Atlanta Wood Products Saw Mill Trip
May 21, 1999
by Joe Mull
Wow! What a day! The Guild would like to extend a very big THANK YOU to Jim Howard and his folks at Atlanta Wood Products for sponsoring and organizing this trip. We know that a lot of time and effort, not to mention expense, went into this and the Guild greatly appreciates it. We had a great day, a good lunch and excellent tour of the saw mill and moulding plant. Special thanks to Larry Ellison and Nace Austin for accompanying Jim to lead the tour. We would also like to thank Dave Burgess for handling everything on the Guild's end. Dave put a lot of work into this, then couldn't go at the last minute. However he was there to help check everyone in and get us started. Great job Dave!
Last but certainly not least on the thank you list is Jack Swanner, the Mill Manager and his crew for having us at the mill. Special thanks to Jack, Doug Rowe the Production Mgr.; Sandy Johnson the Dry Kiln and Shipping Mgr.; and David King the Timber Procurement Mgr. for leading the groups on the tour of the mill. T&S Hardwoods in Sylva NC is one of the largest sawmills in the southeast and they run an amazing operation. The mill produces 18 million board feet of hardwood lumber each year. They have 83 employees with an annual payroll of $2.6 million. It costs $10 million a year to purchase the logs. A select red oak log (that's 20" on the small end with 4 clear sides 10-12 ft long) costs an average of $800.00.
We had about 60 members attend, it took a large bus and a 15 passenger van to transport all of us. We left the Cub Foods parking lot on Jimmy Carter Blvd. at 7:30AM and arrived back there at 6:30PM.
For those of you who missed it, I think another similar trip is in the works for next year. You should definitely try to make that one. Meantime I hope you enjoy these pictures.
From left Nace Austin and Jim HowardThat's Ken Slaughter in the back |
From Left, Dave Burgess, Jim Howard |
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This is Jack Swanner giving safety instructions before the tour.
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The building we are in here and at left is the shipping shed. Last
stop before the lumber hit's the road. The mill ships worldwide.
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One group staring the tour. We split into four groups of about
15 each. In front of the group are some of the storage sheds. |
Each board is individually graded. The ends are trimmed as needed
to improve the grade. The end cuts are sold to China. Very little
is wasted. |
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Everyone at the mill was good enough to take the time from their
work to answer any questions. I apologize for not getting this
graders name. The way he flipped those big boards with that small
graders stick was amazing. |
This is an overview of the grading shed. It has three of these
lines |
I'm not sure what this fellows job was but when we walked by he
stayed right at it, didn't even look up! |