# My mill just started looking really small



## sprucegum (Jun 12, 2015)

I was invited to take a ride to Maine today to tour the Fontaine softwood lumber mill in Stratton Me. I did not think to take pictures but they really would not do justice to the operation anyway.
We were led onto a catwalk over the conveyer belt the brings the logs from the debarker and as near as I could time it a debarked log passed under my feet every 4 seconds. All logs are computer scanned to figure how to cut them for the most volume then the pass through a series of band mills and are processed into dimension lumber. They saw around 1 million board feet each day and only run 1 shift. They also bring green lumber from another location to the Stratton mill for kiln Drying and planing currently they are drying and planing 1.6 million ft./day but are adding more and better equipment to bring the total to 2 million ft.
Very little hand labor goes on in the mill, I saw less then a dozen men doing actual hand labor. Everyone else was sitting at a computer in a AC room with a half dozen monitors and closed circuit TV's in front of them, or were running the various yard machines.
All of the waste is used or sold. Some chips are used to fire the boilers that heat the kiln and much of the remainder goes to a wood fired power plant a couple hundred yards away and is traded for electricity.
One of the posters along the tour rout proclaimed that each hour 20 truck loads of logs are processed enough to build 35 houses. Makes my 100 board feet/hour look pretty paltry.

Reactions: Like 3 | Agree 1 | Way Cool 4


----------



## ripjack13 (Jun 12, 2015)

Wow....that's crazy numbers! I haven't been to a mill yet. But I really want to check one out soon...

Reactions: Agree 1


----------



## SENC (Jun 12, 2015)

It really is quite awesome to consider... but I keep coming back looking for pictures. Just think how much more awesome this post would be with pictures. Even one picture would push the awesome meter up. The more I come back and think about it, the more I wonder whether Dave's trip ever happened. Dave, do you even know where Maine is?

Reactions: Like 1 | Great Post 1 | Funny 4


----------



## sprucegum (Jun 13, 2015)

Well Senc keep coming back there ain't any, did not bring a camera and my cell phone is just that a cell phone. Although I did not drive the car I was told I was in Maine and not on a fishing trip so no reason to lie. I quit fishing when cell phone cameras came out as the fish all got smaller when that happened.

Reactions: Funny 8


----------



## Graybeard (Jun 13, 2015)

At the next gathering Rob is going to take us on a tour of the mill he works with, then in the PM Colin is going to do some milling on his portable. What more could a guy want? Can't wait!
Graybeard

Reactions: Like 3 | Way Cool 1


----------



## Sprung (Jun 13, 2015)

Graybeard said:


> At the next gathering Rob is going to take us on a tour of the mill he works with, then in the PM Colin is going to do some milling on his portable. What more could a guy want? Can't wait!
> Graybeard



Since I haven't been able to make it to any gatherings yet, this one would sound like one I wouldn't want to miss! When is it going to be? Any approximate dates yet?


----------



## HomeBody (Jun 14, 2015)

Go back! Take the camera! 
I can see how they could mill 1M bdft a day, but how can they kiln dry 1M bdft. a day? If it takes 10 days to dry, that would mean there are 10M bdft. of wood in the kiln, rotating through. How could that be? I also wonder how big of a pile of lumber 1M bdft. is? The numbers boggle the mind. 
And yes, I can see why your mill has suddenly become a Match Box toy. Gary


----------



## Nature Man (Jun 14, 2015)

Hate those times when I leave my camera at home... Chuck


----------



## sprucegum (Jun 14, 2015)

HomeBody said:


> Go back! Take the camera!
> I can see how they could mill 1M bdft a day, but how can they kiln dry 1M bdft. a day? If it takes 10 days to dry, that would mean there are 10M bdft. of wood in the kiln, rotating through. How could that be? I also wonder how big of a pile of lumber 1M bdft. is? The numbers boggle the mind.
> And yes, I can see why your mill has suddenly become a Match Box toy. Gary


The lumber is all spruce and fir construction grade, since spruce has a lower moisture content than fir the lumber is all sorted by species. Spruce gets 48 hours in the kiln fir gets 60. Not sure what moisture content they dry to but having purchased a good many KD 2x4's over the years I know for a fact it is not real dry. The stacks of green lumber are loaded on gigantic rail cars and a entire kiln load goes in at once. when a load goes in one end a dry load comes out the other. So there is a load being assembled for the kiln, a load in the kiln, and a load being planed and packaged for shipment most of the time. The kiln works 24 hour/day 7 days a week the mill runs 8-10 hours a day 5 days a week so somehow they get the system to work. The whole system for grading stacking and sorting is so highly computerized and automated that even after seeing it work it is really hard to comprehend what is going on.

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Way Cool 1


----------



## Kevin (Jun 14, 2015)



Reactions: Agree 1


----------



## HomeBody (Jun 15, 2015)

Kevin said:


>


You just have to have a vivid imagination. Gary


----------

