North Cal Recycled Products Division is in the process of deconstructing Mill B at the Pacific Lumber Company/ PALCO in Scotia California. This was the world's oldest and largest redwood sawmill. Mill B was originally opened in 1910 and it was modified many times in the intervening years but was still known as the the "world's largest sawmill".
Pictures at
It was probably suspect to cause cancer.
I used to go to Eureka for business and visited the mill last in 2000. Man was it impressive! I'm sorry to see it go. Spotted owl country!
Dave
snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net (edfan) wrote in news:22ec5ec7.0410070912.73291748 @posting.google.com:
California when I was a kid, about every other year. Went there last about 6 years ago or so. It was the BEST industrial tour, bar none, I have ever been to. The hydraulic barker would blast chunks of bark as big as a small boy right up against the viewing window. The barker operator would turn an flip the logs to give access to the hydraulic spary head and the whole building would thump like an earthquake. They still had a log carriage powered by an truck engine when last I visited. Although they had lasers to help the first sawyer cut the flitches, the gang saw operator had only his eyes and ten fingers to operate twelve gang saws. He was setting the saws to cut two or three boards early, and was standing off the ends of the planks, so he couldn't line up the saws with the planks. There was a finger-jointing machine which made continous lengths of clear redwood, just like the paintable trim you get at the Borg. The last time I was there redwood had gotten so valuable that they had a guy trimming the bad finger joints off of goofs so they could run them back through the machine. The pieces were as short as 6"! I remember them cutting 8' diameter logs when I was young. They were still getting some 5' logs when I was there last.
Man, this makes me a bit sad.
I'm not sure I can put my hands on it now, but somewhere I have a little piece of redwood, probably 1/8" thick, with the tour information stamped on it. We'd drive from the Bay Area to Portland to see relatives, and stopped in Scotia once. I remember the machinery only vaguely.
I've thought a few times since my 2-year-old was born (the kid can identify woodworking tools on sight and imitate their sounds, if any), that we'd both probably enjoy that tour. Guess we weren't going to get the chance, given that the mill went out of service before he came into service.
Sigh.
I think I'll go home and show him my Millers Falls 770, just to hear him say, "Brace and bit! Brace and bit!"
On 7 Oct 2004 10:12:24 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net (edfan) calmly ranted:
Bottom right pic in the 5th set, just to the right of the sweet, young Lady in Red. ;)
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OK Leon, I give- what wonderous state do you call home? It must be A LOT nicer than California and the people there must be "normal" and not the millions of lunatics that have ended up in California. You must have gorgeous beaches to walk on, trails through redwoods to hike on and incredible mountain slopes to ski down, not to mention smoke-free restaurants to dine in, some of the best in the world I might add. Or perhaps where you live you can drive to work through vineyards that produce grapes from which world-class wines are made. No? Well that's a shame. Of course you're always welcome to come out here and visit us in the land of fruit and nuts.
I guess you saw me going to work. ;~)
Deconstructing? What ever happened to good old-fashioned English, like "demolishing", or "tearing down", or "removing".
What's next, morticians "debirthing" people who have "de-lifed"?
I suspect he saw you at your favourite fishing hole, listening and watching as the bait was carefully wound, aim taken, then Whirrrrrrrrr......
hehe
Greg
|On 7 Oct 2004 10:12:24 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net (edfan) calmly |ranted: | |>North Cal Recycled Products Division is in the process of |>deconstructing Mill B at the Pacific Lumber Company/ PALCO in Scotia |>California. This was the world's oldest and largest redwood sawmill. |>Mill B was originally opened in 1910 and it was modified many times in |>the intervening years but was still known as the the "world's largest |>sawmill". |>
|>Pictures at
We toured here once and after seeing the sharpening room for these blades it would hard to argue that bandsaw mills waste less lumber than a circular saw [g]. They have some serious teeth on those babies.
On our first trip we tried to get a room at the Scotia Inn
That was the ticket to the mill tour. You'd go to the museum, itself built of redwood logs, and pick up your ticket for the self-directed tour. I have one in my desk at home.
Hey, it's California - remember ;)
Well, there's the story about Beethoven, in his tomb,
erasing pieces of paper.
Big pieces, little pieces, all sorts of pieces.
Somebody opens the lid, looks in, and asks "Hey, Beethoven! whatcha doin?"
The reply:
"de-composing"
Chalk up another good company destroyed by Hurwitz.
On Thu, 07 Oct 2004 21:01:16 -0700, Mark & Juanita calmly ranted:
Demolish: blow it down; wreck it; scrap it.
Deconstruct: take apart to save components for recycling.
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Hurwitz?
salvage: Take apart and recover re-useable components for recycling
A Texas financier, takeover artist, etc..
Pacific Lumber was owned by a family who was cutting their redwoods at a sustainable rate. They could have cut forever. Hurwitz bought them out and cut everything in sight. Redwood was cheap for a few years, now it's almost non-existent. There's a book on the subject but I don't remember the title.
He also did a leveraged buyout on Kaiser Aluminum and stripped the company bare. They're now essentially out of the primary aluminum business and only make finished goods. I did some contract computing work for them over the years and personally witnessed the decline.
He's probably stripped other companies as well, but those are the two I know about.
ah, thanks for the background. Had heard of the redwood debacle but did not associate a name with it.
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