Comments on: Good Veneer Starts With the Best Logs

By: W. G. Tucker

W. G. Tucker — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 12:05:10 +0000

Bob- interesting series; I’m looking forward to the next installment. About 40 years ago I spent some time in a (softwood) plywood mill in the Pacific Northwest and watched the rotary slicers in amazement. I had never seen pictures of hardwood veneer making.

By: Bob Lang

Bob Lang — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:48:34 +0000

One thing that struck me about the veneer mill is how much nicer it is than a lumber mill. The only noisy and scary parts were the debarker and band saw. After that it was rather quiet and pleasant in comparison to a lumber mill or a rotary cutting veneer mill.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:11:20 +0000

Thanks Robert for this article. It brings back memories of when I worked in a Georgia-Kraft lumber mill one summer during my college days. That is one hard and DANGEROUS place to work. I was hurt (minor stuff) 3 times that summer; smashed a finger, punched in the jaw by a 2×4 coming off a conveyor, and pulled a muscle. I remember talking to the cutoff operator one day (the guy that cut the logs to manageable lengths before they entered the mill). The saw he ran was a 6 foot diameter "chop" saw. He said one day, the saw hit something hard in a log and shattered. He said he saw pieces of metal falling 300 feet away (thankfully, he is in a protective cockpit). The thing that got me through that summer was knowing it was just a temporary job for me; my heart went out to the people that saw no end it.