Saw bench identification

[suffolksmallholder]

@Hawkes Just for your interest I have found a similar set up to what we had.

This could cut 30M3 an hour on song and kept 18 or so peeps in work. Before this we had an Andre saw similar to this Brenta set up. http://www.petergoodearl.co.uk/laceygreen/prisboro/risbfurn/agrhist.htm
I inherited a Guilliet 48 from poked-around-the-back, but with nowhere to mill and then had a lifestyle change!
SS

 

[Hawkes]

Good to see that @suffolksmallholder , automation through a sawmill is a fascinating thing, getting all the different shapes to flow through a mill and not to build up in any particular area causing a bottleneck. We built our new mill to cut long lengths and big dimension soft woods, up to a 30 ft long log through the line. The business of cutting timber is a never ending learning curve, developing and fine tuning the flow etc , I loved it . The business of employing lots of staff not so much, I am very glad to be out of it now. When we packed up, to go farming full time, the entire mill was sold to Siberia and re-erected over there. Sounds like you made the same life choice, I know a few millers who cut timber until they could afford to go farming! The best guys we had in the mill had often come from farming backgrounds, we had one chap who used to milk his 70 cows , do an 8 hr shift in the mill and then go home to milk!
I have books on the sawmilling trade in the USA at the turn of last century and some of their outfits were just amazing 100 years ago, we have never got anywhere near the yanks over here.

 

[Exfarmer]

Good to see that @suffolksmallholder , automation through a sawmill is a fascinating thing, getting all the different shapes to flow through a mill and not to build up in any particular area causing a bottleneck. We built our new mill to cut long lengths and big dimension soft woods, up to a 30 ft long log through the line. The business of cutting timber is a never ending learning curve, developing and fine tuning the flow etc , I loved it . The business of employing lots of staff not so much, I am very glad to be out of it now. When we packed up, to go farming full time, the entire mill was sold to Siberia and re-erected over there. Sounds like you made the same life choice, I know a few millers who cut timber until they could afford to go farming! The best guys we had in the mill had often come from farming backgrounds, we had one chap who used to milk his 70 cows , do an 8 hr shift in the mill and then go home to milk!
I have books on the sawmilling trade in the USA at the turn of last century and some of their outfits were just amazing 100 years ago, we have never got anywhere near the yanks over here.

Have you read about the NZ millers who cut up the Kauri trees, , I learnt just a very small fraction in NZ when I was there, fascinating

 

[Hawkes]

just found this of a spruce in USA in the early days.