blades on hand and, as they’re dull, I just sharpen them every night when I’m done sawing,” said Steve. “That really helps, having my own sharpening equipment. I just tailor them to my needs.” With the BMS250 bandsaw blade sharpener, Steve keeps his operation running as smooth as possible.

Another benefit that Steve has found with the purchase of his portable sawmill is access to the Wood-Mizer Pro Sawyer Network. The Pro Sawyer Network connects customers to local sawmills who might be able to fulfill their sawmilling needs. Due to his location in the Upper Peninsula, Steve was initially skeptical. “Being up in the sticks up here, I didn’t think it was going to work for me,” he explained. “But I’ve been surprised, there are people that have contacted me. When people think of portable sawmilling, they think of Wood-Mizer.”

Sharing his favorite aspects of his LT40 hydraulic portable sawmill, Steve says that the portability has been of great convenience to him. The hydraulic log handling is also popular with his customers. “You can just roll your logs right onto the log lifter,” said Steve. “Lifts them right onto the machine. The customers really like that.”

Between the ability to grow Backwoods Lumber from right in his backyard, and the satisfaction of completing personal projects around the property, the lifelong woodworker is happy with his investment in his portable sawmill and other woodworking equipment. “If somebody asked me if I would recommend Wood-Mizer, I would say absolutely,” Steve said. “It’s been wonderful. Fun to cut on, and it works really good for me.”

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Farming and Sawing Live Edge Slabs in Central Indiana

By Chase Warner, Wood-Mizer Contributing Author

Fourth-generation farmer Adrian Hood and his father Randy own and operate a Midwestern farm that has been in their family since the late 1800s. Throughout their farmland in Central and Southern Indiana, Hood Farms grows corn, soybeans, and hay while also raising cattle and goats. However, managing their traditional farm only occupies a small portion of their time. Throughout the last decade, the father and son team is focused on growing a successful sawmill business which includes the production of high-value live edge wood slabs, heirloom furniture, and dimensional lumber.
 

Hood Farms History

Located only 30 miles from Wood-Mizer headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Hood family’s relationship to the local sawmill equipment company began in the 1980s. “Our family started with Wood-Mizer more than 30 years ago,” said Adrian. “My grandfather Gene received a sawmill as a missionary in Papua New Guinea that’s still running there today. They recently built a church with lumber they cut.” 

The Hood’s connection to Wood-Mizer continued in 2012 when they needed additional pasture for their cattle, but the land near the pasture had overgrown into a heavily wooded area. Adrian hired a logger to help with the felling and removal of trees, but additional cleanup was required to remove dozens of leftover logs. “We started cutting firewood, because my only experience with wood was cutting firewood with my grandfather,” said Adrian. Throughout two Summers of cleaning up the pasture, Adrian realized that the logs he was cutting into firewood would sell for a higher value if they were sawn into lumber. “At the beginning, I knew nothing about what went into sawing,” said Adrian. In 2014, Adrian purchased a Wood-Mizer LT40 hydraulic portable sawmill that enabled him to turn logs he selectively harvested into valuable lumber and slabs instead of firewood.

Hood Farms and Sawmill

During the next several years, the demand for live edge slabs for residential and commercial furniture grew exponentially which led to Adrian producing larger wood slabs for tables, countertops, and more. “When we started making more slabs, we used a chainsaw mill,” said Adrian. “That was the worst time of my life with the backbreaking work it required. My dad and I used the chainsaw four to five days a week for two years. When we got busier and needed a more consistent product, we bought the WM1000.” The Wood-Mizer WM1000 sawmill is able to cut logs up to 67” in diameter and uses a thin-kerf sawmill blade to improve accuracy, reduce waste and increase yield. “We say every day we wish we would’ve bought the WM1000 a couple years sooner,” said Adrian. “The thing with the chainsaw mill is the first cut is just as fast but after that it slows way down. The consistency of the cut is so much better with a sawmill blade than it is with a chain and it has increased our efficiency by at least 50% while picking up about a slab more per log. I value the quality of product the mills produce, the ease of maintenance and reliability has held up really well even when working them hard. The Wood-Mizer mills have been bulletproof machines.”

In addition to working with tree services and loggers for consistent timber supply, most of their Indiana hardwood logs are harvested by Adrian and Randy within two hours from their sawmill. “Normally we will cut what we have for orders or what we are turning back into pasture and we will clean up the site as we go to be less invasive on the land,” said Adrian. After harvesting, logs are bucked to appropriate sawing lengths and transported to the sawmill operation. If logs are under 24” in diameter, they are staged for dimensional lumber on the LT40 hydraulic sawmill while any logs over 24” in diameter will be staged for the WM1000 sawmill to produce high-value live edge slabs. “Right now about 90% of our orders are unique one-of-a-kind slabs, but we are excited about the growth of our dimensional lumber,” said Adrian.

live edge wood slabs

hardwood lumber

Adding Value Through Kiln Drying and Slab Flattening

As Adrian became a seasoned sawmiller, he realized the importance of proper drying to reduce the risk of wood warping, staining, or cracking. In addition to better quality, dried lumber typically sells for 30% more than green lumber. “From log to slab, drying, flattening and finishing, with every step in the lumber business, the product is worth more,” said Adrian.

While drying lumber is a bottleneck for some sawyers, Adrian saw this as an opportunity to invest in 2,000 and 6,000 board foot capacity plated vacuum kilns in order to provide a premium quality product. “The plated vacuum kilns are one of our biggest separators because they keep our slabs so flat compared to our competition,” said Adrian. “We can have a 2-1/4” slab off the mill and be finished drying at 1-7/8”. We baby our wood so it’s really flat, that’s made a big difference for us.” 

The increased speed in production is also a large factor. “Some of our slabs cut at 9/4 can be put in the kiln right after sawing and can be dried in 10 to 14 days depending on the species,” said Adrian. “With our kiln we can turnaround product in two weeks to a month whereas other kilns could take up to six months to completely dry.” Although the drying time is fast, the kilns require a lot of physical work as each layer is loaded manually and can take several days to completely load with two people. A lot of smaller companies don’t have a kiln due to their expense and labor, so Hood Farms also offers their kiln drying services for other sawmills in the area. 

While some slabs are sold kiln dried, others are sent to a recently installed Wood-Mizer SlabMizer slab flattening mill to be flattened and finished for furniture. The SlabMizer surfaces and flattens material up to 56” wide and 8” thick using a remote-controlled cutter head. Kraig Elliott, a local woodworker who subcontracts several projects with Hood Farms and Sawmill, was previously flattening material with a traditional router. “The slab flattener has been great because it saves time and is less physical work than the manual router I was using,” said Kraig. “The cutter head on our old router was 1-1/2” where the SlabMizer is 5” so it’s taking five times as much each pass. A wide slab that used to take several days to flatten now only takes about half a day. It’s been a great addition for us, we love it.”

Slab flattening mill

wide capacity router planer

wide slab flattener

wide slab flattener

Most of the slab business is sold to local contractors for restaurants and offices, but Hood Farms and Sawmill has also shipped slabs to more than 30 states throughout the United States. “A lot of our customers are people that are too small for big companies to deal with, and we love that,” said Adrian. “We often have people come by the farm to buy one single board at a time.” In addition, Adrian has found markets for byproducts of the sawmill operation including firewood for local restaurants and homeowners as well as sawdust for animal bedding. “We don’t have any waste, we use all of it.”

firewood processor

The Future of Hood Farms and Sawmill

For the future, Hood Farms and Sawmill has recently invested in a complete Wood-Mizer industrial sawmilling system to continue growing dimensional lumber sales. The system includes a WM4500 industrial sawmill, EG300 board edger, and material handling equipment to process Indiana hardwoods into dimensional grade lumber. “Anything that you can build in one day can collapse in one day,” said Randy. “We’ve built a great foundation for a business that we are hoping to have for Adrian’s son and on to future generations. We’ve taken a long time to get the groundwork done but one door will continue to open after another.” With new equipment and diversification of products, Hood Farms and Sawmill continues to grow and remain successful because of their commitment to their customers. “Relationships are what mean everything,” said Randy. “Treat others as you want to be treated, offer more service at a great price and quality and it won’t take long for people to show up at your door. That’s the way to build a business.”

Hood Farms and Sawmill

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Restoring Men Through Christ, a Sawmill and a Woodshop

By Greg Wetterlin, Director at Restoration Sawmill and Hardwoods
Photography by Erika Wetterlin

When Restoration Men’s Residential Ministry opened in 2016 with the goal of helping men overcome addiction, the financial model was simple – provide excellent addiction help without financial burden by teaching men to work hard and support the resources that they were receiving. At this point, we had no idea who Wood-Mizer was and how important of a partner they would become. 

The ministry is housed on a beautiful 100-acre property in Lafayette, Indiana. It started with one house with the capacity to help 6 men seeking freedom from addiction. Although the goal from the outset was to start a business with the men that would support the ministry, no plan had been settled when the first men arrived. At the beginning, the plan was to start cleaning up and caring for the property which included an old 1800s barn. Part of cleaning up the property involved cutting down some dead trees including one that was a walnut tree. I knew nothing about lumber or woodworking, but the volunteer working with me when the tree was taken down knew that walnut was valuable lumber. He told me that it was a real shame to cut walnut into firewood and wished that we knew someone with a sawmill.

That’s where Wood-Mizer became an invaluable partner in our mission of helping men overcome addiction.

That one walnut tree sent our ministry in a direction that we are still heading. Days after the walnut tree came down, a friend from church brought out his 1990s LT40 Wood-Mizer sawmill. From there, we wondered if there was a way to repair the 1800s barn with fallen trees on the property. Another volunteer mentioned that his brother owned a Wood-Mizer LT15 sawmill and we were able to borrow it for 2 months to complete the project. The only goal at the time was to cut enough lumber to repair the barn floor. We had never dreamed or thought of starting a sawmill or custom woodworking business, but that’s exactly what happened.

After 2 months of having a blast borrowing the LT15 sawmill and cutting any log we could get our hands on, a church member who volunteered at Restoration looked at all the lumber that had been milled and estimated that it was worth between $15,000 and $20,000. At first, I didn’t believe him. I had no clue what lumber cost, let alone hardwood lumber. I started doing some research and found out he was right! That’s what led me to reach out to Wood-Mizer and I took the opportunity to explain that a sawmill would help men trying to overcome addiction by providing an opportunity to learn hard work and help support the resources they were receiving at Restoration. In June of 2017, we purchased an LT40WIDE hydraulic sawmill.

We had considered lots of options for business ideas up to this point. The problem with most of those ideas was that they were capital intensive without much promise for quick and sustained return. Therefore, they would require more traditional funding than we were set-up to make or were willing to do at this point in the ministry’s life. The Wood-Mizer made it a safe investment that wasn’t capital heavy and had already proved the ability of returning on the investment by immediately being able to saw lumber to sell and saw lumber for customers.

More than just financially making sense, the sawmill operation provided a nice balance of fast paced, hard work for the men coming to Restoration without having a tremendously steep learning curve. The work has also been perfect for men seeking freedom from addiction because for many of them drugs or alcohol has been where they have turned to for comfort, satisfaction and pleasure. Many men wrapped up in addiction haven’t been taught or ever experienced the satisfaction and joy of working hard in order to serve others. The sawmill has become a perfect hands on place to help them learn exactly what Jesus Christ taught in His word, “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39), and to “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” (Colossians 3:23) 

Restoration Sawmill and Hardwoods, the name of the non-profit business, quickly grew beyond just sawing lumber and we began making custom wood furniture and products. In this way, the men got the satisfaction of seeing wood go all the way from log, to lumber to final product, and finally to the end user. When men are stuck in addictions, they are consumed with serving themselves rather than working hard to bless and serve others. That’s one of the most important lessons to learn in order to live in freedom from addiction.

The growing pains of starting a new business became a powerful parable for the men in the program. As you get into something new there are always new challenges. For the first year of the program, I was the only staff member and my woodworking experience and knowledge was little to none. A couple of the volunteers had construction knowledge, but no one was a furniture builder. But through lots of reading, YouTube videos, networking and plenty of trial and error, we’ve become furniture makers training men coming out of addiction how to also make furniture.

The model that we have is quite unique when you think about it. We accept men into the program and employ them in our sawmill business. These are men that a typical business wouldn’t hire or give a second chance. While they are here, we train them how to be good employees, how to serve others, how to work hard even when no one is looking, how to develop a learner’s mindset and how to solve problems. Then when they are valuable employees, we graduate them from the program and they move on to other places of employment. It’s kind of backwards, but that’s the goal of Restoration—take men who are struggling and teach them how to thrive through the transformational power of Jesus Christ and then send them back to be productive and service oriented in their communities, churches and families.

In 2018, because of need for long-term residential programs is so significant—especially programs that are not going to enslave people in debt—we raised $200,000 in order to expand the ministry to a second house in order to double the capacity of the program from 6 to 12 men. Because the work is such a key component of the men’s growth and the financial model, the work for the men had to also be able to sustain 6 more residents. By God’s grace, Restoration Sawmill and Hardwoods had grown to the point of being able to justify having its own full-time staff member. We were even able to utilize money that was left over from the new house in order to build two wood kiln chambers, which can each dry 3,500 board feet of hardwood lumber at time. The ability to dry lumber for furniture has been one of the largest value adding improvements we’ve made.

What started with a large shop space with basic tools like a used table saw, a 12” chop saw and a collection of my own and volunteers’ tools, grew to be a full-fledged woodworking shop with the capability to dimension rough lumber and make custom furniture. The 12” portable planer that we borrowed when we dimensioned all the 2x4’s we cut on our sawmill to build a sawmill shed was replaced by a 20” planer. A 12” jointer was added to the repertoire, followed by a shaper, a 24” bandsaw, a table saw, an assortment of woodworking tools, and most recently a Wood-Mizer MP260 4-sided planer moulder. The story of each one of those tools is that men in the program worked hard, produced lumber and furniture that profited in order to be able to purchase those tools without going into debt.

Recently, we have connected with a couple of customers who have cleared trees in order to build their home. Rather than waste the trees, they’ve come to us to have their trees turned into usable wood for their home including hardwood flooring. At this point, sawing trees, drying the boards in our wood kiln, dimensioning and making tongue and groove boards was straight forward which we had often done for making interior barn doors. But being able to move at a pace fast enough to produce 4,000 square feet of flooring while providing competitive pricing demanded a machine capable of cutting our production time down significantly. Again, Wood-Mizer proved to be an integral partner so we purchased a MP260 planer/moulder and chip extractor. Not only have these flooring jobs more than paid for the machine, but the capabilities that it has opened up for us are enormous. 

Companies like Wood-Mizer and Wildcat Creek Tree Service in Lafayette, Indiana a tree service that has donated countless logs to Restoration Sawmill and Hardwoods—have been absolutely critical in helping Restoration men’s ministry accomplish their mission of helping men find freedom from addiction through Jesus Christ. 

Addiction takes a serious toll on the men, their families and communities. However, because of Wood-Mizer, there is real hope for men to be changed, and for their families and communities to be changed as a result. I genuinely believe that everything we do at Restoration from the biblical counseling, to Bible studies, to attendance at church, to making meals, to work in the sawmill is all part of helping men make the heart changes that will lead to the next 30, 40, 50 plus years of their life to be completely different. 

If you had asked me what Restoration would have looked like when it started, I would have never guessed this is where the Lord would have taken it. It’s better than I could have ever dreamed.


 

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Wheeler Mission Producing Pallets to Change Lives

On the surface, Wheeler Mission Pallet and Industry operates as a typical pallet business by providing clients with standard and custom-sized pallets for shipment of goods. However, the organization exists primarily to restore men to health and wholeness through Christ-centered programs. “The business model that we have here, you’ll not find in any other pallet plant,” said Tom Porterfield, Wheeler Mission Pallet General Manager.

As part of Wheeler Mission Ministries, a men’s and women’s homeless shelter ministry since 1893, Wheeler Pallet is located on a residential recovery center called Camp Hunt just 50 miles southwest of Indianapolis, Indiana. Situated on 285 acres bordering a scenic and sprawling state forest, Camp Hunt is dedicated to the rehabilitation of men addicted to alcohol and drugs. "Our goal is to see men develop a life changing relationship with Christ," said Dwayne Gordon, Bloomington Area Director for Wheeler Mission Ministries.

 
The Camp Hunt campus includes a dormitory with nearly 40 beds for men in the program, cabins and homes for the staff to reside, chapel for prayer and worship, playground areas for visiting families to reconnect, cafeteria, nature trails for hiking, and a private lake for fishing and swimming. Although the camp offers many recreational activities to encourage a healthy lifestyle, the adult students all have defined jobs at the camp and spend each day developing a positive work ethic while learning essential life skills. All of the work done by the recovering students is designed to aid in establishing self-worth and respect while being part of a vibrant community. “Wheeler isn’t just concerned with getting these individuals free of their addictions, we are committed to these men becoming viable contributors to life,” said Porterfield.  As part of the 6-month program, men develop personal and professional skills such as being on time to work, attending chapel, and taking part in fellowship with others in the community.

All men of the program live on campus and invest a lot of labor into the camp such as maintaining the park like grounds, buildings, and lakefront. With only a limited number of maintenance jobs available, the full-fledged pallet operation Wheeler Pallet was established to give students of the program more opportunities to learn valuable work skills. Operating with approximately 20 workers at any given time, Wheeler Pallet produces and sells high-quality hardwood spec pallets, custom pallets, and cut stock which offset the cost of running the program. After the adult students finish their morning duties at the camp, they walk to the nearby pallet plant to work from 10:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. every weekday. Workers are stationed in different areas of the operation including the cut-off saw, multi-head resaw, material handling, stringer notcher, groover, and assembly. A challenge facing the operation is a high turnover rate due to the 6-month timeframe of the program. “Just when they are getting proficient at what they do, we help them find another place of employment,” said Porterfield. “It’s a backward business model from any other pallet plant or any other business you’ll be around.” Even with a high turnover rate and constant training, the operation remains productive. 

First, cants are loaded, automatically sorted, and then cut to length on a newly installed cut-off saw line. Next, the cants travel on a conveyor and are fed directly into a Wood-Mizer four-head industrial resaw with a merry go-round system to produce stringers and deck boards. The multi-head resaw has been a centerpiece of the operation since the start and has processed millions of board feet of pallet components for the business over the years. Stringers and deck boards produced from the resaw are sorted and sent to a notcher or groover before assembly. Depending on the size of pallet, the components are taken to one of four assembly stations where they are fastened by pneumatic nailers.

Running the operation this way for the past several years has resulted in the assembly of 14,000 board feet of material per day on average. “We build a lot of low-volume, large custom pallets so some days it is not unusual to build six to nine different pallet footprints,” said Porterfield. Although Wheeler Pallet produces standard 48” x 40” or 48” x 45” pallets, they have found a niche in producing large custom pallets for clients. “The bulk of our business is pallets with stringers 124 or 148 inches long,” said Porterfield. “We have one pallet called the ‘behemoth’ that is 251 inches long by 112 inches wide. We may average 400 pallets per day, but if they were all spec, it would be more like 1,200 pallets.”

 

Improvements such as the cut-off saw line has provided benefits not only to production but also to workforce development. “Before the cut-up line, we were doing everything by hand,” said Porterfield. “Lifting cants onto a conveyor, positioning them on a pop-up saw, cutting them to length and stacking them.” According to Production Manager Jerry Doss, the addition of the cut-off saw line has reduced the labor needs for this stage of the operation from four people to one which enables the three other workers to learn another part of the manufacturing process and build their skillset. 

Wheeler Pallet also has found value by providing heat-treated pallets, which is becoming more in demand due to the growing needs of clients to ship internationally. According to Doss, almost half of their pallets are heat-treated in their own kiln. “Several years ago, we had to ship the pallets off-site to be kiln-dried,” said Doss. “We realized we could get our return on investment in less than two years by building our own kiln and doing it all here.” The dry kiln is heated by a wood burning stove that resourcefully utilizes extra pieces from the cut-off saw. Pallets are kiln-dried for a minimum of 40 minutes to ensure they are HT certified. Off-cuts from the operation are also used around the camp to heat the dormitories and cabins where the adult students and staff reside.

Since the beginning of Wheeler Mission Pallets, nearly 400 men have completed the program at Camp Hunt and many graduates have since become involved with the camp. Today, out of the 15 full-time staff at Camp Hunt, 12 of them have been graduates of the program. “They understand where these men are coming from, what they are fighting, and the challenges that are ahead of them,” said Porterfield. “The love, compassion, and commitment from them is amazing.” By utilizing a workforce that some have written off, Wheeler Mission Pallets is continuing to make a difference, one pallet and one life at a time.

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Wood-Mizer Missions Team Visits Costa Rica

Teaming up with Youth with a Mission (YWAM), several Wood-Mizer employees and family members travelled to Costa Rica to build a housing structure for visiting missionaries in the area. Here are a few first-hand experiences from the mission team’s travels.

Dave Meyer

My wife, Rose, and I went on the trip because we feel it’s important to share the blessings and talents God has given us with others. As James 2:26 says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Our primary task was to start building a cabin, but we also felled a huge tree, cut and treated lumber, pulled weeds, dug post holes, and cleared brush. The full impact of our efforts won’t be realized until the cabin is completed and used to house missionary couples coming to learn the skills needed to minister to the spiritual and physical needs of the poor in developing nations. 

Some of my most memorable moments of the trip were experiencing the local food and culture, meeting new friends, strengthening existing friendships, running a sawmill for the first time, and literally saving a life. However, the biggest take away for me is knowing that, in a small way, we helped spread the word of Christ to remote corners of the world. The trip was the first opportunity Rose and I have had to share a missions trip experience together without our children and are definitely planning on going on many more. Rose and I went on the first two Wood-Mizer sponsored missions trips. I went on the Poland trip in 1999 and she went on the Ukraine trip in 2000. The experience moved us to start a Sr. High missions program at our church where we are now preparing for our 18th missions trip this summer.

Tim Volz

I can say that the Costa Rica trip was amazing! Sure I was taken out of my comfort zone a bit, because I was eating unfamiliar foods and living in a different culture for a week. Since I have been on other mission trips before I was prepared, but this trip was different for me, because my daughter Savanna was able to enjoy this trip with me! I was able to build a stronger bond with her as we worked as teammates of the mission team. This allowed me to forget all about being out of my comfort zone. I believe the Lord had a hand in how great we worked as a team and allowing us to help others while building friendships with the YWAM staff that will last forever! 

Recently I was able to host our friend Lukas from YWAM Costa Rica at my house and show him our culture and it was the first time I’ve ever done anything like that. It too was amazing…what a great feeling! At Wood-Mizer, I deal with helping others improve their life at work. This trip allowed me to better understand that we need to get out of our comfort zones in daily life, thus continuously improving ourselves….trying to become the best version of ourselves as God challenges us to do! What a blessing it is to improve ourselves while helping others.

Deanna Bunten

In my heart and in my mind, I always wanted to go on a mission trip to serve others and the Lord while stretching myself spiritually. I really didn’t know where to start because missionary work wasn’t familiar territory for me. The Wood-Mizer mission trip to YWAM Heredia provided an excellent opportunity for both my 16 year old son, Evan, and I to give our gifts of time and labor. Spending a week together, Evan and I worked alongside each other and our Wood-Mizer team doing many construction projects at the camp that will allow them to further their outreach. We worked, talked, ate, laughed, dreamed, prayed and played. All the while, witnessing not just God’s love at work through the mission, but in our own lives as we received the biggest blessing of time spent together.

 
 
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Building Churches and Schools in Papua New Guinea

By Jesse Pryor, Missionary to Papua New Guinea

It’s around 6 am and the bug’s chirping and the bat wing flapping give way to the singing of birds in the dense foliage above us. When an adult-sized bat flaps its 4-6’ wingspan in the middle of the night, you hear it. Trust me on that!

Yesterday had been a long day for the six members of the sawmill crew. We had loaded the various pieces of the Wood-Mizer LT15 Sawmill into our 50’ dugout canoe. The 40hp outboard motor had run well with no mechanical issues. However, the trip had been eventful because of a tree that was hanging low across one particular spot in the river. The mast of the sawmill just would not make it under the low-hanging limb. Fortunately we had a chain hoist and a chainsaw that allowed us to cut and pull the tree out of the way.

So after five hours on the river, we arrived at the pre-determined location of this milling trip’s timber stand. The mill is carried in sections back to the site, after the chainsaw operators had felled two of the trees. We have found that felling is crucial before you set up the mill in the jungle. No one wants to carry the mill once it’s together, especially if it’s in the way of an oncoming tree!! The next morning, two of the crew begin boiling water and cooking in the fire pit to start the morning breakfast meal. It was good that the log owners built the hut the day before while we were felling the trees and carrying the LT15 sawmill to the site, otherwise we would not have had someplace to sleep off of the ground during the night. Poisonous snakes make poor bunkmates. They live on the ground, so all the huts are built on stilts. It just makes sense.

The rest of us begin assembling the sawmill. We selected the site last night and spent the last hours of the day using axes and machetes to clear the site. This makes setup a lot easier. Experience has also taught us to carry four boards with us to put the feet of the stands on. When you work in the swamp and rainforest, the "feet" sometimes find a soft spot. We have four particular boards that we lay down for the tracks to sit on. These boards have been augured out to the exact spacing and diameter of the "feet." We mill hardwoods, namely ironwood or Kwila (to the locals), so the better anchored the mill is the better. We drive two stakes at the very ends of the track to keep it from moving when we begin to roll the logs on.

The LT15 is now level and ready to go. Check the oil in the engine! We are in the middle of nowhere, literally! So any damage to equipment, especially from negligence, is very bad. Any damage to that engine, and the whole trip will have to be abandoned. We normally let it idle for five minutes while we roll the log on the mill. The agreement we always have with the landowners/tree owners is always a one-to-one exchange. One tree milled for us to mill for our projects, and one tree milled for their use allows for both sides to benefit equally. Part of the agreement is that they are there to help with the moving of the logs (no forklifts here) and the positioning of the logs on the mill. They also help with timber stacking.

While the mill is warming up after the log is clamped and ready to go, it’s time to talk safety. We lay out the safety rules of working around the mill. Where and when you should approach the mill are just a couple of the topics we discuss. OK, the engine has idled way past five minutes now, but that’s alright. Someone had to take the water container back to the river to fill it so the blade would be washed and cooled properly. We had checked the blade before we cut the first piece, but after the first time through it’s time to make sure that everything is in order. We’re good to go!

The operator starts to mill up the first section of log. It’s the job of the operator and the "water boy" to mill the log, and give the directions to the local guys working with the sawmill crew. The rest of us go back to the hut for a little meal. We’re going to be working all day in the heat. It’s important to stay hydrated and fed. The guys in the crew have specific roles. Three of the guys have been trained to operate the sawmill. They are the only ones that can accurately read a tape measure, consistently. Two other guys operate the chainsaw.

The calm of the jungle for a few short weeks is replaced by the whine of a chainsaw, the noise of a diesel engine, and the yells of the men as they shout directions at each other. There is a brief lull though. One of the bearings in the blade guide has gone bad. We take about 30 minutes to replace it. Fortunately for us we always have an ample supply of what I call consumable parts on standby! Wherever the LT15 goes, so does the large box of spare parts. No local hardware, or Wood-Mizer outlet nearby here! We’re off and running again! A few hours later the pile of finished lumber has steadily grown larger. Everyone is grinning from ear to ear, while the sawmill just keeps on cutting away. Scraps are claimed for someone to whittle out an oar for paddling on the river. No one goes home empty handed, that’s for sure. Another lull in the action, a 15 minute rain shower passes. We are in the jungle and they don’t call it the rainforest for nothing!

Days start early, around 6am, because that is when the first light starts to show. We keep busy until 6pm, when the sun starts to set. That leaves us with about 30 minutes to bathe in the river, and prepare supper. No indoor plumbing here, and swimming after dark might lead to an encounter with a crocodile! The day is beginning to wind down. The spring in our step just isn’t quite the same at the end of the day when it has been 90F with very high humidity. Heat index says it felt like 114F. I would say that an estimate like that is not to far off judging by the way I feel.

We light the kerosene lamp before we head off to the river. We won’t get back from our "bath" till after dark. So having a light helps with preparation of supper, and finding your way back. Things are quiet again. It’s a nice "cool" evening. The bugs start the chirping again. The guys laugh and joke about the day’s work. It always amazes me how exhausted people can be so happy. We know that we are a few steps closer to finishing up, and look forward to the day we wrap it up here and head back to our home in Samban, a small village in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. It’s good to sit and rest after being on our feet and working all day. A bat shrieks nearby very near to the ground by our hut. One of the guys grins as he grabs his spear. I guess bat is on the menu tonight!

 

Jungle Milling Tips

1. Keep the chainsaw handy when transporting your sawmill upriver.

2. Build the hut before you start sawing, and make sure your sleeping bunks are off the ground.

3. Stay hydrated and fed.

4. Bring spare parts for everything.

5. A large bat will make a tasty dinner.

About the Author: Born and raised in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, Jesse Pryor returned as a missionary with his wife Karie and three children to continue the work begun by Jesse’s parents John and Bonita Pryor. They are working within the church to strengthen discipleship and Sunday School programs. With the help of the locals and the sawmill crew, Jesse has put his experience in the construction field to good use, and they have completed churches, schools, and medical facilities in the remote jungle.

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Reducing Poverty in Zambia with One Small Sawmill

Born to Methodist missionaries, John Enright has spent his entire life living and working in Congo and Zambia as a pastor, teacher, pilot, and pioneer of sustainable economic development projects. He was raised speaking several tribal languages and has a thorough grasp of African culture. The Enrights were forced to flee Congo at the beginning of the war that began in 1998. They rebuilt their ministry near Ndola, Zambia, where they run an informal vocational school, children’s school, and pastor’s school, among other varied programs. Their Kafakumba training complex was built to be a central hub for positive change in Central Africa. 

John works alongside locals to build businesses that are profitable, reproducible, sustainable, and not fully dependent on his future involvement. Starting with an initial concept, John and his colleagues develop the business ideas themselves and work to create a solid model. John’s successful business projects so far are Tilapia fish farming, growing aloe vera, banana plantations, livestock, and a woodworking shop. Although John has experienced success with these projects, his honey project is defying all expectations for growth. The project is based on a co-op business model, and produced 100 tons of processed honey in 2014, with 200 tons estimated in 2015. Interestingly, the idea for the honey project grew out of the woodworking business. 

Utilizing Local Timber

A huge problem in Africa is the misuse of natural resources. Timber is being exported at an alarming rate with very little of the real timber value improving the local economies. In Central Africa, the biggest threat to timber stands is not foreign markets, however – it is charcoal production. “Starving villagers are far removed from the world wide environmental debate,” John reminds us. “They are forced to find every means possible of feeding themselves and their families. In order to convince the Zambians to preserve the forests and natural resources, we must demonstrate how it is their best interest, both long and short term, to preserve the world around them.” 

Another complication is that finished timber for use in construction or woodworking is traditionally processed by a few large and inefficient sawmills running outdated equipment. Poor infrastructure makes obtaining timber difficult and expensive for locals that lack disposable income. In the early 1980’s, the inventor of the Wood-Mizer portable sawmill, Don Laskowski, donated a sawmill to John’s mission work. The small sawmills install easily in remote areas and allow anyone to produce their own timber easily, efficiently, and locally.  John was able to establish a small workshop to produce local timber, doors, and windows that were affordable to the community, thus demonstrating that wood is a valuable resource people in Africa can use to better their lives significantly, without resorting to exporting the logs or converting them into charcoal. John’s idea for the honey project resulted from brainstorming what could become of the timber scraps from the woodworking shop. Again, he sought to find a higher purpose for an undervalued resource – scrap lumber could be used to build beehives.

 

 

Bee Sweet Honey Company

The beehive project was started more than eight years ago. They learned a lot in the first few years, like how to hang the hives in trees to reduce the risk of theft, and contamination by termites and honey badgers. They also worked on the design of the hive to maximize honey cleanliness and ease of collection. “What we’re trying to make is a beehive that is Africa-friendly,” John explains. “So the beehive is very different from a beehive you would see in America or Europe.” As they settled on a hive design that would meet the range of challenges they encountered, they began experimenting with how to organize the business model. Gradually, they developed a co-op business model to maximize the number of people who could benefit from the business, but also guarantee quality control and streamline distribution efforts of the final product. “When we started out, we made a lot of mistakes,” John recalls, “But we have slowly gotten to the point where the system works. We call it a micro-franchise. The villager does what he can do, we do what we can do, others are doing marketing, and everybody wins.”

Participants with Bee Sweet Honey Company are villagers who are given a set number of beehives, and their principle responsibilities are to bait the hive and ensure it is not stolen. John explains that the ideal number of hives to be operated by a single individual is 25, but that some are operating as many as 250 hives. The new beehives owner signs a contract which explains their mutual responsibilities clearly. John’s team visits the participating villagers twice a year in spring and autumn to harvest the honey and pay the participants based on the quantity of honey harvested. In 2014, more than $100,000 was paid out to participants. More will be paid out in the future as new hive owners bring in their first harvests, and others grow their existing number of hives. “We do not do beekeeping; we only do honey-gathering,” John shares. “As long as there are bees going in and out, you harvest it twice a year. It is a simple system, but then it allows them to send their kids to school, to put a tin roof on their house, and to have a decent living.” 

 

Africa-friendly Beehive Production

John employs 18 full-time workers in the beehive production workshop. Each hive costs approximately $20 to produce, all costs considered. The wood used for the beehives comes from the wood workshop and from cheap scrap logs that are locally sourced. The logs are split in half on the Wood-Mizer LT15 sawmill and then run through resaws to produce boards of consistent thicknesses. The fresh boards are then cut on chop saws to the required lengths. John insists that the importance of the small sawmill cannot be overemphasized. “All of this stems from the fact that the Wood-Mizer sawmills are giving us quality boards, cut to specific specifications, which allows us to make these hives. None of this would be possible without the sawmill. It is an essential link in a chain that has now become a substantial benefit to thousands of people.”

 

During the dry season, the boards are laid outside in the sun to dry out for two days, and then they are placed in a vertical jig and are glued on-edge to form the side panels of the hive. “The bees don’t care if it’s pretty,” John laughs as he demonstrates the gluing method. The panels are trimmed to their final dimensions on a table saw. Then the various components are packaged for shipment. Final assembly of the hives is done after shipment to reduce shipping costs. A metal jig is included for easy assembly of the hives on site, and then the assembled hive is secured together with recycled metal wire. The hook that hangs the hive from the tree branch is made of recycled rebar sourced from nearby mining companies. A simple rope pulley system enables the hives to be raised and lowered from the ground, eliminating climbing.

Growth and Future

Although Bee Sweet has been producing honey for their local Zambian market for several years, they hope that real growth and greater profits will start when they obtain organic certification for their honey from the European Union, opening up international markets for the honey. As of the summer of 2015, more than 10,000 individuals from all over northern Zambia are participating, and more than 50,000 beehives are now in the field. They have found that each hive will produce approximately 33 pounds of honey annually, which adds up to a lot of honey by the end of the year. Over one hundred tons were harvested in the spring of 2015, and it is hoped that much of it will be sold internationally, the remainder will be sold locally for lower prices. “The honey project is unique,” John remarks. “It allows a very simple person to produce organically certified honey that can be sold all over the world. [They are] now creating organic honey, and organic wax and is being paid accordingly – not charity. Very exciting! Our share of the revenue goes into the foundation that then launches projects somewhere else and many other projects that we have launched – schools, clinics, and things like that.”

 

Currently, John’s workshop is capable of producing components for more than 200 hives each day when timber supplies are available. They would like to be able to produce 500 a day, so they have purchased a new Wood-Mizer TVS twin-vertical sawmill that will help them double capacity. “We would like to see other organizations take this technology,” John shares. “I could see the beehive project becoming a huge creator of wealth, empowerment, and a huge blessing throughout Africa.” John shares that that are groups currently replicating the honey project in Honduras, Ethiopia, Congo, and Malawi. They are currently experimenting with several other business ideas designed for rural people. People who do well with the beehive program can then expand into additional business programs. “Africa needs people to realize they are living in the garden of Eden,” John says. “This is a place where they can not only survive, but thrive! People are catching that vision.”

Visit www.beesweetltd.com for more information.

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One Small Sawmill Creates Positive Change in the Congo Jungle

By Glen Chapman, Missionary in Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo is among the very poorest countries in the world. In the UN’s Human Development Index, Congo ranked almost last. The Congolese make an average of 50 cents a day, whereas the average level of poverty is $2 a day.

Because of the difficulties of the war, the infrastructure of Congo had all collapsed. There is very little employment, and very little to give people hope. It’s hard to understand a level of poverty where you don’t have tables or chairs, and your children have to eat their meals on the ground because their table has been destroyed and turned into a coffin to hold a revered loved one who has passed on.

My name is Glen Chapman, and I’m a second-generation missionary to Kikongo with American Baptist International Ministries. My wife, Rita, is a third-generation missionary. Her grandparents went over to the Belgian Congo in 1924. Rita and I arrived as children in 1957 when it was still the Belgian Congo. We grew up there and began our ministry 25 years ago. We’ve seen a lot of changes in the time we’ve been there, but our mission in Congo is still to cross cultural boundaries and make disciples of Jesus Christ.

We mostly work in rural leadership training. Rural is distinguished from urban because, generally, when a villager is called into the ministry, he goes to the capital city. Once he studies there, he stays. Because of this, we have hundreds of churches with multiple pastors in the city. However, in the villages, we have hundreds of churches without any pastoral leadership at all. So our objective is to train people in a rural setting so that they remain rural.

Life in Kikongo is not much different than it was for our grandparents generations ago. Besides being involved in leadership training, we’re also involved in human development projects. That’s where the lumber mill comes in and provides for the needs of the people. Our Wood-Mizer sawmill has really played a key role in bringing development and hope to our Congolese villages in the midst of their poverty.

As a child growing up in Congo, I remember going away to high school in the capital city. In the summers, I came home for vacation. I spent these summers working in the woodshop with the old carpenters who had been trained by the Belgians.

That was a formative time in my life. Being able to work with the carpenters was a great experience. But when I became an adult and returned to the village, the commercial lumber mills that had furnished the lumber no longer existed. If someone needed lumber, he had to go to the city, buy his boards, and send it to his home in a truck.

So, the lumber was virtually unavailable to the villagers at that time. What furniture villagers had in the past was wearing out. There were no longer desks in the schools. If anyone had a table in the house, it was probably destroyed to make a coffin at some point. My friends would complain that they didn’t have a chair on which to seat their guests and their children ate their meals on the ground.

I looked around. We had plenty of trees, so why didn’t we have lumber? I talked with my old carpenter friends and they took me out to the forest. Here, sawyers dug holes beneath the trees and tried to saw boards that turned out rough and very crooked. One man was in the pit while the other man was on top. The man in the pit would get sawdust showered all over him, so he couldn’t maintain a straight cut. It was difficult to make furniture from these boards.

Somewhere along the line, I heard about Wood-Mizer. I saw the inefficiency of our lumber cutting methods and knew it was time to purchase a sawmill. I came back to the States and purchased an LT25.

When the mill arrived in August of 1998, war broke out on the East side of the country. A lot of the missionaries were being evacuated. Just as we began to cut our first trees and I showed the Congolese the usefulness of our sawmill, we were told we had to evacuate as well because the foreign armies were so close to our village. It was a very tense time.

I looked at this project that had been a dream. The mill had just arrived—how could I leave when this dream was just beginning to be fulfilled? I put my wife and children on a plane, and they were evacuated to South Africa. I stayed on at Kikongo.

As the armies advanced across the country, we were experiencing new birth in Kikongo. We were rebuilding while the rest of the country was in the process of destroying. To deal with the loneliness of having my family gone, we discovered the process of using the new mill.

 

All the villagers were thrilled. There had never been an industry in the area. All of a sudden, the children who previously could not have been employed were now working at the mill and learning how to be carpenters. People with carpentry skills arrived and cut lumber. Boat builders arrived and began to build boats. We were just a little village that offered hope in the midst of the despair around us.

That was the first year we used the mill, and we continued to use it for eight more years. After that, we purchased an LT15 sawmill because its portability helped in an area where we had no trucks to pull it around. We could take it apart and carry the different sections by hand. The war continued, and it turned out to be Africa’s First World War. We were the only foreigners at our mission station during this time. The government did not normally look in favor upon the Westerners, but they favored us personally because we were providing lumber. The officials began to come to us for their wood.

The mill helped provide diplomacy and offered credibility to the church and to our work. We furnished lumber to all the villages around us. The Roman Catholics bought our lumber to build desks for their schools, the government officials purchased our lumber to use in the capital city—it was vibrant.

The process for cutting the lumber is simple. The villagers cut down the logs, float them down the river to us, and then we roll them up onto the mill. The logs that we roll up onto the mill are far larger than what the mill was originally designed for, but it’s so durable that it has been able to hold up to the beatings we give it. Sometimes we use an ax to make the log small enough to fit on the mill. 

Once we cut the lumber, people purchase it and take it downriver. We’re very strategically located on the Wamba River for lumber supply and demand.

We’ve been working with the mills for fourteen years now, and what’s amazing is that the people who work on the mills are not mechanics, but they’re able to maintain these mills with simple organizational maintenance.

 

Once we had lumber, the boat builders started to arrive. I wanted to use smaller-sized boats, so we built different sizes to be more economical. Once our boats showed up at different ports, word got around that lumber was available at Kikongo.

 

Since there wasn’t lumber available anywhere else, a man showed up and said he needed a boat. When he told us the capacity of the boat he needed, we were shocked. We wondered if we would ever be able to build something so large in Kikongo.

But sure enough, we produced enough lumber for the boat. The problem was getting the boat into the water. Our community made an announcement in church that on a certain day, they would make a lot of coffee, and if you came down and provided assistance pushing the boat into the water, you’d get some coffee.

 
 

We had a big party that day, as all the young men put their hands on the boat and pushed it. Once it got over the lip of the hill, the weight of the boat drove it into the water. It was an unbelievable moment. To realize it really worked was an amazing thing. Everyone jumped on the boat. We celebrated, and eventually the boat went to the mighty Congo River and we never saw it again.


I think probably 150 young men showed up to help. We’ve never built any boats that size since then, but we’ve been able to build a number of boats in the area.

Along with the boats, we’ve built about five or six bridges. Kikongo is located on a hill with rivers on either side, so we’re in a sort of peninsula. Almost any direction you go, you have to cross a body of water. The bridges have provided access to the hospital and other places that otherwise would have been difficult to get to.
 

I was on an early morning bike ride once, and there was a crowd of women in the middle of the trail. They wouldn’t let me pass because a woman was giving birth in the middle of the trail. I asked them why they hadn’t gone to the hospital earlier. They said the bridge was too rickety, and they weren’t able to cross. I organized the village and said, “Give us two logs. We’ll cut the lumber, and together we can build a bridge.”

 

So they floated two logs to us and we designed the bridge and cut it to length. All the villagers picked up a piece of wood, we carried it to the site, and built the bridge. Now people have a way to get to the hospital, rather than balancing themselves on the rickety old log bridge.

The mill has provided dignity to the lives of the villagers. Poverty is so devastating out there. And it’s more than just hunger—it’s the dignity of being able to have a place to sit down. The lumber mill has been able to provide dignity to Congo because people can take advantage of their own resources and turn them into something useful and valuable.

It’s honoring if you can bury your relatives in coffins, rather than just wrapping them in cloth. We buried a local chief recently, and everyone was so appreciative that this chief could be buried with dignity—not just in cast-off scraps of wood, but with the best lumber. That really brought honor to the people and the chiefs they buried.

On a day of Thanksgiving where everybody was offering produce of the earth, we decided that we would offer our own portion of lumber. We brought a symbolic board to the church, on which we wrote how many boards would be offered to the church.

In Congo, when you give your offering, you have to dance down the aisle to present it. Our carpenters danced with their symbolic board as they brought it down the aisle. It was exciting for everyone.

The mill is owned and operated by the Pastoral School. Students can work at the mill in the afternoons and pay off tuition fees—in this way, the Wood-Mizer is helping the students go through school. In order to be a pastor in a rural setting, you need to be bi-vocational, so the lumber mill enables the students to become bi-vocational.

 

When our students come, they come poor. But after they’ve been at Kikongo, they always leave much better off than when they came. They want to take all the things they’ve built—furniture, beds, tables—back to their own villages. We have to restrict how much wood and furniture students put on the boat when they go back! It’s because of the mill that they’ve been able to produce these things through training.

 

Life is pretty discouraging in Congo—a lot of things can get us down. But whenever I need encouragement, I walk down to the river and I sense the excitement and enthusiasm at the mill. There’s progress here, there’s change. And that’s encouraging for me. I’m not a builder, but I’ve enabled the Congolese to build and become carpenters.

Wood-Mizer will probably be one of my biggest legacies out there. I’ll be remembered because of the sawmill every bit as much as being a pastor. Wood-Mizer is playing a major role in helping the Congolese improve and rebuild their country. We can continue to provide villagers with the tools they need to maintain their dignity and repair the country.

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Diversification Brings Profitability for English Farmer

Henry Brown has worked the Grange Farm with his father and now as sole proprietor in the village of Rosedale Abbey in England for more than 20 years. On the 300-acre farm located in the heart of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, Henry and his wife manage 400 mule breeding sheep, 1,200 pigs, horses, two bed & breakfast cottages, and a timber business. “I have such a varied job description,” Henry laughs. “Whether it is managing the cottages, the farming side, the timber side, every day is different.” However, diversity to keep the farm consistently profitable was not always the case. 

“As a young man, it’s a great idea to spend your days farming, running around on quadbikes, tractors, and it all seems great fun,” recalls Henry. “The next minute, you have a wife and children. And suddenly, it was appearing [to us] that a hill farm was not going to generate the income that our family required.”

In the early 2000s, Henry and his wife began looking into ways they could supplement farming to raise their profits. “[Profitability] while farming is a common problem, certainly up in these areas,” Henry shares. “I have two or three friends that have also diversified – one into steel fabricating and another into stone. I wanted to make sure that when I diversified into something else, that it was actually a love, and not just because I had to do it.” His wife Jane had always wanted to run a bed & breakfast and holiday cottage. Together, they remodeled an old barn into a charming B&B, which they now rent out to people looking to get away from the bustle of city life.


Henry had gone through a forestry apprenticeship at nearby Castle Howard and decided that he could make a go of producing timber after working with a Wood-Mizer portable sawmill for a year. He went on to purchase a basic but competent Wood-Mizer LT15 sawmill because of his low budget. “People are shocked when they see what [the sawmill] turns out, what it can produce,” Henry shares. “It was good to start with a mill like the LT15 to open up the marketplace, without having to spend vast amounts of money not knowing what the return would be. We started up slowly, just processing some oak locally for people. And it’s grown ever since.”
 

Timber can be a difficult market to get into, as established sawmill companies often have very loyal customers. Henry differentiated his services by being available for consultations and to make deliveries on weekends and being open to try anything to satisfy the client’s needs. “We get a lot of different projects put in front of us,” shares Henry. “And we never have the attitude of, oh, that can’t be done. I like a challenge! We have a varied client base, which I love – everyone from builders, architects, landscape gardeners, all the way to your weekend woodworking enthusiast.” Clients visit, inspect the logs that Henry keeps in stock, and can browse already dried timber to find the perfect piece they are looking for to complete a project. “There was one gentleman who came and ordered a large load of ash – nothing unusual about that,” Henry relates. “But it was for 10mm (2/5") by 75mm (3") strips… he was building coracle (small, rounded) boats! He folds and intertwines the ash around.”

Approximately 75% of the timber Henry processes is oak, in addition to larch and silver birch. “Most customers like to know where their new beams or garden furniture is coming from,” says Henry. “We like to source our timber locally. For example, I acquired a beautiful piece of sycamore that was destined to be chopped and burned, and milled it instead. It had stunning grain timber with stunning character in it. Here, there is no waste.” After several years, Henry decided to upgrade to a larger Wood-Mizer portable sawmill. “I wanted to start to push the business on,” Henry recalls. “I had a herd of Aberdeen Angus cows, which were inside six months a year and were not generating a vast profit. I sat down and decided I would rather grow my timber business. Selling the herd allowed the introduction of the [portable mill], and it has certainly produced a larger profit on a yearly basis than the herd had."


“Being able to go out and do mobile milling has helped to grow the business,” explains Henry. “We are not on a main route, so that ability to do mobile sawmilling did open up our name. We also revamped the website, and it helped dramatically. In this last year, I have been astounded at how busy we’ve been!” Adding a kiln to dry timber for use in indoor projects has really helped to expand what he can offer clients. “My love is with the small interior and exterior finishes, that’s where I see the business going over the years,” says Henry. “That is an area I would like to develop – showing wood off in its true, natural look. The great thing is, with this type of sawmill, you can do that. There are so many angles that you can mill a piece of timber on it. For a wedding, we cut oblique disks, because we could stand the log up and cut slices from it.”

 
With the timber business expanding, Henry is considering hiring someone full time to manage the farm for him, which will free him up to focus on the timber side, which is his passion. To others interested in doing what he has done, he shares the following advice - “If you are going to buy a sawmill, know the direction that you are going to take it in. When I started here, we focused on the oak route, nothing else.” He mentions that although they have received requests, they have turned down work for post-and-rails and flooring, choosing instead to focus and grow their niche for tailored projects for specialist clients.

 

Product models, specifications, and availability may vary by territory.

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Converting Illegally-Logged Timber into 146,000 School Desks in the Philippines

In the 20th century, the Philippines lost most of its thick forest cover to over logging. Recent administrations have implemented regulation, logging bans, and new policies that have reversed that trend, but the remaining forests are still under threat from illegal logging that is taking place.

When logs are illegally felled and transported to other countries, this denies local Philippines the benefit of their own good timber. Over the last few years, the Philippines has made great efforts to curb illegal logging. Aerial and water borne surveillance assist in determining where agents will make raids on suspicious activities, while road checkpoints target timber in transit. These activities have resulted in the confiscation of illegally-logged timber and the prosecution of those responsible.

 

Through these raids and checkpoint stops, approximately 66000 cubic meters (28.5 million bd. ft.) of high quality timber was confiscated from 2010 to 2014 alone.

Confiscated timber was stored throughout the Philippines, usually not far from where it had been intercepted, in order to serve as evidence during legal proceedings. Once the legal requirements were fulfilled, officials were faced with a dilemma – what to do with the massive stockpiles of high quality timber scattered throughout the island nation before the wood eventually deteriorated?

While many logs are caught before they are transported, the government keeps the logs outdoors, subject to rain and excess sunlight, causing the logs to rot until they are unsalvageable. Such a resource should not be wasted by the very process set up by the government to serve the people—and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) determined to find a way to use these logs for the Filipino community before they lost their purpose.

And this is not a problem only confined to the Philippines. As countries worldwide in Asia, Africa and South America fight back against deforestation and illegal logging, the problem of what to do with the confiscated timber is a pressing issue. The whole point of anti-illegal logging programs is to preserve our resource for the future. So what about the timber already cut and intercepted? As officials in the Philippines watched these beautiful timbers rotting, they came up with an idea that the rest of the world would do well to pay attention to.

At that time public schools across the Philippines lacked at least 2.5 million chairs. In 2010, the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA), Department of Education (DepEd), Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and DENR proposed the P-Noy Bayanihan Project that government-confiscated logs could be used to build new furnishings for local schools.

The mission of DENR, TESDA, DepEd and PAGCOR was simple. They wanted to take the logs that had been confiscated, salvage them, mill them, and create school tables and chairs for local schools. They began by cutting the wood and sending it away to be refurbished, but eventually they were able to begin manufacturing the furniture themselves. It was a complete turnaround for the Filipino community. The Forest Products and Development Institute-Department of Science and Technology (FPRDI-DOST) was also tapped by DENR to convert confiscated logs into lumber and transported them to TESDA, Agusan del Sur. 

 

A collaborative project between DENR and FPRDI-DOST entitled: ‘Sawmilling of Ten Million Board Feet of Logs and Flitches in CARAGA for Use of DepEd in the Manufacture of School Desks and Chairs’ was implented. Ten million board feet is more than 23,000 cubic meters of wood! And this is just from the Caraga region of the Philippines – a fraction of the whole country.

 

“We were able to convert confiscated logs and flitches into lumber and fabricated school desks and chairs,” Dr. Eusebio shares. After testing the chairs, the team was surprised to find that the properties in their salvaged wood were almost the same as finer, healthier wood. “The DENR Regional Office in CARAGA donated some school chairs in CARAGA.” Other schools benefited as well.

 

But just how big of an impact did the project have on the environment? Consider this: the average 3,000 square-foot timber frame house takes around 15,000 board feet of timber to build. The project has already scaled that amount and cut nearly 4 million board feet of timber. With so much excess illegal wood, DENR and FPRDI-DOST have found a way to create a beneficial, economical, and rewarding purpose for the confiscated logs.

 

“Since 2011, more than 146,000 pieces of school furniture have been produced and 369 school buildings have been repaired using seized timber products.” 

 

Before the project began, Dr. Eusebio and the team had one saw mill. However, after the project was conceptualized, the team decided to buy five more units of Wood-Mizer portable sawmills. “If you use a regular chainsaw,” Eusebio shares, “you will lose 5 mm of wood because of the blade. But if you use the Wood-Mizer, you only lose 1 mm.”

Dr. Eusebio also recognized the efficiency of sawmills because they take up so little energy. In Kenya, the energy efficiency and minimal wastage of the Wood-Mizer machines impressed forestry officials so much that they banned new sawmillers from using any other kind of sawmill in their businesses. As reported in The Star, Kenya in April, 2016, the Kenyan Forestry Service issued new rules in order to more effectively combat illegal logging operations, by requiring licensed sawmillers to use thin-kerf sawmills only.

“In the new rules by KFS, saw millers licensed to cut trees in gazetted forests must use the Wood-Mizer machine as opposed to ordinary saws. KFS says the new machine produces more timber from a log than ordinary ones.”

The logs that are able to be salvaged from illegal logging confiscation are used to grow the woodworking factory and train people. The DENR now has ten Wood-Mizer sawmills and they have been deployed all over the vast country. They transport these sawmills to places where illegally-felled logs have been stored after confiscation.

Eusebio concludes. “I hope that the forest will once again become green, just like 50 years ago. If you look at the statistics, it’s very sad to learn that we have very few forested areas left. But now the number is going back up because of the National Greening Program.”

After six years of nonstop processing of illegally felled trees and production of something better for the economy and the environment, the National Greening Program and DENR were able to work and not only build thousands of chairs and tables, but also find a way to grow and manage the forests around them.

 

Future Impact for Other Countries

There are many countries trying to stop the process of illegal logging completely. But the Philippines found a unique, creative, and economical way to address the problem and solve it with a different method. Maybe we can gain a better perspective from DENR and FPRDI-DOST on how to better problem-solve in our own communities, and how to help our own environments through community outreach.

 

Important to remember though is that many illegal loggers are not large corporations – they’re simple farmers or villagers who do not have many opportunities to generate income. “A lot of illegal loggers are simple people who are mainly trying to feed their own children. Especially for our upland dwellers, wood is their source of income that allows their children to go to school.” shares Teodulfo Delgado, Engineer with the College of Forests & Natural Resources in Los Banos, Philippines. Hand-in-hand with enforcement of anti-illegal logging regulation needs to come provisions for better economic development.

Additional References:

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/180877/seized-logs-to-find-use-as-chairs-tables-for-schools 
http://www.philstar.com/good-news/774042/chairs-public-schools-illegal-logs
http://www.philstar.com/cebu-news/2015/05/15/1454993/denr-7-illegal-tree-cutting-still-rampant 
http://www.denr.gov.ph/news-and-features/latest-news/2056-denr-optimistic-to-achieve-zero-illegal-logging-hotspot-target-by-2016.html 
http://news.abs-cbn.com/nation/09/10/14/denr-taps-nbi-fight-vs-illegal-logging

 

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