A new mill for old redwood

Visitors to The Pacific Lumber Company's Mill B complex in Scotia, Ca., this spring will see something of a rarity these days-a brand new sawmill side built specially to handle large old growth redwood logs.

In an era when most new sawmills are built small to handle large volumes of small diameter logs, such a big layout is most unusual. The I l4-year-old company tore out its Mill B number one side entirely last year and replaced it with a state-ofthe-art set up which combines great accuracy with improved production.

The $2,000,000 project entailed a new inside log slip; a new live log deck; a new nine-foot Kockums high strain band mill; a new two block Filer & Stowell carriage with M" opening; new set works and electric drive from Industrial Electric; a new 8" x72" Schurman edger with infeed table, and a fully enclosed lrvingtonMoore trimmer.

Before the new machinery was installed, the foundations under the bandmill and carriage were rebuilt entirely and isolated from the rest of the mill underpinnings. Installation and all construction were accomplished with Pacific's own crews.

After the new #l side was up and running, the #2 side carriage was rebuilt entirely, and the #2 bandmill, a l0 footer, was overhauled.

The f2 edger, also an 8" x 72" Schurman, was fitted with a new infeed table, operator cab, laser lights and set works to match the #l edger. The eight-foot #3 side, which is usually run only when #l or #2 is down, got a new log deck to keep things even.

With #l and {2 rigs running, the eight hour capacity of Mill B is 300M BM. It is interesting to note that when Mill B was built in 1910, it contained two lO-foot bands and two 8-foot bands and cut l75M BM per eight hour shift.

All the old growth redwood logs cut at Mill B come from Pacific's 167,000 acres of timberland. Old growth fir is cut at Mill A in Scotia and young growth redwood and fir at Pacific's mill in Fortuna.

With the Mill B project completed the Scotia crews are now busy with a complete renovation of the Mill A fir complex. This project is budgeted at $10,000,000 and is scheduled for completion this fall. The new Mill A will be enclosed in the same building and will also take over the adjoining plywood plant, which was closed in October. Process equipment will be new from the log slip through to the planer chain. Eight hour capacity will be about 200M BM.

The Mill B sawmill is open to the public weekdays 7:30 a.m.-ll:00 a.m. and l:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Every year from 40 to 50,000 visitors take the self guided tour.