United Kingdom 2011 - 3 | Page 22

B R I E F S Narrow band sawmill demo for a hundred visitors in the Welsh forest leads to orders and enquiries A mid-range band sawmill was ordered by a produces accurately sawn material mid-Wales farm partnership diversifying with minimal waste, dominated the into production of timber for farm buildings demonstrations. Using Wood-Mizer's after watching demonstrations in Wales of blade technology, refined over 30 Wood-Mizer's sawmill technology recently. years, simplicity and low running In addition, a North Wales play costs are possible. equipment manufacturing company Further timber conversion, adding showed serious interest in a semimore value, was shown by a range of industrial band sawmill and 31 visitors left edgers, multi-rips, shingle/lapsiders written requests for information, service and a planer/moulder. Blade work, blades and quotations. maintenance kit was also The equipment demonstrated aims to Stephen Cull demonstrated. help woodland owners and contractors Contractor s' and industrial increase the return on their timber and enter new sawmilling equipment showed their paces. Also markets through the simple conversion of round shown was Wood-Mizer's entry-level sawmill which timber into sawn lumber and the event attracted over is popular with small-scale woodcraft operators and a hundred visitors. woodland owners. The visitors from all over Wales and neighbouring Stephen Cull comments: "The Esgair Timber England converged on the Esgair Forest, near Company's enterprise is exciting and far-sighted in Machynlleth. terms of sustainable, locally based high quality The site is an impressive woodland location for timber production. Making the project possible was Esgair Timber Company's large sawmill building, Wood-Mizer's range of versatile, relatively low-cost which was constructed entirely from wood sawn on band sawmills which permit a profitable response to its Wood-Mizer band sawmill. The event was demand for sawn timber from locally grown timber. arranged by Stephen Cull, Wood-Mizer's regional "The secondary processing equipment takes the agent for Wales and the West of England. Stephen, process into a rewarding next step. who has his own Wood-Mizer based sawmilling "The sawmill order and the nature of serious business, has represented Wood-Mizer for 15 years. enquiries was a bonus in currently cash-strapped Mobile and static versions of Wood-Mizer's Great Britain and we are grateful to Esgair Timber popular LT40 log breakdown sawmill, which Company for making it possible", he adds. A demonstration of band sawmill technology in Cumbria in the north of England attracted forty enthusiastic visitors on 1st April, picture below. One tree surgeon bought a small LT15 band sawmill on the day to serve as the vehicle of his progress towards more rewarding timber conversion to saleable lumber. Also a gatemaker plans to upgrade from his old circular rack bench and ordered an LT15 on the day. The demonstration of equipment technology designed to help woodland owners and contractors add value and enter new markets through the simple conversion of round timber into sawn lumber was organised by Martin Phillips, 40, recently appointed Wood-Mizer’s representative in Cumbria. He comments: "From 10.30am to 2.00pm we were rushed off our feet with enquiries about the mills that we demonstrated, some about prices, many about recent enhancements. "We didn’t need to explain the sustainable factor inherent in Wood-Mizer mills because virtually all the visitors were fully aware of our thin kerf technology which creates less sawdust and an extra board from each log", he concludes. WOOD-MIZER TODAY SUMMER 2011 11 Bandsaw demonstrations score in Cumbria, UK