Dowel Mills - Production Methods

By Alan Froome on TimberLineMag.com 5/1/2004

RATON, New Mexico — Western Wood Products Inc. is not new to the post and pole business. Owner Ray Levengood has been running a plant in Mountain View, Wyoming since 1991 where his company produces about 6,000 components daily. The plant produces poles and posts ranging from 3-8 inches in diameter.
“We recognized an opportunity and decided to build a second plant,” said Ray. He picked a location in Raton, New Mexico and started to design a new mill. “Very few people are as serious as we are about the post and pole business,” said Ray. “I wanted to build the best plant I could and traveled all over, looking at ways to process small logs.”
WWP has been operating dowel mills since 1993 when the company invested in equipment from Round Wood Systems (RWS) of Montana. It bought two more machines in 1997.
Ray started discussions with Round Wood Systems in 2002 about an improved machine design for the proposed new plant in Raton. He specified consistent production, reduced maintenance and high quality product as his main priorities. Round Wood Systems subsequently supplied two machines that were custom designed to meet his specific requirements.
“We started to build the new plant in September 2003 and took delivery of the first RWS dowel mill in January 2004,” said Ray. “The second mill was delivered in February. The new mills are a tremendous improvement over the old ones at our other plant.” The new design features seal-less heads, and Ray expects the new machines to prove much more durable compared to the old machines.

New Plant
The new plant in Raton is designed to be a first class, state-of-the-art facility. Logs are debarked, electronically scanned to determine diameter and length, and then sorted according to eight sizes prior to processing.
The plant contracts for logging and usually works with logs from 4-12 inches in diameter and from 6-16 feet long; the preferred length is 8 feet. The logs are debarked by a Valon Kone Brunette (VKB) 16-inch ring debarker and then passed through a scanner that controls the eight sort system downstream. The sorting system was supplied by Precision Sawmill Sorting from Montana with a log scanner from WGBM.
“We sort them as we like to run all day without changing the cutter heads on the dowel mills,” Ray explained. “It takes about an hour to change a head.” He added, “We grind our own knives and replace them twice a day at Raton, but we are trying to get a full 8 hours with the new machines.” (On the older dowel mills at the Wyoming plant, the knives are changed three or four times daily.)
After sorting, the logs are fed by a belt conveyor into one of the two Round Wood Systems dowel mills. If a log has an extremely high taper, it will pass through the larger mill and then be kicked out to be processed on the small machine. A four-gang drill is used to drill holes in fence posts as required. Afterward the posts are transferred by belt conveyor to a 140-foot long green chain, and workers pull them off and stack them by size. After bundling and strapping, final length trimming is carried out by an L-M Equipment Co. package cross-cut saw.

Dowell Mills
Dowel mills are machines designed to process raw unbarked logs directly into dowels or other round wood products such as poles, fence posts, furniture parts and other round wood components that require accurate size and smooth finish. Logs must be delimbed before processing although debarking or rough sizing is not necessary before feeding them into the RWS machine.
RWS manufactures two basic sizes of dowel mills for either fixed mill floor installations or portable trailer mounting. The smaller RWS-6020H machine produces round wood dowels 2-6 inches in diameter from rough logs up to 9 inches in diameter; the larger RWS-8040H machine turns out dowels from 4-8 inches in diameter from logs up to 12 inches in diameter. An optional second head that will make 2-4 inch dowels can be fitted to the larger machine to extend its range.
The process of converting logs into round wood is accomplished in two steps. The infeed and outfeed systems accurately center and guide the log through the cutting head and prevent it from turning in response to the torque exerted by the knives. The log does not spin or turn.
According to Round Wood Systems, its machines can reduce labor by one half and increase production 100-200% compared to labor-intensive machines that turn the log. “We now have 30 machines in operation and have been building them for four years,” said sales manager Ed Smith. “Our latest design is improved so they run more smoothly and need less maintenance.”
The dowel mills can process logs at speeds up to 110 linear feet per minute, said Ed, although most companies run them at speeds of 50-80 feet per minute.
“The mills can process almost any length logs,” he added. “They are only limited by the log butt size. However, most mills run logs from 5 to 20 feet long.”

Round Wood Systems
Montana Hydraulics opened for business in 1998 in Helena, located in the forests of central Montana. In the beginning the company kept its machine tool and fabricating shops busy by provided mechanical and hydraulic service to anybody who needed it. This initially included work for the sawmill, logging, railroad, and construction industries in the region. This diversified service continues but today also includes the manufacture of precision-machined components for the aircraft industry.
In 2000 the company began supplying components to Montana Manufacturing, which was building dowel mills in the area. A year later Montana Hydraulics began building the complete machines, and in 2002 it bought the manufacturing rights for them from owner Harold Bouma.
It established a separate division to further develop these and other machines. Round Wood Systems (RWS) was formed in 2003 to focus on the design and manufacture of sorting systems, trim saws, dowel mills and their associated material handling and conveying systems. RWS employs about 20 personnel at present. Some of the key people include general manager Mark Ehlke, sales manager Ed Smith, purchasing manager Charlie Wiles and engineer Richard Hogan.

Dowell Mill Specifications
The RWS dowel mill has five main components: main frame, infeed, cutting head, outfeed and hydraulic system. There is also an electrical control console for the operator.
The main frame features one piece welded construction and supports pairs of feed rolls to guide the logs into the cutting head and prevent them from twisting as they go through the machine. Both the 6-inch and 8-inch dowel mills utilize the same frame design, but the 8-inch model is longer because it uses four pairs of feed rolls — compared to only three pairs on the 6-inch machine.
The mill infeed section guides the logs into the machine and comprises a number of smooth machined bed rolls. They work in combination with upper toothed rolls to grip the incoming log. The upper and lower rolls are mechanically linked to maintain a log center line concentric with the cutting heads and are mounted on cantilevered spindles. Squeeze pressure and roll drive is applied hydraulically, and the operator can adjust the squeeze stroke to optimize the log feeding action and resulting throughput. All roll bearings are sealed, tapered roller-type with grease-zerk fittings. To reduce maintenance, no ball bearings, roller chain or keyed shafting are used in the construction.
Cutting heads are supplied for three dowel size ranges: 2-4 inches, 2-6 inches and 4-8 inches. Each size head can be adjusted to produce a series of standard dowel sizes within its range. In addition, RWS can supply non-standard bushings on request to make custom sizes. For the most efficient operations, RWS recommends running the smallest size head capable of cutting the required post or pole diameter.
All RWS dowel mill heads use the same five bolt and three locating pin pattern, which ensures the head-machine centerline will be maintained irrespective of the size head fitted over the entire life of the machine. The heads are driven by an electric motor, and both the 6-inch and 8-inch capacity dowel mills have a drive platform designed to suit both 50 hp and 100 hp motors. Normally, the smaller machine uses a 50 hp motor and the larger machine use a 100 hp motor. In addition, a 20 hp electric motor is used on the hydraulic power pack.
Each head has three roughing knives that make the first cut and three finishing knives to make a smooth, finish cut. The knives are made of tool steel and ground to suit the individual application, depending on the customer’s wood species, moisture content of the wood, desired log feed speed, and other factors.
Head bearings are tapered roller type with adjustment by shim packs and lubricated by pressurized oil spray, which also provides cooling. Oil flow is provided by a gear type pump, belt driven by the main head motor to directly link the lubrication flow to the head rotation. The lubrication tank is separate from the main hydraulic system. Oil containment in the head is provided in a ‘seal-less’ manner using centrifugal force on the oil in the return direction rather than conventional lip contact type seals. According to RWS, this results in lower rotational drag, reduced maintenance and longer life.
The outfeed section continues to guide the material after it exits the cutting head. The resulting dowel is carried by smooth machined hour-glass shaped rolls mounted on cantilevered spindles with upper press rolls running in tapered roller bearings with grease-zerk fittings. Drive is provided by hydraulic motors, synchronized to match the speed of the infeed section.
The hydraulic system provides power to the infeed and outfeed rolls, the squeeze cylinders and outfeed kicker. A single 20 hp electric motor drives two pumps in a ‘piggy-back’ configuration. A tandem hydrostatic transmission pump supplies the feed drive, and a pressure compensated pump supplies the squeeze cylinders and kicker. The infeed hydraulic motors are connected in series, and the circuit is separate from the outfeed section; the outfeed motors are also in series. Both circuits are mechanically connected and actuated by a single electric device.
The hydraulic system oil tank is provided with a filter, heater for cold weather operation and a cooler to protect from overheating. An accumulator is also supplied for the squeeze cylinder circuit to provide compressibility and fast response.
RWS can also supply a belt infeed and outfeed conveyor to complete the customer’s production line. In addition to the dowel mills, RWS manufactures an automatic pointing machine to sharpen a point on fence posts or stakes plus a five-drill gang drill that can drill up to five holes in one pass.

Start at Western Wood Products
The most recent installation of an RWS dowel mill was at Western Wood Products in Raton, New Mexico. Two machines were installed in February. In March, when Ray talked with TimberLine, Western Wood Products was still in the initial ramp-up period.
“We are having a few glitches getting the new plant up to full production, but the new dowel mills are a tremendous improvement over the older ones,” said Ray. “Our target is 6,000 pieces per eight hour shift from the two mills, and we got 3,100 pieces from one machine on the first day, so we think it’s realistic.” By way of comparison, at the company’s plant in Wyoming, it takes three dowel mills to produce about 6,000 pieces.
The dowel mills supplied by RWS are new, improved designs that are intended to provide smoother running and require less maintenance.
When asked about debarking, Ray said, “We run lodge pole pine at our Wyoming plant and do not debark the logs. However, at Raton we run a mix of Ponderosa and yellow pine, and I have found it better to debark the logs first.” Ray added, “We also sell the bark for landscaping material and the shavings for animal bedding.”
Western Wood Products ships posts and poles all over the U.S. “When we introduced dowels to the fence post market, people were really impressed,” said Ray. “One lot of ranchers came all the way from Florida to buy our posts. Compared to peeler cores, which are all heart wood, the dowels are much more stable and don’t warp in the hot sun.”
The new plant employs 15 people but will increase to 22 when it is in full production. The company has been warmly received in Raton. “I have never been in such a great community,” said Ray. “The folks here are really awesome.”

www.PoleAndTimber.com

It is the best site in the marine and shoreline construction business.

www.PoleAndTimber.com
www.PoleAndTimber.com
www.PoleAndTimber.com

Turning Waste Wood into Profit

One of the most common ways mills and custom-wood-product manufacturers turn their wastes and scraps into a profit is by turning those scraps into shavings for sale as animal bedding or landscaping ground coverage.

This can be accomplished in either of two ways - in house or by selling (or giving) the scraps to someone else who turns them into shavings. Not only is there a value on the top line through the sale of the shavings but also to the bottom line because typically a disposal fee is required to get rid of those scraps. Here, we will discuss the benefits and risks of operating a shaving mill in-house.

Let's take a quick and simplified look at running a shaving mill. The basic requirements are:

• Shaving mill
• electricity source to run the mill (they require immense power)
• labor to run said shaving mill
• marketing of the shavings
• bags for shavings
• enough wastes to necessitate a shaving mill

Shaving mills are NOT cheap machines. This factor alone makes the entire venture questionable. The fixed cost required to even begin shaving wood wastes in-house can start from $10,000 (if you find a decent working used mill at a great price) to $100,000 for a new high-capacity shaver with a loading mechanism. You can easily spend more money but for the sake of this, we will stick to a $50,000 machine.

In my experience, you will spend additional money setting the mill up with electricity - running lines, transformers, and breaker boxes that can manage the huge draw a mill can put on the current electrical system at your location. A generator could be used but who wants another machine to maintain? Besides, you have to feed generators. Let's price this ordeal at $5,000. The monthly electricty bill for running the shaving mill 40 hours per week is $300 (this is cheap), which comes to $3,600 per year or $10,800 over three years.

Now, we have a shaving mill and electricity to power it. All we need to start making shavings is waste materials (logs, tree cuts, or blocks or scraps of wood - and they MUST be untreated) and labor to load the machine and keep it in operation. For the sake of argument, let's drop the problem of having enough scraps and say that we DO have enough scraps to run this machine non-stop five days a week for the next one hundred fifty-six weeks (three years).

Now we need labor. Let's say one person run constantly for 40 hours per week. The work costs the company $10 per hour after benefits and labor taxes. This is cheap labor, by the way, but the point of this discussion is a simplified analysis. At $10 per hour, 40 hours per week equals $400 per week, times 52 weeks per year equals $20,800 per year. Over three years, this yearly salary comes to $62,400.

Let's get to the production numbers, which brings up the number of bags we need. Let's assume, one person running the mill can shave and fill 80 50lb bags of shavings each day - this is pretty great production from one person. Either way, we need 80 big clear plastic bags each day at a cost of about 40 cents each which comes to $32 per day. Over a five day week, this equals $160 and over a 52 week year it equals $8,320. Over three years, this will come to $24,960.

To recap: We can now make and bag shavings. The variable costs per year will be $3,600 (elec.) + $20,800 (cheap labor) + $8,320 (bags) for a total of $32,720 in variable costs. This does not include admin costs, returns, gas for forklifts or other equipment used to help operate the mill. It also does not include maintenance costs or other unforeseeable costs that might arise.

$32,720 per year in variable costs.

At $3.00 per bag (often the going rate), we need to sell 10,907 bags per year to cover those simple variable costs. We produce 80 bags per day X 5 days per week X 52 weeks oper year for a total production of 20,800 bags per year.

At $3.00 per bag, the revenues from 20,800 bags comes to $62,400. This is a profit of $29,680 per year. Keep in mind that we did not figure in any ads for the shavings, our really super-productive labor is really cheap, and we are working in an environment with zero mishaps.

Other costs that need to be subtracted from this profit are: the costs of marketing your new products, sales costs (salesperson, labor to load or deliver), payments made on the shaver, and maintenance costs.

There you go. Money can be made from turning wastes into shavings but all aspects have to be carefully managed and costs need to be kept to a minimum.

From another blog

Right now, I am having trouble because of the rediculous blocks between Blogger and Blogger beta so I am just copying some of the text from this article instead of blogging it.

About the DIY homebuilder market:

To a visitor from the UK, the gleaming efficiency of the production lines is a site to behold. It’s reminiscent of car factories with wall and roof panels moving through assembly lines with a minimum of human intervention. If you want to read up more on it, there is a very funny description on the But She’s a Girl blogsite. Baufritz produce around 250 houses a year with a staff of 260, of which around 80 work in the factory and a further 60 work on site as erection crews. Work it out: it’s roughly one house per person per year. Say 1800 hours input. In the UK, you would expect to see between 3000 and 5000 hours work go into a traditionally-built house of similar size, and not that much less for a timber-frame one.

Pretty cool.

There's more. Read on if you like:
http://markbrinkley.blogspot.com/2006/07/baufritz-biological-housebuilders.html

Getting Better Profits from Timber

This is an excellent article about trends in profiting more from timber.

http://www.cnr.uidaho.edu/extforest/FMP14.pdf#search=%22timber%20profits%22

Waste Wood from Landfill Becomes Profit

Waste Wood into Profit

Sawyers turn wood otherwise destined for the landfill into a business. June 5, 2002

Here's a great value-added story I heard recently. A landfill operator in North Carolina who accepts trees and brush bought a portable sawmill and is milling "waste wood" (logs brought in by tree trimmers, homeowners, etc.). He produces lumber and sells it to local hobbyists, furniture makers, etc., as well as making "packaging timber" which is sold to a steel manufacturer. His prime value-added product consists of surveying stakes, which he makes and sells green to utilities and land surveyors. He will soon be adding a small kiln to his operation so he can market dry lumber. Not bad for an operation that charges folks for the wood they deliver (tipping fee). Most of us have to buy our raw material as opposed to getting a payment to accept it.

Steve Bratkovich

Few Acres Can Yield Big Timber Profits

Few acres can yield big timber profits
By Keryn Page

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Landowners with as few as five acres can manage their land for pine timber production, and an often overlooked byproduct can add to the profits.

Tim Traugott, a Mississippi State University Extension Service forestry professor, said in the past landowners needed 20 to 40 acres of land to make timber production economically feasible. With today's market situation and prices, however, five acres of pine trees is more than enough.
"If a landowner plants five acres of pine trees today and manages it the way it should be managed, he or she can expect a return of $25,000-plus -- it could be much more than that -- when it matures at 35 years of age," Traugott said. "Timber buyers routinely purchase tracts of five acres or less."

Case studies show existing pine stands can earn an average of about $100 to $150 per acre per year. "That doesn't mean you plant the trees and get $100 to $150 a year -- landowners must properly manage the timber, thinning a few times over the 35-year lifespan. When the timber is harvested after 35 years, the profit will equal about $100 to $150 per acre per year," Traugott said. Traugott said his data is based on timber that is managed as a crop, much like the management techniques used by producers of soybeans, cotton and other traditional crops.

Without proper management, pine trees cannot be expected to generate these high profits.
"No matter how many acres you have, you need to manage it like a crop. If landowners seek professional help, manage the timber just like they would any other crop and market the crop properly, a five-acre pine tract will make them a tremendous amount of money," Traugott said.

Small-acreage pine plantations work because good management produces a higher volume of timber. With proper management, a landowner could produce the same volume of timber on a five-acre tract that could be produced on a 25-acre tract that has not been properly managed.
"Landowners need to understand it's not the number of acres that matters; it's the volume of timber on those acres. If you plant in pine trees and manage it properly, you're going to have high timber volumes," Traugott said.

Extension forester Britton Hatcher said selling timber at maturity is not the only opportunity landowners have to make money off pine trees. An often overlooked source of income is the pine straw that gathers on the forest floor each year.

"A lot of people here in the South are looking at a product every day that they don't realize can make them money. It is possible for landowners with pine stands in the right condition and location to make $150 or more per acre per year by selling the pine needles for mulch," Hatcher said. "If a landowner does all the work on five acres, yields 100 bales per acre and wholesales the straw for $3 per bale, those five acres could yield $1,500 per year."

Landowners can choose to harvest the pine straw themselves or contract with a harvester to do the work for them. The benefits of hiring someone else to harvest may outweigh the reduction in overall profit.

"Landowners who contract with someone to harvest their pine straw can make a considerable income, plus they don't have to do the work themselves. Not only can a landowner make money from their straw, but getting the pine straw up also helps to reduce a potential fire hazard," Hatcher said. Hatcher said managing a pine tree for straw production is not difficult: pine trees inevitably drop the needles, and landowners can simply gather them for baling.

There are two main methods of harvesting pine straw. Buying equipment to mechanically harvest is less labor-intensive but can become rather expensive. A relatively simple and inexpensive method is to purchase a hand baler, which is more labor-intensive.

Pine stands must be at least 6 to 8 years old to produce enough pine straw to make baling economically worthwhile, and baling can extend until the stand's first thinning. Once logging debris is cleared, needle harvest can continue after the thinning. Needle fall starts in late October or early November and can continue until April.

Pine straw yields, depending on harvest method, are estimated at 100 or more bales per acre for healthy, growing pine stands. Landowners who are willing to fertilize have the potential to see more than 250 bales per acre. "There's a square bale that averages about 15 to 20 pounds and a round bale that weighs about 40 pounds. The square bale has been known to bring as high as $6 or $7 per bale, and the round bale has sold for more than $12 per bale," Hatcher said. "If you're the landowner and you're doing all the work yourself and start wholesaling or retailing it, you're talking about a good bit of money."

Pine straw contains nutrients vital to tree growth, so landowners should fertilize stands with diammonium phosphate to replace the nutrients lost in baling.

Hatcher warned that producers are not allowed to harvest pine straw on lands enrolled in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program.

Should Manufacturers Become Retailers

An interesting article by George Koeninger in the 08/06 FDM Magazine

Mr. Koeninger professes that a manufacturing company should be very cautious if it is considering moving into retail. In fact, he basically argues against it altogether. His reasoning is sensible and comes from his 35 years of experience. He gives seven reasons and a few possible alternatives for those who are not necessarily wanting retail but are really wanting extra revenues - and profitability.

Here are the simplified versions of his reasons:

1. Retail takes cash away from manufacturing, often leaving manufacturing technology and capabilities behind the curve.
2. There are few/no returns in a manufacturing environment. If you manufacture and retail, your cash is not assured until after you have made the product, let it sit on a shelf, then it is not returned.
3. Need a stronger brand than the other brands on your store front or people will go to the others.
4. You''ll have to pay for an excellent management team for the retail startup from the very beginning - very expensive. See #1.
5. You will probaby need a completely new software system - retail is a different business than manufacturing.
6. Where are the profits reported? How is your bonus system structured? Will manufacturing personel get smaller bonuses because the retail division is not meeting numbers?
7. "Us v. Them" mindset between retail and manufacturing will always exist.

His main suggestion is that manufacturing companies looking for new sources of profitable revenue should develop new markets abroad in places that are hungry for American products.

Build it right, people

When you are building something, build it right. No matter what you are building just DO IT RIGHT - use the right materials, the proper methods, get the right advice, use the right equipment, or just hire it out.

Cheaper is not necessarily better - in fact, almost always not with building materials.

Get posts that are long enough. Get joists that are big enough. Get the correct hardware. Use the right tools. Get the right level of treatment if you are building around water.

Do it right. Do it right. Do it right.

Wood Damage

The latest installment of...

American Pole and Timber Weekly - Edition 104

Welcome! We hope you find value in this edition of Pole and Timber Weekly.
If you have any questions, call us at (866) 397-3038. You can always visit us online at http://www.PoleandTimber.com.

Breaking Down Wood - the Major Causes of Damage to Wood
There are 3 main factors that cause wood to break down - water, sun, and wood boring organisms.

Water
Moisture is harmful to wood in AT LEAST two ways. First, the presence of dampness creates an environment where harmful fungi can grow and destroy the wood. Termites also require some moisture to live in wood. Second, repeated entry and exit of water causes the wood to swell then shrink again and again. Over time, this cycle causes the wood to split, warp, and crack.

Sun
The sun - actually, the sun's heat - causes wood to split, warp, crack, and twist because it causes water to evaporate. Boards warp toward the sun because the sunny-side-up is shrinking due to a decrease in moisture. Basically, the top side of the board becomes shorter than the bottom side so it bows, warps, cups, or twists. Further, the sun's UV rays cause the wood to turn gray.

Wood Boring Organisms
The most common wood boring organisms are termites, teredos (shipworms), and limnoria. They all eat wood. Termites are on land, though, while teredos and limnoria live in wood in the water.

Solutions
The #1 solution is to use pressure treated wood coated with 21 POLY from American Pole and Timber. Pressure treating wood with CCA or ACQ effectively makes wood inedible to organisms. Coating wood with 21 POLY makes it completely impenetrable to wood borers, UV rays, and water.

Always use wood that is treated to the correct retention level for your needs. Treat to .40 pcf for Ground Contact, .60 for Freshwater, and 2.5 for Brackish or Saltwater.

To learn more about pressure treated wood and 21 POLY, go to http://www.PoleandTimber.com. You can call directly at (866) 397-3038.

New Website with New SUPER ULTRA CONTENT
The new and improved and super-ultra-amazing Pole and Timber website will be out in late August or early September! Check back often at http://www.PoleandTimber.com. In addition to more interactive content, it will include cut sheets for our products and information specification sheets for treated wood and marine construction.

Until Next Week
Good luck out there and call us if you need anything!

American Pole and Timber is a national manufacturer and supplier of treated poles, timbers, pilings, large timber trusses, and other commercial and industrial wood products. Call us at (866) 397-3038.

Benefits of Building with Poles and Pilings

Benefits of Building with Poles and Pilings

• Poles and Pilings have long life spans due to reduced heartwood exposure.
• They can be sanded, stained, or painted to match existing décor.
• Poles and Pilings are stronger and suffer less warping than dimensional timbers.
• Long life span and superior strength make them very cost effective.

Definitions:

Pole — defined by its particular structural installation. If the pole is set with the butt (large end) in the ground, such as a utility pole or barn pole, it is referred to as a pole.

Piling — also defined by its installation. Pilings are driven into the ground with the tip (small end) first.

I wrote this for http://www.AmericanPoleandTimber.com among other things.

Chromated Copper Arsenate Treated Timbers

Background
Chromated copper arsenate (CCA) is a chemical registered for use as a wood preservative.

How is Timber Treated with Chromated Copper Arsenate
It is injected into wood at high pressure so that it saturates the wood. It is used to protect wood from dry rot, fungi, moulds, termites and other pests that can compromise the integrity of the timber.

What are Chromated Copper Arsenate Treated Timbers Used For?
Chromated copper arsenate treated timbers are commonly used for decks, walkways, fences, gazebos, pergolas etc. Other uses chromated copper arsenate treated timbers include highway noise barriers, sign posts, utility posts and retaining walls.

Disposing of Chromated Copper Arsenate Treated Timbers
Chromated copper arsenate treated timbers should not be burned, mulched or used for compost. They should be disposed of using solid municipal waste methods.

The Future of Chromated Copper Arsenate Treated Timbers
In the USA, industry has volunteered to cease using chromated cooper arsenate treated timbers by the end of 2003. This decision has been supported by the EPA who will ban chromated copper arsenate treated wood for residential applications.

Alternatives to Chromated Copper Arsenate Treated Timbers
In response to this alternative treatments and preservatives have been developed and registered with the EPA. Other possible alternative materials include untreated woods such as cedar and redwood, plastics, metals and composite materials.

Source: AZoM.com

New American Pole and Timber website

Here it comes! It is almost here! September 1st. This Friday.

New and improved. It rocks.

Cycle Counting in a Job Shop Environment

Cycle counts in a job shop (custom manufacturing) environment can be the biggest PITA I have dealt with. With many other activities, you can train your people, set them in motion, and after some repetitive lessons and a few trials and errors, things run no their own (for the most part).

With a job shop, materials change so much and so quickly, each cycle count is bound to be different and reconciling those differences is nothing less than paper chasing and detective work. All cycle counts have SOME degree of this but this environment is nuts.

If you have any comments or questions about this, go for it. I did not say it is impossible, just a pain in the A$$.

Creosote Shortage

Industry-wide Creosote Shortage

There is a currently an industry-wide shortage on creosote wood treatment. The shortage, caused indirectly by the high costs of oil, has created an approximately 40% decrease in total creosote production.

Creosote is a coal based product. The higher costs of oil have made some coal derivatives more attractive for use in other markets thus decreasing the amount available for creosote production.

The shortage is expected to last many months and will probably get worse before it gets better.

American Pole and Timber suggests CCA treated posts, poles, and timbers as alternative. CCA pressure treated wood is more attractive and cleaner to work with and position as well.

Call American Pole and Timber toll free at (866) 397-3038 to ask about CCA treated timbers, poles, posts, and lumber.

- Article by Chris Denny

Marine Borers

How Marine Borers Destroy Wood

Shipworms (Teredos) and Gribbles (Limnoria)

Shipworms and Gribbles are the main causes of organic damage to marine structures. The best solution for protection against marine borers is to protect the wood with a physical barrier which does not allow marine borers to reach or penetrate the wood.

Shipworms (Teredos)

Shipworms live in saltwater or brackish water and can get up to SIX FEET LONG. They are worm-like bivalve mollusks with a greatly reduced shell which they use to bore tunnels into wood. Shipworms typically spend their entire lives in a tunnel in a single piece of wood.

Shipworms damage the wood from the inside-out. The damage is difficult to assess but you can recognize a shipworm infestation by the small holes they leave in the wood.

"Wherever you have untreated timber, you're going to have problems with shipworms," said David M. Cacoilo, a partner and design engineer at Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers in New York, which has worked on a dozen marine borer projects. "Once they're there, the potential for the population to explode is tremendous."

Gribbles (Limnoria)

Gribbles attack in huge numbers at the outer edges of the wood and create the common “hour-glass” shape pilings often develop at water level.

Gribbles are nearly microscopic crustaceans, resembling the wood louse, with seven pairs of legs and four pairs of mouthparts. Given enough time, they can devour the pilings under a pier until the structure is weakened enough to collapse.

Clean Water Equals More Marine Borers

Interestingly, a large population of shipworms and gribbles indicates low water pollution levels. Areas with high levels of pollution in the water have little problems with these marine borers but when the water gets cleaned up, they move in.

Ultimate Solution to Marine Borer Attack

American Pole and Timber suggests using CCA pressure treated poles, pilings, and timbers and coating them with 21 POLY vinyl coating as the ultimate solution for protecting wood structures against marine borer attacks.

21 POLY is a vinyl coating specially engineered to bond to wood. It is approved, and used, by the corps of engineers and is proven effective at protecting wood structures against marine borers. For more information about 21 POLY, go to www.PoleAndTimber.com.

Call American Pole and Timber toll free at (866) 397-3038 to ask about 21 POLY Coated timbers, poles, pilings, and lumber.

New Website with New SUPER ULTRA CONTENT

The new and improved and super-ultra-amazing Pole and Timber website will be out in late August or early September! Check back often at www.PoleAndTimber.com.. In addition to more interactive content, it will include cut sheets for our products and information specification sheets for treated wood and marine construction.

Until Next Week

Good luck out there and call us if you need anything!

American Pole and Timber is a national manufacturer and supplier of treated poles, timbers, pilings, large timber trusses, and other commercial and industrial wood products. Call us at (866) 397-3038 or contact us online.

- Article by Chris Denny

American Pole and Timber Aiming at the National Market

Building Products Plus currently serves the national market but focuses mainly on the Texas Gulf Coast region. The American Pole and Timber division of the company is currently redefining itself as a national service center. American Pole and Timber will be actively marketing and selling to clients across the nation. Contractors, architects and engineers, and homeowners will be able to easily access our services and products online at www.americanpoleandtimber.com and place orders via phone. Online purchases are slated for the future.

Steel Business

I am proud to announce that Building Products Plus is getting into the steel sheet-piling business. This brings up a whole new set of fantastic inventory and management issues! Here we go!

Real Time Initiatives

Currently, a major concern at Building Products Plus is getting the inventory, and the company as a whole, into real-time.

Customization Pleases Customers and Attacks Inventory Accuracy
The difficulty with real-time inventory and information systems for this company stems from the inherent nature of a job-shop and custom production environment. Materials often enter the system as one SKU, change into three other SKUs, and might even leave without a SKU because of extreme customization and manufacturing. There is no SKU (other than a "special" code) for something that was cut, drilled, dried, treated, redried, and coated with a polymer coating before it was shipped.

Attempts are made to maintain a SKU throughout the process but often, especially with longer and more complex projects, that SKU is lost when the item begins to look like another SKU, at which point the existing materials are NOT removed from the system and other non-existant materials ARE removed from the system, resulting in a large positive qty of one SKU and a large negative qty of another. The difficulty is in ensuring that transactions occur in the system - which affects costing, pricing, inventory accuracy, and possibly even the customer's experience.

My current focus for achieving a real-time environment is split into four inter-connected areas.
1. Receiving
2. Treating Transactions
3. Cycle Counting
4. Kiln Transactions

Complexities
Each area has its own set of complexities. We have the hardware, including wireless barcoding equipment and a wireless canopy that covers approximately 20 acres. Receiving with the handhelds has been established as a way of business now. Kiln transactions are being entered on the handheld by myself right now. This is mostly because I am not comfortable with the level of training and understanding the workers in the yard have concerning the item codes, the way the kiln modules work, and ways in which the transactions actually affect the total system from inventory qty to financial impacts. Cycle counting is in its infancy and treating transactions are still entered into the system manually from handwritten purchase orders (the treating plant is a strategically located, but separate, company).

General Order of Transactions
In a simple environment, without customization, an ideal complete material flow for - say a 10x10-20 - from raw to finished good in our system would be thus:

1. The 10x10 is received via wireless handheld at the delivery truck as an untreated timber SKU, let's say U10x10. Inventory transx looks like "plus U10x10".
2. The timber is dried before treating and the transaction is accomplished via the wireless handheld at the point of entering the kiln. The adjustment to the new SKU occurs automatically in the system. The transx looks like "minus U10x10, plus D10x10".
3. The timber is then treated. This should be a transaction whereby a Purchase Order is created for the treating of the timber via the wireless handheld, which automatically emails/faxes the PO to the treating company and prints a copy of the PO for our office use. The adjustment to the SKU/inventory will be made at the time of receipt (back to step one) and looks like "minus D10x10 and plus T10x10".
4. The timber is sold (was probably already on order when we bought it). When the order is invoiced, this adjustment looks like "minus T10x10".
5. Cycle Counting is near-random and is intended to be an adjustment to "tidy-up" the accuracy of the inventory.

8-25 Log Inventory Grid Method is Effective

I am pleased to report that after about four months in use, the 8-25 Log Inventory Grid method has taken hold very well and is effective for minimizing confusion and disorder in log inventory. One main contributor to the success, as predicted, is the ability of salespeople to customize the item description on sales orders and tickets when needed. An effective and simple way to help workers at all levels learn the 8-25 system is to simply advise that for pole/piling inventory the number 9 will never be used for diameter.