How to Cut, Carry, & Transport Wood

Lumber is a term we use for wood that has beenthe many teeth of a set of grinding wheels, or by a
transformed by any one of the processes duringhigh-pressure water stream. The stripped bark is then
felling to drying and is used in a number of waysbroken down into pulp that is in most cases used to
from the building of houses to the laying of fences.heat the furnaces within the mills.
Dimensional lumber is finished lumber that has beenNext, a huge circular saw known as a 'bucking saw' is
cut to a specific thickness and length. In earlyused to saw each of the logs into pre-measured
sawmills, lumber was cut into varying sizes dependinglengths. Then, the larger logs will undergo the heading
on a customer's specifications. Today, howeversaw. Heading is done to logs that are too large to be
lumber is treated and cut into predetermined sizes bycut with a ban saw. In the Heading process, a log is
virtue of 3 categories per the thickness of eachtaken from the conveyor and clamped to a
piece. Lumber that is lees than 2 inches in diameter ismoveable carriage that slides lengthwise on a pair of
classified as a board.metal rails. Optical sensors scan each log to determine
Lumber that has a nominal thickness of 2 inches butthe diameter of each of the log ends as well as citing
is less than 5 inches is considered dimensional lumberwhatever surface defects a log might contain such
while wood that has been cut to 5 inches or greateras holes, knots, or rotten wood scores.
is referred to as 'timber' and can vary from 2 to 16The machine then suggests a cutting pattern to the
feet in length. The standard sizes for dimensionalsaw operator who reads the printout from a booth
lumber in the U.S. include the 2x4, the 4x4, and thenear the heavy saw. The first cut is on the side of
2x6. Standard lumber lengths in the states run by 6,the loge that is closest to the saw operator. The
8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, and 24 feet. When thewood left from the cut is known as the 'slab'. The
rough-cut pieces of lumber are dried and surfacedslab's outer surface will have the trees original round
their finished dimensions end being less than the logsshape. This piece is then taken away and chopped up
original size. Rough-cut lumber is dried and finishedfor making paper pulp.
with a plane on all four sides, so that by the time theThe carriage on the heading saw is then returned to
whole process is over the cut lumber plank is actuallyits original position, which causes the log to tilt
smaller in dimension than its original size before it wassideways for the cutting away of the selected
cut.boards. After the boards are cut they are dried and
The process in which all trees are turned in to lumberplaned. The smaller logs are cut with a ban saw into
and sized accordingly goes as follows: In Felling, anominal sizes of 1, 2, or 4 inch thickness in only one
tree is cut down with a gas powered chainsaw inpass. All wood is then dried, or 'seasoned' to prevent
most cases and all of the limbs and branches aredecay and increase shrinkage of the wood to fit for
removed. This is done once the tree has fallen, hencesize as it dries out. This process takes at least one
the term 'felling', before the logs are transported onyear to complete. For transfer, most lumber is
logging trucks to the mills. At the mill, logs are pulledbundled by machine and transported to truck by
from piles by forklifts and carried to with rubber-tiredcrane, or mounted on wooden skids or palettes held
rollers a chain conveyor called a carriage that bringsby forklifts that carry the wood to other places
them inside the mill for debarking and bucking. Inwithin the milling yards and warehouses.
debarking, the bark is stripped from the log either by