Official Luthiers Forum!

A link to a lumber mill and the fascinating machinations within for processing timber. It blows my mind that people can create these processes, and is a good reminder that if you ever feel ego chuffed about being able to turn out a guitar you just kinda need to sit back down.

https://youtu.be/Kx7qMEOkmHU?si=OIaujcIWKXymHtsb

That was impressive.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

... and nary a beer stein in sight. Are we certain this is Germany?

But seriously, thanks for the video - fascinating stuff. I imagine much of the wood is coming in from Eastern Europe, or are the German forests productive enough for large scale harvesting operations?

I wouldn’t know, I just sat watching with a mint julep fascinated and vaguely terrified by what has been wrought…

I can’t wrap my head around how much lumber that mill processes in "autopilot". Imagine the electric bill for so many very large motors!
That row of kilns at the end was incredible.
Thanks for sharing

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Takes me back about 20 years. My sisters were building their house next door. Her carpenter had a band saw mill, and she engaged some loggers to cut timber on the back hill, some to use for the house, and some to pay for the work. I was having the sheet rock work done in my shop, so I helped out with some of the cutting. We'd horse a 12 foot oak or maple log ~27" diameter up onto the carriage with Peavies, and slice off boards. The first log had been lightening struck, but we still got ~200 feet of vertical grain oak for flooring. We cut hemlock for framing as well; there were no ply trees.... I begged her for a quartered plank from the middle of one of those oaks, to make guitar B&S from, but it all got turned into flooring. Some of it is still in the barn. ;(

Nothing wrong with an eight piece back! And a little throw rug to hide the scars in the floor…

What happens to the chips, shavings, and dust would be a whole story on its own.

You can bet it's not swept up and tossed in the trash. SOMEONE will use it for something.

Here in Wichita it used to be common for all the aircraft factories to sell their 55 gallon barrels of floor sweepings in auctions. One of the local tool grinding outfits would buy several barrels, sift and sort it all out, then clean it up and organized it for distribution. The grandkids were in the backroom sorting out all the drill bits into sizes, which would then be sharpened for resale back to the aircraft factories to use in their tool cribs. Carbide inserts - the same. There would be coins, pens and pencils, all manner of stuff that dropped by the factory workers throughout a workday. Boeing finally figured out they were throwing away money, and started a Boeing scrapyard. Lots of small shops would go there to buy tooling and materials. You need a couple hundred pounds of aluminum blocks? How about some endmills or router bits to be reground into specialty tools? I used to buy files for a dollar a pound (my choice), clean them up, and either use them or organize into sets to give away or sell. I had a cottage industry going for awhile in rehabbing pounds of needle files, until they wised up even further and had one of their employees do the same thing. Local farmers would buy these hulking plywood boxes that tooling was shipped in and turn them into animal sheds or tool storage. We are talking large enough to ship a motor home, down to boxes that would fit in the trunk of a car.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Reduce, reuse, recycle!

I sure do miss the golden dumpster at the factory. The first time I had to buy neck material I nearly choked!