FOR TT1ITARY I FOR IilDUSTRTA]S ' FOR DEAIERS

Southcrn California Arci Complete lnventory for All High - Gluality Softwood €onrumerr

Lumber, Plywood Prices Jump ln Rise of Building Cost

New York, July 7-Building costs have gone up as much in the first five months of this year as they did in all of 1958, the professional building magazine, Architectural Forum, said today. Instrumental in this rise is the increased price of lumber, ry 10.3/o cent since May 1958, and plywood, up rs.6%.

As measured by the E,. H. Boeckh indexes, which reflect conditions in lumber, plywood and steel (and include wage rates), apartment-office construction costs in May stood 4.I/o ahead of May of last year. Factory building construction was also 4.1/o ahead of last year. The over-all building materials index has advanced to 2.7% this year, Forum reported, well above the 2/o increase in all of 1958.

Lumber industry economists predict somewhat lower prices during the rest of 1959, but look for record consumption-and attendant higher prices-during the first half of 1960, the magazine said.

Even as wood products taper off, other materials, particularly steel, will probably go up. Plumbing equipment prices have more than regained 1958 losses, and only glass and metal doors show price drops below 1958 levels.

Prices of structural steel have risen only 3.8/o since May 1958, but will be driven higher by inventory buying and an almost certain increase in worker wages, according to Forum.

In addition to all this, prices of construction machinery have been rising sharply late last year and the trend will probablv continue.

New Kval Machine For

Kvalheim Machinery Company, Petaluma, Calif., has recently developed a width sizing machine, KVAL Model 550 SB, which has the refinements of belt sanders and easing attachments. This machine is generally used for sizing doors after they come from the press. The Model 550 SB can be combined with a KVAL Trim Saw to automatically size doors for width and length at the rate of 250 per hour.

The doors are f ed into the KVAL Model 550 SB. Cutter heads remove the bulk of the excess width and bring the doors down to size. While still going

Sizing Doors

through the machine, the side edges are sanded smooth and then the sharp corners on the length of the doors are removed with newly designed easing units.

The easing units consist of a floating system of 45' router driven cutters. V guides are ahead and behind of the cutters so that the doors funnel into the mechanisms. The depth of cut is independent of the rate of feed or the thickness of the material as the basic operation is similar to that of a simple jointer. Write Kvalheim Machinery Company, P.O. Box 77, Petaluma, Calif.

USP ro Build Eqstern Boord plont

Plans for construction of a new particle board plant with an annual capa_city o_f @ million square feet (y",, basis) were announced by Gene C. Brewei, president"of Unitea States Plywood Corporation. He said tire plant will be one of the most modern and highly automated in the forest products industry, utilizing the latest American and Euro-